Weeks 27, 28 and 29 - Baby #3!

So whenever I try to research when the third trimester ACTUALLY starts I get conflicting results. Some places say week 28, some places say week 27... who knows. "The Pregnant Body Book" (which I looooove by the way!) says that weeks 27-40 are considered the third trimester so that's what I'm going with! Here is the brief recap of the first few weeks of my THIRD trimester (whaaat??)

Week 27
- Bought a third car seat this week! Aaah!
- Linea nigra finally showed up
- 4th of July! This is the first 4th of July I have ever been pregnant for - weird! (I was also able to get a 3 mile run in that morning and another later this week!)
- Entered and won a "model call" for a free maternity shoot! I am so excited to take some time to capture this time with baby girl growing inside (and make a nice date night out of it with hubby)!
- Pregnancy insomnia and/or major stress has made sleeping very difficult and I find myself laying in bed wide awake frequently
- It's been several weeks since I have felt like "myself" but this week things seemed to get even harder. Despite the holiday, things just feel so chaotic and stressful. Preparing for (or even just knowing) that our family "vacation" was coming up is enough alone to make any mom feel a little stressed. Then on top of that there were so many other small things that just seemed to keep piling up and piling up. Just to name a few... my wedding rings stopped fitting, I was stressed out with trying to tie up some loose ends with a bride before we left for the week, I had reached out to a therapist (more on this soon) and just couldn't seem to get things to work out there and also took myself for a mani/pedi that was just NOT relaxing at all. (Something that I am learning is that when I try to do things for myself for a little "self care" and they do not according to plan it makes things for me feel SO much worse than if I hadn't even attempted it in the first place! Leaning new things about myself...) I have been so frustrated and overwhelmed and honestly haven't even had a moment to take a breath to start preparing for our vacation other than just acknowledging that yes, that is happening next week.
- We ended this week with our flight to NYC, which was (mostly) good (other than my breakdown right when we got on the plane due to exhaustion, hunger and physical discomfort - a true recipe for disaster for anyone especially a pregnant lady!) The kids did great, we took a cab to our hotel (which was the perfect setup for us) and had a fabulous dinner and evening.

Trial run trying to fit 3 across in our CR-V - SUCCESS!

Week 28
- This week we were in New York City for a few days and then drove upstate! We spent a little bit of time visiting our friends at their lakehouse in Chestertown, NY and then spent 2 nights in Albany. There were many fun and special moments as well as many very difficult ones throughout the week. This week it was incredibly difficult to focus on anything really pregnancy-related as we were fairly pre-occupied while traveling across the country with our crew!
- One highlight - a 3 mile run in central park with baby girl!
- Also, while in the city, I had a couple of brief moments where I was able to feel joy and truly relaxed deep down. While these moments didn't last for very long, they gave me hope that perhaps I will start to feel happier and more like myself soon.
- The week ended with us flying home and having a somewhat relaxing weekend recovering (date night at the movies included).

Happiness.

 

Baby girl does NYC!!

Upstate!

Week 29
- Got sick again (thanks to traveling I'm sure!) and Ryan also caught it too. Luckily it's just a sinus thing - no drainage and doesn't seem to be affecting the way we feel other than not being able to smell, taste or breathe! Wells also came down with the stomach bug this week, so I'm REALLY hoping no one else gets it - especially me!! That was quite stressful though to have him throwing up and unable to keep water down. Luckily we had some zofran on hand - that stuff is magical!!! It only lasted a few hours and when he woke up the next morning he seemed fine.
- Worked my last wedding with baby girl on the inside!
- Ryan and I had our maternity shoot this week and had so much fun! It felt really nice to do something together that was just about us and baby girl growing inside of me. We made a nice date night out of it.
- I also finally got in touch with a therapist this week and set met with her for the first time this week which went well (more on this later...)
- Life feels SO hard and I have really been struggling to find (any) joy in life as well as this pregnancy specifically - which makes me feel even more sad. I feel like this pregnancy is flying by before I can even catch my breath and I don't like it. The silver lining is that Ryan and I have been feeling more connected that ever and I feel SO supported by him. We are going through the storm together and that part feels good just knowing that he is and has been with me every inch of the way. I am hoping that next week will bring more ease, relaxation and joy now that my last wedding to work is out of the way! Ready for life to feel less overwhelming...I was able to go a few days without a major breakdown so I feel like we're making a little progress.
- I have started feeling more kicks/movements in multiple places on my belly at the same time but was still ONLY feeling baby girl below my belly button. However... on day 6, I FINALLY got my first rib kick!! It took her longer than anyone else (no thanks to you anterior placenta!) but I cried tears of joy when I finally felt that.

Heading to our maternity shoot!