Beret from John Lewis | Dress from ASOS Maternity (now on sale for £14) | Coat from Boden | Handbag from Michael Kors | Converse from Spartoo (now on sale for £50) – GIFTED
As I sit here writing about my third trimester I’m exactly 40 weeks (Thursday 7th March). Yes, that means that today is my due date. The day that I could potentially meet my baby. However, he may also still be building up courage to enter the world and it may just been another week or so before meeting him. I guess we’ll find out as the day goes on.
In my first trimester blog post I talked about the 3 trimesters and how they’re broken down. The third trimester is from week 27 ’til the end of pregnancy.
I’ve since learnt that there is a 4th trimester. I’d never heard anyone mention this before but now I keep hearing about it. The 4th trimester is the first 3 months of a baby’s life – a time where both baby and parents are getting used to their new life. We’ll talk about this more once I’ve actually experienced it.
For now, it’s all about the last 3 months of pregnancy. I’ll talk through my symptoms and more. Don’t forget, this is just my personal experience. I’ll be open and honest as always and if you want to find out more about everything else you can find it in my pregnancy journey archive.
Third Trimester Overview
As with my first and second trimester I’d say I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve had a smooth ride when it comes to pregnancy and have throughly enjoyed it. I think it’s important for me to share this (just as it’s important for people to share their less positive experiences). At the end of that day, that’s all we can do, share what we experience. Every person’s pregnancy journey will be different.
My third trimester started back towards the beginning of December, just before Christmas. I’ve found that the weeks have gone by very quickly, too quickly.
Before heading down to Cambridge for the holiday season I had a full blood count taken and it turned out that my iron levels had dropped really low. I think this was mostly due to my diet. I normally eat a lot of greens but had really fallen off track with it.
I was prescribed 3 tablets of Ferrous Fumarate a day, joy. I’ve since totally switched up my diet to how it used to be and I’ve been managing 1 to 2 tablets a day. They’re very very strong. Luckily due to the tablets and my diet change I’ve managed to get back up to a satisfactory level (as of week 38) and have been told to just continue with 1 tablet a day.
I currently take my first one in the morning, sit up straight and try not move for 1 hour. I’ll then rush downstairs to get my breakfast once my timer is up. I had an awful experience of taking one last thing at night and laying straight down to go to sleep. This was a few weeks back. Anyway, for the rest of that night I experienced what I think were Braxton Hicks contractions due to a night of vomiting. As you can imagine, a night of being sick which could have been avoided by not going straight to bed was not fun. With a little research I learnt that you should stay sitting up straight for at least 30minutes after taking these tablets. You should also wait 1 hour ’til you can eat.
Let’s take a closer look at my symptoms, emotions and cravings
Headaches:
My headaches have mostly vanished now which is brilliant. I think it’s because I’ve been quite consistent with ensuring I start my day with a cup of tea and then drinking as much water as I can throughout the day. I get that important caffeine hit in the morning and so my body doesn’t crave it throughout the day.
Food:
I’ve actually gone off tea a little. Well, I can have a small cup but not my usual big mug of tea. I don’t mind this, it just means that I’ve had to adapt the size of cup I use and then I can still enjoy my morning and evening cuppa.
I’m still not so fussed about super strong flavoured foods. However, I have started to eat more meat. I don’t generally cook it at home but due to my iron levels I’ve switched things up a bit. Speaking of meat, I’ve been really craving burgers recently, maybe I’ll get one tonight.
I’ve been really into fizzy water. I wouldn’t say this is an unusual craving for me, I always really enjoy it. I’ve been knocking back cans of my favourite Ugly Drinks and just plain old San Pellegrino on a daily basis.
Iron
I touched on my iron issues in the section above. For a little more clarification, I’m eating more meat, drinking green smoothies and taking the Ferrous Fumarate tablets.
Smell
My sense of smell is still very sensitive. I’ve taken to smelling the fresh washing every time it comes out of the machine, especially when it has my favourite fabric softener on it. I just can’t get enough of it.
Emotions
I was expecting my emotions to be all over the place for the last trimester but they’ve been fine. However, the last 2 weeks have been a bit more up and down. I’ve found myself crying very easily and for no reason at all. It’s so strange. I’ll be cooking one minute and then crying the next. Luckily I’m good at just getting on with the task at hand, especially as the tears have no backstory. On any day I’ve felt a little low I’ve taken to editing photos in my office or bed. I like to keep busy and it gives me something to focus on.
Hip pain
Since the new year I’ve started to experience a little hip pain. At first it was after a full day of walking but since I hit week 38 it’s been a lot more intense with just half a day of walking. Now, at week 39 and 40 I really have started to take it easier, because I’ve had to.
It’s nothing major, it doesn’t stop me going about my day but it’s a reminder that I’m carrying a baby the size of a watermelon and I really must take care of my body. So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve switched from working in coffee shops to my home office and on more occasions than I’d like to admit, my bed.
Sweet cravings
I haven’t particularly experienced any cravings throughout pregnancy ’til now. Over this final month I’ve pretty much been craving everything sweet; donuts, chocolate, cake, hot chocolate and more. I want it all and I just can’t get enough of it.
Skin
I’ve found that my eczema has been doing really really well. I can’t tell you how happy I am about this. My hands are pretty much eczema free right now, they’re not even dry and I’m loving it.
You can find lots of other posts about my pregnancy here.