Woah, 35 weeks. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve had the following conversation this weekend:
Person: “How far along are you?”
Me: “35 weeks”
Person: “Woah, so it could come any time now!”
Me: “Yeah, or it might not come till February…”
And that’s where it is at. It’s that fine line between being ready now, and not being SO ready that I get frustrated when January comes and goes and I’m still pregnant. Because this is my first pregnancy, chance are, even though this baby is a bit big, I will go over my due date (which, as we all found out the other week, is just an estimate anyway!).
But anyway, here’s what the 35th week looked like:
Sleep: Very minimal at nights, and strangely prolific during the day. One day I lay on the bed to give Pepper a hug, and the next thing I knew it was 3pm and I’d been asleep since midday. Why is it so much easier to sleep in the day, and in ‘awkward’ positions (read: sprawled out around the dog, sometimes in a “U” shape etc).
Food: I have hated eating this week. For some reason I have found it incredibly uninspiring, and have had to force myself to really eat at lunch and dinner. Some days I have failed, which I know isn’t good.
Body: I don’t feel like I’m much bigger this week, just sort of sitting at a nice comfortable pregnancy size. I’ve had a lot more braxton hicks, and general cramping, as well as some pretty awful back pain. Heat packs have been great, and I’ve been trying out a few breathing techniques, vizualisation, and labour positions to get me ready for the big day. I figure if my body wants to practice contractions in preparation, then it really is beneficial for me to practice pain relief! Not that I’m really in ‘pain’ (except for the back ache, that is a bit hard to handle), but it’s a good reminder to be practicing everything I need to!
Feelings: This week I’ve just been getting really excited. It’s funny, 1 week out till Christmas and I am usually getting so excited about that, this year I’m just excited to meet my baby in a few weeks time!
I think Luke is feeling the same, except for when I mentioned that it was only 5 weeks to go, and then he went a bit pale, and we both just lay there thinking “Oh. My. Goodness. This is REALLY happening”. And that was a bit overwhelming, but we distracted ourselves with some TV time and it was all good again! With something like this, it doesn’t matter how much you prepare, sometimes you’re just hit with the realisation that this is like a big Tsunami wave coming towards you that will change your life forever, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Baby: Bubs has been SO active lately. I can definitely tell that it is running out of room, because I can feel such small movements, and can see all these squiggles on my belly. In that respect, this has probably been my favourite stage of pregnancy. To see the baby move so often in the day, and to not be in control of my body like that anymore is quite liberating and exciting. I’ve been trying to identify where bubs is sitting at different times, and I think I’m getting better at it. Bubs is always head down, and loves to sit on the right side of my body. I can feel its bum up in my chest when I’m sitting down. I don’t seem to suffer from much shortness of breath due to baby’s position (I do suffer some shortness of breath for other reasons before I was pregnant- this hasn’t been exasperated at all), which is good.
Summary: All is good. Bring on the baby. 
I am so excited for you guys! I can’t believe it wasn’t that long ago and I was thinking and feeling exactly the same things as you, and I have to admit, I kind miss my belly and feeling bubs moving around, even though I have her here with me now.
I totally know what you mean about sleeping, I found the best sleeps were those during the day when I was meant to be doing other things. Just go with it, everyone told me to try and get as much sleep as possible before bubs was born and I just didn’t take advantage of the chancesI had to nap and boy do I wish I had now. So enjoy it!
Can’t wait to hear your exciting news, and I’ll say a pray or two that you’ll meet you little one sooner rather than later (but not too soon obviously!).
Thanks Kylie,
After the awful sleep I had on Sunday night, I am definitely just trying to sleep whenever’s possible. Seems impossible this week though- so crazy!
T
Oooo, very exciting. I am only 2 weeks behind you, so it’s wonderful to hear how you are feeling when I will be in exactly the same position in a few short days.
Don’t beat yourself up too much about not feeling like eating. The whole ‘you must get a constant supply of nutrients’ argument just doesn’t wash in an evolutionary sense. You can trust your body to let you know when you need food. Not feeling excited about food prep, that’s another thing entirely!
Sleep is heavily influenced by hormones, so maybe mother nature has a whole new set of rules when it comes to sleeping in pregnancy? If it doesn’t interfere with your world too much (just like eating when you’re hungry) sleep when you’re tired. It can feel strange to ‘break all the rules’ re sleep and mealtimes, but the way we generally approach those aspects in life are possibly more conditioning than respect of our bodies cues. Luckily, in pregnancy, we get a free pass to listen to our bodies and eat, sleep, move, cry, hide, wash, etc whenever the urge takes us! Hooray for pregnancy!
Very wise advice Jess.
Fortunately I’m in a position where I have very little things I ‘have’ to do. Even my regular appointments (craft group, mothers group etc) aren’t thing I have to be at at a specific time. So it makes eating/sleeping whenever a whole lot easier!
Luke and I actually had a chat about it last night and came to a similar conclusion- that this was just the stage of pregnancy that I was at, and we should embrace it because it will all be over before we know it!
Hope your pregnancy is progressing well, and that you too are getting excited about meeting your little one! Are you very prepared, or do you still have some things to do?
T
The countdown is well and truly on now! Good luck with everything Talia