Third Trimester Diaries: Week 31 and 32

Despite the aches, pains and discomforts, I have had a relatively low-risk pregnancy. The media puts the fear of God in women over 35 about having children and while some things can be and absolutely are riskier, it’s a risky business all around, no matter your age.

I’ve felt relatively functional between weeks 23 and 33, but in the last two weeks, that has started to shift tremendously. The most frustrating thing for me is my lack of mobility. Pre-pregnancy I was walking, going to pilates and barre multiple times a week. Now the thought of doing a full loop around Bedford park fills me with exhaustion. Walking has become a difficulty and completing a distance just shy of a mile puts me in pain. My hips and tailbone ache relentlessly and I’m out of breath. I find this to be particularly distressing because there are things I want to do this time of year that require a good amount of walking.

It’s the start of the holiday season, and I love going down to London to do my little circuit of Old Bond Street, Regent Street, Carnaby, and Covent Garden. It’s busy and overstimulating but I love to see all the Christmas decorations. It seems like an impossible task at the moment but maybe I’ll find a Christmas market in a neighboring city to go to instead.

Week 31

I had two appointments during week 31 of my pregnancy. The first was an in-home visit by the NHS care team, which was quite good and informative. She covered their services and what we can expect from them after baby arrives. We also talked about essentials for a newborn which covered safe sleep and feeding.

Then I had a midwife appointment at my local clinic. My normal midwife wasn’t in and someone else was covering for her. She thought that baby was sitting breech but is growing fine. We’d check things again closer to the 36 week mark to see if any intervention was needed.

Week 32

I did have another scan and OBGYN check-in a week after the mid-wife appointment. I’m not sure if the check-in was normal but the scan was not. Typically you only have two scans at 12 and 20 weeks. When they did my 20 week scan they were concerned about how low my placenta was so they wanted to check that again.

Baby was in a good position, the placenta had also moved and her growth was right in line with what they were expecting. She was also no longer breech so whether or not she actually was sitting that way is anybody’s guess without a scan.

All my vitals continue to be normal and my check-in with OB confirmed that the discomfort I’m feeling is normal and will continue to increase. They haven’t recommended aspirin as I don’t have any markers for complications that would be helped by it. It was an uneventful appointment (good) and we headed back home after stopping at Starbucks so I could get an Eggnog latte as a post-appointment treat.

The symptoms and side effects I’m struggling with in the third trimester

The first trimester was a blur of nausea, fatigue and being barely able to function. The second trimester, while symptoms reduced quite significantly, brought about tailbone pain and a realization I couldn’t complete my normal walk distances. I felt at least relatively normal though and wanted to do things. The third trimester started out fairly strong and has been a week-by-week descent into discomfort I didn’t know existed.

Rib and sternum pain

In the last few weeks it’s become impossible for me to get in a comfortable position to sleep. Lying on my side results in searing pain across my sternum and ribs. Lying on my back has been the most tolerable up until now, I just have to make sure I’m not getting light-headed or dizzy, which I haven’t. I don’t seem to be cutting off the blood supply of the main vein they’re worried about when they tell you not to lie on your back. If I prop a normal pillow between me and my pregnancy pillow, it at least gets me comfortable enough for a time to fall asleep.

My pregnancy pillow has been a life saver during the entire pregnancy. I bought the Momcozy pregnancy pillow early on and I use when I’m sitting on the couch and in bed. I’ve dealt with tailbone pain for the second and third trimesters on top of the rib pain. I can’t sit on the couch without the pillow. I’ve honestly gotten my money’s worth from its use, and I expect to continue to use it postpartum. Some women say they didn’t need one or they found it uncomfortable. I personally don’t know how I’d survive without it.

Restless Legs

Suddenly around 28 or 29 weeks the restless legs hit me hard. The sensation usually starts up at night around the same time. It’s a horrible sensation. I have a coming midwife appointment where I need to remember to bring it up. They can be caused by a lack of iron or magnesium. I have previously struggled with anemia and had extremely low ferritin reserves about a year ago. I imagine baby is taking more nutrients from me in this final trimester as she increases in growth. I’ve started taking an iron supplement and a magnesium supplement on top of my folic acid and vitamin D. I’ve noticed improvements in other ways but the restless legs continue to range from mild to severe most evenings. On bad nights, I put Vicks muscle rub on my thighs. The cooling sensation helps distract from restless legs long enough to put me to sleep.

Tailbone pain

I’m still suffering with tailbone pain, though some days are better than others even when I’m active. I had to get an ergonomic cushion for my office chair (which is somewhat depressing because it’s a Herman Miller), and that has helped me significantly during the day since my job is sitting in front of a desk.

I can only take the dog on a short waddle around the block, barely a mile even with good walking shoes, before the pain becomes too much. I’ve been doing PT exercises and a gentle yoga class. If I’m consistent, these help alleviate the pain and keep it at bay for a bit longer.

Emotions are at a high

I have calls with the perinatal mental health team every few weeks to check in. Around week 32, the emotions really ramped up. It might be a combination of increasing hormones and discomfort/pain, but I feel as if I’m suddenly much more quick to tears than in the previous weeks. Frustration from different sources sends me to a place of needing to cry and then there’s no off switch. It’s time to cry it out. There is very little control over it at the moment.

Shortness of breath

I’m out of breath when I go up the stairs or go for a walk. Small bursts of activity leave me breathless and I can only assume baby’s increasing size is encroaching on my lungs. It is what it is.

Nesting mode has ramped up

Finally, nesting mode has severely ramped up. The to-do list is long. We still have some furniture to buy for the baby’s room and other areas of the house have not escaped improvements. We went to IKEA and bought another wardrobe so I could get rid of the clothing rack that was living in the little room that will be the baby base. We’re not doing a full nursery as we don’t see the point of it when baby will be next to us for at least 6 months. We’ll reassess when we get closer to the end of that time period and figure out what we need.

I’ve created a small registry at the request of family, but living abroad means no baby shower. I have mixed feelings about this. There’s a part of me that is sad to not have this experience but at the same time, it’s mostly the celebration of baby coming that I’m sad about. We don’t need people buying us loads of things we may not need.

This is also a strange time to buy baby clothes. I’m due in the middle of winter, just after Christmas. There is so much cute festive baby gear but we’ve been sticking to neutral things hoping she comes on time. But what if she comes before Christmas? I suppose we’ll have to rush out and get her “My First Christmas” bib and outfit. We’ll see what happens. It’s not necessarily up to me when she decides to come.

The weeks are ticking away and while it feels like I have ages to go, it’ll also be here before we know it.