Heading into the third trimester I felt good.
I was feeling lots of kicks and movements and generally feeling pretty well.
Some time around the start of the third trimester I decide that as well as painting the exterior of the house and putting in new gardens we also needed a new kitchen BEFORE the baby arrived and BEFORE the baby shower (around six weeks away)....talk about a tight time frame!
We set about planning our kitchen reno, we needed to rip out the old kitchen (Thanks to Grant for the help!), pull up the floors and replace some gib to get us started. The weekends of renovations began and I got stuck into helping the boys. I helped put the gib up and gib stopped the walls, pulled up flooring, painted, and tiled. Many nights we were up until two am painting....I felt like a machine!
All of the renovating and heavy lifting lead to a little scare with our babe. I hadn't felt him move for a little while and we ended up having an extra scan to check on him...thank goodness he was fine, but the mama guilt started to kick in (and hasn't left since!).
We finished the renovation with a day to spare before the baby shower - we were both so relieved!
After an amazing baby shower (blog post to come), things started to feel real! My belly had really popped out and it was less than five weeks until we were going to meet the little baby who we had dreamed about.
I ended up having a few extra scans and being referred to the obstetrician at the hospital as he was measuring quite big for his size (oh how wrong the scans can be!) and during one of this scans a full head of hair was seen!
We now knew the baby who we had no idea what he would look like had a full head of hair. Not surprising given the reflux I had.
It was exciting to imagine what this baby would look like. Both of us envisioned that he would have black hair, as Dom was born with a black mohawk. We spent evenings chatting about what he would look like, his personality and what he would enjoy doing in this big wide world. It's a crazy feeling trying to imagine someone you have never met...yet you created them.
I got sick a lot towards the end of my pregnancy with the vomiting bug...blerk, so ended up slowing down at work and doing a few less hours. I had planned to work until Friday 15th September and he was due the following Tuesday however due to getting sick it was decided my last day would be Friday 8th September. The lovely girls at work had organised a shared lunch for my last day and I was so looking forward to all of the yummy food!
On Wednesday 6th September I woke up ready for the day. I had my weekly pregnancy massage booked in the evening so Wednesdays were my favourite day of the week!
**Disclaimer- this next part contains graphic descriptions of early labour symptoms- read on if you dare!**
As I went to the loo I noticed some 'bits' fall out and there was a red streak too.
I did a quick google and soon realised this was my mucous plug starting to fall out....eeep I was going to have the baby soon - then I googled that it can be up to two weeks after your plug falls out that the baby can come -what a let down!
I headed off to work and got stuck into the day. We had a bug going around and we spent most of the day cleaning, wiping walls, cleaning toys and cots etc. It was a busy day so I was relieved when I was finished and could head off to my pregnancy massage.
We had agreed that once I got to 38weeks she would push on all of the 'spots' to bring on labour...yay! It wasn't the usual relaxing massage but it was so lovely to finally lie down!
On the drive home I felt a little bit 'funny' and sick which was unusual but I put it to the back of my mind and headed home to put my feet up.
We had an uneventful evening watching tv and headed to bed early. Around 3am I woke up to a loud motorbike going past, then I noticed I had a little niggle in my belly...
*Photo credit: Black Robin Photography