Weeks 28-34
Symptoms: anxious, sleepy & always hungry.
The first 6 weeks of my third trimester were spent preparing for our baby shower, taking 3 hour naps & eating all the things.
We wanted our baby shower to be untraditional. Unisex. Hold the “guess the baby food” games. Beer pong & late night karaoke staring my very drunk father. Needless to say we all had so much fun celebrating Porters arrival and even more fun enjoying everyone’s company. Porter was already so lucky to have so many people loving on him before he even joined the party!
But to truly sum up my baby shower experience - I’m glad we hosted our shower just the way we wanted .. and If you’re reading this and you’re about to host a shower and would like some unsolicited advice … you should do the same. There is no right or wrong way. And if you’re like me .. don’t feel guilty about not opening every gift in front of your guests or having a ton of games you’re not really interested in. But also if games and gift opening are your vibe, then DO IT! Because I love that for you!
When I wasn’t planning my shower you could find me napping for hours, (I swear 3rd trimester tired was almost worse than my first trimester tried), eating two lunches and dessert with every meal … And I honestly would say - things were pretty great.
Somewhere is the mix I was still working & working out - or trying my best to at least! It was never easy! It just felt so good to stay on task despite the body changes and soon drastic life change having a newborn would bring.
Training myself these weeks were important for me mentally. The shift I experienced from working out to stay physically fit (gaining weight was hard for me in the beginning) —> to working out to remain mentally sane was HUGE! I just felt better when I moved.
We also were getting NST’s weekly starting at 30 weeks - I had COVID back in June and weekly monitoring was protocol at the OB I went too. It was actually nice to sit and listen to baby’s heartbeat for an hour each week!
Weeks 35-40
Little did I know these 5 weeks would come with random burst of energy and the urge to redecorate my bedroom and complete 10 other house projects - because why not climb ladders, paint and drill at 35+ weeks pregnant?!
I convinced myself SOMEHOW that if redecorated my bedroom it will somehow make my life better when baby arrives. And I wasn’t wrong! The space made me feel happy and truly elevated my mood! This was where we would be spending a lot of our time, and I knew I would feel best if the space was more visually appealing. This conviction was getting out of hand. My poor husband was OVER my need to paint, hammer, move, re-organize ex. LOL
If you’re thinking about all the home improvements you want to do before your baby arrives - I say DO THEM! I can’t tell you how much it improved my daily with a newborn. Everything was organized! Everything felt put together. Because the reality is .. those first 2 weeks are all over the place. So having a space that felt reliable and in this case “put together” was refreshing.
I wanted to get some photos taken before I POPPED. I grew to adore my bump. I was obsessed to say the least. These shoots were a ton of fun. Looking back now, I’m really happy we invested time and money into getting professional shots. They are truly a joy to look back on. I think I want to reshoot the bathtub shots with baby P when he can sit up. HOW CUTE would that be?! UGH, I’m currently writing this while staring at sleeping baby Porter on the monitor.
I was CERTAIN Porter was going to enter this world at 40 weeks & not a day late. So my finally 10 days pregnant, or so I thought … I wanted to prep some meals for our freezer, hit up a few more karaoke nights with our friend group and take long bubble baths with a mocktail in hand. Seriously, try to do all the things because it might be a few weeks or months before you’re up for cooking, visiting friends or able to take a long bubble bath. I’m glad I did!
So at this point you’d think, she’s gotta be in labor by now. Wrong. I was pregnant for 24 hours shy of 42 weeks. Every day after my 40 week mark felt like a year. I wanted to kiss Porters baby toes SO bad.
Week 40 was spent doing all the labor induction remedies … well most! I wasn’t on board with the okra water or caster oil.
All the things I tried:
Pineapple juice. YUM! Walking - my feet hurt and I was swollen, but I wanted this baby out asap. Raspberry leaf tea. This was really good with honey mixed with coconut water. Sex. This was more hiarous than sexy. Eating dates were probably my favorite! I ate a lot of snicker dates. (google them) I even tired the miles circuit. My sweet baby boy was really comfortable. Because nothing was working!
We had a scheduled (if you know me, you know I LOVE a schedule) induction for October 21st at 6p and I pushed out an 8 pound baby on October 22 at 8:21p!
I will share my labor story on another post. What an experience!
