"I only came from my 32-week appointment, and my physician says I measured 35 weeks. I'm afraid my baby volition exist too big to evangelize vaginally."

Modern medicine tin tell us a lot near how babies are doing before they're built-in and even what they wait like. Just guessing how big they are is just that — a large guess.

In early pregnancy, you might exist showing earlier for a few possible reasons, such as:

  • Muscle tone.A meaning woman with looser intestinal muscles is more than probable to produce a pronounced tummy than a momhoped-for with a very toned torso. That's also why expectant mothers who have previously given birth and whose abdominal muscles have already been stretched and loosened will tend to show earlier. Your torso type might besides be at play; some women carry their babies lower, which makes them appear to stick out more.
  • Miscalculated due date.Another common explanation for a seemingly supersized stomach is a miscalculation of the conception date. A 15- or xvi-week tummy volition certainly be larger than a thirteen-week one, so double-bank check your due date.
  • Bloating.Your big belly could also be caused by a tour of excess gas.
  • Twins.If you were earlier on in your pregnancy, there could exist a chance you were conveying twins without yet knowing it: Many women who sport an impressive tummy in their beginning trimester later notice that they're having two babies. Earlier y'all starting time doubling upward the layette, withal, keep in listen that simply as many women who popped early and became convinced they were carting effectually two babies turned out to exist bearing just ane. An ultrasound settles that question.

Later on in pregnancy, your infant is maxing out on the space available in your uterus, which makes his weight notoriously difficult to predict. A belatedly-stage ultrasound gauge tin can be off by a pound or more — which makes a huge deviation in a 5-pound babe!

Continue Reading Below

Typically at each prenatal visit, your practitioner checks your fundal height (the altitude from your pubic os to the top of your uterus) with a tape measure. That number in centimeters is approximately equal to the number of weeks forth you are — but one or 2 centimeters in either management is no cause for alarm.

If your measurements show a discrepancy of three weeks or more, equally in your case, your practitioner will practice a little investigating to endeavour to learn why with an ultrasound. Most of the time, there's a harmless explanation.

Maybe your due appointment is off past a few days or a week (it'southward pretty common for doctors to change due dates). Your baby could be in a funny position or sitting high in your uterus, and that's throwing the tape measure off. Or you may accept a uterine fibroid or extra amniotic fluid (neither of which is necessarily a large deal).

Additionally, if you lot've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes (which is generally screened for between 24 and 28 weeks), yous are at a greater run a risk for having a bigger babe.If that's the case, your practitioner will have already put you on a special pregnancy nutrition. Be sure to follow their instructions advisedly to stay healthy and reduce baby's risk of macrosomia (when babies are built-in weighing more than than 8 pounds, 13 ounces).

Finally, some babies are just larger than others due to genetics — much in the way some people are taller than others. Oftentimes, mothers who carry larger babies may notice that they or their partner were a larger baby at birth.

Your best bet is to go on eating healthily (and plentifully) for the remainder of your pregnancy. Try not to worry most the scale or the measuring record.

Fifty-fifty if your baby is on the bigger side, chances are still good that you'll deliver on schedule, vaginally and without being induced. And whether your baby comes out at 6 pounds or 9, the day he arrives will be thrilling.

Hither's to an easy delivery and a healthy babe! Heidi Murkoff