{week 34} 8.5 months. Eep!
Yesterday I was able to see my (old) midwife, Sarah, for my weekly appointment since my OB was out of the office. It was SO lovely to see her, catch up, and chat about the baby and my pregnancy. My belly grew a LOT over the past two weeks and was measuring at 34 cm! It’s right on track for measurement, but 3 cm is a pretty significant growth for a two week period. The baby app told me that around this time there is the most amniotic fluid in my belly, so maybe that’s a reason? Baby’s heartbeat sounded great and we could hear him/her kicking the Doppler. Also, baby is head-down – hooray! In two weeks I have an ultrasound to check the baby’s weight and body measurements, and will start seeing my OB every week. It’s feeling very real around here.
My family threw me/us a baby shower this past weekend (via Zoom) and it was so lovely. I mean, virtual is not the same as in-person, obviously, but it was great to see everyone and chat, play a fun game, and watch the girls open presents for Baby Lower. Also, that beautiful flower arrangement in my weekly photo above was sent by my mama for the shower, and it is SO pretty! [I think the florist thinks this baby is a girl though – ha!]
I did an FAQ for week 34 with my other two pregnancies (in the links below if you are interested in a time travel) so I thought it would be fun to do it again:
{question one} how are you feeling? I feel really good! I’m not quite as tired as I was a few weeks ago, which I contribute to adding an iron supplement, though I’m definitely not bursting with energy. I am really trying to focus on being in the present, enjoying this pregnancy in it’s last weeks, and loving on the girls. I feel MUCH slower these days though, but allowing myself some grace in that department. I still haven’t managed to squeeze in a workout in a while, but trying not to guilt myself about that either.
{question two} how much weight have you gained? This is the same answer as with my other two pregnancies: I have no idea! In all honesty, I don’t know how much I weighed before I was pregnant, so even if I look at the number on the scale, it doesn’t really mean anything to me! I am pretty much all belly though this pregnancy, really similarly to my last two. Though I feel a bit bigger this time around.
It was interesting to me to read the change in answer from my first pregnancy to my second though, I was able to understand that comments about my weight and size weren’t about me and I shouldn’t take it personally. This time around, with it being my third pregnancy along with the COVID quarantine which has essentially kept me from seeing most people, I have felt pretty relaxed about my pregnant size!
{question three} are you having any cravings? Not too many this time around. Fresh fruit – luckily it’s the perfect season for that – particularly strawberries and peaches. Ice cold water. And dessert (every. single. night.)! Chicken sandwiches from Ma’Ono and twice-baked almond croissant from Bakery Nouveau!
{question four} are you feeling the baby? YES! Though this baby doesn’t seem to be quite as active as the other two. Maybe a mellow one? (Fingers crossed!) I have been feeling that baby moving a bit more during the morning and afternoon time, but later in the evening and right before I go to bed has always been the biggest amount of movement. Baby has also been getting hiccups, though not as consistently as Eloise did! Like with Daphne’s pregnancy, I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to get any videos of baby moving in my belly. Hoping to get a few in the coming weeks!
{question five} will you find out the gender? Nope! Again, the gender is a surprise. We knew that any pregnancy we had we wouldn’t want to know the gender. It’s such a personal thing, but it really is SO fun to wait! This time around the tech told me at my 20 week ultrasound that she would scan and determine gender for my chart, but there would be a note not to disclose this to us. Fingers crossed no one blows the secret!
{question six} how many more kids are you planning on having? NONE -ha! It was always a question about whether we would have a third baby, but four kids was never in the cards.
{question seven} have you picked out any names? We are pretty set on a boy’s name, though we won’t make any final decisions until after baby’s born. But with a girl’s name, we are sort of at a loss. It was hard enough to come up with a first name for Daphne – ha! Naming a third child of the same gender is super tough. And we’d like to use a family name for the middle name, like we did with the other two, so if you know of any family names, send them my way!
{question eight} have you started designing the nursery? Mostly because of COVID and Aaron working from home (maybe indefinitely at this point!), the actual nursery room isn’t available. It’s currently Aaron’s office and our home gym. Our plan is to have the baby in our room (in this bassinet) for at least the first few months, maybe until the end of the year. We have moved a dresser into our room (along with a changing pad) and our beloved glider.
Once we decide to move baby into the nursery (and Aaron moves his desk into our room) we will use the same big furniture as we used with the girls – crib, small dresser, and glider. We switched up the room layout, which will be a nice change, and I’ll add a (round) rug to the space.
I feel badly that this space won’t be “finished” any time soon because it’s way too cliche about a third child, but truly it doesn’t make sense to have an entire room dedicated for a nursery when we are all home all the time and needing the space for Aaron to work.
And here are my weekly updates with Eloise (with the same dress!) and Daphne!
Happy 34 weeks!
M