Preggo Life: Week 37 (full term) - the countdown is on!
Hello! I’m currently 37 weeks and 5 days today which means I’ll be 38 weeks pregnant in only 2 days!!!
37 weeks is considered “full term” here in Australia so they are happy for the gremlin to pop out at anytime now and it’ll be a-okay!
Unfortunately, I recently caught a bug or something and today I spent the whole day sleeping in bed!!! Ughhhhh.
Well, I woke up and got out of bed to eat lunch for a bit and watched half an episode of “Dinner Date” but then I quickly went back to bed.
I was going to nap in the living room but Slam was in meetings all day (yes, all Friday!!) so I headed back to my warm and cozy bed to continue my slumber.
I also started reading a couple of e-books too (in between the insomnia last night and in between my day naps).
Baby Bliss by Jo Ryan
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
Atomic Habits by James Clear
I only have the “sample books” of the second and third books so I finished reading those on Google Play Books but I think Slam has an actual copy of “Atomic Habits” so I’ll continue reading that later on.
Baby Bliss was recommended by my sister-in-law to understand how to settle a baby and not give into their cries (she’s currently doing this method with her second child and he sleeps through the night so this might work on our baby).
My friend who experienced a water birth recommended Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth so I began reading that. It talks about having natural births without interventions at “The Farm” which seems a bit cultish to me but I decided to read the stories anyway since they are highlight positive birth experiences.
And for me to prep myself mentally, I need to surround myself with as much positive birth stories as I can!
My friend also recommended that I follow @badassmotherbirther so I did that this morning and decided to scroll through her Instagram page…
And omgggggg. Most things are blurred and censored on her feed but you’ll quickly understand why.
There are lots of reels and photos of child birth so it may not be for the faint-hearted but I decided to check them out and I ended up spending my morning crying because birth is such a crazy and wild experience and I can’t wait to have my own experience with it!
I’m also sad for those who have negative experiences so I’m going to try my best to focus on the positives when it happens.
I also loooove seeing videos and photos of the support partner’s reaction when the baby pops out too - it gets me so teary! Hopefully we are able to capture Slam’s reaction.
NTS: Pack your tripod :D
I don’t know if they will let me take any videos but maybe I can ask someone to take photos for me.
Okay, so during our last midwife appointment (last Friday, August 9th), we decided to ask about the pros and cons of a water birth to our midwife (this was another midwife - not our usual one) and she said there weren’t a lot of cons to a water birth if you have a low-risk pregnancy.
So we decided… hey, why not.
Let’s try it out!
My original plan was to use the shower and bath as mechanisms to help me through labour but I didn’t really think too hard about whether I wanted to do a water birth or not…
But getting closer to the big day, I was thinking…. hmm, it seems like a natural environment for baby to enter… let’s try it out and see how it goes!
The one thing the midwife said that may be an issue was that they aren’t able to measure how much blood loss the mother has so we will need to get out of the bath and do some check ups after.
Also she did mentioned the baby swimming into water will be familiar for the baby since they are already swimming in the amniotic fluid in my belly so it won’t be a shock to them.
However, they may be delayed at crying when we take them out of the bath so I think that’ll be scary for me.
But I’m going to trust the process and trust my body.
And trust the hospital staff that will be there for me.
So how else am I preparing for the big day?
Well other things include:
Finished packing our hospital bag - we packed a large luggage with wheels and a small backpack - filled with nappies, extra clothes, and snacks!
Placed a towel in the passenger seat - Slam doesn’t want me to accidentally break my water in his new car so we have a towel there to catch any drippings lol
Finished nesting - We don’t have a nursery room but we prepared a bassinet for the baby and set up a changing station with all of the essentials. I organised all of the baby clothes by size and put all of our baby gifts in separate compartments in our cabinets… all ready to be used when the time comes. My parents are coming over so we decided to leave the guest room as is.
Getting in my daily walks - I’ve been walking around 40 minutes each day each morning to get some exercise in… my feet are pretty tired after that.
Creating a labour playlist - I made a playlist with all of my favourite songs… hopefully baby and I will be jiving to it when it’s go time.
Trying my best to reduce stress - I’m trying my best to keep a positive mindset each day and not rush the process. I don’t want my labour experience to be a rushed and negative experience so I’m taking it day by day and embracing whatever comes my way. Although I have been watching sappy movies and seeing all of those birth photos/videos lately which have made me cry… does that impact my hormone levels?? Maybe I’ll stick to watching more comedic stuff these next few days.
And yaaah! I think we are pretty prepared for baby to come out!
I’m really in tune with my body (or I try to be as much as I can) and try to feel any movements that may be different to the regular preggo symptoms.
I play “is that a contraction or not” with my mind a lot, haha
I thought I felt some sort of pulsing earlier but it went away.
I don’t think I’ve experienced Braxton Hicks (pseudo contractions) yet where you feel your tummy tightening… but people do warn me that you might feel “period-like cramps” so I’m trying to be aware of those coming my way.
Another labour-is-almost-here symptom that people have warned me about is having diarrhea so I’m on the look out for that as well.
Well… to round up this blog, I’d just like to end it with a few symptoms I’ve been getting these last few weeks of pregnancy that are not so fun.
My wrists/hands feel like pins and needles - especially when I wake up and they are currently feeling numb while I type this blog post (mainly my right hand)
My feet get swollen (sometimes) - it comes and goes
I discovered I have a hemorrrhoid last Thursday so had to take stool softener and use a cream to get rid of it. My bowel movement last week was dry and non-existent! Booo.. but my stool is much better this week and I stopped using the stool softener.
I have awful insomnia. I sleep at 12am and will wake up at 3am - wide-eyed! Ugh!! My sleep has been pretty awful lately.
My eyes feel like they are tired looking all of the time. I sometimes look back at my face pre-pregnancy and I feel like my eyes looked bigger and my face looked smaller lol - but I’ve accepted this new tired look lol
I haven’t been wearing my rings for at least 3 weeks - single life, baby! Lol, jk. I’m scared they will get stuck on my fingers so it was best to take them out.
I’m getting a few new stretch marks at the bottom of my stomach (on the right side) - they are barely noticeable but I see them!
Random: I tried to collect colostrum but I’m absolutely failing at doing that so I’ll just stop and wait til milk drips out of my boobs automatically (that happens, right??)
And yeessss… that’s a lot to write about my 37 week pregancy experience but I decided heck… I might as well document as much as I can before the gremlin pops out.
It’s fun reading back at what our bodies can do and I am still absolutely amazed at how pregnancy works… creating LIFE!!!
Okay, that’s me for now!
Btw, Slam’s guess for when baby comes out was August 12th (which passed on Monday) lol and my guess is August 28th which is coming up in 12 days!
Let’s see when gremlin will decide to come.
xoxo, knd.