31 Weeks Pregnant: What You Need To Know - Channel Mum

Well you're into single figures now at 31 weeks pregnant you've only nine weeks left to go until your g-date. How on earth did that happen? Now as I mentioned last week baby is now gaining half a pound a week and should now be weighing in somewhere around three and a half pounds. Crikey they are getting big and lengthwise they should be measuring at around 40 centimeters long and will be the same size as a coconut. So as you can imagine the changes with your baby are going to become much less noticeable now aside from the size of course but really there isn't as much change going on in there as there once was. But while you can't see it your baby's brain is working some serious overtime right now developing and growing at a rapid rate ready for that all-important big day. Connections between nerve cells are developing at a speedy rate and baby is now processing information, tracking light and perceiving signals from all five senses. But other than that baby is just getting chubby, having a good old snooze, pulling a few crazy faces, having a wiggle and just getting ready to meet you. So let's take a look at some real scan footage for week 31 shall we? Now we talked about baby but what about you? How are you feeling and what is being 31 weeks pregnant really like? Well here at Channel Mum we're comparing the textbook versus the truth with a little help from some other mums just like you. In the coming weeks we want to help you feel as prepared as possible for this gorgeous little baby of yours so we're going to be talking all things labour and birth along with a little bit of prep beforehand too. This is all just stuff that we wish we'd known ourselves the first or second time around or just a few tips that we picked up along the way. So today we're going to start with you. Now your head is probably full to the brim with baby right now but try not to forget about yourself as well because this is actually a really nice time in your pregnancy to pamper and treat yourself. Now I actually had a pregnancy massage around this time in my last pregnancy and it was the most amazing thing for a tired and achy pregnant lady. Honestly I just thought it was absolutely incredible so if you've got a birthday coming up or a friend or family member wants to treat you then we can't recommend it enough. Another thing to treat yourself would be to get a nice haircut or colour in the coming weeks because you'll come away feeling really pampered and special and you can keep that gorgeous thick healthy pregnancy hair in good condition while it lasts too. And don't worry about colouring your hair by the way because the NHS states that research while limited says it's actually okay to colour your hair while pregnant though most women tend to wait until after they are 12 weeks but that's really not a concern for you anymore is it? And it's bump time so let's take a look at those rapidly growing 31 week bellies. So here is the bump at 31 weeks. Yeah this is my bum. I feel like my stomach's quite veiny at the moment. Here is bump, I'm kind of at the bowling ball stage where sometimes in a lot of tops I just look like I've shoved some sort of football or bowling ball up my top. So what else can you expect? Well we have tons of vlogs over on channel mum for every week of pregnancy from other mums who are at the same stage as you are right now but let's take a look and see what they had to say about being 31 weeks. Oh my goodness the countdown is like seriously freaking me out a bit so I now officially have eight weeks and six days to go. Little one is still moving lots which is very reassuring. Her movements are regular to the point where like I know that she will have a good wiggle in the morning and she will have a good wiggle around lunchtime. I think she's quite a mover. I have a feeling she's going to be quite when she's born because she does move a lot and I can really feel like lots of hardness now of little like limbs and things. I'd like to be pregnant forever and I don't feel like you hear that very often. I feel like most women are like get this baby out of me. I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore. If someone gave me the chance now to be pregnant for an extra nine months I would do it. The worst symptom by far and this is TMI but I don't care because what's the point Constipation which is not nice. I am bunged up. I started getting a bit nauseous at night again and certain foods are starting to make me feel sick. Heartburn has been quite bad. It's been a lot more at night now when I lay down. I've been having gaffs gone all the time. I've been finding it really hard to sleep. She's still sitting quite high up at the moment so I'm still feeling a bit like oh she's right in my ribs and it's like you can't really slide you know on the sofa or anything so I'm sitting like this. I'm still super tired. I haven't got that last burst of energy you get before you have the baby to sort all your stuff out and whatever. Definitely not at that stage yet. Restless legs at night have been awful. It's only my left leg though. No matter how I lay it's always just the left leg. And finally it's time to get honest. So here are the channel mum the good, the bad and the ugly of being 31 weeks pregnant. The good. You might find now that because your bump is so big and your baby is so active that your other half is able to bond with baby so much more. I used to love this time in my last pregnancy because I would lie back in the evenings and just watch my other half talk to my baby and it was absolutely gorgeous. The bad. You are now around that stage in your pregnancy where you've gone from wishing you had a bigger bump to wishing it actually wasn't quite so big and you might actually find that you start missing your pre-pregnancy body too. We've all been there. And the ugly. You may notice with all the increased blood flow in your body right now that you are way more veiny than usual. My hands went super veiny and my boobs did too. It was really weird to see. So as always we hope you've enjoyed watching our textbook versus the truth about being 31 weeks. We'd absolutely love to hear how you're doing down in the comments below. You've really not got long left now have you? Bless you. And if you'd like something to watch after this then why not check out all the other vlogs from other mums who are 31 weeks pregnant right now over on Channel Mum. We'll leave that link down below for you as always. And that's it from us here at Channel Mum. So you take care and we will see you and that lovely bump of yours next week for week 32.