The weeks seem to be flying by for me and with every week that passes I get a little bit more excited with a slight bit of apprehension thrown into the mix! I have an app on my iphone that beeps in with updates on my pregnancy which is really nice to read each week.
I’m in my third trimester of pregnancy now. I’ve found the past few weeks challenging mainly because I’ve been crazy busy! Like most expectant mothers life doesn’t stop because I’m expecting a baby. I’ve been busy with various work commitments and on top of that I moved house. People tell me that moving house is one of the top three most stressful things a person can do. I think I’d agree with them. I’ve moved house a few times in the past ten years, but never with a bump. That added a whole new dimension to the move. Thankfully lots of people helped us which I was very grateful for.
The big difference for me in my pregnancy now in comparison to a few weeks ago is that I’ve needed to reduce the amount exercise I was doing. In the past two weeks my back was getting quite sore. Whenever it starts to get sore I have to be careful with it, as my back was an injury that I always needed to manage during my running career. I’m much heavier now than I’ve ever been and I need to be mindful of the effect that weight is having on my back also.
At the moment I’m walking every day for between 20 and 40 minutes, going to a pregnancy pilates class once a week and doing a core circuit every few days at home. I’m finding the reduced exercise strange because I’m so used to being active. I’m hoping to start swimming this week and if my back allows it. I will do that for the next couple of months.
My appetite has been big in recent weeks but I need to eat little and often or else I get really full. Basically it feels like I eat all day long. Anytime I’m going anywhere I have snacks in my bag. My bag is full of dried fruit, nuts and granola bars. My husband jokes that this is the hangry phase of my pregnancy (the hunger that turns to anger!) In the next few weeks I’m planning on cooking dinners in big batches and freezing them so that in the first few weeks with a new born I’ll have a freezer stocked full of dinners. It’s something that I try to do anyway but I think it will be even more important to have a full freezer after the baby arrives.
I have a major sweet tooth and I have to work hard to resist eating a load of chocolate. I’ve found in recent weeks when I’ve been busy with work and moving that’s when I’ve been the most tempted to eat chocolate. I’ve tried to keep it to a minimum but I have to admit along with all the healthy food in the house there is a sneaky emergency chocolate section in my cupboard!
The next few weeks will hopefully start to get a little quieter for me. I feel like I have nothing organised for the baby but I keep getting told by lots of wise people that everyone feels that way and really there isn’t a huge amount I need to be doing.
In the meantime I will hopefully remain hangry free and keep growing the bump!
Thanks for reading,
Derval x
