Third and Final Trimester

And just like that my Second pregnancy is ending...

Hello lovely readers! As I am writing this I am rocking back and forth on a birthing ball trying to get this baby out; that's right I have hit that point of pregnancy where you try all the spicy curries and get as much walking in as you can because the baby has been given their eviction notice. I am kidding of course (well sort of I am eating spicy curries but that's besides the point haha), baby can come when he or she is ready but yeah I am 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant so could be any day now- please let it be any day now! 

But before I pop my second child out I would like to update you all on the final part of my second pregnancy journey and thank you all for following along. Last time you read about my pregnancy I was finishing off my second trimester and now here I am almost finished with the whole process of creating a baby and about to embark on the next chapter of my life as a Mother of two! I am excited and nervous at the same time! 

Entering the 3rd Trimester (Weeks 28 and 29)...

28 weeks pregnant 

Week 28 of this pregnancy is where I left off in the second trimester blog post and is (if I am correct) the first week of the third trimester so let's start there. 

At 28 weeks I was so happy to be in the final trimester, I have really tried to enjoy this pregnancy and not rush it as Reece and I are pretty confident this will be our last child but not going to lie, this pregnancy has been a lot tougher than Ella-Grace's so entering the third and final trimester was a very happy moment. I also try to stay grateful to the fact that I am still pregnant this far a long as I know many women sadly do not which can have devastating outcomes so I know this is a blessing. 

At 28 weeks I had an appointment with my midwife. This appointment was fairly straight-forward. It was at this appointment I received my first anti-D injection, I also had these through out my pregnancy with Ella-Grace. For those who do not know I receive these injections due to my blood type being negative and during pregnancy there is a risk of baby and Mother's blood mixing. If baby blood is positive and mixes with my negative blood there can be negative consequences, so the medication in the injection stops this from happening. They sting quite bad and I always dread getting them (them and any other needles) but not so bad in the grand scheme of things. 

And with that there is not much else to say about week 28, short and sweet. 

At 29 weeks pregnant, everything was going well! Truthfully this week was occupied by a certain little girl turning 2 years old!! We were all on a high and Reece had a week off work, this was probably one of my favourite weeks of pregnancy.. just before things got tough, 

29 weeks pregnant 

Anxiety strikes at 30 weeks...

30 weeks pregnant 

30 weeks down and now only (in theory) 10 weeks to go!! 

Everything was so exciting as we really started to get into the countdown to baby 2's arrival; we were getting everything ready and things were good... then why did I feel so anxious? 

All my life I suffered from anxiety, being diagnosed with anxiety and panic disorder when I was 20 years old, I have been through some really bad times! But over the years I have worked hard to find healthy ways to cope with my anxiety and fight my demons but that does not mean they do not show up now and again especially when pregnant hormones are at play. I was suddenly waking up every day with a tight feeling in my chest, as if something terrible could happen at any moment. I would get incredibly stressed when Reece would go to work, I was nervous to take Ella-Grace out, I was feeling down about my appearence, I started to worry I would not connect with the baby and feel guilty about feeling any of this because so many people have it worse. I was so grateful to be pregnant and wanted to enjoy it but my anxiety was making me feel like it was the end of the world! With the help of my sweet daughter, loving husband and using the healthy coping mechanisms I had learned over the years since my bad mental health patch, I pulled through. 

Something positive that did happen during week 30 though that took my mind off my anxiety was Mothers Day. Reece was working on the day of so instead I spent it with my own Mother which in itself was very special and Reece's next day off he took Ella-Grace and I out for a meal. Lovely memories that will last a long time. My next Mothers day I will have two babies and even more to be thankful for. 

Mothers Day

Weeks 31 and 32...

Anxiety still very much there but getting through it. At this point I am conflicted in what I want/need to do; on one hand I want to stay in bed all day and relax especially because I am getting to the point in pregnancy where I am uncomfortable and sore but at the same time I am definitely in the nesting period and feeling the need to clean my entire house 500 times as well as obviously needing to look after Ella-Grace and make the most of  this time where she is still an only child. I have to take one day as it comes, some days I may be staying in bed or chilling on the sofa and other days I will be a super pregnant mum, managing to clean and take Ella-Grace out. The days staying in increased the more pregnant I became especially in the upcoming weeks. 

S*** gets real (33-35 weeks)... 

33 weeks pregnant 

Three words: PELVIC GRIDDLE PAIN!! 

Thank goodness I did not experience this in Ella-Grace's pregnancy, it is so painful and makes it difficult to stand, walk, or do anything really. I would be trying to cook supper or walk to the park with Ella-Grace and I would get a crippling pain in my pelvic area and have no choice but to sink to the ground! It started about 33 weeks pregnant and continued to get worse from that point.   This pain did not only cause me physical pain but emotionally it made me upset as I felt as if I could not look after Ella-Grace properly and it made me so sad when she would see me collapse to the ground and ask me "Are you okay Mummy?" My two year old shouldn't be worrying about me bless her. I felt like a terrible Mother, skipping her groups because I could not walk to take her there and not being able to run around with her. Of course I know this is untrue but the mum guilt always creeps in no matter how much you try to keep it out, no matter how irrational (my fellow mothers will know what I mean). This was by far the worst pregnancy symptom I experienced in my second pregnancy.

As well as this pain, other symptoms I was experiencing included nausea, sickness, diarrhea, back pain, migraines and painful baby kicks. All this would then keep me up at night leading to sleep deprivation. 

The last 4 weeks, the toughest yet...

36 weeks pregnant 

37 week scan 

38 weeks pregnant 

Just when you think you cannot get any bigger- you do, just when you think you could not possibly be in anymore pain- more pain hits and the closer you get to the end of the pregnancy the slower the days get! Do not get me wrong I know that being pregnant is a blessing and many people struggle to get conceive/carry, I am very thankful and would not change it for the world but that does not mean that there are no hardships through pregnancy. I think that is what makes the end result so amazing; just what your body goes through as a women to create a life is miraculous.. as well as uncomfortable and painful. The pelvic gridle pain at this point is what is worst and I have been offered crutches by the midwife but crutches with a toddler? Yeah I don't think that is going to work. WIth the help of Reece and crawling around my house instead of walking when the pain gets too much I am sure I can make it to when baby wants to arrive- sounds like I am being over dramatic but literally I spend so much of the time on the floor it is unreal. I have fell down in public due to these pains. BUT I can do this one. last. time. 

These last few weeks everything is just getting more and more intense and all the negative symptoms have peaked. My patience is also wearing thin and I am getting nervous that I may have to be induced which I really do not want as you will see in the birth plan. I am not going to lie there have been many tears.

On a happier note however I have had the last scan which was wonderful and thankfully baby moved from breech position to head down, also baby 2 was measuring great and my wonderful friends and family planned me a cute surprise baby shower (pictures below) which was lovely. So eager to meet my second little one and so excited (as selfish as it sounds) to not be pregnant anymore, it has been a rough 9 months but I will say it again, so so worth it! 

Birth plan...

Before I tell you what I hope for birth second time round I better summarise what my birth was like with Ella-Grace. With Ella-Grace I very much wanted a natural birth, a water birth if possible. I was planning on using only gas and air and no other pain relief/intervention. 40 weeks came and went however and I booked my induction for 41 weeks pregnant and with Ella-Grace being 1 in 5 of having down syndrome they were in more of a rush to get her out. I got to the hospital to be induced, Ella-Grace's heart rate was up and down the entire induction process (took a total of 48 hours from start to finish) and even though I gave it my best shot, being in active labor for 10 hours on only gas and air, dilating to 6/7cm, in the end because of Ella-Grace's unstable heart rate I was rushed for an emergency c-section. The opposite to the natural birth that had hoped for. Thankfully Ella-Grace was perfectly healthy (her heart rate dropping was due to her cord being wrapped round her neck and legs) and in fact the c-section saved her life so I would never of done anything differently but it did leave me longing to experience a vaginal birth as I always have. So when I was planning the birth for my second pregnancy this was the first thing that came to mind. 

My birth plan in short is: 

• VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-Section) 
• As natural as possible- want to avoid induction, intervention, drugs etc. 
• (I would have a home birth if I could but with having a previous section I would feel safer in a hospital) 
• Water birth if possible
• No unneccesary IV's 
• I want to be as mobile as possible

Although this is my birth plan I know from my first birth that they almost never go to plan; pregnancies and babies are unpredictable. So all that I really hope for is to avoid another section and experience a vaginal birth and of course another healthy baby is the most important thing. 

Goodbye for now and thanks for reading...

I am now writing this last paragrah no longer pregnant! I did not quite get this post finished and posted in time but hey ho that is just what happens, life happens. I am so looking forward to posting this and then following it up wih baby 2's birth story. 

I hope you all enjoyed reading all about my second pregnancy, I appreciate everyone's support on this journey to being a Mum of two and look forward to sharing the next chapter of my life with all my lovely readers. Over Two years of my blog now and I have so many lovely memories documented here, it's amazing. 

My final thoughts on this pregnancy is it was A LOT harder than my pregnancy with Ella-Grace but so worth it. There is nothing like growing a life inside you, it is truly magical and although I am fairly certain I do not wish to be pregnant again, I am more than grateful that I have managed to carry two gorgeous children to term. I am truly blessed. 

Until next time my lovely readers, thanks for reading. 

My Pregnancy Journey. (Part 3)

The Last leg of the Journey...
Welcome back readers! Thank you so much for reading this far, I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my journey just as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. An emotional rollercoaster pregnancy I have had but wouldn't change it for the world, I just can't to have baby girl in my arms finally! So to recap, the last two blog posts covered finding out I was pregnant to around 20 weeks pregnant (go read if you would like to catch up before reading this part!). In this final pregnancy blog post I will be writing about the last 20+ weeks of pregnancy and what me and my partner experienced during this time. Like life is, these weeks had its ups and downs but HEY we are still here going strong and looking forward to bringing our baby girl into the world by the end of this week (Induction scheduled for tomorrow woo!).

Scans, scans and more scans...
Weekly scans now, checking up on that hole in the heart and keeping track of baby girl's anatomy. I would like to take this moment to thank the doctor we had in the hospital for these weekly checks, since we had quite a bad experience at the first scan we really appreciated the way this doctor was with me especially. Helped me keep calm through my nerves. So a few scans had past each seemed to be a bit more reassuring than the other as baby girl's anatomy had been growing as normal and the hole in the heart although still present seemed to be getting smaller, healing hopefully.
For people that may not know when they are checking the heart on a ultrasound scan carefully they can put on a setting which shows the direction of the blood flow through the heart, in turn being able to see if the blood is going in and out of the right chambers/crossing over properly etc. (excuse my lack of medical terminology, it has been a while since I did my biology exam) So yeah checking this each time we had a scan it was a relief for us seeing that everything seemed normal and the hole had not caused miss-direction of blood flow as if this happened it could have been a completely different and fatal problem, we feel very lucky to have experienced this as we know some parents and their babies aren't that lucky unfortunately.
So between 25-30 weeks (cant remember exactly what week sorry) the doctor gave us the all clear to begin growth scans instead of anatomy scans, YAY! The baby's hole in the heart seemed to have healed but the doctor did let us know that scans can only be so accurate and baby girl may require to have a scan on her heart when she is born as well as other tests to check for down syndrome since she was high risk and also blood was to be taken from her umbilical chord due to my blood being O-negative, this though we had been told was easy to treat through medication and only a problem if our blood mixed. I feel I should mention there are other signs in the scan that can indicate down syndrome but none were found, these signs only being present in 50% of babies who have down syndrome so even though they weren't found in our scan she was still classed as high risk hence the extra after birth checks she will be having.
The checks after birth were not a worry for us, of course its not ideal no one wants their baby to have to undergo lots of tests you just want to cuddle them and protect them but we were just so happy that she was looking healthy enough to actually get to the birth part it could have been so much worse. We were so happy for the three of us, things were looking up!

Stressful events over yet?...
So I think it would be worth mentioning that while we were getting the weekly scans and obviously our biggest concerns were the baby and her health other big decisions and stressful events had occurred making things just that bit more difficult. I wont go into to much detail as I could take up a whole other blog post but here are the significant parts. Reece and I had some trouble with our new landlord, as nice as he was he was not ready to let go of his house and we felt more like the house was just that a house not a home, not the best when you are going to bring a baby into the world. We found ourselves missing the previous two bedroom flat we had, it was so much better for us for so many reasons (better landlords, more homely, we were free to decorate, better area, more shops, could actually get signal on our phones.. just to name a few reasons). Thankfully we were able to get our old flat back in the end and the landlords even agreed to take the rent down because they the same as us missed having us occupy the flat, so much to thank our landlords for its unreal! Life is so much easier when you have a great relationship with your landlords!
Another thing we had decided to do due to the baby and moving AGAIN was postpone our wedding (originally meant to be this year now going to be next year). This being difficult for us as we had a lot of it planned out already and we really wanted to be married but at the same time love is love no matter the circumstances and we didn't need a bit of paper to show us that we loved each other, I'd like to think anyone who met us could see that we were head over heals for each other. We knew we could get married whenever, the main focus was making a good home for the three of us and making sure baby girl had everything she needed before anything else. So that was that moving again and wedding postponed two very big decisions that happened at the same time as the constant scans checking on baby, lots of worry but we got through it! End of the stressful events right? Unfortunately no.
So by 34 weeks we had, had one other growth scan which went fine, nothing to report our baby girl was beautiful and healthy. But then we got the second growth scan accompanied by an appointment with the consultant and they found what was written in my notes as a red flag. Baby girl's estimated weight was on the small side as well as her femur bones measuring significantly smaller than her weeks. The sonographer kept her cool making us feel like it was not a big deal but her concern must of been shown in the notes as when we went up to the consultant she felt the need to remind us that we had a 1 in 5 risk with no invasive testing being done. I said I was aware of this and she nodded, circled "Small femur measurement" and left the room. I already knew what was meant by this but Reece was confused. While she was out the room I explained to Reece that a sign of downs syndrome being present was small estimated weight (her being 4 pounds when she was meant to be 5 1/2 pounds +) and also a short femur measurement, I knew this through the endless amount of googling I had done on pregnancy and down syndrome signs. Although many people tell
me not to google things or that its a bad idea I find it keeps my anxiety at bay being informed on everything and anything I could be. The consultant came back in and said that she had consulted with other doctors and they had agreed that it is not a massive worry at the moment but that it was something that they wanted to pay extra attention to in the next scan, subtly letting us know that it was a sign that they would look out for by again saying 'your baby is 1 in 5 of downs and at 20 years old this is very rare'. We left the scan happy to see our baby again but now worried about her more than ever, comforting each other with a tight grip of  each other's hand the whole way home and that night for the first time it was Reece that needed comforting. More than happy to return the strength he had given me over the years we spoke about everything, cuddled in bed with our little life and eventually we drifted off to sleep.

The final weeks...
Following this scan I had a midwife appointment, this being the third or fourth different midwife I'd actually seen due to all the moving and delayed appointments because of the switch of practice. The final midwife I had and still have now was lovely and bubbly but at this appointment I got a very serious tone from her setting alarm bells off. After all the normal checks, she asked 'are you nervous since you are 1 in 5 of downs?' and to that I answered not really, I'm excited and keeping positive. The midwife heard this and seemed to be very surprised '1 in 5 of down syndrome, so young, this is very rare.. I don't want you going into hospital unprepared for what might happen'. To the midwife's defence I think she meant this in the nicest way possible and was just trying to warn/prepare me for the checks and possible lengthy hospital stay ahead but I felt so anxious in that moment right there, a sudden feeling of oh my goodness my baby is so ill everything is going wrong! I smiled when I left but as soon as I was gone I was on the phone to Reece overwhelmed.
Luckily I had learnt over time how to keep my anxiety at bay and avoid full blown panic attacks but I do have a tendency to get a bit obsessive when over thinking so when I got home at the end of the day I spent hours searching everything on downs syndrome birth experiences and other mothers stories but unfortunately no amount of social media posts, blogs, YouTube videos, google searches or inspiring stories could stop me from worrying!
Since this appointment slowly I started to get less anxious and more content with the situation and again Reece and I were more excited than worried. With every strong kick in the ribs I got being a reminder that she was okay. I could almost here a little voice along with each kick saying 'Mum, Dad I'm fine in here! Stop worrying'.  Weeks passed heartbeat looked strong, each scan even though estimated weight being small there was still significant growth so the consultant went from alarmed to accepting she was just a small baby and her femur bone length could just be a result of me being smaller height than average. Finally all positive news! The first time Reece and I had felt like a run of the mill, no problem pregnancy rather than the HIGH RISK PREGNANCY of such a young couple. Baby girl was so close to being here now (I say 6 days overdue still no baby in my arms haha!)

Good times are here...

So from 37 weeks onward things were just getting better! My maternity pay had started finally after being delayed, we had prepared everything for baby girl, had an amazing pregnancy photoshoot thanks to my talented sister, baby showers (yes multiple, I have the best people in my life) and to top it all off Reece FINALLY landed a job he had wanted after a year of gaining experience.. this meaning more money for us as a family and an overall pretty perfect life, everything coming together all we had to do was wait for this baby girl to get here! Little did we know we would still be waiting at 41 weeks.. maybe I should of ate more spicy food who knows (old wives tales ah the disappointment they bring haha)! And that's it the end of my pregnancy journey, on the blog anyways I personally still have a possible few days left of carrying baby girl.

That's all folks...
For those of you who actually made it to the end of this blog post, sorry I know it was a long one but didn't want to miss any detail, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have enjoyed reading my journey. My pregnancy has been above all memorable and certainly worth while, I am beyond ready for baby girl to be here and hopefully she will be here before the week is out if the induction goes successfully tomorrow (Wish me luck!!). I would like to thank my fiancé, friends and family for supporting me I am blessed with some amazing people in my life and can't wait for you all to meet little one. Till next time everyone, thanks again hope to be introducing baby girl to you all soon!
Stay Happy Everyone :) !