Third Trimester Recap

Weeks 29-40: October 29, 2020 – January 22, 2021

I kicked of my third trimester with Halloween and my Gestational Diabetes test the next Monday lol. Luckily, I passed! I also got my Flu, TDAP and Rhogam shot this appointment. So it was not a fun appointment but things were still looking great! And all things considered, I felt pretty great as well. Heartburn and some occasional rib and back pain were my only complaints, but I had remedies to help those. I started getting uncomfortable being in the same position for too long faster and started having to pee a little more frequently as well. But I was still sleeping great and at the beginning of the third trimester I was only getting up once to pee and then straight back to sleep, by the end of the third trimester, it was twice, but still sleeping well. I only had problems falling asleep if baby got the hiccups (which was like 3-5 times a day lol). Rolling over/switching sides in bed also became extremely hard and getting up and bending over also became difficult.

I was able to have a small baby shower thrown by my sister which I was so happy we were able to, baby Andrade is very loved and spoiled.

We also announced baby girl’s name.

And celebrated Thanksgiving and had another uneventful 32-week appointment. Then in December, I decorated for Christmas and we were able to have Christmas celebrations with family.Also, in December, I was able to finish my Pre-Baby to do list of everything I deemed a “must have which felt great.

We had our 34- and 36-week appointments, they went well but we did find out at 36 weeks that baby was breech (they should be head down before this – and most babies are, only 3% are still breech by 37 weeks). This was disappointing to hear. Although I was glad to see the baby on the ultrasound again (she is super healthy, has lots of hair and is measuring BIG) I was very sad because I thought my dreams of having a vaginal delivery were out the window. My doctor said there was a procedure called an ECV that we could try where they manually try to turn her. The procedure only works about half the time and there is a very, very small risk that we could put the baby in distress and would need an emergency C-section, but I agreed that this was something that I wanted to try because I wanted to do anything to increase my chances of a vaginal delivery. So we scheduled the procedure for January 4^th after I had hit 37 weeks 4 days.

That week of waiting was like torture. I tried all of the “exercises” to try and get baby to flip on her own. I put away the Christmas décor and tried to enjoy my 27^th birthday on the 31^st but all I could think about was getting my baby to turn. I went in for the ECV on Monday the 4^th and it was super quick and successful! I will write more about the entire procedure soon!

After the ECV I could definitely “feel” baby in a different way. I was carrying different and feeling movements different. Things also started getting more uncomfortable: sitting, laying down, getting up – it was all uncomfortable. I was also having at least some contractions daily. But at my appointment when I was 38weeks and 4 days – I was not dilated or effaced at all so I didn’t think baby would come anytime soon, but we did confirm baby was still head down which was great. My doctor and I decided to schedule an induction for when I was 40 weeks and two days because this baby was measuring big and I didn’t want her to go too far past her due date! At my doctor’s appointment the day before my due date, I was about 2cm dilated which was good news and my doctor stripped my membranes to hopefully either start labor or at the very least make my induction easier. But my due date came and went and we prepped to be induced on January 23^rd! The rest of the story will be in my birth story.

In retrospect, my pregnancy flew by, although somedays it seemed like I had been pregnant forever. It was a weird year in of itself so I feel being pregnant for most of it kind of worked out since nothing was normal anyway in terms of how we lived.  Overall, weeks 6-16 were the absolute worst, everything after that was uphill and I was able to enjoy most of my pregnancy! Looking back now (not pregnant), I definitely do not really like being pregnant – but I love being a mom!