THIRD TRIMESTER!! If you feel like throwing yourself a party, you should totally do that. Your pregnancy train is almost to the station! Don’t get me wrong, the third trimester is not the easiest or the most comfortable, but there is light visible at the end of the tunnel now! Since you will be seeing your doctor or provider more often through this trimester, you will get to hear baby’s sweet heartbeat more often. That sweet sound will help you through those hard and uncomfortable days!
Your uterus is very large, and very full of baby. Everything else inside of you is feeling the pressure at this point, and one of those things is your sciatic nerve. This nerve is huge! It runs right down your spine and all the way down the legs. When your uterus and baby’s head push on the nerve, you can feel a number of different symptoms; aching, numbness, tingling, and sharp shooting pains. It is formally known as sciatica, and it is not fun. No pain, no baby, right?! For many expectant mothers these pains will come and go as you and baby adjust throughout the day, and for some, it will linger until delivery.
So what do you do if you are stuck with these pains? Try a heating pad, very warm bath, stretching the back/legs, and simply just laying down for a while. What works one day, may not work another day. If all else fails, find ways to relax and be distracted from your discomfort. Foot rubs anyone?!
Have you heard people talking about your baby dropping? You are at the dropping phase now, which is a good thing! In preparation for delivery, baby is dropping lower into your pelvis. She weighs over 2 pounds and measures in at around 15 inches long. Baby still has a lot of growing left to do, so you don’t want her coming out just yet, but she is slowly getting ready!
This week, her eyelids are opening, and working on the new skill of blinking! There is pigment in her irises, but even if she is born with eyes one color, it can change all the way up to 12 months of life. As well as fluttering those teeny eyelids, your cutie could be dreaming! Perhaps they are dreaming of your beautiful singing voice?!
Are you going to have the birth documented? Now is the time to decide for sure, and get a photographer or videographer (or both) booked! Waiting much longer could end with you settling for the only person that had an available spot. You want to be more than satisfied with this outcome, so jump on it!