27 Weeks Pregnant - heading into the third trimester!
Well, that went quickly! Here we are heading into third trimester! I am so so grateful for how well I’ve been feeling this pregnancy. My energy levels have been so good, it’s really been amazing!
I’m also really glad I was able to get into a routine at 20 weeks with daily birth prep exercises, both mental and physical. Now in third trimester I have some changes to my birth prep routine.
24 Weeks Pregnant - finding balance and rhythms in life
It’s been a quiet week this week, just normal busy daily life with my husband and two little girls. There’s nothing much particularly coming up for me around pregnancy right now, though I am feeling baby move regularly and continuing with my near-daily practice of Spinning Babies exercises, breathing and “horse lips” exercises, and listening to positive birth affirmations and relaxation/visualisation audios. I didn’t have enough of these quiet weeks in my last pregnancy, so I am really enjoying it!
23 Weeks Pregnant - birth reflexes, aka, your body knows when to push!
I listen to The Great Birth Rebellion podcast regularly, and this week I listened to an episode I’d missed on birth reflexes. That was really fascinating, hearing the explanations and comparing with my experiences with my first two births.
21 Weeks Pregnant - my birth preparation protocol
You may have heard the saying, “if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail”. I feel this applies to birth as much as anything else. Now clearly, I don’t mean we can “fail” at giving birth! That baby is going to come out! However, if we have a particular plan for how we would like the birth to occur, we need to prepare for it. This applies whether you are planning a vaginal birth or a Caesarean birth.
18 Weeks Pregnant - plan for your birth!
I’m planning my third birth after two uncomplicated, and frankly, fantastic birth experiences. But let me tell you, you never get to the point where you don’t need to plan for birth! And you can’t just “copy and paste” your birth plan either, since no two pregnancies and births are the same. Not to mention the fact that we never finish learning. You may have made an informed decision on something for your first birth that you now have more information on or think differently about, and so you make a different decision for a subsequent birth or postpartum…
14 Weeks Pregnant - the second trimester
So when does the second trimester start? There’s quite a bit of variation here. Some people say the first trimester is weeks 1-12, some say 1-13 and some say 1-14. Logically, since “trimester” means 3 months, I think 13 weeks would have to be the closest (there are a few days more than 4 weeks in a month, so over 3 months it adds up to an extra week). But I can also see the sense of going with 14 weeks, since that is only about 12 weeks from conception... But you know what? I don’t really care any more! For me, the first trimester ends when the placenta takes over and I start feeling more normal again!
13 Weeks Pregnant - the blessing of health
This week we had a visit from our midwife, Haylie — the official booking-in visit. She was apparently shocked to see the results of my first trimester blood tests with all levels in the recommended ranges. Apparently I’m abnormal 😂 I have to say I do feel like a bit of a boring character at these booking-in appointments, not having any of the possible medical conditions they have to ask me about! Jokes aside, I am very thankful for good health!! It is such a blessing, and I don’t take it for granted…
4 Weeks Pregnant - a positive test!!
I'm pregnant!!!!!! 🥰 Come and join me on my pregnancy journey as a childbirth educator, doula and mum to 2 little girls. I'm hoping to share weekly how the pregnancy is going, what I'm feeling, how baby is developing and what I am doing to prepare for birth and postpartum.