Third Trimester

Today is a special day in that Baby Seymour is officially 37 weeks and considered full term.  The real count down is finally on!  People ask me when I am due and I just say the second week of September.  The Maternal Fetal Medicine doc gave me a September 8th due date and my regular OB had either the 9th or the 10th.  Based on the 10th, which is what my OB's office is going by, our little man is full term and could safely arrive at any time.

28 weeks

30.5 weeks

So the million dollar question:  How are you feeling?  Today I am great and feel like I could be pregnant forever.  Yesterday I was tired and miserable.  I honestly just have my good days and bad days.  I try to take the good days and get lots of stuff done around the house because the next day I may be laying on the couch with the boys while I let them watch TV.  I had a pretty good false labor run the second week of August but eventually knew it was not the real thing. Having contractions for over 6 hours that were five minutes apart and a minute in duration did take it out of me for a couple of days.  I am grateful that the baby stayed put and now I plan on upping my activity and walking to help my body prep for labor.  At 36 weeks I was only a fingertip dilated but my cervix was already soft.  At 36-37 weeks with the boys, I was not dilated and my cervix was rigid so I was happy to hear that my body seems to be on board with what needs to happen this time around.  I want to avoid medical induction by all means necessary.  I have been taking evening primrose oil and drinking raspberry leaf tea to help prep my body for labor.  Will it actually help? I have no idea but I figure it is worth a shot. 

35 weeks

The whole summer pregnancy has been overall really enjoyable. I thought it would be difficult with the heat but I enjoy the warmer weather and I am not miserable at all.  I like that I can wear a maxi skirt or dress and look entirely appropriate.  I have not had swelling this pregnancy so I still have my wedding ring on and my feet look completely normal.  It has been nice to compare and contrast the winter vs. summer pregnancies.  

I am asked a lot if this pregnancy is different than when I was pregnant with our twin boys. The answer is both yes and no.  Pregnancy can have difficult aspects and symptoms and I have experienced them in both of my pregnancies.  In general, the pregnancy with our twins was much more difficult in the second and third trimesters.  This pregnancy was harder in the first trimester due to more intense morning sickness and my subchorionic hemorrhage but since then has been very easy.  Most everything with the twin pregnancy was a lot more intense--the heartburn, rib pain, back pain, insomnia, congestion, pitted edema, etc.  To put it into perspective,  I delivered the boys at 37 weeks and my uterus was measuring at 48 weeks.  I had spent most of my third trimester with the fundal height of a woman carrying a full term baby.  Now I am 37 weeks and I am measuring about 37 weeks.  I can do this and I can hang on like this for quite a while.  I have a short torso so I carry entirely out but my doc says the baby is not looking big at all.  Since I had a 7 lb. 9 oz. twin, I am very thankful to hear that. 

36.5 weeks- heading out to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary

Now that I am 37 weeks, I will have Eric take another pic and we can do a belly shot comparison of a twin vs. singleton pregnancy.  One thing I have also really enjoyed about this pregnancy is being able to nest. We moved about ten days before the boys were born so I never got the opportunity to really organize and clean how I wanted to.  We were simply trying to get the house to be functional.  It totally was thanks to the help of family and friends but there were still boxes that had not been touched months after the twins were born.  This time around it feels good to organize a closet, sort through paper work, etc. and feel like the house is getting ready for our little arrival. 

Eric and I feel very blessed that our baby is doing so well and look forward to sharing our happy news once he finally makes his appearance.