36 Week Pregnancy Update
3rd trimester recap
Nesting: We are now one month away from our due date (December 1st)! It is hard to believe we are getting so close to meeting our girl - the past 9 months have both flown by and also crawwwwled along haha. We can not wait to meet her! Overall I have enjoyed the 3rd trimester so far. I feel like the past few weeks I have quite a bit of energy, which I have been told is called ‘nesting’ and that it will end soon so I need to finish everything fast haha! The carseat is in the car, nursery is almost done, all of her clothes are washed & hung in her closet, and we have her stroller too so everything is coming together. I think one of the last things to finish in her nursery is hanging her sign - eek!!
Prep: We took a birth class on Sunday to prep for labor, birth and postpartum. It was about four hours long & taught on zoom! It was offered through the hospital where we are giving birth and taught by a registered nurse. I think it cost $200 - I am not sure if that is common or what is typical for a birth class. I am sure some places are doing them in person (which I think would have been even more ideal because we were taught how to swaddle, details on diapers, etc) however I know with Covid so much is virtual now. It was actually really helpful & encouraging, and shed a lot of light on some of the steps of both labor and birth we were unsure about. One tip I thought was really helpful was about the hospital stay itself when you are giving birth. The nurse reminded us that the hospital experience should be something we have some control over; being clear on if you want an epidural or not, whether you want music on while laboring, & specifying how you want the lighting to be in the room, etc. Choosing who you may want in the room with you while you are going through labor & birth is also important to establish beforehand. It just got us talking more about what my expectations are for the delivery room. Especially since family will not be able to be in the hospital waiting the arrival of baby girl like a typical year, it is extra important to do what you can to make the labor, birth and post birth experience as special as you can. A lot of that is just being clear what is important to you & taking with whoever may be in the room with you about your expectations.
Style: This may seem a bit odd to bring up in a pregnancy recap haha but you guys know it was super important to me to keep my sense of personal style throughout my pregnancy! I will admit, it is getting quite a bit harder as the belly is growin’ daily and I am getting slightly more stuffed feeling haha - but overall it has been really fun trying to figure out how to keep my style with so many body changes. In the Summer it was a little more simple because I could do biker shorts & dresses almost daily. The Fall has been more challenging because I love being comfortable & wearing outfits that are practical for whatever I am doing that day. I find myself wearing the Spanx leather leggings (I looove these every Fall/Winter season) but just bought the maternity style. They are great for layering under sweatshirts, oversized t-shirts or sweaters. I feel like it has been a secret blessing that my typical style is a bit more oversized & flowy because I have basically been able to wear everything pre-pregnancy all the way through! I have had to size up in my lululemon leggings & some dresses, but for the most part everything I typically would buy will fit in the same loose way after pregnancy too. Some brands I find myself buying from where the clothes will work now & after baby: Free People, lululemon, & Urban Outfitters are my go to right now.
Sleep: I first started noticing how uncomfortable the belly was getting when I would go to sleep at night. It became like this whole ordeal to get into bed; had to be propped up at the right angle and have the right pillow between my legs haha I was like.. ohh this is what they mean when people talk about the discomfort of pregnancy! I have not been able to lay on my back at ALL since about 20 weeks pregnant. Even if I am leaned back on the couch or on the bed just enough, it’s like my lungs are crushed and I can not breathe! I believe this is fairly common in pregnancy however it does make trying to sleep or relax very uncomfortable. I basically have to sleep on either my left or right side, so I spend a lot of the night swapping sides and pulling the pillow between my knees to the other side. It is also becoming a bit more difficult to get up at night to use the bathroom, which is slightly funny because it happens about 7 times a night now haha!
Baby Shower: I am also grateful for amazing family & friendships who have stepped up during this time to make us feel celebrated and loved. Two of my best friends threw me the most beautiful and intimate baby shower with several of my close friends/family members in the beginning of October. It was special to me that we could celebrate baby together. If I can be honest, there was a lot of frustration (on my end) surrounding the shower as well though. Like so many things this year it just looked a lot different than I ever imagined the baby shower for our first baby would. I am SO thankful I got to have one at all, but not being able to celebrate with/invite everyone I would have loved to have there was hard on me. There are people who are super important to me & who have played huge key roles in my life that I was not able to invite or who obviously were not going to fly in for it during everything going on this year. I would have loved to have our grandmas at the shower to celebrate with us, but the reality is I have not been able to be around mine in months. The reality is this year has made some relationships a bit harder to navigate, with distance feeling like it makes some a bit harder to continue to foster and grow the ways they normally might. I think we can all feel the pain of hurting from relationships that are effected by this year & feeling distant and lonely in those ways. All that being said, it made me feel extra grateful for those people who continue to support & love on us in each season; the people who baby girl will grow up knowing well. We rally are surrounded by the most incredible, thoughtful and special people, and that is something that can not be taken away even with distance/time.
BODY CHANGES
Belly: Literally every day since finding out we were pregnant (at about 7 1/2 weeks) I have checked my belly and look for changes. The first few weeks I think I was literally pushing my stomach out so it would look like I had a bump haha! I think the 3rd trimester my belly has definetly changed shape the MOST. Instead of being softer and rounded, you can now really see where she is in my belly as she is moving. The skin is so tight too! It is pretty crazy how much your body can change shape & grow in such a quick amount of time. Even though it’s been slowing growing over the past 9 months as baby also grows, it still is so incredible to me that a woman’s body can do this!
Body: I feel thankful that my body has been able to carry baby & give her the nutrients she has needed to grow and develop the past 9 months. Before I got pregnant I obviously didn’t know how my body would handle being pregnant, as weird as that may sound, and I feel really proud of my body! The fact that it can grow and take on new shape, create life inside of me & basically do all of this on it’s own without me thinking or having to do anything is really a miracle. I really haven’t been focused on my weight this pregnancy - maybe more in the past two weeks or so as I want to make sure things are staying regulated and there are no signs of preeclampsia (really fast weight gain or swelling)! But overall this pregnancy just really wanted to be more aware about what I was eating/fueling my body with more than any number on a scale. Matt has been soo great about reminding me to eat a balance of food, because if it was up to me I may eat Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches daily lol! I think that is what was key for me this pregnancy, just knowing I needed to find things to eat that were fuel for my body but also eating what tastes good! Because I like treats & eating what tastes good to me ha! Food is always a balance, and totally depends on each person. If you ever have questions about what you are eating, what you should be eating, weight gain or loss, or what your body may be lacking or need to feel better, always check with your OB! Everyone’s pregnancy is so unique, but for some reason it is really easy to sit back and compare journeys/experiences. If you have questions on any of these things I encourage you to ask a good friend who has gone through pregnancy and can give you insight. And of course check with your OB to get their opinion, as they should be there for you to make sure your body & your baby are as healthy as you both can be.
Baby Girl: I will say in the past two weeks I have noticed a ton of changes in my body - both in how I feel and look. My belly right now feels SO tight and hard, every move she makes you can see her body rolling on the inside - it is seriously amazing! I love just watching her move around & am always telling Matt, “look! come put your hand here”, and placing his hand where she is moving haha. It is funny because she is so big now that he can clearly see & feel her moving around but I think because I feel every movement I just want him to also :) I think she is about 18" or 19” long at this point & around 6 1/2 pounds. We haven’t had an ultrasound in a month or so, so it is really hard to know exactly how much she has grown or changed, but I know it is said that babies grow about 1/2 a pound each week the last 4 weeks!? I think I am remembering that right. She is favoring my right side - when I look down at my belly it is so much more tight on the right side, I think that is where her booty is haha wayy up in my rib cage. Sometimes I have to adjust and sort of push her down out of my ribs because it becomes so hard to breathe! I have had some women tell me that the baby often ‘drops’ down lower before laboring begins, but I am sure that has a lot to do with her size and how much room she has too. Not sure if she will drop down lower, but her head is down low and has been for several weeks. Love her so much & we just laugh all the time wondering what her personality is going to be like!
HOW I AM FEELING
Life: The past 15 months to a year have had a lot of ups and downs to be honest. There is just a lot going on in life both personally, health wise, with family, and then of course everything going on this year. There have been a lot of moments where I feel overwhelmed; I tend to take on the stress of things that I can’t control and it really effects my mental health. Each day I am trying to just tick one thing off of my to-do list so we can stay on top of work, stay organized and keep our place clean. We are also planning on taking some sort of maternity leave this holiday season which we are so thankful & excited for. It has been something personal & somewhat difficult to try to navigate as we obviously have a more unique situation working for ourselves. It is super important to both Matt & myself that we take time to just really be with baby girl and enjoy the time we have with her when she is a newborn! I know everything will fall in to place perfectly & it will all pan out the way it is supposed to. We are grateful for the miracle of new life in a year that has been full of unknowns & hardship. So so thankful for her.
Expectations: I feel like one of the reasons I don’t ask too much for advice on Instagram from other mamas or read too much about pregnancy/birth is because I really just want to be present in my own experience. I do value others experiences and what they have learned as well, I just think that for myself I can sometimes get in my head a bit. I would love to go into labor and birth the same way I have gone into pregnancy; I want to be prepared and excited but also not set up expectations for myself based on what other tell me they went through.
Grateful: I do also feel very grateful for a LOT. We are loving our new apartment and the space we have here to spread out a bit more, have more storage & feel organized well in advance to baby being here. I am also so thankful for her nursery & hope that she can grow into that space and love it! We are unsure how long we will be in our apartment but thinking at least a year right now, which is fun to think about her growing up & going through several stages of her little life here. I am trying not to focus on really small things like.. overthinking what we have bought for her, packing for the hospital, or when her arrival will be. I know that the little things won’t matter in the long run and anything we need when she is here we can always order or get when we know we need them!