Week 28: Welcome to the third trimester

Welcome to the third trimester. Your baby — about the size of an eggplant and now around a kilo — is entering a phase of rapid weight gain. They’re experiencing REM sleep (and may even be dreaming), their eyelids can blink, and they’ll turn toward light shining through your belly.

As your baby takes up more room, you may feel more breathless, notice swelling in your feet, ankles and hands, and feel growing pressure low in your pelvis. Your antenatal visits will now usually move to every two to four weeks.

This is the time to start paying close attention to your baby’s movements every day. Get to know their normal pattern — the busy times and the quiet ones. If that pattern ever changes or slows, call your maternity unit straight away, day or night. It’s never a fuss, and they would always rather hear from you — knowing your baby’s normal pattern is one of the most valuable things you can do from here.

Your body is working hard now, and a fresh crop of third-trimester symptoms is common: heartburn, breathlessness as your uterus presses up under your ribs, trouble getting comfortable in bed, and Braxton Hicks contractions — irregular, usually painless tightenings that are your uterus practising. None of these mean anything is wrong, though it’s always worth mentioning anything that worries you.

On movements, the key message is to get to know your baby’s individual pattern rather than chasing a set number of kicks. Babies don’t move less toward the end (a common myth) — the pattern simply becomes more established. If their movements ever slow or change from what’s normal for them, contact your maternity unit straight away, any time of day or night.

A few practical notes: around this point in Australia you’ll usually be offered the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine to protect your newborn in their first weeks; your glucose test results should be back to review for gestational diabetes; and if you have Rh-negative blood, your Anti-D injection is usually given around now.