34 Weeks Pregnant: Medical Appointments, Preparing a Nest, and Shock at the Fast Approaching Due Date

The sun is setting on our carefree childless lives.

It’s been two weeks since my last update, so here’s an update.

The weekend before last, my husband and I spent moving things from our old place to our new place, cleaning, and shopping for stuff for the new place. We also voted in the advance polls for the provincial election in BC.

The thing's first election.

Last week I had blood tests done for my thyroid levels.

The following day I visited the maternity doctor, Dr. Down. He said that he had no concerns at all with my pregnancy, but that the fundal height measurement was significantly larger than the previous weeks. He said that if my measurements continued to grow at a larger than normal rate that an ultrasound might be ordered. He thought though that the height increase could be caused by the position of the fetus. I had to agree because the last couple of weeks the fetus has been sitting up really high in my abdominal area (hello, rib discomfort!). I also still felt like I had a urinary tract infection. My previous lab test two weeks ago had not shown a urinary tract infection, but had shown abnormal amounts of bacterial growth in my urine. Since I had all the symptoms and my doctor says that urinary tract infections often present in strange ways when women are pregnant, he prescribed antibiotics and some pyridium for the pain.

At Dr. Down's office.

The endocrinologist that afternoon stated that my thyroid levels were perfect and that no increase in medication was needed at that point, but might be before the end of the pregnancy. He said that I had gained hardly any weight in the past month. Then he said something than almost made me faint. He told me to start eating ice cream before bed at night. What!? Apparently when a woman is overweight and pregnant, towards the end of the pregnancy the fetus starts using up all her sugars and this causes her body to burn fat for energy. This produces ketones which cross the placenta and this can harm the fetus. In order to prevent this, having something with sugar in the evening before bed can help hold the body until breakfast. My endocrinologist specified that it should be cheap ice cream with pectin in it which makes it harder for the body to digest and therefore will make it last in the body longer.

I had another visit to the chiropractor for an adjustment last week. While my back was doing better than it had been in a while, my round ligaments and hips have been bothering me. But a lot of this is just pregnancy. The adjustments help, but nothing will take away all the discomfort. I just remind myself every time I feel uncomfortable that I’m lucky to be pregnant and that I should never take that for granted.

I spent the entire last week taking carloads of stuff from our old place to our new place. This was grueling, exhausting, and tedious, but I was able to move a lot and unpack and organize at the new place quite a bit. Plus, carrying boxes up two flights of steps one at a time was an amazing workout.
My lovely parents in law returned to town in the middle of the last week to help us more with fixing up the new place and helping us to move stuff in and organize. The relief of having someone to help us prepare our nest helped to calm my anxieties somewhat. They also brought a bag full of some clothes for the fetus, books, and a couple of beautiful blankets that my mother in law made herself. I was overwhelmed by their kindness, love, and generosity. Naturally, moving is always a nightmare, but with help it seems less daunting. By the time they left at the end of last weekend, I felt that our new place would work when the thing arrived (with more unpacking, organizing, and preparation of the room for it).

Filling and refilling these  Rubbermaid containers is actually a really great way to move bit by bit.

I hit 33 weeks pregnant last Friday and my parents in law were there to celebrate this milestone with us. We never thought we’d be lucky enough to get pregnant again, even with IVF, let alone make it this far through a pregnancy. We feel so fortunate.

A note on moving while pregnant, I do not recommend it. Moving is gruelling and stressful and especially towards the end of a pregnancy it really takes its toll. The stress and anxiety is awful. The physical symptoms that moving causes are also annoying. I have found that my round ligaments, hips, and back are so sore from all of the moving.

The new place is providing inspiration for writing, but moving is such a hassle.

This last weekend was the start of prenatal classes at the Mothering Touch. We chose a format where we took class all day on Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m..  We have another all day class tomorrow. We also had a hospital tour last night at Victoria General Hospital as part of the package. The classes come with a handbook for the mother and a handbook for the birthing partner. They also provided snacks in the morning and afternoon (we were free for an hour to go for lunch wherever we wanted to or bring our lunch- we chose to go to our favourite Japanese restaurant, Sen Zushi, for a delicious bento box).

The class itself provided some useful nuggets like how to time contractions, at what point one should actually go to the hospital (if one goes too early, one will just be sent home), things to bring to the hospital, and essentials to buy for a baby (this is something we’ve been really struggling with because we don’t want to end up with a bunch of unnecessary stuff that clutters up the place and never gets used). We practised various positions to labour in (FYI they are all pretty weird and uncomfortable, but I guess you’re already so uncomfortable maybe being in a contorted position all of a sudden feels comfortable?), how birthing partners could help coach the labouring person through the pain, and we held ice in our bare hands and practised breathing exercises and then the birthing partner coaching us through the ice pain (I found the visualization of yellow diamonds that my husband provided to be very helpful and almost forgot to drop the ice when the time was up). We discussed pain control methods that were available at the hospital and pros and cons of each.

At Sen Zushi for lunch in the middle of our class day.

At the hospital tour of Victoria General Hospital, we were told which entrance to go to if we arrived in the night vs. the day, where the maternity floor is, what a birthing room looks like and what’s in it, what the rooms look like where the mother and baby are taken after (there are private rooms and shared rooms), and some of the other rooms and features of the ward. The woman giving us the tour told us some useful things to bring to the hospital, what not to bring, strategies for feeding the birthing partner (food is only provided to the mother), and other useful tips (she’s been a doula for years). I had seen some of the floor from when my sister gave birth, but seeing more of it, and hearing some tips, dos, and don’ts was helpful. It will be less alien when we end up there in around six weeks.

I was on antibiotics for one week and the symptoms seemed to mostly disappear, however, naturally since I’m six weeks from my due date and the fetus is kicking and pressing on my bladder I still have urgency and frequency of urination that are more than in my pre-pregnancy life. Also, the antibiotics seemed to cause diarrhea and nausea towards the end. However, those could just be symptoms of the late pregnancy. Who knows. All I know is that I had a massage scheduled earlier this week and after getting on the table I was so sick that I had to rush to the bathroom and then cancel the massage. I also may have overdone it with all of the moving, packing, unpacking, and cleaning of the old and new place. It’s hard to tell.

I also had acupuncture this week. My visits will be switching from monthly as they have been for the past many months, to two weeks from now, then weekly to prepare my body for the birth. Mention of preparing my cervix and perineum for the birth via acupuncture sounded strange, but I guess there are points for that that someone figured out years ago. In any event, it won’t hurt and may help and it’s mostly covered by insurance, so why not try it?

I had my lithium levels tested at the lab this week and reviewed my results online at myehealth.ca which is where Life Labs reports results of patients (if you sign up to access your results online you find them there). My levels were excellent and my kidney functions were totally normal. This means that I do not have to return to my perinatal psychiatrist before the birth (unless my results are out of range in a month when I retest or I have an episode, but hopefully it will be relatively smooth sailing from here).

At the lab again for yet another blood test.

This week I’m feeling continuing round ligament pain, hip and back pain, and significant rib pain (and shortness of breath) as the fetus occupies even more of my abdominal cavity and grows bigger by the week. I suspect the rib pressure and shortness of breath has contributed to the panic attacks I’ve been having this last week on a daily basis. Although, maybe it’s the stress of moving and the fast approaching due date.

Time is running out.

I feel exhausted, but the drive to nest is interesting and has given me strength to move more than I would have thought that I’d be able to. I’m still not napping during the day and I’m sleeping a fair number of hours at night. I just know I have to keep going, so that I’m ready for when the thing arrives in around six weeks and my life changes forever.

33 weeks pregnant.

34 weeks pregnant.