How far along: 36 weeks,4 days
Weight gained: 12lbs. With only four more weeks I’m not sure if I’m going to actually make it to the gain I had with Avery. Which actually sort of makes sense because I lost more at the beginning of this one and I’ve eaten far healthier. My pre-pregnancy weight was the same.
Baby Size: Now Eli is over 6lbs! So insane to me. The bigger he gets, the more real it gets for me. Unfortunately, it was confirmed he’s in transverse breech position so he seems even bigger to me since that isn’t the most efficient position for a body in a belly. I’m hoping against hope he turns on his own, and soon.
Cravings: Yup, I wanted ice cream bad on Wednesday because it was SO hot outside (91*F a record for MO in April!) and last night I actually made French fries! haha
Aversions: Coffee, all food…..just food in general. I’ve been getting very nauseous lately and all the contractions and crampiness don’t help my appetite.
Physical: It’s been a week or a week and a half since I had the suspicion that Eli might be in breech position (he was breech for most of my second trimester and flipped when I entered third) but my midwife during my appointment on Tuesday confirmed it. She gave me a quick sonogram to see everything going on in there. I have high fluid (good), he’s measuring small (makes things hopeful for a flip), and he’s in transverse breech which is feet down rather than butt down and it’s a little easier of a position to turn head down from. The one concern is that his cord is all down near his feet which means if my water broke it could come out and once the cord touches oxygen the baby has to be out within a minute or two…..scary. Fortunately though I’m not quite 37 weeks yet and he may turn on his own and if not, a manual turn (called a Version where the midwife turns him from the outside)has an extremely high success rate.
Since his head is sticking out of my side it is very uncomfortable. I’ve only had two nights with insomnia this week and otherwise have slept fine but waking up so sore is always hard. His position is such that it makes me crampy and a lot of Braxton Hick’s contractions so I’m trying to drink lots of water and rest.
Emotional: Before Tuesday, I was just excited and giddy. After Tuesday things have been a little up and down. Mostly I have decided not to stress out at all about him being breech (most practitioners won’t deliver breech vaginally but schedule c-sections…which I refuse to do) because it’s not worth it. My general plan is to go with the flow, if a Version seems like a really good low risk option I may go with that and if he flips back breech or the version doesn’t work I plan on going into labor breech. However, if he won’t flip during labor or gets distressed or something isn’t working out, I’m all for whatever option will get me a healthy baby, safely…c-section or otherwise.
Thinking about all this stuff has definitely given me a couple downer days. I know things will work out just how God planned them and so I’m not worrying, but I do certainly get affected emotionally because of my own expectations and wondering if they’ll be met at all.
Belly!
I love that you’re going pantless
he’s really sticking out isn’t he!
Just 4 weeks! You look darling and I pray little Eli will turn on his own soon.
Hey! I did not deliver breech – but you know my story with Addie. After 25 hours or labor, my day concluded with an emergency c-section. I just want to tell you that I know you’re a tough lady and can do it naturally, but IF your docs/midwife think you should schedule a c-section instead of trying vaginal delivery THEN c-section…it’s worth it to schedule it (in my opinion). The recovery time was really rough after Addie – having to go through both I mean. With Jack (b/c he was scheduled) it was so much easier – At three weeks I felt amazing. With Addie my recovery time was almost three months. Just my input
I know you’ll do great whatever you decide though. Still praying for that little one to turn for you!
I understand where you’re coming from but there’s no way I’m going to expect the worst and go that direction. I’d much rather hope for the best and if the worst happens, it happens.
However, it’s too early to think about any of that anyway. I’m going with preventative measures for now and we’ll talk about more at my next appointment. Thanks for the input! So sorry you had that rough of a recovery with Addie. I didn’t know it was 3 months!
I can’t believe you have such a big belly with only 12 lbs weight gain. And you look so growing!!! I wish my skin keeps as clean as yours!
I haven’t think about how to deliver the baby, but I think the most important is to deliver safely the baby, everything else doesn’t matter.
Hi, I am new to your blog. You are a beautiful pregnant woman! I hope you don´t mind me asking about the weight gain (as most women are reluctant to discuss it
). My weight gain with my first was similar to yours at this stage of the pregnancy (maybe one or two pounds more). I didn´t intentionally keep the weight gain that low but I was positively surprised that I didn´t put on some extra pounds. You said that your weight gain was similar to that with your first though your diet is very different. Would you say it is a genetic think and eating well helps? I am asking because I am currently hoping to become pregnant for the second time so I am awfully interested…Thank you!
Hi there! Thanks for reading and your kind words:)
I do think that some of pregnancy weight gain is certainly genetic but staying healthy is really really important. My eating habits with my first were not necessarily really bad but I would let the nausea and heartburn keep me from eating all day. So I’d have breakfast, and maybe some pretzels later and I don’t think that was good for my body but it wasn’t like I was cramming fast food down my throat every day. I also exercised once or twice each day with my first.
Now, with my second, I eat very healthy and drink fresh juices and have my meals on a regular basis but I don’t exercise nearly as often since I have a toddler to look after.
I will also say, that even though my pregnancy weight for both was in the normal range, I still felt like I had plenty of ‘extra’ and so as I get a big belly, other parts of my body are losing weight. Like my arms, legs and face.
Do you notice a big difference with your second? I know sometimes the gender of the baby can affect the amount of gain too.
Try moxabustion! It has an even higher success rate than a version for turning breech babies. And Webster technique too. You look so beautiful!
I am not yet pregnant again, didn´t make that clear but I am hoping to “make it happen” in the near future
. I personally would never ever attempt to turn a breech baby. It is too dangerous and just not worth it. Midwives might tell you differently but the obviously make their money buy delivering children naturally so I´d say they might be biased. I had a c-section myself and even though I would never recommend to have one wothout necessity it wasn´t a big deal. Recovery was super fast so don´t be scared if you end up having one…seriously!
You are just glowing! Can’t believe it’s 36 weeks already… time is flying.