Date: February 19
How far along: 35 Weeks
Baby’s size: Honeydew Melon
Baby girl should be over 18 inches long and tipping the scales at 5 1/4 pounds, according to my baby books.
Symptoms: Noticeably more bursts of energy and exhaustion; some heartburn; very new dull, aching lower back pain; and lower abdomen pain, cramping and tightness. It feel like everything has dropped a bit and my belly feels SO tight. I joked last week that the baby was punching me in the cervix a lot, but the cervical pressure is real. If I lay too flat on my back, I have trouble catching my breath, too.
Sleep: Had been great until this week. I’d been regularly waking early at 4:30 or so from baby girl’s kicks and jabs or from anxiety over all the to do’s and preparations for Baby Girl’s arrival, but lately, the weight of her in my belly as I lay on my side hurts my hip joints SO much that I end up waking every time I need to turn. Brian has been great, helping me roll and always giving me a hand when I can’t quite get out of bed on my own!
Wearing: yoga pants and my pre-pregnancy long sleeve tops (which barely clear the bottom of my belly now!) over long maternity tanks.
Loving: Cheerios with strawberries and bananas
Hating: It is such a challenge to put on socks or winter boots, bend over to pick anything up, sit comfortably upright in a chair instead of slightly angled or reclined back, or stand or walk for any extended period of time. I’m so adapted to these physical limitations at this point that I almost can’t even imagine how my body used to be able to bend and twist!
Missing: Feeling comfortable when I’m not laying down. Walking and sitting for any extended period of time really weighs on my joints. Everything feels like it’s preparing for delivery!
Movement: Baby girl is definitely running out of space. I feel less “kicking/punching” and more whole body rolling and shifting. Hiccups at night are common still, too. Feeling her moving has been especially awesome lately, maybe because I know that it’s coming to an end soon and I’ll really miss her wiggles and squirms. Sometimes I’ll lay down for 10 minutes in the middle of the day just so I can focus on feeling her moving around in there. It’s so fun to gently nudge back when she’s rolling around and hilarious when she nudges back. I play music for her a lot too, especially at night before bed. She’s always very active as soon as I get into bed which is fun for Brian and I, but probably doesn’t bode well for her sleep schedule in the future.
Labor Signs: The aching lower back and lower abdominal cramping I’ve been experiencing this week are all signs that things are progressing as they should according to my doctor.
Health + Wellness: Just taking my vitamins and trying to keep myself moving around as much as possible, if at a slower pace.
What I’m looking forward to:
We are both just so excited. I want the next few weeks to pass as quickly as possible because I can’t wait to finally meet her. I know I’m in the homestretch and am trying to enjoy it, napping or meeting up with friends for brunch when I can, but the excitement is overwhelming. I still need to finish the nursery and get her clothes organized and put away, but it’s all coming along.
Best moments this week:
Our sonogram last Friday was awesome. It was a relief to see baby girl on-screen and hear that she is growing and developing perfectly and that my uterus and placenta all look great. She’s head down, her heartbeat is strong, and she has a ton of hair! In the sonogram pictures we were given, she looks a LOT like Brian when he was a baby! We definitely see a resemblance through the eyes, nose and forehead. We know we’re just going off a sonogram and she has more developing to do, but it was so crazy that it was so pronounced. To my relief, we were told that the two random bleeding episodes I had in late December and late January don’t appear related to any issues with the pregnancy and were likely popped blood vessels outside the cervix — phew. I feel like I can relax a tiny bit finally.
