31 Weeks: What's Happening

As far as growth goes, your baby's still on a roll, measuring an impressive 18 inches and weighing in at more than three pounds. At 31 weeks pregnant, you can still expect your baby to gain at least three to five pounds, possibly more, before you two meet. Your baby's brain is working overtime these days, developing faster than ever. Connections between individual nerve cells are growing at a frenetic clip, and she can now perceive information from all five senses. Sure, your baby can't smell anything right now, but that's only because she is still submerged in amniotic fluid and needs to be breathing air to get a whiff of anything. Lucky for you — and your baby — yours will be one of the very first scents she breathes in, a scent that will quickly become her very favorite.

So what's your little dove doing all day while you're busy feathering your nest for her arrival? Making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, pedaling with little hands and feet along your uterine wall, and even sucking her thumb. In fact, some babies suck their thumbs so vigorously while in the womb that they're born with a callus on their thumb (what a little sucker!). Your baby is also putting in longer stretches of sleep, which is why you're probably noticing more defined patterns of awake (and moving) periods and sleeping (pretty still) periods.