Carson is a month old, and we’re finally starting to get in a daily rhythm, which makes this mama very happy! I’ll go into more detail on that in another post, but I’m glad to finally have some time to share on update on my third trimester (first trimester post is here and second trimester post is here if you’re interested). It feels so long ago now that I was pregnant! I have two disclaimers for this post: 1.) This pregnancy, including the third trimester, was very smooth and honestly pretty easy for me… BUT the “fourth trimester” has been anything but that so far. Nobody has the best of all worlds, and you never know what the subsequent pregnancies will bring, so I’m certainly not smug about it, but I do feel fortunate that it was a straightforward pregnancy with minimal pain or disruption of regular life. I could certainly use some prayers that things start going more smoothly here in the fourth trimester though! And 2.) As with my other pregnancy posts, I try not to go into anything too personal, but typical pregnancy topics will be discussed, so be warned!
Symptoms: Jamie totally had sympathetic insomnia for me during the third trimester, but I thankfully slept really well all the way up until the last couple days or so. I wasn’t even getting up in the night to go to the bathroom much until the very end, which totally surprised me, given my small bladder! I definitely was starting to get uncomfortable with Carson’s constant kicking though. At the end, I was feeling a little more lethargic/heavy, but my energy levels really weren’t too low (nothing like the first trimester!). I had an episode of hormonal acne and rosacea during the third trimester (which I had problems with periodically before pregnancy as well), and it was no fun because there was very little that I could take for it that was considered safe for pregnancy. Other than that, there wasn’t much to speak of, thankfully! I felt like my third trimester rivaled my second one for being pretty smooth overall, up until the last few days.
Cravings: I definitely craved sweets in my third trimester (and probably ate way too many of them, ha), and was way more hungry in general.
Aversions: I didn’t really have any aversions. Still loving all the foods!
Weight: I gained a total of 27 pounds in my pregnancy, which comes out to 14 pounds in the third trimester – it was the trimester with the most weight gain for me!
Clothes: Honestly, because I worked from home during most of the third trimester due to COVID, I pretty much had a uniform (and it wasn’t pretty!): maternity leggings or workout pants or PJ pants and an old T-shirt. Sexy, I know. But it was glorious to be able to dress so comfy every day!
Workouts: I stopped running in the third trimester just because it got to be too much, but we did so much walking. At the end, we were going on 2-3 walks per day, trying to get that baby to come out! I was also doing squats and a few yoga positions for pregnancy regularly, but that’s about it.
Doctor visits: They get so frequent at the end of pregnancy! There was nothing really significant – I didn’t have any issues with my pregnancy, so it was pretty standard, and we didn’t have a third trimester sonogram. He was always measuring normal, blood pressure was good, heartbeat was good, and he was always still moving a lot.
Movement: As mentioned above, Carson was SO active, to a point of being an annoyance at the end. He was a very active little boy up until I gave birth – my doctor kept telling me that he might slow down in his movements as I got closer to his due date, but it never happened. I think it was a day or two before I went into active labor that I got so frustrated one night because he wouldn’t settle down and was kicking/punching me so much, and I remember saying to my mom, “Is it bad to be annoyed with a child who is still in the womb?!” But I love him anyway!
High points: Getting to work from home for most of the third trimester due to COVID turned out to be such a blessing – I was free from the worries of contracting COVID at the office, I was able to dress so comfortably during the more uncomfortable stage of pregnancy, and I was also able to prep for the baby during my work days, like washing his clothes and boiling bones for stock to put in the freezer. I would highly recommend being pregnant in the winter months – it was such a cozy time for Jamie and me. We weren’t doing anything, but because it was cold for much of the time and got dark so early, we didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything (also, COVID helped with that, ha). We watched a lot of movies and shows, cuddled, made lots of soup, and just enjoyed being homebodies for that time. We also took the Taking Care of Babies newborn class which I would highly recommend for anyone with a newborn (even if it’s not your first child!) – it was incredibly helpful for us. All in all, it was really nice to have those slow days of rest and relaxation before the chaos of a new baby hit!
Low points: Again, the kicking and movement got pretty uncomfortable at times, and Jamie also had to work a TON in the month or two before Carson was born, which was a little stressful. Thankfully, he was working from home, and I was too, so we were able to spend lots of time together even if he was working really long days. But the biggest challenge that we faced during this trimester was that our fridge went out two days before Carson’s due date. We had to throw out all of our food and figure out a plan with the unknowns of when our baby boy would arrive, which was a little stressful. God was looking out for us though – it turned out that our fridge, which was only a few years old and one that we loved, was actually a model that was part of a class action lawsuit that allowed us to get the fridge fixed for free (and even get back the money for the cost of the discarded food), and had it gone out even a few weeks later, it wouldn’t have been covered by the lawsuit. We were so thankful that this ended up happening when it did, and it was fixed before we got home from the hospital with Carson (thanks, Mom, for being there when the repair guy came out!). In the meantime, because we had just been talking about getting a fridge/freezer for the garage for breastmilk storage, we decided to go ahead and purchase one from an open-box appliance outlet, and we got a great deal on one with a tiny dent on the side and even had it delivered the same day. It all worked out so well – we didn’t have to go without a fridge/freezer, we got our garage fridge that we had been talking about, and we got our kitchen fridge fixed for free shortly thereafter.
Random: I can’t say enough how glad I was to have slow, quiet days and lots of time to prepare for labor and our baby boy’s arrival, especially since it was our first child. I had a long to-do list at the start of January (so much to do before the birth of a first baby!), but I was able to accomplish it all fairly quickly and then had time to read, do the non-necessary but fun things that I’d been wanting to do around the house, and just mentally prep for labor and for being a parent. We also strictly quarantined in the last several weeks to ensure that we didn’t get exposed (if Jamie would have contracted COVID at the time of my labor, he wouldn’t have been able to be with me for Carson’s birth), and while we missed seeing family and friends at the very end, it was a time for us to have lots of together time with just the two of us, and I’ll always remember those sweet, slow days. It was much needed, and when the time came for Carson to arrive, we felt ready.
And we never made it to 41 weeks! I’m excited to share Carson’s birth story next, so be looking out for that!
P.S. Our little guy’s nursery tour, and four ways to do a social-distanced baby shower.
