It’s hard to believe that I’m here at 37 weeks at last! I can’t believe that (Lord willing) we’ll have our sweet baby in our arms by the end of the month! I know this trimester isn’t quite over yet, but I thought I’d go ahead and share because who knows what can happen in the next three weeks or so as my due date gets closer.
Initial Thoughts
This trimester has been the most challenging. That’s probably due to the fact that Asher is an almost two year-old who has loads of little boy energy. Our sweet boy has been such a blessing in helping me to push through each day even though I may be completely exhausted and want to just lay on the sofa all day! His busy-ness has also helped the days go by just a little faster!
Aside from Asher, how am I filling my days? Well, I had my nesting streak in January and February. Nesting manifested itself in my desire to fill our freezer with meals to take us through the birth. Umm, I may have been a bit crazy with this one. I decided to make a bunch of meals ahead of time (mostly on the same day). While we’re reaping the benefits of it, I’ll probably never do that again when I’m 8 months pregnant! As I near the end of pregnancy, I don’t always feel like cooking dinner. So it’s nice to have healthy meals in the freezer ready to be cooked.
Aches, Pains, Concerns…
I’ve been good about not sharing all my aches and pains here on the blog because I don’t want to come across as complaining. I do think that they are worth mentioning though. So I apologise if I come across as having a complaining spirit. That was not my intent.
While we were in the US last summer, I had a muscle spasm in my back. It decided to make a repeat performance this trimester. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad, and the doctor told me that taking paracetamol and carrying on with everyday life would get it back to normal. I guess it was due to having extra weight to carry around, in addition to occasionally carrying my toddler. I haven’t had problems with it since!
Throughout this pregnancy, I’ve had problems with PGP (sometimes known as SPD). With all the ligaments loosening up, I wasn’t too surprised, but it got painful if I did a lot of walking. It sorted itself out for a few weeks in between my 2nd and 3rd trimesters. However it flared up again and has gotten quite painful depending on the position of the baby. It can be treated with physical therapy, but I haven’t needed it that much. And getting physical therapy treatment under the NHS can be a long wait.
In the past 3 weeks, I’ve seen 3 different midwives! This has become a concern because when I saw the midwife last week (not my usual midwife), she measured my bump a little differently. As a result, it showed up as static growth. Sigh… now I have to have a growth scan this week to make certain baby is growing OK. I’m not that concerned since baby is moving a lot and appears to be a good weight, but I admit it’s still alarming. At least we’ll get another peek at our little one!
Now that the big day is getting ever so close, some of my concerns over having a natural birth and a water birth have come to the surface again. Will it be safe with the complications I faced after Asher’s birth? We don’t know. So Leon and I will be meeting with a consultant at hospital later this week to discuss the risks. I don’t think there’s a caesarean on the horizon though. I’m certain the midwives would prefer a birth to be as natural as possible.
Waiting for the Big Day!
“Little Bean” could come any day now! It’s hard to believe, but we’re ready to meet this baby. Even Asher’s starting to understand a little of what is going on. Or at least he senses something is going to change.
I’m going to try and post once a week until the baby comes, but just to warn you things may go quiet for awhile after that. :)
