38 Weeks Pregnant - nesting, here we come!

Weekly pregnancy updates from a childbirth educator, doula and mum to 2 little girls. Come and join me on my journey as I share how I’m feeling, how baby is developing, what I’m doing to prepare, and some favourite resources!

You hear a lot about pregnant women’s “nesting instinct” as they get ready for the arrival of their baby. There are some stereotypes about the nesting mum who cleans every tiny corner of the house and polishes up things that she would never even think of needing to clean at any other time in life! I can’t say it’s hit me to that extreme, but I have certainly gone all in on the preparations I still wanted to make for baby’s arrival and for postpartum. This has looked like…

Cooking - batch cooking and getting some extra food in the freezer so there is less cooking to do in the early days.

Laundry - baby clothes, sheets and wraps, car seat covers.

Cleaning - car seats, bouncer frame, storage containers for “too big” baby clothes, since we can't fit everything in the drawers!

Bassinet - putting a mattress protector and freshly washed sheet in the bassinet, and then covering it over with a rug to keep the dust off till baby is here.

Homebirth gear prep - pulling together some old towels, sheets and waterproofing that we may need at the birth, and putting them all together along with the birth pool and other things we have ready for the birth. Checking the tap fitting for the pool hose fits onto one of our taps and is all good to go when we need it.

Buying - a “fiocco nascita”, or “birth bow”. In Italy we have a tradition of putting a birth announcement bow on the front door of the house when baby arrives - pink for a girl, or blue for a boy. We’d bought one for the birth of our first daughter in Italy, but left it in storage with most of our other things when we moved to Australia, so I made the bow for our second daughter’s birth. This time I toyed with the idea of making one (our first blue bow!), but honestly didn’t feel like I had enough inspiration or enough time, so we ended up ordering it online. If we have more children my plan is to reuse the bows we already have.

I’m sure there’s been more, but that gives you a bit of an idea as to what my week has looked like! This is of course in addition to all the regular activities. But while I’m on the topic of nesting, I wanted to mention an idea that I’ve come across in the past year or so and absolutely love...

Nesting Parties!

Instead of a baby shower, why not plan a nesting party? If you have family and friends around you who want to support you as you prepare to welcome your new baby, rather than have a party where you have a nice time and are left with cleaning up to do and possibly gifts you can’t use or are doubles or triples of things you already have... plan a nesting party! This is where they all come to your house to help you prepare in a practical way for postpartum. How can they help? The sky is the limit! Spring cleaning, setting up the nursery if you have one, prepping meals to freeze, washing baby clothes, garden maintenance, or whatever you planned to do to prepare for baby’s arrival and the postpartum period!

What symptoms am I feeling?

A bit of the usual back pain, a bit of tiredness, but mostly just heavily pregnant! I have been feeling baby burrowing down deeper and deeper in preparation for birth, but I know we could still have several weeks to go. It’s good to know he's getting nice and comfy though!

Good news this week is that my last lot of blood tests came through showing all my levels have gone up again! My platelets are back over 150, haemoglobin is looking good, and ferritin is climbing back up! And this is despite the fact that I’m at the end of my pregnancy, and all I’ve done is eat a bit more meat (but just my normal quantity really), and take Spatone twice a day!

How has baby been developing this week?

Roughly 46-48 cm and 2.9-3.4kg. Toenails are full-length (by the time baby is born you might already need to trim their nails!), and most of the lanugo, or fine hair covering baby’s skin in utero, has disappeared.

What am I doing to prepare?

Besides “nesting”, I am so glad to be back to my regular routine with birth prep exercises and affirmations! I have also managed a couple of walks which has been good. At my midwife’s suggestion I tried out the TENS machine one evening - just on a mild setting to get used to operating it. It feels amazing! I can understand why so many mums swear by it in labour! I didn’t have one for my previous births (both unmedicated homebirths) and am keen to try it out. My husband has also been assisting me with side-lying releases which has been fantastic.

And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛

[Image credit: Photo by Tuva Mathilde Løland on Unsplash]