Pregnancy update Week 34

We had an antenatal class on labour yesterday. It was interesting, though I already knew quite a lot of what she was saying, having done lots of research and having gone through labour before. I was a bit shocked that the lady leading the class indicated to people that inductions of labour only happen if you go overdue, Boo was induced almost a month early, sot hat's not the case, and it's that kind of misinformation that lead to all of our baby stuff being half way across the country when Boo arrived!!

She had some useful information on breathing and positions though, and looking through he pack she gave us at the end there's loads of useful stuff in there, the main take home message on it all seems to be that I need to stop laying on the sofa asap and start leaning over the exercise ball to try and prevent the baby being 'back to back'

Turns out normally women labour at about 1cm per hour past 3cm, and that pushing out the head can take an hour to an hour and a half! Whilst I would be happy for my labor to be longer this time so that the build up of pain is a bit more gradual and easy to manage, I'm not sure I like the idea of what took me about 13 minutes last time taking a whopping 8 and a half this time!

We didn't have a midwife appointment this week, but the Health Visitor came to do her antenatal visit and give us the red book. I almost went to a breastfeeding breakfast / support group yesterday morning but a combination of exhaustion and nerves made me chicken out last minute! I do at least know where there are sessions pretty much every week now though, so it's reassuring to know that there's somewhere for me to go on a weekly basis if I'm in need of support.

Boo spent the weekend with grandma so we got some general newborn baby prep done in the house, I went back through the hospital bags (I will eventually take some up to date pictures, but I'm scared of opening the bags in case I see stuff I start to think I need and start unpacking them... again!) The chest of drawers int he nursery has all of the small newborn baby stuff in and the crib is now made which is something we'd not bothered to do when we put it up

I have stretch marks, they're horrible and angry looking, so I've started smothering them in stretch mark oil (current choice is Shea Mooti Stretch Mark Oil from the Sassy Bloom box I got last month)

I've started to get some pretty interesting period like pains, but my contractions have kept well away this week, and I started drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea at 1 cup a day to start toning my uterus. Once we've had the 36 week scan, if they're going to let me carry on and not induce me then I'll go up to 2 cups a day, and then (heaven forbid) if I go overdue I'll go up to 3. We went for the clipper brand in the end, as it has slightly more raspberry leaf in than the brand they sell in Holland and Barrett.

We've bought Russell the Dream Sheepdog for Boo as a gift from Bump, now I'm just debating whether to unpackaged him and set him up so he's ready to go before we wrap him up, this would at least have the advantage of meaning we could wrap him up out of the box (which is huge) and when she opens him up he's there and accessible to cuddle and play with rather than having to drag him out of the box when she opens him and half of his functions not being set up yet, so we might make setting him up a game for tonight after she's gone to bed.

Next week we've got a midwife appointment and it's Mothers Day, though my mum and dad are away this weekend, with us a set of parents down will Bump decide to make an appearance in the next few days? Stay tuned to find out!

#Pregnancy #ThirdTrimester