Ninth Month of Pregnancy – Preparing for Baby and Checklist for Pregnant Women
Pregnancy Week 36-40 Preparation:
Start getting everything in order at the beginning of the month because the baby’s timetable is unpredictable. All family, professional and personal matters should be covered in time. This will help you with a smooth transition from home to hospital and back home without disturbance.
Finalize the Birth Plan:
The birth Plan that you submitted to the provider has to be put into your chart.
Pack Your Bag:
- This month you will pack and unpack quite a number of times to be double sure that you have everything that you could need.Leave all your work, books and entertainment equipment behind. Your labor, delivery and baby care will keep you busy throughout.
- Essentials That You Should Have –
- A picture to focus on during contractions, a water bottle, and massage balls are tools that will provide you relief from pain during labor.
- If a small portable stereo is allowed in your hospital or birthing center you can take one and listen to music. You can carry personal headphones if stereo is not allowed.
- A camera with newly loaded film and batteries or handy cam to capture the baby’s arrival and moments after that.
- Carry snacks for the coach. But be sure it will not make you nauseatic during labor.
- To note down contractions or time them, a watch, clock or stop watch is essential.
- Nightgowns with button or snap fronts will help you during feeding.
- Take extra underwear’s that are comfortable. The underwear may get stained with postpartum blood so do not use your best ones.
- Extra sanitary pads will be helpful even if the hospital will provide you with some.
- Make a list of phone numbers of near and dear ones whom you would like to inform immediately after the arrival of the baby.
- Buy a small gift to the older siblings and say it’s a gift from the newborn baby. This is one of the ways of smooth introduction.
- Make your first child feel special. Stick his picture to the bassinet of the newborn and emphasize his important new role in the family.
- Hospital floors can be cold so pack your warm socks and/or slippers.
- Take your contacts or lenses so that you can see the baby clearly after its arrival.
- A bathrobe will be helpful when you will have to walk through the hallways to the nursery.
- Basics like toothpaste, toothbrush, soap and hand wash and other toiletries.
- Pack something loose and comfortable for you to wear and a set of newborn clothes and a blanket for the baby. Wear them when you are returning back home with the baby.
Breast-feeding Mothers can also pack:
- Nursing bras are very beneficial when you are feeding the baby. If you don’t have one, then a bra with a front fastener will be just as helpful.
- Carry a box of nursing pads. When milk comes in, nursing pads absorb the milk. Vitamin E oil or lanolin ointment helps heal cracked or sore nipples.
Recruit Help Now:
Accept help from family, friends or neighbors if they offer. You will need assistance. Make a list to assign work accordingly. For people who are good at kitchen, give cooking details. This will help you have supply of home cooked food, frozen meals on hand. Put your partner or husband in charge of school, extracurricular and social schedule of your other children.
Ask your mom or your mother-in-law to come over if you need some live-in help. But inform your husband about the matter because he may want to spend some quality time with you and the baby. He will finally give in and consider a live-in help if you explain. Just make sure that your guest will be of real help and is non-interfering.
Finalize Maternity Leave Plans:
If you are one of those who will work till your due date then make sure that your work is upto date. Your managers and co-workers should be informed regularly about what work is accomplished or what is pending; where the important files have been placed. Consider everyday as your last working day before leave. If you are setting things in order then in your absence things will run smoothly and you will not receive office calls at home.
Inform your supervisor about communication in your absence. If you want to cut off all communications during your leave then you can convey your feelings to them. You can however set a limit for being contacted. E-mails are acceptable, because you can answer them at your ease or when the baby is sleeping. Phone calls at only certain time each day are okay. Mention very important and urgent circumstances when you can be disturbed. Your workplace will survive all the odds, but you will need time to recover and get to know your child.
Hurry Up and Wait (When Baby Is Late):
You will be very enthusiastic and anxious that you have finally reached your Expected Delivery Date. But when you find that there are no contractions, no leakage of amniotic fluid or no delivery, you will be totally disappointed. You will look forward to another day with same expectations. Don’t be depressed. Keep yourself busy and if you feel like just go out. A nice long walk will prove highly beneficial and help you to keep going. Sitting at home, expecting contractions, looking at the watch will make the wait longer then ever.
If you have a perfect twenty eight day cycle and are sure of the day that sperm met the egg then only gestational dating can be found. If your Expected Due Date has surpassed a week, your doctor may conduct additional tests. Non-stress test, ultrasound assessment of amniotic fluid levels and fetal size will be determined. These tests help the doctor get a clear picture whether the baby is ready to arrive or not.
Babies are considered post-term or post-dated if they stay in the womb for forty two weeks or longer. Post date pregnancies may develop macro somia where the baby can weigh about Four thousand grams and will make it difficult for the baby to pass through the birth canal. A post date fetus may also pass meconium (baby’s first bowel movement that is black and tarry). If meconium gets mixed with amniotic fluid then it can block the airway of the fetus and cause distress. So it is very important to regularly assess in post-date pregnancy.
If you are a week overdue you can be induced. But it depends on a lot of factors like whether you have hit the forty first week, the cervix has become thin or dilated, if you had C-section earlier, whether you are sure about your due date. If everything is perfect then you can undergo induction.
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