I’m combining pregnancy updates here because I just won’t get around to catching up otherwise. I know my limits. Week 36 was all about the tiredness. I’d had a sickness bug a few days before and it took me a long time to get my energy back. Missing out on a night’s sleep isn’t easy when you’re 36 weeks pregnant, up every day for the nursery run and desperately trying to get things sorted for the birth. We watched a lot of Netflix during week 36 and I took a lot of naps.
On the Friday, we had our home check appointment for the birth. My regular midwife came with a student midwife. I ran off upstairs to find my green book and Ebony followed me saying she needed to find hers too. When I eventually found my book, I ran back downstairs to find Ebony ‘reading’ all her birth books to the midwives. She’d even brought down her book about where babies come from so was sharing some of her pearls of wisdom from that book with them.
We talked about the birth and the midwife wrote down a birth plan for me. She spent a lot of time going through all the reasons why we might end up being transferred to hospital and we had a brief chat about what would happen if they were short of midwives on the day. She said it’s incredibly rare that they have to refuse a home birth due to staff shortages but then looked a bit concerned and said, “Why? You wouldn’t refuse to go to hospital, would you?” Laurie gave a vague, “Oh, probably not,” in response.
Ebony got a bit excited when the midwives were here, probably because she’d just told them how babies are made, and this made me feel a little panicked about the birth. I love the thought of Ebony being there, calm and sweet, waiting to meet her new baby brother or sister. But the thought of her jumping on the sofa, demanding snacks and having a meltdown is less appealing. I’ve been trying to talk to her about what birth should be like and how important it is to stay quiet and calm so the baby wants to come out. I’m really hoping it will work out because I would hate for her to miss such an important moment in all of our lives.
Laurie went away for the weekend to celebrate his birthday with friends and I was worried about how exhausting that might be, but actually Ebony was really lovely and let me sleep in while she played downstairs. We seemed to spend most of the weekend tidying the playroom, I don’t know how that one job manages to take up so much of our time.
And then all of a sudden I was 37 weeks and very aware that the baby could technically arrive at any moment. I sent Laurie out in a panic to buy a hose and tap connector for filling up the pool when the time comes. There are so many details we are yet to organise and it’s hard to find the time to sit down and discuss things because we’re both so exhausted by the end of the day.
Ebony arrived three days late but I have a feeling this baby will arrive sooner. I hope so, anyway, the thought of being pregnant for longer than 40 weeks and three days is more than horrifying. I’ve been trying to get sorted for the baby so have been busy washing baby clothes and digging out the nappies. I’ve also been collecting things to put in a birth box for Ebony so she has something to keep her entertained during the birth.
I spent most of the weekend having Braxton Hicks contractions. They seemed to be every half hour at least and sometimes more regular. I’d forgotten how uncomfortable they can be and it did make me feel slightly panicked about labour. I woke throughout the night on Saturday thanks to the tightenings so was feeling pretty exhausted on Sunday.
Aside from that, I’m feeling huge. The baby has dropped which means I can breathe a little easier but also means I’m getting bashed in the cervix a lot which isn’t very pleasant. Ebony has two days left in nursery and then she’ll be off for summer. I’m trying to get work done but not being very productive which I think I’ll regret as soon as Ebony is home full-time and I have no chance to work. My plan is to get the house and all baby things sorted this week so we can spend these final weeks together having fun instead of doing chores. I think we’re going to try and have some days out (to places with toilets) over these upcoming weekends so we can really appreciate this time as a family of three.
Missed my 35 week update? Catch it here.
