Pregnancy Journey: 3rd Trimester

This photo was taken when I hit 38 weeks! We spent that past weekend getting the nursery ready, doing baby’s laundry, packing our go bags… and really this whole year prepping literally and emotionally for our gal’s arrival… I’m just feeling extra reflective lately of this whole pregnancy journey. Of course it’s been so physically taxing and life-altering changes can be overwhelming, but I’m so grateful for truly the most supportive and validating partner and community. We’ve always known how much our family and friends love us, but especially in this season they have really come through with generosity and thoughtfulness. I’m also thankful to my body, and proud of myself for being kind to my anxieties and understanding of my emotions, which made these huge changes feel so much gentler to accept. Going into this new chapter with excitement, worries, optimism… all the feelings… but ready with an open heart. 💕

Onto the rest of my 3rd trimester recap:

This was almost my last OB appointment, and I dressed up because I was going to a friend’s birthday afterwards. I just wanted to stay active and busy with fun things to keep my mind off of the due date.

Baby was transverse at 34 weeks. If she didn’t turn, I’d have a c-section. I did Spinning Babies inversions all week, and Miguel put headphones by my pelvis and blasted Beyoncé to encourage her to go down haha. By 35 weeks, she turned head down! (Hubs said it was the music that did it haha) This happy pic of us at the doctor’s captured how relieved we were. The perk was that we got more 3rd trimester ultrasounds and saw baby girl sucking her hand (video here)! It was so cute.

I definitely couldn’t walk much or fast or far, and waddled everywhere. Had pelvic pain so I slept with a pillow between my legs, wore a belly band sometimes, and adjusted workouts. But honestly nothing helped and the pelvic pain got so severe. If I could do it over again or if I had another kid, I’d go to pelvic floor therapy for some help and support.

Omg the heartburn!! I’ve never had that in my life, but it didn’t matter how early I ate dinner, the nightly heartburn was so rough until the final week. Ugh it would give me the worse fishy burps because of my prenatal vitamins. Thankfully I was able to fall and stay asleep well (in between all the bathroom trips lol).

Her kicks were also much more powerful and intense! She hiccuped multiple times a day and was very active. Wild and cool experience to feel her like that. The belly also grew to the point of being my table or bib haha.

We did a big Costco run and stocked up on frozen meals and necessities so we can hunker when baby arrives. We’ll have a lot of family and friends supporting but wanted to be prepped ourselves. We also packed go bags and wrote a birth plan.

Once I neared my due date, we tried all sorts of ways to naturally induce. We explored lots of different walks, and gave us quiet time to be together and chat before baby arrived.

It was surreal to put my out-of-office on but I decided to take leave a week before my due date. Glad to be able to do that to rest and take care of myself beforehand. Parental leave in the US really needs to improve!

Anyway, we’re eagerly awaiting your arrival, baby! Hoping everything goes smoothly from here and baby and I are both well and healthy. 💕