This post is sponsored by Atrium Health. All opinions are my own.
Holy moly y’all I am sitting here writing my third trimester recap! It’s sort of awkward deciding “when” in the third trimester is good to write the recap seeing as how I’m still pregnant and still experiencing the third trimester…but I think at this point I’m pretty much at the end with maybe just a week or so left to write a recap on my experience as a whole. I do plan to do a birth story post as well so if for some reason something gets left out between now and then I’ll try to include in that post! Today I’m going to share more about the maternity classes we took at the hospital, our appointments with the doctor, and other ways we are getting ready for baby!
In case you missed it, you can read my first trimester recap here and my second trimester recap here.
We kicked off our third trimester with our babymoon trip to Hilton Head! You can read that post here. I highly recommend taking a babymoon or at least a date night with your significant other before baby gets here to really connect and enjoy that time together. I, of course, could have stayed in Hilton Head for much longer than 3 days but it was so nice to go.
When we returned home I got in full-on nesting mode and we began to really start focusing on the last to-do’s before baby comes. I am NOT a wait-til-the-last-minute type of person (it stresses me out) so I usually do things a LOT earlier than other people, but it’s fine! I got the baby’s nursery completed, clothes washed and organized, and Craig and I picked out the maternity classes we planned to take.
Maternity Classes at Atrium Health
The offerings of maternity classes at Atrium Health are extensive; I was so impressed by how many different classes there were to help new parents prepare for this huge change in their lives! I really thought about each class option and weighed what I felt like would be the best use of our time and serve us for what we really needed. We ended up doing the expectant parent hospital tour, the breastfeeding class, and the infant CPR/Taking Care of Baby combo class. I highly recommend all three! I ultimately decided to opt out of the childbirth class since we hired a doula and we are doing a lot of those things with her. But if a doula wasn’t in our plan then I would probably have done the childbirth class!
Craig came with me to all of the classes. We knocked them all out on a Saturday and had a really fun day together! The instructors were really fun and engaging and we left feeling like it was time well-spent.
My Third Trimester Appointments
Once you get to be around 30 weeks along, doctors appointments start happening every other week for check ups. Then once you get to 36 weeks, you have an appointment once a week until baby comes. I personally really liked the frequency, I think going to the doctor a lot just makes it feel like it’s going by faster when the appointments come closer together! At these appointments they do the routine blood pressure reading, pulse, weight, then you see the doctor. They measure your belly to get a gauge of how big baby is and make sure the growth is on the right track!
At my 34 week appointment, it seemed like baby was maybe measuring just a little small, so for our 36 week appointment we scheduled an ultrasound just to check on her growth and positioning. This is not uncommon and I was excited at least to see her again!
At our 36 week appointment we had the ultrasound and all looked great. Apparently her head is really low (which I definitely could have told you based on how much I have to go to the bathroom!) and so when they did the last measurement, they probably weren’t able to really measure her full head so she just seemed small. They said she was right at the 49th percentile for weight, right in the middle! They guesstimated she weighed 6lbs 3 oz at that visit. We saw the doctor afterwards and had our normal check up. Usually at this visit they also test you for Group B Strep, and since I had been having some more intense Braxton Hicks contractions and back pain, she also checked my cervix. No dilation…baby is very happy on the inside and in no rush to come out 🙂
Here is a picture of her little face we got at the ultrasound. She was napping and had both arms crossed up over her eyes, but we were able to get a picture of her nose and lips! She is facing the camera in this picture so it’s not a profile shot, if that helps you see it. I know the words are small but I tried to write on there what was what!
The Week 37 appointment was short & sweet, they checked my routine vitals and then listened to baby girl’s heart beat. She was kicking around while we tried to listen so it made it a little more difficult. Craig says she’s already practicing her soccer for the World Cup 😉 The doc measured my belly again and said she’s still measuring right in the middle, not too big, not too small.
The week leading into my 37 week appointment I started having more lower back pain and cramps that felt more like menstrual cramps so it makes me think we are getting closer. I mean, I guess we are! No way of knowing for sure just how close…which honestly has been one of the hardest things for Craig & me since we both like to have plans!! So it’s a practice in letting go of that control. The good news is we have pretty much everything ready to go.
Week 38 we saw Dr. Stein again and had a great visit! Everything is looking good. They do start checking your progress at 38 weeks and I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Dr. Stein said this was good just showing progress! She specifically mentioned how that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to say WHEN something is going to happen but it’s good my body is showing signs of getting ready at least. And I agreed, it is exciting!
(Since our last appointment we also learned that Dr. Stein had received the Top Doctor Award for Obstetrics & Gynecology for 2019! We already knew she was wonderful but it’s always nice to get some extra recognition, right?)
The following Wednesday I went back for my 39 week appointment, and I had made some more progress! 3cm dilated, still 80% effaced. But I was excited about the dilation! I definitely felt crampy the night before into the morning of this appointment so maybe that’s why.
Another week passed and I felt prepared that my body probably hadn’t made any more progress beyond the last dilation/effacement measurements…because really if it had done much more than that I would suspect it would have put me into labor! So I was prepared at our 40 week appointment not to hear much more had happened and, as I thought, I was still at 3cm/80%. I texted my doula and she reminded me that the majority of my progress now will be in labor. She said “Just think, you are in a great place, that is 3cm you don’t have to work for!” And that’s true! I guess I was secretly kinda hoping I could magically be at 10 cm and not have to work for any of it?! Juuuuust kidding.
40 weeks/the due date came and went, and we did a non-stress test a couple days past the due date to just check on baby and make sure she was good. Everything came back looking great so the doctors felt fine with me staying pregnant and delaying an induction.
I was really hoping to go into labor naturally! So while we waited for her to make her arrival, Craig and I planned out a fun weekend of just doing things together…getting brunch, going on walks, going to the movies, and more. But we didn’t get to the “and more” activities because I went into labor 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant while we were sitting in the Avengers movie! I plan to tell the entire story of that day, my labor, and ultimately her birth very soon so stay tuned for that!!
Getting Ready for Baby
Jumping back a bit…I had my hospital bag mostly packed by week 33. We had a few last things to do like install the camera in the nursery and install the car seat. Craig and I also met with Emma’s future pediatrician! Newborns have to have a newborn pediatrician appointment scheduled for within those first few days they leave the hospital, so knowing what pediatrician you’re going to use is important. I’ll be sharing our experience with that as well so stay tuned! I had no idea the process for finding, selecting, and scheduling with a pediatrician nor did I know when you were supposed to do all of this and when baby needs to go! So hopefully my future post on that will be helpful to you.
Other Symptoms
I’ve noticed some of my first trimester symptoms making a little bit of a comeback in the last few weeks…such as nausea and fatigue. It’s definitely not as bad as it was first trimester. I still have the Braxton Hicks pretty much every day. The new and strange symptom I’ve had in the third trimester is nosebleeds!! I have had some epic nosebleeds in these last few weeks. It’s so weird and while I have a history of nosebleeds since I was little, these are next level. You just have so much more blood in your body while pregnant. I had one happen one weekend and it went on for at least 30 minutes before I finally got it to stop. I was literally about to tell Craig we should go to urgent care because it wasn’t slowing down and I was starting to get concerned with how much blood I was losing, and then finally it did once I put an ice pack on my face for 10-15 minutes. Had it gone on any longer we were going to be taking a trip to the urgent care!
So that’s basically it…now it’s just a waiting game for baby to get here!! I can’t wait to share the next steps of this motherhood journey with you all. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!
If you haven’t already, Click here for Atrium Health’s really amazing and in-depth Pregnancy & Motherhood guide.
PS: Atrium Health has an amazing women’s institute helping women with reproductive concerns, IVF, and other maternal-fetal medicine, so if you need that resource, click here to learn more about the CMC Women’s Institute.
xo,
Bess
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