Pregnancy Week - 25 Weeks Pregnant

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Pregnancy Week 25

**Please note- Your Due Date is calculated from the date of your last menstrual period, which corresponds to our Pregnancy Week by Week articles.

Week 25

How Big is the Baby at 25 Weeks Pregnant?
By pregnancy week 25, your baby is approximately 1.5 pounds and just under 13.7 inches long. From this point on, your baby's weight and length may vary somewhat. Every baby is different, some babies will be born weighing 7 pounds and others 10.

Your Baby's Growth and Development
This is a big week for your baby! Around pregnancy week 25, the structures of his spine are starting to form, including 33 vertebrae (rings of bone), 150 joints, and 1,000 ligaments. These structures will eventually support your baby’s body weight. Your baby’s capillaries are also forming this week. Capillaries are the tiny blood vessels that move blood from the heart to tissues in the body. By the end of week 25, air sacs and blood vessels in your baby’s lungs will develop, getting him ready for his first breath. So far in your pregnancy, your little one’s nostrils have been plugged up, but they are now beginning to open up.

With the advances in technology, if your baby were to be born this week, he has up to an 82 percent chance of survival with aggressive ICU treatment.

Your Growth and Development
At 25 weeks pregnant, your uterus is about the size of a volleyball. As your uterus continues to grow, you'll notice that it places some pressure on your back and pelvis. This can sometimes cause you to experience shooting pains either down your leg or in your lower back. For some women, these pains get more and more severe during pregnancy.

Some women will experience a condition called sciatica during pregnancy. This often happens when the baby's head presses against the pelvic bones causing the nerves in your lower back and legs to be compressed. Severe pain often results and can occur in the lower back, legs, and even buttocks. Some women will also experience numbness or tingling in the legs. For some, the pain is so severe that they aren't able to lift their leg or walk without excruciating pain. So what is a woman to do? For most women, their symptoms disappear once their baby is born. Until then, there are many things you can do to help alleviate the pain:

• Apply a hot or ice pack for 10 minutes to the area that is most painful.
• Sleep on a firm mattress.
• Avoid sitting for long periods of time.
• Avoid frequent bending at the waist.
• Don't engage in movements that make the pain worse.
• Consider physical therapy if your physician recommends it.
• Try to stand up straight.
• Use support cushions and a full body pillow (such as Snoozer Pregnancy Pillows) in bed.
• Don't lift anything heavy and when you do lift be sure to bend from the knees.
• Consider chiropractic care or physical therapy.

Remember like anything else, this too shall pass. Some women find that their sciatic pain is greatly relieved by getting a few days bed rest. In many cases, the pain subsides within 1-2 weeks, though it may not disappear completely until after delivery.

Changes in You
At 25 weeks, you are positively glowing, in the prime of your pregnancy. Measuring bigger but not yet bulky, you probably love every minute of attention that is poured on you as a mom to be.

If you have small children at home, they are probably just as eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newest member of the family as you are. Unfortunately, you still have several more weeks to wait, thus many women prefer to hold off having serious conversations with their children until closer to delivery. This is particularly the case with very young children, who may expect the baby to pop right out if you start talking about delivery now.

By this time, you should talk with your doctor to make sure you understand the signs of pre-term labor. There are many warning signs that may indicate your body is going into labor early. Some of the more telling signs include:

• Continuous cramping in the lower abdomen similar to menstrual cramps.
• Contractions that come at regular intervals or more than 4 contractions in one hour.
• Low backache that is constant.
• Pressure in the pelvis as if your baby were pushing down.
• Bloody or watery vaginal discharge.

You should talk to your doctor and find out what procedures they would like you to follow if you suspect you are in pre-term labor.

Some women start noticing an increase of vaginal fluid around this time, which can sometimes be mistaken for amniotic fluid. It is not uncommon for women to leak a little bit of urine after this point in pregnancy, due to the increasing pressure on the bladder and pelvis. How can you differentiate between amniotic fluid and urine?

If you aren't sure, wear a panty liner. If you soak it due to a constant small leak of fluid or a larger one, you should consult with your healthcare provider. Some women will notice a small trickle of fluid that can't be stopped when you squeeze the muscles you would squeeze to hold the flow of urine. If you are only leaking a small amount when you cough, laugh or get up on occasion, you might just be leaking urine. Be sure to consult with your physician if you are concerned. They can perform an ultrasound to measure the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding your baby. They may also do a vaginal exam and look for evidence of premature rupture of your membranes.

I love a multi purpose pillow more than I like just about anything. Snoozer Pregnancy Pillows are unique in that they not only serve as comfy body pillows during pregnancy, but also work as supportive nursing pillows during breastfeeding. These pillows are made of the highest grade materials.

You'll find they provide some much needed relief from low back pain and leg cramps during pregnancy, and they help you drift off into a comfortable sleep. Even better, once you have the baby, they double as a nursing pillow. You can use them during the day to support your baby, but still take advantage of them at night to help ease you into a gentle and dream filled sleep!
Watch our pregnancy pillows video on youtube.com.

Maternity Clothes
Career/Separates:
Experienced Moms Prefer Variety and Selection

Many pregnant women prefer buying career separates when shopping for maternity clothes. Some of these moms may already have a few career separates from a previous pregnancy, while others may find that they are simply trying to fill the gaps in their current maternity wardrobe.

Career separates are a good choice if you need a few pieces of career maternity items that you can mix/match and use time and time again. Take a look at work pant sets from Destination Maternity for mix/match options with pants. Career separates can also be a good option if you are looking for a wardrobe with a little versatility and fun.

Pregnancy Health Tips
At some point between 24 and 28 weeks, your healthcare provider will order a glucose-screening test. This test is considered fairly routine and is used to check for gestational diabetes - a form of diabetes (high blood sugar) that develops during pregnancy.

When you arrive for the glucose-screening test (sometimes called a "one-hour glucose tolerance test"), you will be asked to drink a sweetened liquid that contains 50 g of glucose. This drink tastes like a very sweet version of sprite or orange soda. An hour later, a blood sample will be taken to measure how well your body metabolized the glucose. A blood glucose that is higher than 130 mg/dL is considered abnormal, and you will have to undergo further tests to verify whether you have gestational diabetes or not.

The one-hour glucose tolerance test will detect 90 percent of gestational diabetes, but it will also test abnormal for 20 to 25 percent of normal women.

If your test result is abnormal, your healthcare provider will likely recommend that you undergo another diabetes screening test, called the 100 g oral glucose tolerance test. This is a three hour test that requires you to fast (abstain from food) ahead of time.

During this three-hour test, you will also be required to drink a sweetened drink that contains 100 g of glucose. Your blood glucose level will be tested four times within that three hour period. If two out of the four blood tests come out abnormal, you will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes is a worldwide pregnancy complication that concerns many healthcare providers. In the United States, some studies estimate that the prevalence of this condition is as high as 14 percent of all pregnancies!

Gestational diabetes can cause major pregnancy complications, including having a very large baby and possible cesarean birth, preeclampsia, stillbirths, and respiratory distress syndrome. After birth, your baby is at higher risk for becoming obese and diabetic.

Although any pregnant woman can develop gestational diabetes, some women are at higher risk than others. These include women with a family history of diabetes, women older than 25, previous delivery of a baby weighing more than 9 pounds, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypertension, and current use of glucocorticoids.

With proper care, most women with gestational diabetes go on to deliver a health baby. Monitoring your blood glucose levels, exercising, and eating a healthy diet will help you control your diabetes and ensure you have a great outcome.

Gestational diabetes typically goes away after your baby is born.

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