I am at the last stretch of my second pregnancy, and could time GO any slower?! Apparently not! I am very much looking forward to meeting the new addition to our family in the new year. I will definitely miss being pregnant, especially knowing that I have probably had a very smooth and uncomplicated pregnancy compared to many of my peers, though not without the aches and pains of all pregnancies. If you’ve missed my previous updates, you can read all about my first trimester here and my second trimester here. Now without further ado, here’s the past three months in a nutshell…

Baby Bump

Oh boy, has the bump grown! My feet can no longer be seen, and getting out of bed is an absolute mammoth of a task every single morning, let alone simply turning sides during the night. I feel heavy, huge and positively pooped most of the time. I have had many compliments telling me how tiny and “neat” (what does that actually even mean anyway?) my bump is, but to me I think I would topple over if it was any bigger!

I am glad that being a modest dresser, most of my clothes were quite loose fit to begin with, but even those seem to be pretty uncomfortable to be in now. This means I am pretty much living in a handful of clothes that let me breathe and rotating between them. Ain’t nobody got time to make fashion statements when you’re in your third trimester!

Kung Fu Baby

The early butterfly flutters have turned into kicks and jabs of fury. Alhumdulillah, this baby simply does not stop moving!! I remember with Master Z, I was constantly worried in my third trimester of not feeling him move as much as I would have liked to, and getting paranoid about counting the kicks. There has been no such paranoia with this little one though, as the baby is moving ALL.THE.TIME. Now my only worry is, when does this baby actually sleep?!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc_0FsYlJva/?hl=en&taken-by=mummyonmymind

Baby Names

The “Name Wars” between husband and I, as I had referred to in my previous second trimester update, have been resolved, and we finally have a baby name! Woohoo! I am so happy with it, particularly it’s meaning, and that it is rather simple and containing two syllables. Hopefully, this means the grandparents and great-grandparents will find it easy enough to pronounce and remember! Of course, the name does begin with a Z to carry on the tradition of Zs in our little family. I mean, it would have been rude not to. (Myself, my husband and our first born’s names all begin with Z.)

The Pelvis Click

Now the nitty gritty of what third trimester pregnancy is like. It’s full of back pain. Unrelenting back pain. At least for me. Having a toddler means that no matter how hard I try, I would still have to be bending down a couple of hundred times a day, and though only for a brief few seconds, I was also picking him up and down to put him in the bath tub etc. Since the last couple of weeks, I noticed that my pelvis audibly “clicked” when I got up from a sitting down or laying down position into a painful waddle. I felt like my pelvis bones were slowly but surely going to crack under the pressure and break away at any given point. I got flashbacks of the scene from the movie “Breaking Dawn Part 1” where Bella cracks her bones and spine in several locations moments before giving birth to her half vampire half human baby, all because she lost her balance as the cup of blood she was sipping on slipped from her hands. Can a pregnant woman’s mind get more gory?!

Anyway, thankfully I was treated to a mini Pregnancy Massage by SensAsia Urban Spa, which has truly done wonders in the back pain department, and I have not heard the terrible “pelvis click” since. I would highly recommend you get a pregnancy massage for those in similar positions to me. I am a lot more careful about my actions now, and trying my best to keep a good posture.

Nesting 

Let me be honest, I have been nesting since the end of the second trimester so by this point I already have everything ticked off the list and baby stuff organised (and reorganised some more). The bedside bassinet is fixed in place, containing my packed Hospital Bag, Baby Bag and a bag for Master Z too. The gifts for Master Z for the new baby are all wrapped and hidden away. The baby’s closet is all neat and organised, nappies and water wipes bought. The car seat and buggy is also bought and ready. All that’s left for me to do now is eat and wait for this belly to pop.

Overall

On the whole, the third trimester went by rather quickly, but it is only these last couple of weeks that seem to be dragging by. It doesn’t help that my due date was changed from 4th January to 11 January after my latest growth scan, meaning I have to wait a little longer to see this baby’s face. However, I am thankful to have been blessed with such a smooth pregnancy for a second time in a row, something that I honestly thought was impossible. I am also so happy we got to document this pregnancy through a third trimester photo-shoot, something we didn’t do last time, and you can see a couple of those precious photos on my Instagram page.

I think the happiest thing about this pregnancy has been the lack of “Elephant Feet”. Master Z was a summer baby, and due to the unrelenting Dubai heat and water retention that comes with being pregnant, my feet swelled up to mammoth sizes. However, the fact that this little one is a winter baby, or out of sheer luck, my feet have been pretty much normal sized throughout! Having said that, I still have a couple of weeks to go, so let’s not jinx it ok!

In sha Allah, the next update will be of my birth story in a couple of weeks.

Here are the links to each milestone in my FIRST pregnancy…

BFP Story

First Trimester

Second Trimester

Third Trimester

Birth Story

and here are the links to each milestone in my SECOND pregnancy…

Pregnancy Announcement

First Trimester

Second Trimester

Third Trimester

Birth Story

DId you also suffer from Elephant Feet in your pregnancy? Please feel free to share your own third trimester or pregnancy experiences in the comments section below.