Weeks pregnant: 33, 34 & 35 weeks. Today is my 35/35! 35 weeks pregnant with 35 days left until my due date. We’ll see if I make it all 35 days!
Weight Gain: up 26lbs. I’m guessing I’ll end up gaining between 30-35lbs. I’m still 12lbs away from my “scary weight”. It’s silly that I even have a scary weight but I do!
Size of the baby: Baby has gone from around 4lbs and 17 inches at 33 weeks to 5.25lbs and 18+ inches at 35 weeks. At this point Baby is fully developed and will spend the rest of the time in the womb just fattening up!
It’s starting to feel like T-Rex is running out of room. Baby is head down and hopefully not in danger of flipping to breech at this point. I have a lot of pressure at the bottom of my belly/top of my pubic bone. Right now the butt is in the upper left quadrant of my uterus and the feet are over in the upper right. That’s where I get the most movement. Hand movement is variable. Sometimes I feel them down low when Baby’s hands are by it’s face and sometimes they are pushing around elsewhere.
Emotional stuff: It’s hitting me that I will be giving birth in the next few weeks and I find the idea both very exciting but also very scary. I’d be lying if I said that the anticipation of lots of pain isn’t scary to me. I’ve been watching a lot of videos of women in labor and I feel fascinated, elated and totally terrified while I watch. I always cry when the baby comes out, especially when the mother says something like “I can’t believe I did it!” because that’s exactly what I imagine myself saying. If I can get through this I will be pretty damn impressed with myself. Hopefully T-Rex will take it easy on Mommy!
We are two weeks into our Comfort Measures in Childbirth class and I’m very glad we are taking it. S & I get to practice labor positions, pain relief techniques and ideas for coping with the pain of contractions. Going through the motions in advance, combined with the help and experience of our doula, will hopefully be very useful in the moment. It’s also nice to have that one on one time with S where we can focus on each other and on the baby.
I have told myself this whole pregnancy that I wasn’t going to stress myself out at the end when I’m waiting to go into labor but I know I’m going to be on edge from 37 weeks on. I just hope I can keep it in check and not go nuts over each potential sign. I think it’s kind of an added stressor knowing that things could potentially go very quickly this time and my doula is an hour away. My birth photographer is 30 minutes away too so they will be getting calls at the first hint of activity. I just hope there aren’t too many false alarms!
Physical stuff: I’m still having hip pain and struggle with sleep but I’m more used to it at this point so it’s not as difficult to deal with day to day. I feel a LOT bigger than just a few weeks ago. We have a full length mirror in the hallway and every time I pass it and see myself I’m surprised at how big my belly is! I really want to take some maternity photos besides my weekly belly pictures so hopefully we can do that on the weekend. There’s so much else to do that it keeps being pushed off.
Now that it’s cold enough to necessitate wearing socks around the house I’ve become more aware that my center of gravity has shifted. Loosely translated – I’ve slipped and nearly fallen down 3 times in the past week. It scares the crap out of me. So, now when I’m in a hurry, I kind of skate down the hall in my socks instead of picking up my feet for fear of one slipping out from underneath me!
Even though I know I’m bigger and have gained a bunch, I don’t feel fat or gross or anything. So that’s good. My neighbor told me today that my face got fat, it looks like I’m carrying twins and I “got big all over”. She said it with a smile on her face too! I really don’t get why people think it’s OK to say stuff like that!!
Oh! And my belly button has officially popped out! Weird!!
I can’t stop eating: Ummm… Pita & hummus tastes good, as do ham & cheese wraps. Nothing exciting. I want to go for Gator’s wings one more time before the baby comes though. Those wings are amazing.
I can’t even look at: No food aversions right now except things that I threw up in first trimester.
Fitness: Just walking and stretching. I sit on my exercise ball a lot but it hurts my hips and under my belly so it’s not very fun to sit on.
Birth prep: We are in the middle of our comfort measures class and need to get better about practicing at home. We have another doula meeting next week to discuss fears and ways to cope. Besides that I’ve been looking at some books and also listening to the Hypnobirthing tracks to help relax when I’m going to bed. I never make it past the first 10 minutes of the Rainbow Relaxation because my mind starts to wander and then I fall asleep. So… at least I know it relaxes me!
Tomorrow at our midwife appointment I’ll test for Group B Strep and we’ll talk about the other providers in the office so I can choose a backup provider for when my midwife is out of town. I’m confident that any of the OB’s on staff could physically deliver the baby but ideally I’d like someone who isn’t going to “go all OB” on me during labor by suggesting interventions and pain relief methods that aren’t absolutely necessary.
Baby prep: We have been VERY busy on this front. Baby clothes are clean and sorted. Newborn and three month stuff is in a drawer in Q’s room and in the closet. I did a massive stain removal effort and got the stains out of 53 items of clothing (ranging from Newborn to 24months). They were mostly white onesies that I thought I was going to have to trash so I was very excited to get the stains out and they look as good as new. I’m going to do a dedicated post on how I did it so keep your eyes peeled.
We got out the nursing pillows and retrieved the infant car seat, snap ‘n go, and swing from my dad’s. We’ll install the car seat and sidecar the crib in 2 weeks.
This week I’m going to pack my hospital bag and put it in the car with a Boppy and the fuzzy blanket that I bought just to take to the hospital with us. Last time I brought the Brest Friend pillow and my belly was too big for it to be comfortable so I think I’ll bring a Boppy this time. I can use the Brest Friend at home.
I’m currently trying to decide if I want to use the same coming home outfit for T-Rex as I did for Q or if I should get a different outfit so this baby has one less hand me down. Still haven’t decided! Depending upon when baby is born s/he might be too big for the outfit that Q wore! We’ll see!
Breastfeeding: We’re now spending a lot of time talking about how the baby will drink Mommy’s milk. Q brings it up several times a day. Part of the Big Sister book we read talks about how the baby likes to drink milk and we’ve made sure to say “Mommy’s Milk”. She likes to point to my boobs and say “Mommy’s Milk… For Babies!”. She’s still super into my boobs, that’s for sure. It will be interesting to see what she’s like when new baby is on the boob all the time!
