35/36 Week Pregnancy Update

We are officially nine months pregnant.  Wow!  It’s hard to believe.  Time has flown by so quickly.  We are almost to the end of the road. 

As we get closer, I’m slowly getting more and more miserable.  It’s harder to get comfortable at night, and I am constantly out of breath.  My ribs are almost always aching, and my back is starting to hurt more than ever. 

But that’s what we call pregnancy.  If I didn’t have these symptoms, then I wouldn’t be pregnant.  Which would mean little Jason isn’t in my belly.  I love Jason being in my belly. 

It is the most amazing thing to feel him moving, and to be able to tell how he’s situated.  Just the other night Mason and I could feel an elbow or knee poking out of my belly.  It is no longer gross for Mason, but it’s entertaining and special.  I find it amazing to see Mason feeling Jason move, and smiling.  His face is full of a big smile when he gets to feel him move.  The other night Jason had hiccups, and Mason could feel it. 

It’s so special because we know that soon this will be over.  Soon Jason will be outside of my belly, and all of this will go away.  Of course we’re excited to see him, but we’re also scared.  It’s scary bringing a baby in the world.  You have all these what-if’s.  We want to make sure that we are financially ready, but we don’t know how we can be any more ready than we are.  Everything is pretty much set, and we can’t really do anything else to prepare. 

All I have left to do is finish washing all of his clothes and blankets.  Then, I have to move all of his stuff from the spare room into our room.  I’ve made room for it all, now I just have to move it from one place to the other.  It is organized in the other room, but we need most of the stuff in our room because it will be easier.  We’ve also pretty much got everything that we need for him too.  Now we are just randomly buying diapers.  We should have enough newborn and size one diapers, but we don’t have any size two.  Therefore, we’re going to start stocking up on those.  If we need newborn or size one diapers, then we’ll get them when we start getting low.  That way we don’t end up with a ton of extra diapers that we never used. 

Mason’s dad, whom we are talking to again, is going to throw me a small shower.  That will give us more stuff, but we’ve got practically everything now.  My mom is getting the going home outfit, and Mason’s coworker is getting us a memory book.  The only thing Mason and I have yet to get is the first-aid thing that comes with nail clippers and all of that.  But we may be getting that from Mason’s family. 

As a little update, we officially have the truck paid off.  We made our last payment two weeks ago.  After that we had to get it inspected.  It ended up needing new back brakes (the front ones will be going soon, but the mechanic didn’t want to charge us more at the time), and a sway bar.  He also put the muffler on right so that it won’t keep falling off.  It turned out that it wasn’t a very cheap inspection, but we are happy because the truck is fixed.  It feels good to know that the truck is legal, paid off, and reliable. 

Anyways, my symptoms.  I’ve already listed a few, but there are a couple others. 

First, I thought I didn’t have energy before, now I really don’t have energy.  I’m still cleaning two houses with my mom to bring in at least a little extra money.  I know a lot of people work this far into their pregnancy, but it’s pretty tough on me.  I am still getting down on my hands and knees to scrub floors, which is not very easy on my back, but I do it. 

I’m actually pretty proud of myself seeing as I’m still cleaning.  In the beginning I didn’t expect to still be cleaning this far into my pregnancy.  I pay the consequences though.  By the end of the day, my feet feel like they’re about to fall off, and my back is killing me.  I’m also completely exhausted, and feel in desperate need of a nap.  Unfortunately, I am not a day sleeper, so it is very difficult for me to take a nap while the sun is out.  So I always go without a nap, but most of the time I go to bed a little earlier.

Getting around is even more difficult than it was in my last update.  I find that I need to always have support when I’m getting up.  I can’t just hop up anymore, but I have to ease my way up.  Once I’m standing I have to stand still for a couple seconds to make sure I have my balance. 

I was clumsy before I became pregnant, and we had thought that I had become clumsier in the beginning.  Now I’ve been having plenty of close calls where I feel like I’m going to fall, but I haven’t.  I know it’s not good to have close calls, but I’m being as careful as I can.  It’s just I can no longer see my feet, and I often end up tripping over things. 

Plus, I am not used to having a huge belly.  It is in the way a lot more now.  I’m always accidentally bumping things because I don’t realize how big I am.  This just recently started being a problem.  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when I get even bigger. 

Before, I didn’t really have a problem with going to the bathroom.  I went once a night, and during the day I went pretty often.  Now I go about 3 times a night, and I have to go every two to three hours during the day.  I also can not completely empty my bladder.  Once I think I’ve finished I go to get up, and realize that I still have to go.  Therefore it takes me a little longer in the bathroom. 

I still haven’t really been having any swelling, but I have been having a lot more cramps.  Sometimes I get little cramps in my hand, but most of the time it’s always in my right leg.  That happens at least twice a day now where it used to not even happen every day. 

I think I’ve been having “lightning crotch” too, but I’m not sure what it feels like.  I’ve just been having random pains in my pelvic area when I stand up, or at random times of the day.  This doesn’t happen that often though; just every couple days. 

I believe that’s pretty much it for my symptoms. 

Now, I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday.  Everything was perfect, but it was definitely a more interesting appointment than usual.  First, my OB measured me, and she told me that I’m measuring two weeks ahead, but that it’s fine.  Then, she went to try and get the heartbeat. 

Well, first my OB always checks to see how he’s positioned so she can hear his heartbeat easier.  When she started feeling my belly she told me that he had no room.  She said that my belly was so tense because he filled it so much that she couldn’t even tell how he was positioned.  In the end she had to guess where his heartbeat would be.  She found it low in my belly first, but she had been pushing on my belly to move him at the same time.  My OB wasn’t happy with how it sounded, so she tried to find it somewhere else.  She then found it high in my belly.  This made her concerned that he had turned breech somehow.  I have no idea how he would manage this seeing as there is no room for him to flip. 

Anyways, she was worried that he was breech, so she tried to find it in my lower belly again.  Luckily, she found it, and she liked the way it sounded.  She assured me that he was still head down, which I was very happy about.  I know that if he decides to flip into a breech position, that it will be very difficult to put him where he’s supposed to be.  It is possible for my OB to manually flip him, but because he has no room, it would be really hard.  Obviously, I was really relieved. 

At this appointment, I also had the strep B test.  I will receive the results of this next week. 

Plus, I had my first cervical check.  I was very nervous about this because I had heard that it is really painful.  I was also in the room by myself because Mason was working.  Therefore, I really couldn’t find any comfort in anyone. 

I had talked to my mom about it beforehand, and she had told me it wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t reassured.  I was still pretty scared. 

But, I’ll have you know.  It really wasn’t bad.  It was really uncomfortable, but not so much painful.  It was also very quick.  I expected it to be much worse, and it really wasn’t.  Now I can’t say that this is the same for everyone because it may not be.  Everyone’s tolerance is different, and no one body is the same. 

The result of my cervical check was that my cervix was closed.  My OB told me that I would not be having him any time soon, and that I was in for the long haul.  I’m not sure whether I’m happy about this or not.  I want him to stay in there as long as he needs, but I can’t wait to see him.  I’m so excited to be a mom and take care of my baby.  Of course, I don’t want to have him yet.  I want his lungs to be completely mature, and I don’t want him to have to spend any time in the NICU. 

Besides that, I gained one pound; making my total weight gain 22 pounds.  I was worried that I was going to gain more than that because of having my baby shower and eating cake, but it didn’t turn out that way. 

So that’s it for my regular appointment stuff.  But I have an appointment update.  My OB is leaving to go to family practice.  Actually, this was my last appointment with her.  Surprisingly my OB hadn’t even told me that she would be leaving.  I found out when I was checking out, and I was told that I had to see the male OB next time.  I’m not comfortable with a male doctor, so I was pretty upset about this. 

Plus my original OB is really nice, and I have had her for this whole nine months.  I don’t want someone that I barely know to deliver Jason.  I was comfortable with her, and I trusted her. 

Luckily, there will be another female OB coming in.  She just won’t be in next week, so I will have to see the other OB once; hopefully not more than once.  I’m still pretty upset about this, but there’s nothing I can do, so I’m pretty much just going with the flow of things.  I just hope my next OB is as nice as this one was. 

That is the end of my 35 and 36 week pregnancy update.  Thank you for reading, and have a great day.  Please let me know how your pregnancy is going in a comment below.  Also, if you have a blog that you would like me to check out, then leave the link below.  I will be happy to return the favor of you reading my posts.  Thanks again!