Do you get excited shopping for your baby? Surely throughout the last months you have been buying some clothes or you will have received gifts from family and friends. Nevertheless, it seems that lately, to look at catalogs, to go shopping, to prepare the baby's room, etc., have become some of your favorite activities and you have the feeling that you will lack time to have everything ready.

That need to prepare everything for the baby's arrival is known as "the nest syndrome." Hormones have something to do in this attitude. The suprarenal cortical portion produces adrenaline that accelerates the heart rhythm and breathing so that they adjust to the new needs of the organism. At the same time, this hormone exercises a stimulating function; this is why you feel renovated energy.

If he has not already done so, it is probable that the baby positions himself with the head down and, when this happens, it will be normal that you feel some diffuse pain or contraction isolated in the lower part of the abdomen. The baby moves less and less because he has little room to do so. The nuisances of the last few months, such as the back pain, stomach acidity, heaviness in the legs, constipation, etc. are accentuated due to the additional efforts made by the organism.

From now on the medical controls will be more frequent. In these controls the doctor will practice vaginal tacts to evaluate the consistency and the opening of the neck of the uterus, also a cardiotocograph monitoring with the objective of knowing the baby's pulse and to observe if there are contractions.

If your doctor suspected that your pelvis is narrow or the baby too big, he would do a radiopelvimetry. With this radiological exam, the doctor can assess accurately the size of the pelvis and, depending on the baby's position and the placenta, he can decide if the childbirth could be carried via the vagina or by means of a Caesarean operation. The bones of the pelvis don't expand and the baby will have to go through that space.

Around week 36, if your doctor considers it necessary, he will do a cytology to verify that there are no germs that can infect the baby when crossing the birth channel.

Varixes

In these last months of the pregnancy you will probably feel fatigue, heaviness, swelling, a tingling sensation, and even itching on the legs. It is important that you see your doctor, he will tell you the steps to take to prevent the appearance of varixes, and if you already have them, he will recommend how to treat them appropriately.

Varixes are veins dilated by the weakness of the vein walls or because the valves don't work normally. These valves are in charge that the blood returns to the heart against the force of gravity. In the blood return, the heart does not suction the blood, so that it has to ascend up mainly by the pressure exerted by the muscles and the valves that prevent the blood from going down.

During the pregnancy, the genetic factors predispose for the appearance of varixes, the progesterone increase also diminishes the tone of the veins that expand to welcome a bigger blood flow and this predisposes women to suffer varixes and hemorrhoids. But there are other reasons that can cause the problem, the most important in this last trimester it is the increase in size of the uterus and of the baby that can press the iliac veins and the cava vein.

To help the blood circulation and to attenuate the nuisances, you should walk every day for one hour or practice swimming or another light sport, or follow a table of appropriate gymnastics regularly. When walking and moving your legs you strengthen the muscles that produce the pumping of the blood. A sedentary way life hinders the impulse and the blood accumulates in the veins of the extremities. The carbonic anhydride and the residuals contained in this blood accumulate in the tissues producing the nuisances that we have already described.

Try not to remain static a long time. If you need to be standing, sit down with your legs up for a few minutes every hour as a minimum. If, on the contrary, you must remain sitting, walk for a few minutes every hour. Avoid crossing your legs, flex the ankles and knees frequently and move your feet inside the shoes

Follow a balanced diet, with foods rich in fiber such as green vegetables and fruit, or those that will also help you to eliminate liquids, such as asparagus, artichokes, pineapple, etc.

Avoid very tight clothes and use comfortable footwear. Support stockings are very useful because they press the veins avoiding excessive dilation, they favor elasticity and the pressure helps the muscular function. Talk it over with your doctor so that he recommends the type of compression that you need and always remember to put your legs up for a few minutes before putting on the stockings.

The doctor can also give you advice on the convenience of using some tonic lotion or specific cold gel for tired legs.

Remember to end your shower with lukewarm or cold water from the feet to the knees. Cold water contracts the blood vessels, strengthens the walls of the veins and stimulates the veined return. After your bath, use the lotion or gel prescribed by the doctor.

Avoid direct heat on the legs. Don't take very hot baths, or stand near stoves and radiators and don't use hot wax.

Professional massage, mainly lymphatic drainage, favors circulation and stimulates the immunologic system. Talk with your doctor about the convenience of receiving this type of massages.

To activate the blood circulation in the legs, at any time and situation, inhale deeply through the nose and expel the air through the mouth while you practice the following exercises:

If you are standing: with the back of a foot rubs the internal and external face of the back of the other foot.

• With the heel of a foot rub the instep and toes of the other foot.
  
• Rub the heels of the two feet.
  
• With the sole of a foot rub the instep of the other.

If you are seated: make out circles in both directions with the feet rotating from the ankles.

• Also starting from the ankles, move your feet up and down.

• Walk on tiptoe and heels while you move from one side to the other of the house.

• Lie down on the floor with the legs up against the wall. While you keep a leg straight against the wall, slide the foot of the other one down, flexing the knee. Alternate the legs, first one and then the other one, repeating for a few minutes.

• Lying with the feet a little high, flex and extends the toes of each feet.

• Flex and extend the sole of your feet articulating the ankles.

• Make some circles with your feet towards both sides.

• If you feel your legs very tired, wet two towels in cold water, once drained, wind them around the ankles to the knees and put the legs up.

If your hands and the feet swell

It is normal that your hands and feet swell. As usual, this is due to a hormone. The suprarenal glands produce aldosterone, a substance that helps retain the sodium and to eliminate the potassium so that your body does not lack liquids. An increase in aldosterone provokes an increase in the volume of the tissue and originates an edema or inflammation, mainly of the extremities. These changes are responsible for the fatigue and heaviness that you feel in the legs, but they also produce the hydration and radiant aspect of your skin.

The swelling usually improves with rest, but there are some circumstances that you should observe. If the swelling is located in face and hands, check your tension and if it exceeds 14 mmHg. 9 mmHg, see your doctor. Hypertension, together with excessive retention of liquids and an abnormal presence of proteins in urine are symptoms of complications that require medical intervention, especially if you also suffer intense headache or some eyesight alteration.

Acidity and heaviness of the stomach

One of the missions of progesterone is to relax the uterus, preventing it from contracting and expelling the baby before time; but it also has other less desirable effects such as the relaxation of the walls of the intestine or of the ring that links the stomach with the esophagus. This provokes a slowdown in digestions, that the gastric juices and food ascend to the mouth, that you suffer constipations and accumulate gases, etc. The burning that you feel doesn't have anything to do with how much hair the baby has, as the popular belief says.

Nuisances when breathing

The uterus, for its current size, oppresses the diaphragm and the lungs, for that reason you find it difficult to breathe deeply. Remember and do the breathings that you have learned in the preparation sessions for childbirth.

• Mainly do abdominal breathings. Sitting with the back straight or standing, take air through the nose and take it to the abdomen taking out the gut, keep the air for a few seconds and expel it slowly through the mouth, pushing the gut towards the column.

• When you go to bed, raise the mattress a little on the side that you place your head to rest well. You can do this by placing some blankets or cushions under the mattress.

Control your constipation

As in previous months, you may suffer a decrease in gastrointestinal mobility due to the pressure exerted by the uterus on the digestive system and for hormonal causes. It is very important that you try to correct so you do not suffer any undesirable consequences.

• Follow a balanced diet, rich in fibers. Foods such as prunes, artichokes, wheat germ, kiwis, blackberries, etc, can help you.

• Take between a liter and a liter and half of water every day, as a minimum.

• Walk one hour every day and do light exercises.

• Don't take any type of laxative if the doctor has not prescribed it.

• Taking infusions or herbal teas can be effective, but it can also have secondary effects that alter your health. To take these natural remedies, first see your doctor.

• It is possible that pass gases, to avoid them eat slowly, chew your food well, and avoid carbonated drinks, spicy and fried food. An infusion of anisette after the meals is inoffensive and it can prevent the appearance of gases.

Hemorrhoids

The best way of preventing their appearance is to avoid constipation and to have good blood circulation in the area.

• At any time during the day, when you are doing other activities, contract and relax the anus several times. This way you contribute to empty the nodules of blood and you stimulate blood circulation in the area.

• Take foods rich in fiber, drink a lot of water and try not to remain standing too long.

• The nuisances produced by the hemorrhoids can be alleviated with lukewarm baths.

• If you suspect that you suffer hemorrhoids, talk with your doctor, he can prescribe some anti-inflammatory ointment.

RELAXATION AND HARMONIZATION

Practice your relaxation routine daily when you feel more fatigue or decline. The exercise of quick relaxation will be of great help to practice before any other type of activities that we suggest.

MUSICAL SESSION

Continuous with the musical sessions of your favorite melodies to maintain your emotional balance. As we have suggested before, use the recordings that you have prepared throughout the months to accompany other exercises of the program.

This month we recommend melodies for the stimulation of the auditory area of the baby's brain. Of course, we don't expect the baby to acquire musical knowledge or of any other type. This acquisition is not the objective not even of the education in the neonatal period. It is about directing the efforts so that the baby matures in the basic learning that correspond to his age, thus having more capacity later to mature towards other more complex learning.

In the intra-uterine baby, as in their first years of life, learning is strongly linked to the corporal functions, the most elementary are even linked to the mechanisms of sensation and perception. For example, the auditory stimulation is deeply associated with the somatic capacity to hear and its cerebral projection that in turn is linked with many other sensitive and perceptive functions.

With the sound stimulation we aim at enlarging the baby's auditory experience so that, indirectly, his brain matures more quickly in terms of neuronal connections, provoking the birth of new neurons, etc.

If the baby is able to receive auditory stimuli and of directing them to his cerebral cortex, in fact we prepare the anatomical and physiologic bases so that the brain is even more effective in the future. We also favor the development of the brain hemispheres.

It is proven that the auditory experience is one of the most important sensorial and perceptive factors for the development of the human mind.

With the activities that we propose throughout the program we seek to offer experiences, as the auditory one, with the objective of helping the baby's brain development, activating to the maximum the sensorial and perceptive channel of audition, so we can also globally stimulate the baby.

With the goal of stimulating the baby's attention that is a basic brain mechanism for human learning, we will place also in the room different points from where the music sounds. We know that the baby has the capacity to move to pay attention to the stimulus that he receives, of light or sound.

You can place speakers in different places in the horizontal and vertical plans. While, you remain in one point, sitting in a seat or on the floor, lying on the bed, doing your gymnastics exercises, or resting your back (on your knees, you lean the body towards the front placing the arms stretched on the floor). With your partner's help, play the same melody, at same time every day and following the same order in the emission of the speakers, that is to say, following a repeated logical sequence.

You can also use headphones and place them in different points of the abdomen varying low and high volume.

Observe the baby's answers:

• Does he stop moving to pay attention to the sounds?

• How does he react to the changes in the area of the sound emission?

• What other reactions do you observe?

By means of the sound, the baby can experience in a very elementary way, with very primary mechanisms, the spatial experience of proximity and distance of the sound source, of up and down, close and far, of right and left. This experience is a very elementary form. Of course, we don't speak of levels of representative integration of these space concepts.

When you are in a fixed point and the place of the sound source and the volume vary, the baby receives basic sensorial impacts that will be significant if they are programmed in a repeated sequence. The baby will shift his attention towards the source of the sound.

The sequences of change should not be quick but slow, leisurely and rhythmic. The melody should always be the same one for some time. Repetition is one of the bases of learning. Now, when the repetition transforms into a habit, it no longer generates learning. For this reason, after 8 or 10 days, you can change the melody observing if the change is of the baby's liking.

If you can not get the collaboration of another person to manipulate the sound, you can mobilize yourself with regards to the sound source. The results won't be as good, but it can be a substitution activity. Move from right to left, up or down, far or near from the source of emission of the sound, always following the same logical sequence. When you conclude each cycle, lower and raise the volume and begin the cycle again.

WRITING IN THE EMOTIONS NOTEBOOK

To know yourself better and to profit from your energies we suggest you work with your biorhythms to learn how to control them.

A biorhythm is a rhythmic natural cycle of biological, emotional or social origin that defines in what moments of the day we are more active, more creative, more receptive to loving relationships, if we should rest, etc... Somehow they form an internal clock that governs our organism. Some people are not able to carry out certain intellectual activities early in the morning and however, in the evening their cerebral yield is good. In other cases it happens just the opposite, with the curve of more yield in the morning hours.

The biological factors (genetic inheritance, birth, prenatal period, neonatal, etc.), the emotional, intellectual and even social factors, influence on the biorhythm and can even alter them. There are times in the life of a person where the cycles can be modified, like during the adolescence, pregnancy, menopause, abrupt climatological changes, etc.

According to numerous studies, the daily natural rhythmic cycles are related with the rotation of the Earth that is completed in 24 hours and they make the capacities vary according to the moment of the day. These rhythms are not same in all people, but there are some general rules that are usually quite common.

Very few people reach great effectiveness before 9:00 hours. Starting from this hour, the intellectual capacities increase until noon and, after the meal, they decrease towards the evening. However, the capacities related with the memory are more effective after the evening.

The rhythm of life that one lives now days doesn't coincide many times with each person's biological clock. It usually happens that, when one wants himself to have full abilities, effectiveness fails. This is even more important during the pregnancy and it usually causes a physical and intellectual low yield, besides increasing alterations typical of this period such as digestive or sleep dysfunctions, problems of blood circulation, breathing, etc., that can even affect the emotional balance.

Knowing your biorhythm will help you capitalize your energies and which are your good and bad moments, you will be able to distribute the daily activities optimizing your capacities.

It is very important to respect your rhythms of vigil and sleep. In your daily activity rest for a few minutes every hour and a half or when you notice a decline in your capacities. In those minutes sit down with your back straight, close your eyes and do some abdominal breathings, that way you will be able to balance your biorhythm .

The appearance of the biorhythm happens in the intra-uterine stage and they usually acquire certain synchronization with the mother's biological rhythms. The observation and knowledge of your "natural" clock will help you to understand the baby well after he is born.

The experts say that you can exercise certain control on the biorhythm , we invite you to try it.

Observe daily, throughout one month, how is your yield every hour of the day. Write it down in your notebook and later analyze the daily coincidences. At the beginning it can seem an arduous task but later you will obtain big benefits when you program the intellectual and physical activities according to the rhythms of more yield.

A PORTION OF LOVE

When your pregnancy began you wanted to have a belly and to wear maternity clothes. You had an idealized image that is not adjusted to the changes that happened in your body month by month. You feel that partly the image reflected in the mirror is not really you and you are not able to adapt completely to it.

With the increase in volume, fatigue and heaviness you do not feel very attractive and without grace. Although you worry about your appearance every day you spend less time to get ready. Banish that pessimism, your body has been transforming to give life to your baby and after the childbirth, little by little, it will return to normal. Think that the more you take care now, the quicker the recovery and the sooner you will be able to use the clothes that you see in the shop windows.

Besides the care that we have been advising throughout the program, dedicate some time to visit a beauty parlor, go to the hairdresser and choose a new hairstyle. The hormones make the skin and hair have a fabulous aspect, wear soft make-up and enjoys how stupendous and radiant you look.

BREATHING EXERCISES

Practice the exercises learned in the preparation sessions for childbirth. In case you are not following a course, practice the breathings advised in the previous months.

TO FEEL BETTER

In the pregnancy it is common to suffer cramps, especially on the calves. The cramps are the consequence of an increase of the muscular tone in an abrupt way and with maximum intensity. Cramps are characterized by a sharp and intense pain that, luckily, lasts very little, but later leaves the muscle aching. During the pregnancy, the most frequent causes are the imbalance of electrolytes, mainly of potassium, but they can also be due to the increase of pressure in the blood vessels of the legs, to a lack of calcium and magnesium or to the excessive loss of fluids.

To prevent this type of nuisances you should take abundant milk products, lots of liquid and exercise.

When the sharp pain provoked by the spasmodic contraction appears, the best thing is to stretch the affected muscular group. The stretching should be done in a quick, but not abrupt way, to avoid a fibrillar break, and maintain it at least 30 seconds. For example, if the cramp takes place in the calves, lean on the heels or ask another person that, with the stretched leg, flexes the back of your foot towards the knee.

Next we propose some exercises to prevent the appearance of cramps and to alleviate the aching area left by the muscular contraction. This series of stretching helps to loosen the muscles and to exercise articulations and ligaments.

• Sit down on the floor, with the legs together and stretched, the hands on the floor and the back against the wall. Stretch the toes as if you wanted to touch the floor with them. Then rotate the toes toward the knees. Repeat these flexions at least 20 times. You can flex the feet this way when you remain seated for a long time.

• When you feel a cramp in the area of the cramps, you can alleviate the nuisances by sitting down on the floor with the legs stretched, taking the toes with the hands and try to take them toward the knees. Because the cramps can appear at night, when you are sleeping, do this movement in bed maintaining the stretching until the sharp pain disappears.

• In the same position, separate the legs a little. Join the big toes without bringing the knees together or moving the heels. Then separate all that you can the big toes without moving the knees or displacing the heels. Repeat the exercise at least 20 times. As in the previous exercise, you can do these movements when you stay seated a long time.

• In the same position, make circles with each foot towards the right. Make at least 10 circles and then ten others towards the left. You can also do the movement while sitting on a chair.

• Standing, lean on the heels separate slightly the arms from the body. Move towards the front and back.

• Standing, walk for some time on tiptoe, with the body well stretched.

• Place your hands on a piece of furniture or on the back of a seat, with the back straight and a leg up. Without raising the heel of the other leg, bend the knees as if you wanted to place them on the floor. Keep the position for a few seconds while you notice the tension in the back part of the ankle. Do the exercise 10 times and another 10 changing the legs.

• In the same position, but with the back leg straight, try tries to bring the body close to the piece of furniture without moving the heel of the back leg. Keep the position some instants observing the tension in the area of the calf. Repeat the movement 10 times and later another 10 changing the legs.

LIGHT GYMNASTICS

Strengthening the pelvis contributes to make the childbirth a more bearable experience and lead to the best and quickest recovery in the area after the baby's birth.

The exercises that we suggest can be done as many times as you want throughout the day. The movements strengthen the muscles of the pelvis and the thigh, and help make more flexible the tissues of the perineum that intervene in a decisive way towards the end of the pregnancy and during the childbirth.

• Standing, with the feet separate about 45 centimeters and the column straight, inhale through the nose and lower yourself, little by little, while expelling the air through the mouth, until you are squatting. With the elbows on the knees and the hands together, take 10 or 12 breathings. Incorporate slowly while you inhale through the nose and, when you reach the initial position, begin again.

• On the floor, with the knees flexed, the buttocks on the heels and the hands on the thighs. Inhale through the nose, lifting the body and contracting the buttocks and the pelvic floor, until you are on your knees. Return to the original position while you expel the air through the mouth.

EMOTIONS, AFFECTIONS AND MATERNAL FEELINGS

The power of the mind and visualizations are two invaluable tools for the life of the human being. If you have opted to practice the visualizations that we have suggested, you will have seen the results. It could happen that you have not thought about doing these exercises up to now, but we advise you to practice them during the rest of your pregnancy, they will be you of great value for your communication with the baby and to confront his birth.

Through your mind you can control countless processes of mental and physiologic order. To check the close relationship between the body and the mind, do the following visualization:

Surely you have experienced a physiologic reaction of salivation while visualizing the lemon.

At the beginning, the lemon only existed in your mind. There you had stored a memory about the real experience of having tasted the sour flavor of the lemon juice. That memory is the one that induces the nervous system to respond by salivating. It is an effect of the mind that provokes an answer in the body and, the more you practice the visualization, the quicker your physiologic answer will be.

Estimate the number of daily reactions that take place in your body motivated by your mind although you don't control them. These reactions can be positive, but also negative. Without premeditating it, the mind can even end up provoking illnesses to the body, imaginary or real. In the same way, but in a positive sense, it produces states of well-being.

When you observe that negative attitudes such as anguish, irritability, edginess, tension, etc., are taking over you, take a few minutes to relax. Once the muscles diminish the tension and the breathing oxygenates all your body correctly, experience the benefits of the mental visualization.

Imagine scenes with your baby, observe carefully his internal rhythms and try to visualize the actions that he is doing in his small environment. Choose visualizations in which you are together.

It is important that you are able to imagine scenes easily. In the communication with your baby the mental images are as words in oral communication, they constitute the source of vibrations between you two.

Learn how to imagine scenes, to recreate them starting from the mental silence and the perception of the sensations that you receive from the uterus. As you practice with more visualizations, imagine the scenes with more intensity and brightness. Don't limit yourself to the visualizations that we propose in the program, explore in your imagination and assess your capacity to generate images, invent paradisiacal places to share with the baby or evoke those that you already know: laying down on the grass, with the baby's body on yours, in a splendid spring day; the happy baby, sleeping in your arms, while you listen to your favorite music; next to the sea, on the golden sand of the beach, enjoying the warm breeze and of the sound of the waves, etc.

Live intensely the emotions provoked by the images, generate moving vibrations that reach the uterus and stimulate the baby's well-being.

When you end a visualization, don't begin your daily activity immediately. Your body and your mind should adapt to the change. Don't cut the scene you are imagining suddenly, conclude by seeing the baby fall asleep happy and, little by little, move away while you start moving parts of the body: open and closes your hands, move your toes, stretch out slowly, breathe deeply and, lastly, open your eyes.

To assess the experience appropriately, it is positive that you describe in detail what you have seen and sensed after the visualization.

LULLABIES

Choose songs for the baby according to the activity of the day and sing them daily, creating a habit: a song when waking up in the morning welcoming a new day, another on the way to work, one for the mealtime, when going to bed, etc. If the setting allows it, sing aloud, with enthusiasm. When it is not appropriate, sing mentally, only for your baby and transmit him all your love.

CARESSES OF LOVE

After relaxing, with your eyes closed, feel with your hands in the abdomen the baby's position and imagine it mentally. Try to see the image clearly. Observe each part of his body. Notice the umbilical cord that links him with you. Think of the loving message that you want to transmit to him, tell it to him aloud and imagines how the message reaches him through the cord. Look at his face and see how he smiles when receiving your message. Imagine how your love turns into a white light that surrounds the baby protecting him and filling him with happiness. Caress your abdomen and feel the baby's answer in your hands. Enjoy for some time this tender and loving communication as the emotion unites you both.

Leave your baby filled with tranquility and love. Return, little by little, to the reality of your environment continuing to caress the baby through the abdominal wall.

AFFECTIVE CONVERSATION

Turn the baby into your confidant. Tell him what you are going to do, what you are making, what happens in your surroundings... Talk to him about the feelings that provoke you the situations, people or things.

When you read the press, a magazine or a book, do it aloud. Recite him your favorite poems and encourage your partner so that he does the same thing. Propitiate pleasant moments so that the baby is linked to the family nucleus.

BALL ROOM DANCING

Take advantage of the breathing and a soft swinging of your body to dance with the baby rocking him softly. Use an appropriate music for the creation of positive stimuli. Among the works that you can choose we suggest:

• MINUET OF SUITE Nº 1 IN FA MAYOR BY ANDEL.

• CONCERTO Nº 3. O.P. 7 FOR OBOE AND STRINGS IN D MAYOR BY ALBINONI.

• RONDO MINUET OF THE CONCERTO IN B FLAT MAJOR BY MOZART.

• ANDANTINO GRACIOSO OF THE SYMPHONY Nº 24 BY MOZART.

After achieving a good relaxation state, enjoy the music while you communicate mentally with the baby. Visualize his image in the uterus, speak with him and tell him that you will dance together.

Stand up, with the back straight and a leg a little flexed and forward. Inhale deeply through the nose swelling the abdomen, advancing the body slightly and loading the weight on the forward leg. Expel the air through the mouth, taking the abdomen towards the column and the body backwards, loading the weight of the body on the leg behind.

Enjoys the soft swinging of the body, following the music's rhythm, as much time as you feel like it.

With this activity you oxygenate all your body, you direct more purified blood towards the baby and you can rock him with the soft swaying movement. On the other hand, the vibrations of the musical sounds will be a source of stimulus for his brain that is receiving well oxygenated blood.

HYDROESTIMULATION

The pool lets you make coordinated corporal exercises that keep you in shape. Turn the swimming or the activity in the water into an opportunity to relate and interact with the baby.

Stay in an area of the pool where you can stand up.

• Walk in the pool dragging the water with your feet.

• Walk in the water lifting the feet and the legs.

• Do some lateral flexions inside the water, raising the hands.

• On the border the pool, face up, flex and extend the legs, open and close the legs, splash about with the feet, etc.

• On the border of the pool, face down, go away and come closer to the border, moving the legs (flex and extend, open and close, splash about, make pedaling movements, etc.)