Weeks 36-40 Bumpdate
This post is a few weeks late, but I still wanted to do it to document the last weeks of my pregnancy. Week 40 was very rough on me, but ended with a very healthy baby boy at 41 weeks + 0 days. Continue reading to learn about the days leading up to his arrival.
When are weeks 36-40?
Friday, May 4, 2018 - Thursday, June 7, 2018 (my due date was June 1, but 40 weeks + 6 days was June 7
What’s the size of the baby?
According to the Bump app, by week 40 the little man is the size of a watermelon, and the average full-term baby measures about 20.2 inches from crown to heel and weighs 7.6 pounds.
Waist size?
I completely forgot to measure my waist one last time... oops.
Symptoms?
Body: Oh man... where do I even start. Leading up to my due date I was getting exponentially more uncomfortable thanks to my hip and back pain, and sleep was hard to come by. By 39 weeks I was dilated to 1.5 cm and my doctor did a membrane sweep, which I was hoping to lead to me going into labor. After a couple of days of stronger contractions they died down, and nothing happened.
At my 40 week appointment I was 2 cm dilated and had another sweep. After that appointment I continued to have prodromal labor all day and most of the night. This meant I would have contractions that would wake me up around 6 am everyday, and would continually get worse as the day went on. Then they would get to be extremely uncomfortable until 2-4 am the next morning. I would have to take Tylenol and multiple hot showers throughout the day to try to cope. If you asked anyone who saw me those nights, they would have sworn that we would have a baby by the next morning. Because of this, I was the typical first time mom and went into labor and delivery twice thinking it was go time.
At one point in the last week of my pregnancy, I was so sleep deprived that I got a really bad dizzy spell. Luckily I had a Non-Stress Test (NST) the next morning, so they monitored the little man and checked to make sure it was okay.
Sleep: What is sleep? At this point, I'm going to get more and better quality sleep after little man is born.
Cravings & Aversions: Nothing I can think of...
Nausea: Still having the nighttime indigestion, but it hasn't gotten any worse.
Movements: He was a little wiggle worm (and still is now that he's here).
Dreams: Honestly, I was not getting enough sleep in one stretch to have dreams by the end of my pregnancy.
Stretch Marks: I didn't get any! Yay!!!
Gender?
It's a boy! Read more about our gender reveal here.
Must have items?
A hot shower/bath and Tylenol. These two things were what got me through the last few weeks, and became a necessity during the week of prodromal labor.
What do you miss?
Being comfortable. I cannot sit, stand or lay anywhere for more than 30 mins at a time without my back and hips to becoming extremely uncomfortable.
What are you looking forward to?
My induction date: June 8. I know that no matter what happens, this will all come to an end and we get to meet out little man soon.
Best part of these weeks?
All the love and support I've received while I've been so uncomfortable. My mom took time off of work to be with me while I was having the prodromal labor, which allowed Jason to save as much of his his PTO to spend with the little man once he's born.
Challenges these weeks?
PRODROMAL LABOR. period.
Hubby’s thoughts?
He has been so helpful, because I was basically as useful as a sack of potatoes the last couple weeks of my pregnancy. He gave me so many back rubs, and did anything he possibly could to help me feel comfortable when the contractions would get really strong at night.
Since I documented my whole pregnancy on my blog, I figured it only made sense to write about Will's birth. I don't plan on getting too graphic with the details, but there will probably be some TMI-type information related to childbirth included in this post. So, if you're not into that, you might want to skip this one. Now let's get to the story (it's kind of a long one).