Pregnancy Week 28: Third Trimester, Colostrum Production, and Baby's Development

You are officially in your third trimester by pregnancy week twenty-eight. This means that you will experience a return of your first trimester symptoms. You may be experiencing frequent urination, breast tenderness, and fatigue. On a more positive note, all of your baby's organs are developed and all that he needs to do now is grow.

Pregnancy Week 28: Baby's Development

Your baby weighs 2 ½ pounds and is now sixteen inches long. Your little one can now blink his eyelids. His lungs are almost fully developed and ready to handle oxygen. He still has a lot of growing to do but everything is developed. He can cough, suck, hiccup, inhale and exhale, swallow, and grasp.

Pregnancy Week 28: Third Trimester Symptoms

Your body is really gearing up for the birth of your baby by the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. Expect some significant weight gain over the next twelve weeks because your baby is growing rapidly.

Now that you're entering your third trimester, it is time to return to some earlier pregnancy symptoms. You will again experience frequent urination, breast firmness and tenderness, and fatigue.

The frequent urination comes from your baby's size and possibly his new head-down position. His head will be putting pressure on your bladder causing more frequent bathroom breaks.

Pregnancy Week 28: Colostrum and Milk Production

Your breasts are sore and firm again because of more hormones. Your body will start to get ready to produce milk by making a hormone called prolactin. Prolactin will then trigger the mammary glands to start producing colostrum and your breasts will increase in size.

Colostrum is the first form of milk that your breasts produce. It is pale yellow in color and sticky. Colostrum is high in carbohydrates and protein which makes it easy to digest. Colostrum is the first milk that your baby will have if you decide to breastfeed.

Fatigue is very common in the last trimester of pregnancy. You may become tired from both the production of the hormone prolactin and carrying around the extra weight that your little one is gaining.

For more pregnancy weeks and fetal development you can read:
Pregnancy Week 24

Pregnancy Week 25

Pregnancy Week 26

Pregnancy Week 27

Click here to find more information on your pregnancy and baby's development.

Sources:

Personal Experience

Fit Pregnancy (2009). Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved: April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: fitpregnancy.com/calendar/40251887.html

Myers-Gorrie, Trula, Slone-McKinney, Emily, & Smith-Murray, Sharon (1998). Foundations of Maternal-Newborn Nursing (2^nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders Company.

What to Expect (2009). Weekly Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved:April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/landing.aspx