Third Trimester

To show you what the start of the third trimester looks like....

28 weeks

Of course there are several ways to track pregnancy, each giving a slightly different set of dates.  One system puts us a week and a half into the third trimester, while another system says it started Wednesday of this week.

Symptoms-wise, the third trimester definitely started this week!

I was, for the most part, spared the hormone-based heartburn of the first trimester.  This week physics prevailed.  Baby is growing upwards, and there is what I think is a foot just below my stomach, and the heartburn has been fierce.  (Tums help for about 5 minutes, and it turns out that Malox, one of the few other pregnancy-safe heartburn drugs, was pulled off the market just a couple weeks ago.  Good thing I have the Maple View!  It helps more than Tums.)  The sciatica is also back, another point to physics.

As the sun stays up later in the evening, I am finding that my bedtime is closing in from the other direction again. I can usually stay awake until the sun goes down, but that may not last much longer.

I have also suddenly found tying my sneakers and shaving my legs to be a bit more challenging.  It is still quite possible, just not comfortable.  I expected that to come, but in June, not May!

The good news is that symptoms of the third trimester are way more fun than the symptoms of the first and second, because they are accompanied by wiggles and snuggles and kicks.  We have a very active and interactive child already (I am sure we will be less excited about this in the future during mass or when it is time to learn to sit still in first grade).

If we rub a spot that feels like an arm or leg, it will often move or kick back.  When Christian talks to baby at close range, we get jumps and full body wiggles.  Baby dances when we sing in church. There is a certain pattern of positioning and behavior for when baby is unhappy/upset/not interested in playing, in which baby snuggles deep against my spine/hips and stays rather still for a few hours.

Excited to be a good big-fur-sister.

So, as July approaches, pregnancy may be a bit less comfortable, but it is a lot of fun!  Part of me is sad that in the fall LC won't be able to spend days at work with me.

Wednesday we had the 28 week belly check, in which all looked good, measurements were perfect, and the heart rate was about the same as the last visit. LC kept punching the heartbeat "microphone" that was poking him/her. (Like I said, fiesty kid.)  We also started Bradley (childbirth) classes Wednesday night, but more about that when we are a bit farther in.