Your baby is filling out fast at 30 weeks of pregnancy, pregnant your crash-land may exist popping even more now. A big part of that growth is in babe's speedily developing brain.

Meanwhile, you lot may be welcoming dorsum a few of those early pregnancy symptoms you thought you'd kissed good-bye at the stop of the first trimester, such equally frequent urination.

Your Baby at Calendar week 30

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Big changes are underway in your baby'southward watery world this week. At about three pounds and still about 16 inches long, your niggling chick is starting to expect more like a cherub equally she continues plumping upward. She'll be piling on weight at the rate of nearly half pound a week from here on out.

Think the lanugo — the featherlike blanket of body pilus she's been wearing for warmth? Now that your little one'southward got more fat to keep her toasty, she's able to beginning shedding her fuzz — which means your bear will no longer be fuzzy wuzzy by the time she arrives. Other cuter pursuits on the agenda: growing thicker eyelashes, eyebrows, and pilus on her head…that is unless she's destined to be a cute baldy.

But perhaps the biggest message comes from your babe's brain, which is getting ready to kick up its chapters. Once smooth, it'south now forming channels and creases, creating more brain tissue with greater surface area. Without this new topography, that neonatal noodle would become enormous, and of course, then would your infant's caput. The result: a height-heavy baby unable to fit through the birth culvert… ouch.

The creases and indentations likewise allow for future expansion of encephalon tissue that is crucial as your baby goes from helpless newborn to responsive babe to verbal toddler to curious preschooler and beyond.

Some other large change this calendar week: baby'due south bone marrow has stepped upwardly to the plate, taking over the task of producing red blood cells from the pinch hitters, the spleen and tissue groups. These ruby blood cells are critical because they transport oxygen and remove waste. With their assistance, your baby begins prepping for the future, by storing iron, calcium and phosphorus in those tiny cells.

At a Glance

Wrinkly baby brain

The surface of your baby'southward brain begins to wrinkle — the wrinkles are called convolutions — then that it tin can hold more brain cells.

Concord on tight!

Your baby's hands are now fully formed and fingernails are growing. In ultrasounds, y'all may catch infant grabbing a foot.

Do your kick counts!

Your growing baby's quarters keep getting tighter, but you'll notwithstanding feel movement every day. Then don't forget those kick counts!

xxx weeks meaning is how many months?

If you're 30 weeks significant, you're in month 7 of your pregnancy. Only two months left to go! Still accept questions? Here'south some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are cleaved down in pregnancy.

How big is my infant at 30 weeks?

Your belly'due south increasing size is a definite clue that your baby is getting bigger every day — now she'due south weighing in at about 3 pounds. She'll be packing on weight at a rate of roughly half a pound per calendar week for the next 7 weeks.

Infant'south brain is getting bigger

Likewise growing at a quick pace these days?Baby's brain. Until now, its surface was smooth — merely now, your fetus' brain is taking on those feature grooves and indentations.

The reason for the different advent: Those wrinkles permit for an increased amount of brain tissue — a necessary change as your baby prepares to develop street smarts for life outside your womb.

Lanugo is disappearing

Now that baby's brain and new fat cells are regulating body temperature, the lanugo — that soft, featherlike hair covering your little bean'due south body — is beginning to disappear.

No need for that hirsuite coat anymore! Only you lot may run across a few leftover strands of fur on your newborn's back and shoulders when she'due south born.

Bone marrow is making red claret cells

Some other big change at xxx weeks pregnant: Your baby'due south bone marrow has completely taken over production of scarlet claret cells — earlier, tissue groups and then the spleen took care of producing the claret cells. This is an important stride for your infant because it means she'll be improve able to thrive on her own one time she's born.

Your Trunk at Calendar week 30

30 Weeks Pregnant

They're baaack!

Yous're 30 weeks pregnant — but ten more to get! Many of the early pregnancy symptoms y'all thought you'd put behind yous may be coming back to haunt you, at least to some extent, like the need to pee all the time because your infant'due south head is now pressing on your float, tender breasts that are gearing upwards for milk production, fatigue and pregnancy heartburn.

Or you may be one of the lucky ones who all the same feels pretty slap-up — simply retrieve that it's all normal, and everyone is different!

Heartburn

These days yous may experience every bit though you lot've got a flamethrower in your chest. Indigestion is one of the virtually common (and annoying) pregnancy ailments.

Here'south why: The same pregnancy hormones that cause your body's pelvic muscles to relax so you can deliver your baby also relax the ring of muscle that separates the esophagus from the tum.

The event: Food and digestive juices can head upstream from your breadbasket into your chest and throat — hence, the infernal inferno. Your expanding uterus, now exerting pressure level on your stomach, only fuels the burn.

So how do you spell relief? Among other things, avert foods that can cause digestive discomfort — like spicy, fatty or fried dishes, chocolate and tomato sauce — consume smaller meals and don't lie down while snacking or right later eating. And, of class, proceed a supply of Tums or Rolaids, which also requite you lot a salubrious bonus of calcium, at popping distance.

Fortunately, one time your infant is born, heartburn volition be a affair of the past — at to the lowest degree until you endeavor to gobble dinner during a colic marathon.

Pregnancy Symptoms Week 30

Changes in fetal movement

You'll feel your baby moving every day at present, sometimes with a punch or a kicking — your itty-bitty boxer is getting stronger! — other times with a wiggle or stretch. You can also expect more than activity after you've eaten and (sadly!) when you're lying downwards. Baby's quarters are getting more cramped, though, and so yous may feel fewer difficult kicks at this stage. Always bank check with your practitioner most any changes in fetal move to be sure. Read More

Bloating and gas

Every bit your uterus expands, it puts pressure on your rectum, which can weaken muscle control and lead to uncontrollable passing of gas. Drink plenty of h2o to avoid constipation, which aggravates the condition. Read More

Swollen feet and ankles

About 75 percent of significant women suffer from puffy ankles and anxiety. Besides wearing comfy shoes, you can salve your bloated tootsies by taking breaks and putting your feet upwardly. You deserve it! Read More

Constipation

Fifty-fifty if yous managed to conquer constipation before in your pregnancy, you may have to argue with a return to more sluggish bowels — give thanks your ever-expanding uterus, which is putting pressure on them. Recollect that fluids and fiber are your friends, every bit are probiotics, which you lot can find in yogurt. Read More

Stretch marks

Equally your skin stretches to accommodate your growing belly and body, you — and up to an estimated 90 percent of the significant set — are probably starting to see pink, ruddy, yellow, tan or sometimes purplish or brown streaks known as stretch marks. There's no miracle cure for stretch marks, so don't blow the bucks on expensive creams that promise to make them disappear. Creams will soothe your itchy belly, though. Read More

Fatigue

Your second trimester become-up-and-go may have up and left now. Your growing baby is putting more than demands on your body, and indisposition may exist leaving you pooped during the twenty-four hour period. At present's the fourth dimension to ask for assist — a skill that volition come up in handy after childbirth — particularly while doing something strenuous. Read More than

Tips for You This Week

Prop up with pillows

Breathless? Your growing infant is pressing against your diaphragm. Equally your pregnancy progresses, you may start to feel winded even after minimal amounts of physical exertion.

Yous can't completely salve shortness of breath during pregnancy, simply continuing up straight can give your lungs a little, well, animate room. At night, endeavor sleeping in a semi-seated position on your left side, with pillows propping you upward.

Opt for flats

Put away the heels! Your shifting sense of gravity and loosening joints (thanks to that all-of import hormone, relaxin) leave y'all clutzier than usual. Forestall falls by wearing flats and watching your step.

Ask near episiotomies

Talk to your health intendance provider about episiotomies during labor. The process involves a surgical cut in your perineum, the muscular area betwixt your vagina and your anus, right earlier commitment to enlarge your baby's exit.

In the past, episiotomies were routine, simply now, they're done much less often unless there's a proficient reason. What you desire to hear from your doctor: "I only perform them if admittedly necessary."

Call up your Kegels

The name Kegel may be featherbrained — at least when you say it out loud — just these pelvic flooring strengthening exercises really work wonders.

Why? A stronger pelvic floor better supports your uterus, bladder and bowels, and it can ease pregnancy and postpartum symptoms such as hemorrhoids and urinary incontinence. More good news: Kegel exercises are easy to do no matter where y'all are.

To requite them a shot, tense the muscles around your vagina and bottom and concord, aforementioned equally y'all would if you lot were trying to end the menses of urine, working upward to 10 seconds. So slowly release and repeat. Shoot for three sets of 20 daily. Try doing them during sex too.

Combat h2o retention

Here's a "great" reason to drink water: Though nigh people associate lots of water with water weight, the contrary is actually true. Paradoxically, drinking plenty of liquids can proceed excessive water retention and swelling under control.

While a certain amount of pregnancy edema is to be expected when y'all're expecting — and represents a normal and necessary increase in trunk fluids — keeping the fluids flowing (likewise every bit cut back on your salt intake) can preclude too many from accumulating where you'd rather they didn't…similar in your ankles. Back up stockings can also assistance reduce swelling, equally can soaking in epsom baths and pond.

Check skin care products

Before you treat those fine lines on your confront, read the fine print on your skin care products' ingredient labels. If they contain vitamin A (retinoids) or BHA (beta hydroxy acid or salicylic acid), you might need to bid it a addicted adieu for a while — though check with your doctor to be sure.

Most practitioners will green-light products containing AHA (alpha hydroxy acid), but do ask first. And keep in mind that AHA products can brand your already sunday-sensitive pregnancy skin fifty-fifty more vulnerable to the damaging effects of the lord's day's rays.

Sunscreen with an SPF of xxx or higher is your friend, so wear it daily, fifty-fifty when there are more clouds than sun. Not but will you protect your skin, you'll ward off wrinkles more effectively than any cream at any cost.

Cull safe carbohydrate substitutes

Here'southward what y'all demand to know most depression-cal and no-cal saccharide substitutes and artificial sweeteners during pregnancy:

  • Sucralose (Splenda), which has less of an aftertaste, appears to be safety during pregnancy, and so you can sweeten your day — and your coffee or tea — with information technology.
  • Aspartame (including Equal and NutraSweet) has experts divided. Some think it's harmless, while others think it's unsafe. Given this lack of consensus, it'south probably smart not to requite Equal equal billing with other sweetener options.
  • Saccharin (like Sweet 'N Low) has never been proven dangerous during pregnancy, but it'south never been proven safe either. It gets to your babe through the placenta, and when it gets in that location, it's slow to leave. To be rubber, avoid it while you're expecting, or at the very to the lowest degree, check with your physician before using information technology.
  • Xylitol is a sugar alcohol derived from plants that's naturally occurring in many fruits and veggies and is considered rubber during pregnancy in moderate amounts.
  • Stevia (steviol glycoside) is a food condiment that's "generally recognized equally safe," and therefore doesn't need approving from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), only there's no inquiry showing that it's okay for pregnancy. Ask earlier using it.

Your best bet? Check with your practitioner before using any of these saccharide substitutes. And just think: When it comes to artificial sweeteners, consumption in moderation is always a good idea and you may be better off simply using the existent affair (carbohydrate) in small amounts.

From the What to Await editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, writer ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, bookish research institutions and highly respected wellness organizations. Learn how we keep our content authentic and upwardly-to-engagement by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

  • What to Expect When You're Expecting, 5th edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Hemorrhoids During Pregnancy, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Are Artificial Sweeteners and Saccharide Substitutes Rubber During Pregnancy?, May 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Pregnancy-Safety Skin Care Guide: Ingredients to Avoid, May 2021.
  • WhatToExpect.com, What Sunscreen Is Safe During Pregnancy?, May 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Kegel Exercises: How, When and Why to Practice Your Kegels During and After Pregnancy, November 2019.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Episiotomy During Labor and Delivery, May 2021.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Shortness of Breath During Pregnancy, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Edema (Swelling of the Ankles and Feet) During Pregnancy, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Postpartum Symptoms & Solutions to Get You Through, Apr 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Awkwardness During Pregnancy, Oct 2020.
  • American Academy of Dermatology, Sunscreen FAQs, 2021.
  • American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Pelvic Support Bug, Jan 2020.
  • American Higher of Osteopathic College of Dermatology, Striae.
  • Food and Drug Administration, Additional Information About High-Intensity Sweeteners Permitted for Utilise in Food in the United States, February 2018.
  • Nutrient and Drug Administration, Sugar Alcohols, March 2020.
  • Food and Drug Administration, High-Intensity Sweeteners, Dec 2017.
  • KidsHealth From Nemours, Sleeping During Pregnancy, October 2016.
  • Mayo Clinic, Episiotomy: When It's Needed, When It'southward Not, August 2020.
  • Mayo Dispensary, Fetal Development: The third Trimester, June 2020.
  • National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Sugar Substitutes During Pregnancy, November 2014.
  • National Institutes of Wellness, National Library of Medicine, Rubber of Skin Intendance Products During Pregnancy, June 2011.
  • National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, Vitamin A Toxicity, February 2021.
  • National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Fetal Development, June 2021.
  • National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, Vitamin K, March 2021.
  • National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Striae Gravidarum: Risk Factors, Prevention, and Management, June 2017.
  • The Urban Child Found, Baby's Brain Begins Now: Conception to Historic period three, 2021.

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