I don’t understand how it can be time for another update already, this week has flown by. Week 33 has been hard work. At 33 weeks, the baby is the size of an elephant. Probably. I’m really starting to feel the added weight now, I just feel so cumbersome. I can hardly believe there are seven weeks left to go, I feel so big now.
I have spent a lot of the week falling asleep by accident. I keep waking up in Ebony’s bed or on the sofa in a state of confusion after having yet another accidental nap. Ebony has been really lovely and has just been letting me sleep while she keeps herself busy. The other day, I woke up to an entire cut out an artistic impression of our family complete with boat (we don’t have a boat). I stayed up late with a friend on Saturday (11:30pm, that is late now) and then spent most of Sunday napping to compensate, I just can’t hack the late nights at the moment.
I can’t go more than a few minutes without peeing which is making everyday life pretty much impossible. I can just about get to nursery and back without wetting myself, but every minute spent at the park feels like a ticking time bomb counting down until unintentional public urination. Everything feels like an effort at the moment, I can definitely feel myself winding down into bare minimum mode. I keep agreeing to do things then immediately regretting it, sobbing and backing out. I really need to get myself in order.
I seem to spend most of the night awake, no matter how exhausted I’m feeling. I wake constantly to pee and it feels like a lot of effort to lug my humongous body to the bathroom and back. I’m currently sleeping with no fewer than five pillows propping up various bits of my ginormous self. I want to weep most mornings when my alarm goes off because I’m just not ready to face the day yet. And because I need another pee.
My back is starting to ache now and I find myself in pain by the end of the day. Lying in Ebony’s single bed at bedtime doesn’t seem to help and neither does falling asleep on the sofa. These are not comfy places for my poor pregnant hips and back.
I think my pregnancy glow is starting to wear off now, I’m always surprised by how exhausted I look when I see myself in the mirror. My growing bump is endlessly fascinating to me. I can’t remember being this interested in it last time. I think I was just so horrified with how my body was changing, I didn’t really spend much time looking at our thinking about it. This time, it’s much more interesting. I am seriously huge and there is something weirdly pleasing about that. I have been applying coconut oil to my bump to help with the stretching and now it’s baby-feet smooth so I spend a lot of time rubbing my belly in the mirror and exclaiming how soft my skin is. Laurie is tired of this.
I’ve been feeling less anxious about getting a home birth this week. I heard a local woman was refused a home birth at the last minute due to staff shortages and it sent me into a panic. But Sarah from Let Them Be Small got her home birth last week and she is local to me so now I’m feeling less nervous. I have a midwife appointment on Friday, so I might speak to my midwife about it then. Though I’m probably not going to feel much better if she says they have loads of home births booked in and all the midwives are on holiday.
And, finally, I am getting Braxton Hicks all the time. They. Are. So. Annoying. I get them whenever I get stressed out, I actually thought Ebony tidying her room was going to be the end of me today. It took two hours of gentle coaxing, and associated Braxton Hicks, for her to pick everything up off her bedroom floor.
If you missed my 32 week update, you can read it here.