So I am 35 weeks pregnant my symptoms are pretty much the same except that my braxton hicks contractions have been getting more frequent and a bit stronger this week. However, its not painful at all just more noticeable and there still isn't much of a pattern. I have also noticed that I feel a lot more fetal movement during the day than I used to.
I also noticed that I get tired a lot faster when I am exercising. I went out for a 45 minute walk a couple days ago and I actually felt a bit winded at a couple points. I just stopped for a few seconds, caught my breath and I felt fine. It also may have been due to the heat. The last couple of weeks it got pretty cold but then the last few days it has been in the mid 20's C which is gorgeous for the end of September.
I had my 34 week midwife appointment last Thursday and I found out that baby Spiegelman is still breech. Although this might be somewhat common at 34 weeks, it made me slightly worried. As I am sure you all know by now, I really want to have a natural birth and definitely avoid a C-section which is pretty hard to do if he stays breech. It also appears that he is measuring slightly small. The midwife scheduled me for an ultrasound which will be on Monday September 29th just to confirm his position. At that point I will be 35+5 days. I find this slightly worrisome just because I know in general she doesn't routinely do late ultrasounds. It also worries me a bit that he is measuring a bit small (based on the fundal height) because up until this point he was measuring right on track. He was only measuring 33 so it is only a week off and she didn't seemed to worry because he is still growing and it is still within the normal range.
I am really hoping he turns before the ultrasound. If not, we will discuss my options at my 36 week midwife appointment. Some of the options that were mentioned today were seeing a special chiropractor and getting acupuncture. I have never had either but I would be open to trying these methods if it meant I could avoid a C-section.
In the meantime I have been doing pelvic tilts, stretching out my hips and pelvis, rocking in a "hands and knees" position for a bit each day and doing "inversions" to encourage the baby to turn on its own before the ultrasound. I also bought an exercise ball to use as a "birthing ball". I try and sit on it at my computer instead of using a regular chair and I plan to sit on it watching TV as well. It is supposed to keep you in a better position and encourage the baby to get into position. I also bounce on it and do hip circles which I also find helps relieve back pain too!
I was speaking to my sister and apparently my niece didn't turn until closer to 36 weeks so it seems like baby Spiegelman still has a bit of time. Plus my midwife said that it seems he still has room in there to move which is also a good sign. My husband is trying to get me to relax about this but I can't help but be a bit disappointed. I will definitely keep you posted on whether or not he turns.
We got back our maternity photos and overall I really like them. I have a couple favourites which I will post below. These pictures were taken at 33 + 4 days pregnant.
We got a lot done in the nursery this weekend. Most of the furniture is put together (except for the glider which will be delivered this coming Saturday), the walls are painted and a lot of the décor is in place. My dad also built an extra shelf in the closet with an extra rail so we have more room to hang stuff up. Plus I brought most of the baby stuff from the spare bedroom into the nursery. Right now a lot of the baby stuff is just in bags in the nursery closet which needs to be washed and organized but overall a lot of progress has been made and I expect to make a lot more progress this upcoming week as well.
So I am 34 weeks pregnant. I feel like I am getting more back pain. Mostly in the middle of my back if I am standing or sitting on a soft surface for a while. I also got a really bad stomach bug or food poisoning on Sunday night. I woke up in the middle of the night and was vomiting like crazy for at least 1 1/2 hours. However, after I stopped vomiting I felt a lot better and was able to go back to bed. I took Monday off to rest and make sure I stayed hydrated. I wasn't sure if I should go to the hospital but since I was feeling better and had no other symptoms, I felt like it was better to go to bed and rest. I called my midwife the next day. She didn't seem too concerned and thought it was just something I ate since I had no other symptoms and I was feeling better. Again, she said that the most important thing was to stay hydrated. I have my 34 week midwife appointment tomorrow so I will get to hear the heartbeat and make sure everything is fine.
We had our maternity photoshoot on Sunday evening. I went with a different photographer than the one who cancelled on me last week. She even had a special promotion going on so it was cheaper than I thought it would be. We had an outdoor photoshoot. It was a bit chilly especially for the dress I was wearing but I got to try a lot of the poses I saw on Pinterest and overall I really liked her. She brought some props and was really nice. We tried a couple different locations and she shot from different angels. She already posted a little "sneak peak" of some photos the next day and I think some turned out really nice. She is supposed to send me the rest of the edited pictures by the end of the week so I will definitely post some pics in a separate blog post once we get those.
We started putting together the nursery furniture this past week. All of the furniture was purchased from Sears. We have put together the crib, change table, and dresser. I swear putting together nursery furniture is a bit of a relationship test. My husband was frustrating me a bit because he wasn't always listening to the instructions I was giving him (which I was reading from the booklet) and he would get so fixated on the smallest thing. Anyway, the crib and change table were pretty straight forward to put together but the dresser was a nightmare. Some of the screws that came with it were too short but luckily I bought a huge screw set so we used different screws that fit better but then my husband accidentally screwed a piece in too tight and it went through the front of the dresser so now we have a hole in the dresser drawer. Hopefully we can just sand it down a touch up the paint. However, the drawers don't fit in straight. I am am not sure if it something we did wrong or if the rails that were already pre-assembled on the sides were slightly crooked. It is so frustrating because we don't really know what the problem is so it is hard to fix. We worked on it for so many hours today that I am taking a break and will have my dad look at it on Saturday and see if we can fix it. At this point it is put together and the drawers slide but the top drawer is stiff and all the drawers look a bit crooked when they are shut. I am also a bit disappointed about the size of the dresser. I thought it would be a bit bigger actually.
The only furniture that we have left to get is the glider which we also have to put together. I am waiting until the rest of the furniture is in place so I can make sure there will be enough room for the glider. I am worried that the glider will be too big for the room.
This weekend my dad is supposed to be coming over to help build an extra shelf for the closet and we will be hanging the blinds in both the nursery and spare bedroom. Hopefully if we have time, we can also hang a couple of shelves on the walls of the nursery and place the wall decals. Once that is done I can better place the furniture and start organizing all the stuff into the room.
As far as purchases go this week I didn't get too much. I got a couple of shelves, drawer organizers, and the glider slip cover from Ikea, a bit of clothes, and two more cloth diapers. I was going to buy a breast pump the other day but I am still on the fence about the breast pump since it is so expensive. I am in between buying a single or double breast pump. Anyway, it is something I plan on talking about with my midwife tomorrow.
Bump measurement: 38.25 inches
Weight: N/A
So I am 33 weeks pregnant. It seems so close yet so far until baby Spiegelman is here...my symptoms are still pretty much the same. I get slight back pain when sitting in certain chairs or standing for too long but its not all the time or anything. However, I actually threw up for the first time this week. I haven't thrown up this whole pregnancy. I was pretty nauseous during the 1st trimester but I never threw up. Anyway, I was at work, in line to get breakfast at a little shop I go to every morning and I puked my smoothie up that I had earlier. I think it was because I had my prenatal vitamin in the morning when I usually have it at night and I guess I didn't have enough food with it so I got sick. It was pretty embarrassing but a girl nearby helped me to the bathroom and helped me clean myself up which was super nice of her.
I am no longer taking the Red Raspberry Leaf tea. I actually only took one cup last Wednesday at 32 weeks. I had a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions that night and it really increased urination that night. Prior to trying this tea, I had read that those are common side effects but I didn't realize to what degree it would be. I also read online the next day that it could possibly increase estrogen levels. There was conflicting information about it increasing estrogen levels but overall, I try and avoid synthetic estrogens or things that mimic estrogen so this really turned me off the tea. Instead I am going to start eating fresh dates to help ease labour. They have a lot of benefits, even for those who are not pregnant, and no side effects from what I have read. However, I have looked at a couple grocery stores and I can only find dried dates, no fresh dates.
I finally got the nursery painted. I really like the colour. I still want to add an extra shelf in the closet which I plan to do next weekend. However, this weekend we will start putting the furniture together and once the furniture is together, I can start clearing the baby stuff out of the spare room and organizing the nursery.
So I was supposed to have my maternity shoot today but she cancelled last night at the last minute. She is a really good photographer but she is slightly pricey and at the opposite end of the city. She finally messaged me on Facebook saying that I could reschedule but I found another photographer that is cheaper, available this Sunday coming up and a bit closer so I think I am going to use this other photographer instead.
As far as new purchases go this week I didn't get too much. My sister gave me some canvas organizing boxes that I plan to use on the change table for storage, a little toy and some onsies. I also bought a couple onsies today at target just because I saw a three pack and the onsie on top said "Little Man" which I thought was cute. I also got a tote bag that I plan to use for my hospital bag, 2 nursing bras, and some night shirts that I plan to use as a "birthing outfit".
I plan to go shopping this weekend with my sister at Carter's for a bit more clothes and at Ikea for my chair and storage stuff for the nursery. I basically just need my breastpump, glider, and storage stuff for the nursery at this point.
Bump measurement: 38.25
Weight: N/A
I am 32 weeks pregnant so only 8 more weeks to go! My symptoms are pretty well the same but I am finding it harder to bend over if I ever have to pick something up off the ground or bending over to do up my shoes or even shave my legs in the shower. I find when I bend over my belly gets tight so I am trying to avoid it when possible. I think I may have already mentioned this symptom in a previous post but I found that it has become a bit more of a problem lately. I also have more frequent back pain but I found that doing pelvic tilts helps my back pain. Other than that, I am still feeling great.
I created a birth plan this past week with Mitch. I used a template off "The Bump" website and just checked off the things I wanted in the birth plan. There were several things that I was unsure about so I put a "*" beside it so I would remember to ask my midwife about it at our appointment. The birth plan template is geared towards people having a regular hospital birth with a OB but I think it is still great to think about all of the items on the template because it has stuff on there that I know I hadn't thought about yet so it was a good chance for Mitch and I to discuss these things. I will be doing a whole separate post strictly about our birth plan so I will discuss our birth plan in more detail in that post.
My midwife was at a birth today and my secondary midwife was on holidays so I met with another midwife in the practice. I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to discuss my birth plan in detail at today's appointment but there was no point in discussing it because she most likely won't be the one delivering our baby. However, she was able to answer a lot of the questions I had surrounding different items on the birth plan template so I think I will do a good copy of our birth plan and then discuss it at my next midwife appointment in 2 weeks.
At today's midwife appointment she checked my blood pressure which was normal and the baby's heart rate was 150 bpm and my fundal height is measuring 32 which is perfect. It seems like everything is right on track...However she did say that it appears the baby is not head down anymore. At my 30 week appointment it appeared that the baby was already head down. She said that they really start to pay attention to the baby's position starting at 34 weeks so hopefully he is head down at my next appointment. I am going to look up more exercises and natural ways I can encourage the baby to flip back over.
I am also going to start taking Red Raspberry Leaf tea today now that I am 32 weeks. For those of you that are not familiar with it, the tea is suppose to strengthen your uterine muscles to help have more effective contractions and a shorter, easier labour. I plan to have only 1 cup per day until I am full term just so I decrease my chances of pre-term labour. Once I am full term at 36 weeks, I am planning to increase it to 2-3 cups per day. I don't really know anyone personally who has tried taking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. Therefore, if you have used it during your pregnancy or know of someone that has, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on it.
New purchases this week...well we got a bunch of sleepers, receiving blankets, burp clothes, and a couple hats and shoes from a friend of ours which was super generous. I guess it's not really a "purchase" but it's still a lot of new items that we needed so I thought I would mention it. In terms of clothes at this point we have pretty much enough clothes from newborn to 6 months. All I really need for clothes are some sweaters for 0-3 months that can be worn over the short sleeved onsies. My sister actually had a great suggestion too. She said to get a bunch of plain white onsies and wear them underneath the short sleeved onsies that way you can still see the the cute patterns or sayings on the onsies. I thought that this was a great idea so I plan to pick some of those up too! I also need a winter snow suit that is 3-6 months.
We also bought a video baby monitor and a 3 in 1 exersaucer. The exersaucer goes from an activity mat, to an exersaucer, and then it turns into an activity table. I really liked the fact that it was 3 in 1 because I was definitely planning on buying both an activity mat and an exersaucer so this saved us a lot of money.
I think that is all for my 32 week blog post but we are planning to paint the nursery this weekend coming up and hopefully set up some of the furniture so if we do get that done this weekend, I will definitely update you on that in my post next week. I am also starting a new book so I am planning to do a post on the books I read and/or am reading so keep your eyes open for that.
Thanks for reading and sharing in our journey...
My baby bump measurement: 38.0 inches
32 week weigh in: N/A
