Now that our little baby girl is here (and has been for over a  month!!) and my pregnancy is officially over, I finally feel ready and able to write about the entirety of my third trimester. In a lot of ways, it feels like forever ago that I was pregnant… but in a lot of other ways, it still catches me off guard sometimes to find myself NOT pregnant. Like when I am able to lean over the kitchen counter and grab something off the top shelf, or when I realize I don’t have to go to the bathroom every 15 seconds. 😉

 

– So Let’s Talk About the Third Trimester-

 

Honestly, I really enjoyed being pregnant, and my entire pregnancy was super easy, up until the very last day. Everyone told me that I’d probably be miserable for the last couple of weeks – unable to sleep, move, super uncomfortable, etc. But I really wasn’t. Even at the very end, there were times that I didn’t feel pregnant at all, and I’m super grateful for that. The worst symptom I experienced was occasionally being SUPER tired and having low energy, but even that wasn’t bad at all. 

In my last update, I was about to go in for my gestational diabetes screening and an ultrasound, and both tests came back perfect. I didn’t think that the liquid you drink for the diabetes test was terrible – it was a lot like flat orange soda. I chugged it in a few minutes and my results were normal. Also, I had to have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check the placement of my placenta, because it was a little low at my 20 week ultrasound. My midwife wasn’t concerned about it at all, and it had moved and was completely fine at this point.

From that point on, I had to go in for routine appointments every two weeks, and then every week at the very end. Baby’s heart rate was always perfect, and my vitals were great as well. I 1000% realize how lucky I am to have had such a smooth, textbook pregnancy, and I definitely don’t take it for granted at all.

– Your Pregnancy Questions Answered-

 

What was the best part of your pregnancy?

I really loved feeling Meredith moving around inside me. It felt like I had this little buddy that was always with me, and even though she’s pretty much always with me now, it’s different than it was when we were sharing my body. Her kicks, hiccups, and rolls felt like they were a part of me, and I do miss that sometimes.

 

What was the worst part of your third trimester?

I’ll talk about this more when I share the birth story, but my midwife allowed me to go to 42 weeks before being induced, and I took every bit of those 42 weeks. I wasn’t worried about it at all until 41 weeks, when they start monitoring baby much more closely to ensure everything is still okay. I didn’t love having to go in every other day for non-stress tests and ultrasounds for that last week. Having a deadline was definitely the worst part of that last little bit there and was a major source of stress when I would have otherwise been happy waiting for her to come when she was ready.

 

What have you done to prepare for labor?

For the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I drank crazy amounts of red raspberry leaf tea (so much that the thought of it now makes me feel a little nauseous), ate dates, walked almost every day, and spent the evenings bouncing on an exercise ball while Luke and I watched TV. I read Ina May Gaskin’s book, watched a million positive natural birth stories on YouTube, and basically did all of the things people tell you to do to prepare for labor. Did it help? Well. Umm. Maybe. Possibly. Who knows. I’m not convinced.

 

Did you finish the nursery?

Kind of! Everything is functionally done, but I’d like to add some sort of décor above the crib. Otherwise, it’s probably the most decorated/finished room in our entire house!

 

Did you have Braxton Hicks contractions?

It took me several weeks before I realized that the tightening I occasionally felt might not just be baby girl shifting positions. In fact, I don’t think it really hit me until one of my weekly appointments when the midwife informed me that I had a contraction while she was listening to the heartbeat. They definitely weren’t painful – they just felt like the baby was pushing on my stomach in various places, but they did happen more and more frequently leading up to my due date.

 

Did you go on a babymoon?

No. Although this was something we talked about the entire time, we waited too long to plan a “real” vacation (anything more than a few hours away), and in the end we decided we’d rather wait for a bigger trip than go somewhere nearby for a few days. I’m not afraid to travel with Meredith, so maybe we’ll go somewhere with the three of us later this year.

 

Did you experience “nesting”?

I’m not sure… maybe. Since I went to 42 weeks, I had a lot more time than I expected after I had already began maternity leave, so toward the end there I spend all day every day cleaning and organizing and preparing because there was very little else to do. Our house was pretty much spotless after an extra 14 days to clean it. 🙂 On the other hand, though, I’m not sure that I ever had the compulsive need to scrub every last piece of dirt out of every corner with a toothbrush that I hear a lot of women get at the very very end. Any feelings I had like that I attributed to boredom waiting for her to come.  





Thanks for being interested in our journey! I really enjoyed being pregnant, and I’ve loved sharing a little bit of our experience with you as well!
And thank you Steph Smith for these maternity portraits! We’re obsessed. 🙂