My third trimester has been an actual delight. Someone legit asked me if I was having twins. It was an old lady so she gets a pass, but only because how do you talk smack about old ladies who genuinely think you’re having twins. But also, seriously woman? Unless you have never been pregnant, every woman knows it is a no-no to say anything along the lines of:
are you having twins?
due any day?
Wow your huge!
Instead, offer words of encouragement, like:
You don’t even look pregnant
Man, pregnancy suits you, YOU are GLOWING
I can’t think of anything else encouraging unless you want to offer a foot rub or to carry her groceries.
Enough small talk, on to the recap!
SYMPTOMS
- Headaches, Nausea & Vomiting, we’ve ditched these fun symptoms for low pelvic pressure and the always exciting lighting crotch. That’s when baby kicks or punches you in the cervix and feels like your being stabbed randomly out of nowhere and you may or may not yelp out loud in pain causing everyone to think your insane.
- Sleeping; seriously, what is sleep? I won’t be getting any of that for like, the rest of my life so why drone on about it right?
- Bleeding; no more bleeding thankfully. That’s always terrifying.
- Heartburn; I was eating zantac like it was a food group and turns out it just got recalled for causing cancer. Hahhaha THAT’S NOT STRESSFUL AT ALL. I got a new prescription of something that starts with a P that just takes the edge off for the most part, but anything is better than nothing.
- Restless Leg; I’m not even sure how to describe this one, some nights I want to jump off a bridge. It’s the most bizarre and uncontrollable feeling that literally drives you insane.
- I got the Pregnancy Line! More commonly known as Linea Nigra, I never had it with the girls which is so weird. It makes sense though because I also got a dark spot on my cheek and on my boob, which I also never had with the girls so my hormones must be different this time.
FOOD AVERSIONS/CRAVINGS
Food Aversions; baby still hates chicken for some reason but I’m ok with it.
Cravings; Still enjoying fruit, makes me sound healthy doesn’t it? Also, I can’t get enough hamburgers, it’s weird but makes me a cheap date so it’s working out.
WEIGHT GAIN / MATERNITY CLOTHES
Still minimal weight gain, my last OB appointment I weighed in a 152 lbs fully clothed, and my first OB I weighed in at 136 clothed so it looks like I only gained 16 lbs but that’s totally false because it doesn’t take into account what I lost in the first trimester then gained back.
The only maternity clothes I am wearing are the 3 tank tops from Walmart and they have been on heavy rotation. $5 a piece and they were well worth the money. Best $5 I ever spent.
Still rotating the 2 pair of maternity leggings also. I wear a medium and bought 2 pair of large legging from old navy but they don’t fit like I thought they would, it was a bad purchase,
MUST HAVES
- Phone Apps
- Baby Center – still fun to read weekly changes and being part of a birth board is reassuring. Plus reading the birth board when you are bored is always entertaining, man these women are savages. But to be fair some of the posts/questions are legit crazy.
- Pregnancy Journal
- I got an absolutely stunning pregnancy journal off Etsy from Ally @ AMK Designs, it has week by week tracking pages which is ideal for remembering, because, well you know pregnancy brain – and its spiral bound so it’s so much easier to write and take with me than those typical thick baby books. I love it so much, its neutral and just a true ‘must have’ for anyone who loves tracking and journaling. I will link her shop in the description below, she has a ton of other types of journals too, you guys need to check her shop out.
- Water Bottles – still drinking tons of water
- Pregnancy Pillow – I caved and bought a body pillow from amazon. It was $14 so I didn’t break the bank and it has been well worth it.
- Supplements
- Iron – I need to take iron supplements because I ended up with anemia, which is also super common
- Magnesium – supposed to help with the restless leg so I am still taking that nightly even though luckily, I haven’t had too many issues with that for a while now
- Still rocking the Bra extenders – little hooks that let your bra get bigger, and my bra can not get big enough, I just don’t want anything tight around this mid area, anything restrictive makes me feel like I can’t breathe.
- Automatic wrist blood pressure cuff – so things got a bit weird near the end and my blood pressure went up so I had to invest in a cuff to monitor my BP at home 4 times a day
TESTING
- I ended up being diagnosed with
polyhydramnios. My dr referred me to a specialist who measured the fluid and
confirmed the “poly” diagnosis. They were also concerned because baby was
measuring very large, over 95th percentile so they had me take
another glucose test, gestational diabetes can cause babies to grow large and
there is always concern for larger babies coming through the birth canal
because their shoulders can get stuck and cause injury. Luckily I did pass my
glucose test – AGAIN, that was my third test this pregnancy.
- Polyhydramnios is a medical condition describing an excess of amniotic fluid in the amniotic sac. It is seen in about 1% of pregnancies. It is typically diagnosed when the amniotic fluid index (AFI) is greater than 24 cm.
- I mentioned this a bit earlier, but I also was
flagged for preeclampsia because I had a high blood pressure reading in the
office and they found protein in my urine. So because of this I had to go into
the office twice a week for nonstress testing and sonograms, and had to monitor
my blood pressure at home 4 times a day
- Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the liver and kidneys.