36 Weeks Pregnant

Don’t be alarmed if your baby's movements have changed from sharp kicks or jabs to squirms. Your cutie has less room for calisthenics now.

You should still keep track of your baby's movements every day, though, so if you’re worried, try sipping a sugary beverage or eating a snack and then see if your baby perks up. Be sure to call your doctor if there's a change in fetal movement frequency or an unusual change in the pattern of baby's movements.

Be prepared to lose your mucus plug, which will look like thick, yellow discharge tinged with blood. It can happen weeks, days or hours before labor begins.

There's no need for concern if your mucus plug dislodges well before your due date — it could still be a few weeks before labor actually starts.

And your baby is still safe even after you’re unplugged. In fact, your body continues to make cervical mucus to prevent infection, which means baby’s still snugly sealed off. So you can have sex, take a bath and otherwise go about your business as usual.

If you’re planning on sending out birth announcements, it’s a good idea to address all the envelopes or compile the email lists now. One less thing to do once baby arrives!

Chase your protein with an adequate supply of pyridoxine. Never heard of it? It's the vitamin also known as B6, and its function is to help your body and baby use all that protein to do its cell-building job.

Think of it this way: If protein is the brick, B6 is the mortar. And B6 plays an especially big role in the development of baby’s brain and nervous system.

You'll find B6 in prenatal vitamins and foods like bananas, avocados, wheat germ, brown rice, bran, soybeans, oatmeal, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, watermelon and meat. See, there's overlap with your protein sources, making your job even easier.

If you feel uncomfortable or concerned about labor, it’s always best to call your health care provider and ask any questions you may have. Even if you make an unnecessary trip to the hospital or doctor’s office, you’d be far, far from the only person who’s done so.

Pre-labor can last for a few hours to a few days, weeks or even a month in some cases, and signs and symptoms can be different for every person (and every person’s pregnancy).

There are three phases of labor: early, active and transitional. The first of these stages is usually the longest. Thankfully, it’s also the least intense. It can last from a few hours to several weeks, often without any noticeable or bothersome contractions.

The second stage, or active labor, usually lasts a few hours. By this time, you’ll probably be in the hospital or birthing center, and your contractions will become stronger and longer (lasting about 40 to 60 seconds).

The third and last stage is called transitional labor, and it tends to be the most intense phase. It’s also the shortest, generally lasting from 15 minutes to an hour.

Pretty soon, you'll have your beautiful baby in your arms, and a whole lot of new things to remember, like when the last feeding was, when it's time for a diaper change or how often to pump.

Luckily, there's an easy way to keep tabs on all that: an app baby tracker that lets you record breastfeeding, bottle-feeding and pumping sessions, as well as diaper changes, so you can stay organized and spot patterns, especially in those early sleep-deprived days of life with a newborn.

No, not the kind of strep that causes throat infections. During week 36 or 37, your doctor will test you for group B strep (GBS), a type of bacteria that's found in the vagina.

GBS bacteria is usually harmless to the many adults who carry it — and an estimated 1 in 4 pregnant women do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — but it can cause a serious infection in a newborn during childbirth.

To test for GBS, your practitioner will take swabs of your vagina and rectum. If the results are positive, you'll be given antibiotics through an IV during labor, so there's little chance of you passing the infection to your baby.