Hey there! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that Ella was born almost a month ago. I had great plans of blogging during my pregnancy, but my to-do list and lack of energy got the better of me. But even though it’s over now, I still want to document the last trimester just to have it for future reference.
Photo by Marla Thach Photography
Highlights
28 weeks – we went to California for our babymoon! We visited friends in L.A. and then went to Palm Springs for a few days. We hung out by the pool, ate out at every meal, and spent a morning in Joshua Tree National Park. It was a great trip!
30 weeks – my family and friends threw me an amazing baby shower, it was so special to celebrate this time in our lives with everyone.
31 weeks – we had maternity photos taken! Marla and I went to the same high school and she’s done work for me in the past, including the branding photos for Homes by French & Co. We took them at a local park and I LOVE how they turned out! I’m excited to put one in Ella’s nursery.
36 weeks – I’m a real estate agent and my husband is a real estate attorney, so our colleagues overlap a lot. Our coworkers threw us a joint work shower, which was so nice – we’re so lucky to work with such a nice group of people.
Observations and Feelings
- My feet and hands started swelling at the beginning of the third trimester. I traded in my usual wedding rings for a set that I bought from Everly rings – love them! My shoes quickly became limited to my Rothy’s and sandals – luckily it was warm enough to stick to those for the most part.
- The surprisingly killer thing for my feet and ankle swelling was sitting down. If I sat with my feet up or was walking around, I did much better, but just sitting in a chair or riding in a car was a recipe for serious swelling. By the end of my pregnancy I couldn’t even go to a restaurant without putting my feet up.
- I had been going to OrangeTheory since February 2017 and canceled in April. It was just tough to do as I got bigger, particularly the rowing. Once we got back from California I pretty much only walked for exercise after that. This was TOTALLY not what I intended to do pre-pregnancy – I always wanted to be one of those pregnant women who kept up their workout routine, but when I was actually there I felt it was more important to listen to my body, and my body was not into it. As I got closer to the end I upped the amount I was walking in hopes that it would make me go into labor. Emmett and I logged a lot of steps on the trails in our neighborhood.
- By the middle of the third trimester I had outgrown a lot of the maternity clothes I bought at the beginning of my pregnancy, which was frustrating. All those sizing things where they’d be all “buy your size pre-pregnancy” totally didn’t work for me. In the end, I gained over 50 pounds, but I stopped weighing myself the last couple of weeks. The heavy hitters in my wardrobe were definitely the LulaRoe pieces. I had 4 Carly dresses that I pretty much wore on repeat. One of them in particular I’m pretty sure I wore every other day the last two weeks I was pregnant – I even wore it to the hospital.
- Brian was definitely the driving force for getting everything on our to-do list done. I just didn’t have the energy at the end. Everything that really had to get done miraculously did get done. I still have art to hang in the nursery, and a few other “extra” things that would have been nice to check off, but honestly I’m impressed that we accomplished what we did considering how unmotivated I was.
- Somewhere during the third trimester I discovered that I could take Zantac for my acid reflux / indigestion and it was a GAME CHANGER. My only regret was that I didn’t realize I could take that earlier. Side note: if you’ve seen any pics of Ella, you will note that the old wives’ tale about hair turned out to be true here. Girlfriend has a ton of hair. And I had a ton of indigestion.
- Probably the only “positive” pregnancy symptom I experienced was that my skin was pretty flawless after the first trimester. Like I maybe had one zit the entire time. That was pretty great.
- My mom went on vacation the first week in June, and when she got back I was able to step back from work a little and primarily work from home. That was so helpful, I don’t know how most women go about their normal day-to-day at the very end. I was so tired and not firing on all cylinders.
- I slept pretty well all the way through my pregnancy until about the last week or so. The last “regular” night of sleep before I went into labor I only got like 4 hours or so, which was really unfortunate.
- On my other posts I included a section about eating habits, but I feel like they didn’t really change much in the third trimester – I just avoided acidic foods and splurged on all things fried. I guess maybe my sweet tooth increased during this time?
By the week that Ella was born, I was so over being pregnant. I know every woman says this, but I was really, really done. I was doing everything in my power to get that baby born early, and well… it worked out! I’ll share more about that in my next post about her birth story.
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