Behind The Scenes Of Starting A Family – Chapter 8: The Third Trimester

If you haven’t started at Chapter 1 of the adventure, I recommend that you check it out–if nothing else to get to know me a little bit and figure out where we’re at on the journey to starting our family. Only missed a chapter? Press ‘end’ on your keyboard for the table of contents. Now that your caught up, let’s continue on. (full list of chapters at the end of this post)

 

 

The Third Trimester

Things that seem to be changing week by week, and I figured I would share them with you as we go. Even if just for the humour 😉

 

Week 28
sugar cookies, decorated cookies, onesie cookie, ottawa cookies, teddy bear cookies, elephant icing, fancy cookies, gift favours loot bag treats

Check out the photos from our Baby Shower & Gender Reveal Party

Like a light switch, the third trimester brought nausea and the overall feeling of not wanting to be near food. hopefully it fades. This week baby has really started getting active and enjoying some dance-parties in my uterus. Although fun to watch, it really makes the bathroom breaks frequent, and finding comfortable seating positions rather difficult when trying to work… not to mention getting up from any non-standing position. It’s gonna be a long 3 months! And to finish off this week with a big bang, we hosted our Baby Shower & Gender Reveal Party for our family and friends, and I must say it was so great to see everyone and catch up on everything. Bonus that now we get to use pronouns in public, ha ha.

 

Week 29
pregnancy maternity shoot holiday photos Hillcrest Tree Farm ottawa sunlight

Our adventure to the tree farm for some timeless holiday photos–of course on THE coldest day of October! Not to worry, there is a pile of our hats and scarves and gloves right out of frame, ha ha!

This week the movements were even more crazy wild in size and it is really becoming visual–right through my sweaters! It’s not a bad thing, just not something I think I will ever get used to. The nausea comes in waves, but it’s a very low yucky feeling rather than the overpowering stuff from the first trimester, so that’s good. Still got my fingers crossed it stops soon. Found out I am in the low number of people’s whose iron is top-notch; hurray beets and broccoli! Still feeling hungry all the damn time though, and actually drinking a ton of water (not normal for me, but I know I need to–despite the downside of peeing more). What a fun game this pregnancy thing is! But I can still rock my skinny jeans and a pair of heels, and *knock-on-wood* can apparently hang out in the cold for more than 5 minutes without breaking out in a reaction from my cold urticaria. Though it would be convenient if I was being spared, because my coat isn’t going to fit for much longer. But let’s drop that–I don’t want to jinx it.

 

Week 30

Thankfully the gross nausea feeling has pretty well ended by this week, but heartburn has taken over, and the dizzy spells are starting to become frequent despite drinking a ton of water and basically living in the bathroom because of my small squished bladder. Oh well I guess… Now I just have trouble doing all the normal things, like putting on running shoes. It’s looking like slip-on boots only from here on out. I am okay with that, and I got to go splurge on two new pairs–one for fall and one for winter. One of the many perks of living in Canada–you actually NEED to buy nice warm boots! And I found PRETTY ones that go down to minus 31 degrees. Hurray me! But seriously, my husband has started to call me struggle-muffin. Endearing in all the ways, I am sure, and he gets away with it because he helps me with all the things.

 

Week 31

It’s official: my life in leggings & sweaters has begun. The jeans don’t fit, and the maternity pants I bought a while back are now way too cold for this winter weather. But I can totally live with that–heck, I went out and bought new (to me) sweaters and fancy prenatal & post-partum leggings to rejoice in the style adjustment. Hunger has really set in these days, and I am literally starving all of the time, yet not wanting to eat because of the constant heartburn, and it is keeping me up at night. Not fun. At. All. Plus the bad case of dry-mouth that I have had for a few days now… And let’s talk about the fact that all of the resources are emailing out things like “keep track of the number of fetal movements” and scary messaging as if it’s the end of the world if you don’t–when here I am struggling not to yelp every few minutes because baby has decided to try and catapult their way out using my ribs as a starting point, or the fact that I seem to be a permanently re-fluffed pillow. Can you please take a nap!? At least it stops for me to sleep, for the most part! Well, while I try to sleep…

To top it all off, newborn sessions have become increasingly difficult to recover from [insert all the sad-face emojis!]. The one I had this week really did me in–I could barely walk by that evening, and hath have no fury like a debilitated pregnant woman who cannot take pain-killers or muscle relaxants. The only thing that remotely helped was a handmade rice sock heat-pad along my lower back, combined with a little extra magnesium. Note to self: take the magnesium BEFORE the next session…

 

Week 32

The past week went by so fast, without many changes–or so I think… More tingly feet and legs, but honestly I feel like I slept through last week, and that’s why I don’t remember anything! This is where the cover photo of this post rings true. I asked my husband to take some cutesy maternity photos of me as I drank my morning coffee (yes, I still need caffeine to function!), and while I was waiting for him to come into the studio to capture them, I apparently took a nap cause I was just so damn tired. Of course he didn’t wake me until after taking a photo as evidence… Oh well, at least this way I can remember the forgotten memories!

 

Week 33

The crib, Before & After the staining job. I love custom everything, and nursery furniture is no different. The whole room is coming along great!

Apparently baby is now the size of a pineapple, so that’s pretty cool–but a lot less pointy. Baby pretty much moves all the time now, but thankfully doesn’t keep me awake at night (and don’t you dare say “yet”!). The heartburn has subsided, and I am definitely starting to eat a lot more now–maybe that’s why..? Trying to keep things healthier though; less sweets and more actual food snacks. It certainly helps that I have leftovers from Christmas dinner with my parents (we celebrated early because I cannot travel much closer to my due date (don’t want to be 5+ hours away from my midwife!)). They were also able to help out with a few extra nursery DIY projects, leaving us with only the superficial tasks to do, hurray!

And while my husband graciously agreed to help me wash my hair when I was essentially temporarily crippled from a hard-day’s work renovating the nursery (full reveal to come!), during a short-lived relaxing in the tub (allergy to water, remember!), our little munchkin made another strange “alien appearance” on my belly. I have never seen such a poked-out hello before, and I am not sure I would ever have been ready for that! At least we both got to see it…

 

Week 34

Nothing new this week. Still a struggle to get up, pants still don’t fit (thank god for prenatal leggings!), and I still eat all of the time. Anyone else feel like a fish out of water these days? I can’t get enough to drink, and I am NOT a person who typically drinks water (makes me feel uncomfortable)… Oh well, at least it seems to be helping the heartburn, which yep–it’s back!

 

Week 35

Alex putting up the last frame of the wall cluster we set up in our stairwell (credit to Melissa Morrissey for the pretty pictures).

Oh god the back pain! Mostly where the hips join the back, and of course it’s not all the time–only when you need the function of your legs to support you from gravity. Not fun. Like stabbing your eye out with a spoon. If I knew what that were like… It has been going on occasionally for the last month or two, but nothing this bad or this often. It probably doesn’t help that I went and did hardcore tasks like hanging picture frames… (our photo wall is coming along GREAT by the way!)  Heating pad on my lower back a few times a day keeps me nimble enough to walk around without searing pain, but too much heat means I start to sweat, and that leads to a whole other boatload of problems. Oh the joys!

Baby hasn’t been moving nearly as much these days, which was worrisome at first, but then I quickly realized it’s just because it ran out of room–and when it DOES move, holy jumpin’ I need to brace myself for the ride (sticks out by a whole inch or more!). And the dreaded days where movement has started waking me up at night have begun. But it’s okay, it just means I can solve my full-bladder, craving thirst, and “baby-alive-check” problems all at the same time…while my husband peacefully snores away next to me. Nope, not resentful at all… (He certainly makes up for it in other ways <3 )

 

Week 36

Unlike popular opinion, heartburn is still alive in well in my life, despite baby having moved lower in my system. Less rib jabbing for now, so I guess that’s good… Still feeling life a fish out of water, which really sucks when your bladder is the measly size of a golf ball (or at least feels like it!). But oh man the hips! I can’t even roll over in bed without them cracking or feeling like it has dislocated. The last month is going to be FUN! But at least I don’t seem to be suffering from food aversions anymore, except chicken–but I never really liked it before so does it really count…?

Side note, remember my complaints from 5 weeks ago about the increasing difficulty of newborn sessions–LOL! That was easy compared to this week! Babies don’t even fit in my lap anymore (too much belly!), which means wrapping has to be done on the poser, and leaves my lower back feeling like I have been hit by a truck by the end of the day. Magnesium or hot pads help soothe, but by no means resolve or prevent. I am definitely glad to have my co-op student helping me right now with the setting up and fetching of props! I’ve got one newborn left on the books to photograph, and then it’s all order fulfillment and administrative work from here, and I am glad I knew better than to schedule anything within the month leading up to my due date–taking it day-by-day is the way to go! Now I can relax a little and finish off the nursery, and stock the freezer with homemade meals. I will share more on both of those shortly!

 

Week 37

Celebrating our last Christmas as a family of two is certainly bitter-sweet.

This week has been particularly bad for peeing what feels like every 20 minutes. Especially at night with the vicious cycle of waking up with an uncomfortably FULL bladder, only to be so damn thirsty that I drink an entire bottle of water before heading back to bed. Several times during the night. This must be practice for regulating baby’s feeding schedule…right?? Please let me feel somewhat productive with this no-sleep thing… Don’t even get me started on the whole heartburn thing. It is supposed to have subsided by now, but let me tell you how big of a lie that is! I legit feel like my teeth are rotting, between the sugary antacids popped throughout the night and the waking up drowning, not fun. I’ll leave that vague for you, but you know exactly what it really means…

Aaaaaand the stretch marks have finally found their way to my belly 🙁    While I know my husband will still love me just the same, it’s certainly disappointing that I couldn’t make it another month without them–despite our nightly ritual of applying belly jelly. Oh well. As long as they don’t stay purple…and even then, I’ll live. Maybe it has something to do with all the yummy food I’ve been eating this holiday season..? Nah! I am just glad they stayed away just long enough for me to have some bare-belly portraits capture of myself for our art wall. I’ll be posting them on my personal blog as soon as I get the gallery back from my photographer (yep, even pros hire out!).

 

Week 38

stick-on belly?

I didn’t know the urge to pee could get any more painful and that I would long for the days of a simple twinge. Especially when it comes all as a rush when you stand up. Awesome! And thus the nightly cycle continues. Other than that, the only change is the extent of the belly protrusions because baby wants to turn over too. I have ended up with a square belly several times these days. And by golly, my midwife wasn’t kidding when she said I was “all baby”. It literally looks like someone stuck a fake belly to my abdomen. That does however make it that much more difficult to maneuver myself into small spaces, turn over at night, and getting up out of soft chairs. And my husband thought I was a struggle-muffin months ago–HA!

Have I mentioned the drooling yet? I didn’t really notice it as a thing until now because I’ve always had a little dribble during car ride sleeps due to the awkward position, but oh my goodness, lately I have been waking up to patches on my pillow, and I must say that cold wet surprises on your warm sleeping face are NOT fun! Hopefully that will come to an end soon…

knitted octopus stuffie for our baby

Since I find myself sitting for longer periods of time these days, I have made a point to get a lot more “non screen-time” things done, like finishing the nursery decor, and I have embarked on the adventure to knit our little one a stuffie. Animal of choice? OCTOPUS! I am quite pleased with my progress so far. I’ll be posting about the full progress report on my personal blog if you are interested in following along: www.stephaniedemontigny.com

 

Week 39

Organizing the onesies is therapeutic!

The only thing that I have noticed so far this week is that even the longest and stretchiest of shirts I have been wearing are starting to let out a little peek-a-boo of my belly at the bottom. Guess that means baby has dropped because I haven’t gotten much bigger in the last little while, especially not super noticeable visually. Though I will say that I have definitely been struck by the stereotypical “nesting” bug because I actually did laundry this week, organized the nursery (still finishing up that last DIY project before the official reveal), and literally got rid of have my clothing to make sense of my own closet (and didn’t die from anxiety!). And now we wait…

 

Week 40

Only made it a few days in before baby arrived, so stay tuned for Our Birth Story.

 

And with that, we continue through the adventure, hand-in-hand. Chat soon!

 

Ready for the next chapter? Here’s to continuing on the roller coaster of parenthood!
NEXT UP: The Last Month of Pregnancy

 

 

 

 

Missed a post? Here they are: Chapter 1, Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Baby Shower & Gender Reveal, Our Last Christmas

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