Pregnancy Week 25: Fetal Development, Hemorrhoids & Preparing for Maternity Leave Pregnancy Weekly

About Baby

Cauliflower is all the rage – and your baby is now about as big as one! At 13 1/2 inches long and weighing 1 1/2 pounds, Baby is beginning to get some fat on her tiny body. She’s also pinking up a bit due to small capillaries forming and filling with blood under her still-translucent skin. Soon, blood vessels will grow in Baby’s lungs and get her one step closer to being able to breathe on her own. While she still couldn’t breathe on her own in our air-filled world, she is taking practice breaths of amniotic fluid and can smell with that adorable little nose.

Photo: Baby at 25 weeks of development

About Mom

Hemorrhoids. Ugh! Unfortunately, a large number of pregnant women get an unpleasant house guest you know where. Hemorrhoids are swollen, inflamed veins in the rectum often caused by obesity, straining during a bowel movement and … pregnancy. Hemorrhoids are itchy, uncomfortable and can sometimes bleed. These glorified varicose veins are not dangerous, but can be painful and put a damper on your day. The best thing to do is be proactive and try to prevent them.

• Eat a fiber-rich diet.
• Stay hydrated by drinking lots of water.
• Don’t strain when you go No. 2.

If you do all these things and still get hemorrhoids, ask your doctor what over-the-counter hemorrhoid medication they recommend. Ice packs and dabbing the area with witch hazel can also soothe a sore bottom.

Maternity Leave Prep

Having a baby will flip your life upside down and throw it into a blender no matter how much you prepare, so make sure you have a maternity leave plan in place. You'll need the time off to recover from childbirth, embrace your new role as a mother and figure out how to take care of a tiny, adorable, helpless human.

The rules vary pretty drastically depending on where you live or who you work for. One thing you can count on as a U.S. resident is the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The law provides job security for up to 12 weeks, but unfortunately it is unpaid. It guarantees your position will be there when you return, but you'll need to crunch some numbers to make it work.

Doctors generally recommend six weeks physical recovery time after a natural childbirth and eight weeks for a Cesarean section. To cover these initial weeks, you can often use a combination of personal time off (PTO) and short-term disability (if available) so your paychecks keep flowing, even if they aren't quite as much. After that, the extra time you take is your call!

Here are seven suggestions to help you figure out maternity leave for your family.

Bump Talk

“When I got pregnant I had so much testosterone in me that I grew a beard.” – Adele 

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