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Remember the feeling of making through all the initial rounds to find yourself in the final list of candidates of a sport? That is pretty much how you’d feel when you are 31 weeks pregnant with twins and foetal development racing to catch up with the completion stage. If the first trimester was considered a crucial part of your pregnancy, this stage is no less important than it. With your nutritional habits getting a new spotlight altogether, followed by frequent checkups to ensure a consistent and appropriate development of the babies, all the activities surrounding you will make you highly vigilant about your pregnancy. Things might seem to be demanding at times, and it is essential that you balance that with restful periods whenever you get them.
The Growth of the Babies at 31 Weeks
The onset of the 31st week of pregnancy might awaken most women from their rapture of the initial stages and put them at an alert stage of making sure they get the end part right. Similarly, your babies inside would be highly active now and alert of their surroundings.
The sensory perception is at its peak. Nearly all the senses present in the body have initiated their functioning, giving your children a good level of awareness. While they might already be sensing the presence of light and turning around to face the darkness when they need to sleep, this will also be paired with a better understanding of your voice, which could even calm them down. Similarly, eating certain food items might get them all riled up and excited, and they would also be experiencing certain emotions as a result of it. Rarely are any of these perceptions distinct enough to form a memory or a place for recall, but all these signals end up stimulating the brain and test its functioning.
When tracking the kick count of your little ones, you would be able to establish a rough schedule of sorts, getting a better idea of when your babies prefer to sleep and when do they turn your uterus into their playground. This is extremely essential for doctors as well, so that they can establish a benchmark of normalcy in children. In their active periods, babies are also experimenting with their limbs and practising their grip, which will soon be enveloping around your pinky finger.
In case of male babies, the scrotal sac usually finishes its development around this week and the testicles begin descending into it rapidly. By the time your babies are born, the testicles should be fully descended, which would also be checked by the doctor. Any presence of cryptorchidism, where the testicles fail to descend fully, would be detected only after birth.
What Is The Size of the Babies?
All the previous weeks of fat development will begin to show its benefit around this week. With a good layer of deposits having occurred throughout, the skin will be quite smoother than before, as well as stretched to a pretty good degree. Those fat deposits will also be responsible for increasing the weight of the babies, putting them somewhere in the range of 1.3-1.5 kilograms, with a length that is nearly 38-40 centimetres. While these values might fall on the lower end for twins and triplets, their size will be as large as a coconut.
Common Bodily Changes
Your body will be pushed into yet another state of its own, as it begins to come to terms with a different degree of changes taking place within it. Right from an increase in weight to the changes in the biochemistry, the body will display all of them to you.
- There are instances where many women have compared the final trimester of the pregnancy with the first trimester. Sure, there won’t be any bouts of constant nausea or morning sickness that would make you retch often. However, this period won’t be as calm and relaxed as the one you witnessed in the second trimester. The body is beginning to realise that a delivery might be imminent in the coming weeks. While the hormones might be slightly responsible in shifting your moods in this regard, the simple pressure of delivering your kids accurately and the nervousness of getting through the labour could put your feelings in a not-so-good situation. Some women might be impatient and cranky about an extended pregnancy and would want to deliver their babies instantly. Others might be worried about the safety precautions and would freeze up at the thought of pushing out multiple babies.
- Most women tend to have a good size of their tummy by this week, which increases only by short amounts since the babies are almost at the peak size of their growth. However, one region of the body that still might fluctuate in its temporary growth would be your feet. Sadly, these are the ones who have been bearing all the load of your body, and the newly developing babies, right from the time of conception. The swelling might be a usual thing by now, with you spotting your feet to be broader and larger every passing day. In some cases, women end up with larger feet after delivery. This is primarily the result of the relaxin hormone, causing your bones and ligaments to loosen up and allow your body to expand, which can be permanent.
- Your babies are unknown to the changes taking place inside you and will continue to grow as much as they can to increase their chances of survival. Your little ones may be inside the uterus in such a position that they tend to put a higher degree of pressure in the upper region of your body. This, combined with the uterine expansion, would push the lungs and diaphragm into a tiny spot. Short breathing is usually the result of this, followed by a tendency to feel exhausted more often than not. Thankfully, some babies take the appropriate position for delivery, causing the lungs to find their own space within the body again, and resuming breathing correctly.
Symptoms of Twin Pregnancy at 31 Weeks
Technically, none of the symptoms that you experience in the 31st week of pregnancy are any different from what you have experienced all these months. However, their sudden return and the pressure of delivery can make them seem to be a tad more intense than they usually are.
- Blame it on the pregnancy or the lack of sleep or just the endless barrage of thoughts in your mind, causing you to leave barely any time to focus on what’s at hand. If you are experiencing moments where you forget what you were doing or end up stepping out of the house to buy something and forget your wallet, or maybe even your house keys, don’t be hard on yourself. You might have been a sharp woman before pregnancy, but these multiple changes can be a distraction. Once you have delivered your babies, you would be back to your sharpest form pretty soon.
- The aches and pains that your body experiences would be omnipresent in the third trimester. Certain weeks tend to make them slightly stronger than before. These weeks are usually the ones where your babies might have a growth spurt all of a sudden, causing your body to come to terms with taking care of the extra weight in a short period.
- Your bladder and your breasts would be leaking quite often in this period. With the milk production beginning a tad early, you might experience a discharge from your breasts randomly. Similarly, the pressure on the bladder would be increasing, too, causing you to urinate frequently through the week.
Twin Pregnancy – Belly at 31 Weeks
With the twins weight at 31 weeks reaching another milestone of sorts, their effect on the tummy would be substantial, causing a slight increase in the size. Similarly, you would also continue experiencing minor contractions randomly, which would signal a return of the Braxton Hicks contractions.
Twin Pregnancy at 31 Weeks – Ultrasound
The ultrasound conducted this week would not only check your babies but also examine you, too. A three-dimensional scan might also be undertaken, giving you a full-fledged look at your children. This usually would have to be requested by you, since it is quite expensive than the usual one.
What to Eat
Vitamin-rich food should be your go-to choice this week. A lot of proteins, fats, calcium, and numerous elements of nutrition need to be taken by the mother so that the milk production can get the boost it needs, and contain all the necessary constituents that would make the babies healthier once they are born.
Pregnancy Care Tips
With your due date closing in, make sure you adhere to a few tips to be careful at this last stage.
Do’s
- Make a list of things and activities to be completed before delivery.
- Keep a plan-B ready in case your hospital visit does not work out.
Dont’s
- Don’t refrain from asking help from your friends and family for any support.
- Avoid being fearful or exposing yourself to scary movies or incidents for this week.
What You Need to Shop for
All you need to do is focus on the delivery and the babies coming in soon, which can be supported by purchasing:
- A light cream to treat sore nipples
- Nursing bras that can facilitate easy breastfeeding
Being 31 weeks pregnant with twins can instil a combination of excitement and fear in most mothers. Let the enthusiasm grow a sense of confidence within you, and it will gently take over any anxiety or worry that might arise.
