Baby #3: Week 33 Pregnancy Update

Baby #3: Week 33 Pregnancy Update

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How far along?

This is our week 33 pregnancy update! Wow! 33 weeks already. I’m praying we make it to full-term (37-42 weeks). Time is flying by and our little one will be here soon. I’m starting to feel excited!

How is baby developing?

The growth estimates claim that babies this age are usually a little over 4 lbs and about 17-inches long… or roughly the size of a pineapple. (Imagining a pineapple in my belly made me laugh!) My doctor says that my uterus size is “spot on” for 33 weeks so baby is growing at the right pace.

There is not as much room for the little guy to move anymore so I am keeping mental track of all of his movements. He is definitely more active mid-morning, late evening, and the middle of the night!

He has a strong and steady heartbeat, and it is always wonderful to hear it at our appointments.

How am I feeling?

The last few weeks have been a tad rough on me physically. At 31 weeks, I ended up with a very bad allergy spell that turned into a sinus infection thanks to a wind storm. Shortly after that, our boys came down with a nasty stomach virus and shared it with everyone including me.

Let me tell you, dealing with a stomach virus at 32 weeks pregnant was an absolutely miserable experience! I was so weak physically that the next day, I lost my balance and wrenched my poor back badly to avoid falling on our 2.5-year-old, Peanut, and my huge belly. It has been almost a week since then, and my back is still not quite back to normal.

I have not been sleeping well this week; mostly because our 15-month-old, Pickle, has been very fussy. He fights bedtime and wakes multiple times throughout the night. To top it off, Peanut has been waking up super early each morning (anywhere between 6 and 6:30am). Even though Bradley takes care of most of the night-time parenting tasks (getting bottles, changing diapers, etc.), I’m quite exhausted from all of the sleep interruptions.

New in the last week is swelling in my right foot at the end of a long day. So I am trying to get my feet up more during the day. Working in an office, you would think that this would be easy but it is more challenging than I realized. It is hard to type, hard to breathe, makes my back hurt more, etc. Oh, well.

Had any appointments?

I had my 32/33 week appointment a few days ago. It was a standard check-in, but my doctor gently scolded me for not taking it easy. She gave me a note to give to my supervisors about limiting my walking/physical activity during the day.

Fortunately, my immediate boss is very understanding and said that if/when there comes a point where I will need to work from home, just let her know. I am fortunate that the majority of my job (about 95% of it, actually) can be done remotely from anywhere. Many other women don’t have that luxury.

I’m really going to try to make it to the middle of May, but I will probably have to start working from home on Fridays just to give my body more time to recover from the grueling work week.

My next doctor appointment is a little over a week away, and then we start the weekly check-ins!

I need to schedule an appointment for our 36-week ultrasound. My doctor likes to do one later in the third trimester to check the baby’s position and the conditions of the placenta, etc. Also, because I just turned 35 (my birthday was April 15), I am now considered “late maternal age” and warrant “extra” monitoring during the last month.

That reminds me: I also need to pre-register with the hospital so all of my information is on hand. We no longer live five minutes away… it is more like 20-25 minutes …and with how quickly both Peanut and Pickle were born (2.5 hours and 3 hours respectively), we don’t need to be wasting time at the check-in desk!

Baby prep?

We actually have been doing more baby prep! Whoo-hoo!

This last Sunday, my husband and I purged the boys’ bedroom, re-arranged the furniture, and organized the closet. Soon there will be two toddlers sleeping in there as we are beginning to transition Pickle into a “big boy” toddler bed. The goal is to have him sleeping comfortably in his own bed before the baby arrives.

On Wednesday, my in-laws came over. While Papa was entertaining the boys, my awesome mother-in-law helped Bradley go through all of our baby clothes, sort them, and purged quite a few. It was a massive job and it took them a few hours to finish.

By mid-May, I will need to order replacement parts for my breast pump to ensure that everything arrives in time for the new baby. Considering all of the breastfeeding challenges we had with both Peanut and Pickle, I think it is in everyone’s best interests — especially mine — to just assume I will have to pump from the start and be ready to do so.

In late May, we plan to have the master bedroom ready for the new addition and re-assemble the bassinet.

Random thoughts?

The aches and pains are getting worse with every passing day, and some days are just really bad days. It is getting harder and harder to drive, to sit upright at my desk at work, and even to walk around the grocery store.

My employers just announced that, effective July 1st, they will extend paid maternity leave from 6-weeks to 12-weeks. Which means, if he is late and born on or after July 1st, I will qualify! However, if he is early or on time (his due date June 21st), I don’t qualify and only have the 6-weeks of paid leave.

As you might imagine, I am kind of torn. Physically, I definitely want this little one to be early. This pregnancy has been significantly more challenging than my first two! However, financially, I would love to have 12 weeks of paid leave. As it stands, my maternity plan is to have 6 weeks of paid leave, then 6 weeks of part-time (hopefully, mostly from home) before transitioning back into my regular full-time schedule.

Not really sure which to pray for at the moment… I take that back. I know. I will pray for a healthy baby and a smooth labor/delivery without any complications. I will leave the rest up the Lord.

Photo by Nynne Schrøder on Unsplash.

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