The Third Trimester

I’m 28 weeks pregnant all of a sudden, and already a week into the third trimester. This pregnancy is literally flying by.

Things are still going well, though I’m not loving the whole combination of ridiculously hot summer and third trimester, but on the upside I do at least have air conditioning and a recliner chair when things get too tough! My hips, sciatica and lower back have been giving me a lot of grief, I really do think I’m going to need a visit to a physio before this is over.

Baby wise though everything is great. I had my first midwife visit last week, and she was only concerned when she measured my fundal height (where they measure the distance between the pubic bone and the top of the ‘fundus’/uterus) and discovered that it was measuring about four weeks ahead. Fundal height is not the most accurate of measurements, especially when you are in your third pregnancy and well and truly pre-stretched; but it pays to be safe rather than sorry, as there are a few conditions that advanced fundal height can be a marker of. So she booked me in for a surprise ultrasound just to check how the baby was measuring, and to make sure there’s the right amount of amniotic fluid in there.

So on Friday I took my mum up to the hospital for a sneak peek of baby Tadpole. Here I must admit that I haven’t been entirely honest with you, dear readers. I mentioned in an earlier post that the baby had been quite uncooperative in our morphology scan and almost all of the pictures were blurry. Well that is true, they almost all were, except for one picture that we really did not want to see. In spite of very clearly telling the sonographer that we did not want to know the sex of our baby, she left a lovely, VERY clear, between-the-legs shot for us on the disc of images we took home. So clear in fact, that upon seeing it, Mayana immediately turned to me and demanded, “Mama! Is that a willy?!!” And indeed it was. And yes, baby Tadpole confirmed to us on Friday that as well as being a total exhibitionist, he is definitely a he! I am somewhat disappointed that we are missing out on the surprise that we were so excited about, but very happy that we are going to be having another beautiful son.

A happier surprise was that at the end of our scan on Friday – which by the way was completely fine, Tadpole is measuring perfectly on dates, and the reason my fundal height was off was that he is laying in the right position, head down already, on his tummy with his little butt right up in the air—or in the top of my uterus as the case may be! – the sonographer switched the screen over to the 3D setting and we got a beautiful 3D shot of our lovely son! (he has his hand over his left eye, and despite plenty of prodding with the ultrasound wand, he wasn’t moving it!!)

So today is less than twelve weeks until our baby’s due date, and if I want to really freak myself out, I remind myself that Reuben was born less than nine weeks from this point! There is so much on between now and then that I’m sure that time is going to disappear in the blink of an eye, and we are going to be holding this gorgeous little fella before we know it!

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