Holy cannoli, I can’t believe the nine months of my pregnancy have officially come to a close! I’ve got a lot more still to share about Kennedy’s birth story, but here’s the summary of the last three months of my pregnancy!
Month Seven
My third trimester started off really well! I finally had a hold of my nausea and other symptoms that had caused me discomfort in previous months and the end was finally in sight. During this month, we had our last baby shower with Matt’s family and it was such a fun time! Afterwards, we finally felt like we had everything we really needed for the baby’s arrival. Our doctor’s appointments picked up to every other week, which definitely helped pass the time. We spent most of the month taking it easy and getting her nursery ready for her!
Month Eight
During week 33, we had a little bit of a scare that sent us to the emergency room for the second time this pregnancy (the first occurred during my first trimester due to extreme nausea). Kennedy has been extremely active during the last month or two and is essentially moving non-stop. It gets uncomfortable at times to the point where I have to switch positions for some relief. One morning during my 33rd week, I had been sitting at my desk for a couple of hours and realized how comfortable I had been the whole morning (which was pretty out of the norm!). It dawned on me that I hadn’t felt any movement from our little girl since I woke up. For some people this is completely normal during pregnancy, but at the time it wasn’t for me. I was especially surprised because I had eaten two strawberry pop-tarts for breakfast (filled with lots of sugar!) and she didn’t react at all. I called my doctor to explain what was going on and asked if I was overacting or not. She encouraged me to come in to the emergency room so they could check the baby’s heartbeat just to be sure. I immediately started freaking out and Matt and I headed to the hospital right away. I tried to keep my cool on the 30-minute drive, but as soon as we walked through the doors I got pretty upset and was afraid of what might come next. I didn’t know what I would do if they couldn’t find a heartbeat or told me that I needed to have an emergency C-section right away. It took the nurse a minute or so to find the heartbeat (likely because I was so upset and wouldn’t stay still), but once she did we knew everything was ok. It was such a relief!! We stayed at the hospital for a little over an hour so they could keep monitoring her and before we left Kennedy was back to her usual self & kicking away.
Other than that little scare, most of my symptoms seemed normal. I had occasional back pain, some nausea (nothing as bad as the first trimester though!), and quite a bit of acid-reflux during this month. Sometimes doctors say that heartburn or acid-reflux mean that your baby will be born with hair!
Month Nine
Month Nine felt the slowest out of any month because we were constantly watching for signs of labor. They say that you are full term at week 37, so we knew it could happen at any moment. At my 37 week check up, we had our last ultra sound to check out baby’s positioning and size. They confirmed that she was head down which we were relieved to hear! They told us she was measuring at about 6lbs and 11oz. The nurse said babies will typically add a half pound each week from that point on. So they predicted (at most) she’d be a little over 8lbs at birth. We were also told that she had a lot of hair at this appointment and it was almost an inch long! That definitely explained all of the acid-reflux I’d been experiencing that last couple of months. I ended up starting my maternity leave about 2 weeks before my due date so that I could get things ready at home and relax before our little one arrived.
Well, that pretty much sums up my entire pregnancy! Once I have some time, I’ll write up our labor story and add that post to my “Mom Life” category too.