Week 40 · Third trimester
40 weeks pregnant
Long-stemmed rose
51.2 cm (20.2 in)head to heel
At about 51.2 cm from head to heel, your baby is as long as a Long-stemmed rose (~50 cm), tip to stem—the flower held for the week you may meet.
This week, inside
Space is close now, but your baby is still expected to move in their familiar pattern. The week is a page number, not a command; your story has its own pacing.
What you might be noticing
- The body preparing. lower back sensations and premenstrual-like feelings may occur near labor.
- Practice tightenings. painless Braxton Hicks tightenings may continue.
- Sleep and digestion. sleep difficulties, heartburn, bloating, or constipation may still be present.
Small things that help
Keep the next step simple and the people you may call easy to reach. There is no required mood for this week, and no single way a birth story must begin.
For the record
Before this chapter turns, what would you like to say to the two of you as you are today?
Zohra asks one of these every week, and keeps your answer. A year from now it is the part people say they are most glad they wrote down.
Where this came from
Not sure you are at week 40? Work out your due date — or see every week’s size on one chart, and the rest of the third trimester.
Keep this week
Zohra draws this same flower in the app, at this same size, and keeps what you write beside it — with your bump photos, the letters, and the sounds from your appointments.
Zohra arrives on the App Store for iPhone shortly. Everything on this site is free to read now, with no account and no sign-up.