30 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby Is The Size Of A Tub Of Fried Chicken

Welcome to Scary Mommy’s pregnancy week by week guide! We’re here to give you all the info about what to expect when you’re expecting: be it pregnancy week by week symptoms, your baby’s development, your changing body, or ultrasounds and appointments. Here’s everything you need to know about week 30.

Your Body at Week 30 Pregnant

You’ve reached 30 weeks in your pregnancy, and 30 weeks pregnant in months is around six months and two weeks. So, yay! This means you’ve got about 10 weeks to go, give or take. Here’s what you can expect at this stage of the journey.

Your Baby Bump Is Burgeoning

You’ve entered the lovely phase of pregnancy in which passersby may routinely exclaim, “You must be due any day now!” But, hey, don’t take it personally. In fact, your 30 weeks pregnant belly being large and in charge is a good sign (although you should, of course, maintain an open dialogue with your doctor about healthy pregnancy weight gain).

It’s prominent for all the right reasons — baby is getting bigger and, therefore, your uterus is on the rise. It’s currently around four inches above your belly button so, yeah, it might look a little like you swallowed a volleyball. Here’s a fun perk, though: if you poke your taut belly now, baby might just poke back.

You’re Getting Itchy

As your belly gets bigger, your skin stretches further and further. This can cause it to dry out and make you feel like you have an itch that cannot possibly be scratched to satisfaction. You might also start to notice stretch marks. But don’t sweat it, Mama. Per the American Pregnancy Association, most women get these “tiger stripes” on their abdomens during pregnancy (they’re also common on the breasts, thighs, hips, lower back, and butt).

To maximize your elasticity and stave off itchy skin, drinks lots of water and slather on a specialized moisturizer like Bio-Oil twice daily.

You’re Experiencing Déjà Vu

Remember how gloriously symptom-free, for the most part, your second trimester was? Well, get ready, some of the early pregnancy symptoms you suffered through might make a comeback. Baby’s head is pushing on your bladder more, so you’ll be trucking it to the bathroom seemingly every five seconds again. Your breasts are once more tender as they prepare to fill up with milk. And that first-trimester exhaustion may circle around with a vengeance since you’ve got an almost fully baked tiny human in your tummy.

A couple of things to keep in mind this week: Don’t forget your Kegels. Strengthening your pelvic floor can make childbirth easier. And make sure to keep hydrated as drinking plenty of fluids will help combat pregnancy edema.

Your Baby at Week 30 Pregnant

At 30 weeks pregnant, your baby is around 15.15 inches long and weighs roughly 3 pounds. In other words, that little bambino is about the size of a tub of fried chicken! And they are growing at a rapid rate, too, packing on about half a pound and half an inch per week.

Because baby has less real estate to work with as they grow — coupled with the fact they sleep in bouts of 30 to 90 minutes now — their movements may not be as frequent. Still, you should feel your baby moving every day. If you notice a prolonged lack of activity, don’t panic but do give your doctor a call. An absence of kicking or tiny fists of fury should be filed under “30 weeks pregnant symptoms not to ignore.”

Baby’s Brain Is Getting Wrinkly

It’s true; babies boast a reputation for having smooth bottoms. But at 30 weeks pregnant, their brains are decidedly not smooth, and that’s a big plus. Why? As your baby’s brain grows, grooves and indentations on its until-now-smooth surface develop and become more pronounced. These wrinkles are there for a reason — to make room for more brain tissue, which your little nugget will need for life outside of the womb.

Lanugo Hair, Don’t Care

While still in utero, your baby will develop a downy coating of fine hair called lanugo to keep them warm. However, as they accumulate body fat and are better able to regulate their temperature, the lanugo will start to disappear — usually around 30 weeks. If your baby does come out looking like a tiny stunt double for Teen Wolf, though, it’s totally fine. That fuzzy layer of body hair will shed in the first few weeks post-birth. Interestingly, as your baby loses their body hair, the hair on their head is growing in and getting thicker this week.

Your Symptoms and Health at Week 30 Pregnant

Exhaustion

At this point, you’re probably tired as hell and everything hurts. Okay, so maybe not everything — but it sure feels like it sometimes. At 30 weeks pregnant, you’re probably having trouble getting quality sleep and thus feel chronically fatigued. Couple that with increased hormones giving you major mood swings and added weight putting achy pressure on your back, hips, and feet, and you might be more inclined than ever to stay home and binge-watch Gilmore Girls.

Your Bowels Will Have a Mind of Their Own

This week may see you become a veritable fart factory. In scientific speak, progesterone leads to slower digestion, which in turn leads to gas build-up and bloating. It’s even worse at 30 weeks pregnant since your enlarging uterus is pushing into your abdominal cavity. You’ll have a harder time controlling your flatulence, because of all that progesterone-induced muscle R&R. This increased flatulence can be exacerbated by constipation, a pesky problem you probably dealt with in early pregnancy and praised the bowel gods when (you thought) the phase passed.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to manage and reduce extra gas during pregnancy, like avoiding fatty fried foods and drinking plenty of water.

You Might Feel Short of Breath

Repeat after us: breathe in, breathe out, don’t freak out. Yes, you may experience marked shortness of breath at 30 weeks pregnant. But, no, it doesn’t mean you or your baby are suffering from oxygen deprivation. Rather, baby is now nestled up near your rib cage, crowding your lungs.

Double Trouble

Like we said above, a lot of those early pregnancy symptoms make a comeback in the third trimester, and when you have twins, you might feel this more dramatically than single-baby pregnancies. Your body’s hormone production is in overdrive at this stage (even more than it would be if you were only carrying one baby). So don’t be too hard on yourself for swinging from irritable to upset in the space of minute. The increasing weight of your babies is making everything that bit achier and uncomfortable too, so curl up with a pregnancy pillow whenever you can.

The contents of this article have been medically reviewed by Ruth A. Tessler, M.D. in July, 2019.

Written by Julie Sprankles.

Follow Preggo Nancy’s pregnancy journey week-by-week and share in her joy, her symptoms, and even her pregnancy cravings.

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