Hi Friends! I can’t believe I’m doing my third trimester update already! I’m actually already considered full term according to my doctor, and due in 2.5 weeks!!! AHHH!
Similarly to my first and second trimester posts, I’ll be answering some of the questions I’ve gotten!
How have you been feeling?
Stressed. To be honest, my focus this trimester has not really been on my pregnancy, but on moving! If you’ve been following along, we FINALLY moved but have had to deal a lot of issues with the condo. Moving while 33-34 weeks pregnant (while it’s snowing/freezing) was not easy to say the least. I was actually feeling really great physically until around then, and then the symptoms hit me. Such as swollen ankles, hemorrhoids (sorry if TMI), some heartburn, etc. Maybe also because around this time, I stopped going to prenatal yoga! I need to go back, just haven’t had the time! But it’s getting increasingly difficult to move around, which makes packing/unpacking/cleaning/organizing kind of hard.
While moving, since most of our dishes/pots/pans were in transit, it was also challenging to follow my gestational diabetes diet. How easy would it have been to grab some pizza when we were busy? Now that I’m nearing the end of my pregnancy, I find myself thinking a LOT about food and the things I can (hopefully) eat after delivery. I made a giant spreadsheet and shared it with Chris – he’s not much of a chef, but he can pick up food for me after we’re home from the hospital. Interestingly enough, most of the items I’m craving are simple things like cereal/milk, bagels, PB&J sandwiches, bread, pasta, rice, pizza, potatoes, and ALL THE FRUIT. It was so easy to take these foods for granted before!
How’s Small Bean doing?
According to my doctor, he’s doing well! His heart rate is good, he’s super active, and he’s in the position he’s supposed to be in for birth (whew…I was nervous that he might be breech and I’d have to have a scheduled c-section).
At 36 weeks, my doctor was guessing he was 5.5 lbs, and at 37 weeks, she guessed that he was 6 lbs. I haven’t had an ultrasound since 20 weeks, so these are estimates based off of measuring my abdomen, so they might not be super accurate. But it’s good to know that I managed my blood sugar well enough that he should be around 7ish lbs at birth! And not HUGE!
Are you ready to be done being pregnant?
I am super excited, but despite my earlier complaints, I’m not “done” being pregnant. If someone could just knock me out and deliver the baby, and I could wake up to a baby in my arms, that’d be fine, haha. But I’m terrified of labor and NOT looking forward to it! And we still have some things we’d like to get done around the house (we finally got a car though!)
This past weekend, we put together the crib! (We didn’t want to buy a crib before we moved, because we’d just have to move it, and then at our new condo, we couldn’t receive mail/packages for a few weeks due to the buzzer system not being set up yet). We still need to put together Small Bean’s bouncer and Rock n’ Play we got from our baby shower, and we’re still waiting for his stroller and carseat to arrive. For those who participated in my Instastory poll, thank you for your advice! We finally settled on the UppaBaby Cruz stroller and Mesa carseat. Hopefully by this weekend, I’ll have all his laundry done (we received some of the cutest baby outfits). And I’ll have finished packing my hospital bag!
TIA!!! You haven’t packed your hospital bag??
Haha, so many people have said this to me…yes, I’m a procrastinator. But also, I still don’t know where some of my stuff is (from unpacking from our move) to find it in order to pack it. There were also some items that I didn’t have but put off purchasing due to the move. I just ordered this robe (so I don’t ruin my nice robes) and nursing tank, and I got these super affordable but highly rated nursing bras. If you have any recommendations of what to bring or what not to bring, let me know!
What’s Small Bean’s name going to be?
So, I think I said this before, but we were 99% sure on a name. But Chris has been second guessing it for a while (he’s afraid it’s too common) and we MIGHT switch to a different name. The plan right now is to see/meet the baby, and then decide.
Have you been taking classes?
We took an “Understanding Birth” class at Northwestern Prentice, where I’m delivering, as well as a bunch of classes through the pediatrician’s office we picked (Weissbluth Pediatrics). They were all pretty informative, but I realize now I need to go back and read some of the booklets and pamphlets they gave us at the classes to refresh my memory.
Are you planning to breastfeed?
Yes! I’m definitely planning on it, but I’ve heard it can be super difficult! So I’m going to try my best, but not beat myself up over it if it’s not working out. I’ve had some friends “exclusively pump” as well, if their babies didn’t latch, so I’m open to that option as well.(My insurance covered the Spectra 2 pump). Chris and I don’t have much formula or many baby bottles prepared, so hopefully it works out!
How long are you going to work for?
Uh…until I go into labor? Is it an option to not work beforehand? Doesn’t it eat into maternity leave? Luckily, I got permission to do more work from home days which has helped tremendously. (My 2 mile walk to work was getting tiring. As for public transportation, people kept bumping into my stomach kind of hard. And you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t offer seating to pregnant women). Plus, it’s nice to be able to use my own bathroom since I now have to go every 45 minutes, and prep my own gestational diabetes meals at home. As for maternity leave, I get 6 weeks of FMLA, and 6 weeks from my company, for a total of 12 weeks.
That’s all for today! Soon, I guess I’ll be posting the birth story – crazy right?
