It’s hard to believe, but here we sit the night before baby #4’s due date. Looking back at all the things we’ve done as a family over the last months this baby has been a part of me and all that I’ve been able to continue to do, I feel truly blessed.
Here’s what we were been busy doing this last trimester:
Home Prep: There’s no denying making room for a new baby takes some work and rearranging. Whether it’s a first baby and you’re getting a complete nursery together and having baby showers and overrun with new baby gear or baby #_, there’s always some form of prep around the house to be done. Without exception, we’ve worked the hardest this time. This baby makes the third one that will have a March birthday. So we’ve done this timeline a few times now. There’s a temptation to feel like there will be so much time left after the holidays to get baby-ready. But the time sneaks up on you quickly after January rolls around. Sometime after the first trimester, we took stock of what needed to be reworked for the boys and where we were going to temporarily put the baby until we move John Lloyd from his crib. Then we worked slowly, not cramming everything in after the new year rolled around. Naturally, we added a few other small projects around the house. Why not?
Nesting: In keeping with what I mentioned above, I feel like this pregnancy has been one of perpetual nesting. And I’m a little bit of a nester by nature. What started with a routine cleaning out of our master bathroom drawers and relining them, also turned into “well, why not do every shelf and drawer in the whole house?” This didn’t happen overnight by any means. As I worked on swapping out the boys’ clothes for winter and cleaning out their drawers, I gradually kept going to the kitchen, the laundry room and so on and so on.
In addition to cleaning out, there’s been lots of cooking. Sometime around the 34-35th week, I started making double batches of some dinner and breakfast staples and a few sweet treats so we’d have some things in the freezer when he arrives. I did this on a smaller scale last pregnancy and it was helpful. And I expect this time it will be even more beneficial since feeding people is one of the biggest tasks of the day around here! The last two weeks found me wiping down wooden blinds and getting dust out of corners. And these last few days I’ve found myself keeping busy trying to stay on top of the laundry. At this point, I think we’re ready for his arrival. We’ve washed tiny clothes and covers to baby swings and rockers. And I’ve got some pretty curious helpers that are really interested in pushing buttons on all the baby contraptions.
Attitude: Overall, so thankful. Thankful to be able to do life mostly normal (with naps included) while growing a precious baby. Thankful to be able to meet the needs of the rest of our family during these last weeks of pregnancy. I find myself saying over and over that I’m so thankful to feel well and have the energy I do. I’m cherishing these last weeks before the newborn haze hits. We’re getting excited to meet this baby and still throwing around names. Hopefully we land on one sooner rather than later.
Exercise: Still going strong. Ironically, walking is supposed to be the most pregnant-friendly exercise but that’s not the case for me. Never fails my back and legs ache worse the day after a long walk around the neighborhood despite the regular visits to the chiropractor. Doing weighted exercises feels so much better to me. So for now it’s still a mix of weights, yoga, and HIIT.
Hormones/Emotions: There have been a few hormonal shifts that I’ve been able to pinpoint. This being the third pregnancy with a due date in March, I can recall when things seem to have happened before around the same times. Either side effects from shifting hormones, baby having a growth spurt causing more ligament pain and a slump in energy for a few days, or an out of the blue overwhelm of the impending arrival and how things aren’t ready, they’ve all seemed to happen generally at the same time in each pregnancy.
In these last weeks I’ve started to notice the subtle changes that labor is in the near future. A few weeks out I usually start dilating and make a steady progression from there. The baby dropped down into pelvis right at the 38 week mark. Along with digestion changes, there’s been some breakouts on my face that all can be contributed to the changing hormones and increased estrogen gearing up for labor.
For the last several weeks, I’ve had bio physical sonograms at every visit. One of the perks of being advanced maternal age! They’re looking for the fluid level in a certain range, movement, and watching baby practice breathing. And he has a grand total of 30 minutes to do all these tricks. First go round he didn’t practice breathing in the allotted time. It didn’t matter that he hiccups on and off all day long, and that counts as practice breathing, they have to see it. So then it was upstairs in the office to be monitored on the heart rate monitor for 20 minutes.
From that point on, I started drinking something sweet, usually orange juice, on the way so he’d be awake when it was time for the sono and it worked like a charm, thankfully.
Last Weekend Before Baby: We spent the last weekend enjoying what we were pretty certain would be our last weekend as a family of five and celebrating Thomas’s birthday. He turned 8 Monday, which is incredibly hard to believe! Saturday was largely about celebrating him. Tom took the big boys to hit baseballs and then Thomas chose where they went for lunch. JL and I hung close to the house. That night we headed to a new-to-us pizza place and had ice cream for dessert.
Sunday we made a chocolate cake and had dinner at home and gave him his presents from us. Tom then brought lunch to school the next day to eat with him on his actual birthday. Of course, the baby will come when it’s his perfect time. But I surely said a few prayers that they would each get their own special day and not have to share a birthday. Looks like we made it!
It’s always a strange mix of emotions here at the end. First time around you don’t have the advantage of seeing it in the same way as the subsequent times. As much as I love seeing a new life that God has made come into the world, there’s also something bittersweet about saying goodbye to a pregnancy. You have such a journey with this little one while they’re on the inside and instantly that part is over.
It takes a little adjusting. I’ll inevitably lay on my side to sleep soon and reach to put my hand over my belly to feel little kicks in response out of habit. Those kicks and all the feels you get so in tune with become distant memories that you can’t recreate in your mind no matter how hard you try. I’m so thankful for all that my body has allowed me to do. I hope to let this phase go gracefully as we embrace the reality of the newborn phase very soon.
