My plan for this third trimester post was to write it when I was about 36 weeks along. However, my baby girl decided to surprise me by coming 5 weeks early! So although I don't have experience with healthy habits in the very last weeks of pregnancy, I can tell you everything I did up to 35 weeks. And I think you'll find that it probably applies to weeks 36-40 as well.
Eating- the cravings return
So remember my 1st trimester post when I talked about cravings? In case you've forgotten, true cravings are a way for your body to tell you that you need something particular in your diet. When you are experiencing something like this, it's important to give in. Your body knows what your baby needs better than you do! So it shouldn't surprise you that in the final weeks of my pregnancy, I was craving diary products like mad. Diary products contain plenty of fat. Fat is what your adorable little alien needs in this last trimester. It's the last thing to get before delivery time. When giving in to cravings, it's important to do it in a healthy way. So you can either limit the amount you eat or choose a healthy version of what you crave. So with dairy, I chose to eat the healthier products I knew of. So that means I was eating a lot of Greek yogurt with fruit, drinking low fat milk, and eating a few slices of cheese with crackers. I was not loading up on the ice cream or eating cookies with my milk. However, I know that sometimes if you get a specific craving (like ice cream), it does not go away, even with a healthy version. If this is your predicament, it's best to have the item you crave, but in little amounts. Don't eat a whole bowl of ice cream. Satisfy your craving with a few bites. Although I'm just talking about dairy products here, it applies to all types of cravings.
Exercising- my body hurts
Towards the end of the second trimester, I ran into a problem with my exercise regimen. My body hurt. I developed a pelvic pain that grew to be so intense that I couldn't move. Walking for more than 5 minutes nearly killed me. So what could I do? Running and Zumba were definitely out the window. My doctor suggested more yoga, so I tried that. I cannot even begin to tell you how much yoga helped my body. Not only did it help with the pelvic pain, but my chronic back pain almost disappeared. PLUS, when my sister came to visit, she mentioned randomly, "Dana, you have great posture! Have you been doing anything differently?" Coming from a former ballerina, this compliment had me floating on Cloud 9 for a week! All throughout my third trimester, yoga was the only type of exercise I could participate in. So I did it for an hour every single day. So if high-intensity workouts aren't your thing when you're pregnant, I highly suggest yoga as a form of exercise. You'll want to do a pre-natal yoga class, since some of the positions in regular yoga can be harmful to the baby. Since I'm poor, I used YouTube to find prenatal yoga videos. My favorites were Prenatal Kundalini Yoga with Sarah Kamrath and Prenatal Yoga Routine- Lara Dutta.
Exercising- I am sooooooo tired
Third trimester is exhausting, with a capital E. Most days I felt like a slug. Combine this with my awful pain and I was basically cut out to be a couch potato. But the key to exercising in this terrible phase is finding the time your body feels best and exercising then. For example, during the day I was basically half-awake all the time. I took several naps that would put any infant to shame. However, because I slept during the day, night-time is when I was most alert. So I did my yoga routine every night after I put my son to bed. Giving yourself a specific time and place to exercise will help keep you dedicated, even if you don't want to do it sometimes. And it became routine around our house that I would do yoga while watching TV with Dave (I would watch the yoga video on my iPhone while watching a TV show on our big screen. I know, we're so tech savvy).
Return of the morning sickness
I've heard of women getting morning sickness again in their third trimester, bless their hearts. I didn't think it would happen to me...but I was overconfident. For about 2 weeks in my third trimester, the morning sickness came back. The same rules apply to morning sickness whether you're in the 1st trimester or in the 3rd. 1) Don't try to eat food that will make you sick. If a certain food with nutrients makes you want to puke, try to get nutrients another way. Your body won't get those vitamins and minerals if you're throwing them up in the toilet later. If you're hating veggies, eat more fruit or find a way to hide the veggies in food (like juice or smoothies). And vice versa for fruit or any other nutrient-dense food. 2) Morning sickness usually has a routine time it comes about, so plan your exercising for times in the day when you aren't sick. If you're literally sick all the time, don't stress about exercising. Take care of your body first.
Third trimester stats
Energy level
1st pregnancy- waaaaay down. Tired all the time
2nd pregnancy- waaaaaay down. I thought having a consistent exercise regimen would help this aspect of pregnancy. However, no amount of exercise affected how tired I felt. In a way, it was disappointing that regular exercise didn't give me more energy. But it's also a good thing because more exercise wouldn't make me feel more tired.
Bodily appearance
1st pregnancy- By this point I looked like I was related to a balloon. Areas that appeared swollen- face, arms, legs, and butt.
2nd pregnancy- I had people tell me that besides my growing belly, I didn't look pregnant at all. I also still fit into my pre-pregnancy pants as long as I wore a belly band. My arms were actually more muscular than before I got pregnant, I think because of all the yoga. And although my belly was big, it is noticeably smaller than my 1st pregnancy belly.
Weight
1st pregnancy- at 32 week check-up, I had gained 45 lbs.
2nd pregnancy- at 33 week check-up, I had gained 16 lbs. Whooo-eeeee! That's a difference huh? For me, this was the real test of being healthy during pregnancy. I knew that with my 1st kid, I had gained more weight than necessary for having a baby. So I wanted to determine if I just had the kind of body that put on lots of weight when I got pregnant OR if living a healthy lifestyle would mean I gained less weight. As it turns out, my body type was not to blame for my 1st pregnancy weight gain, but my lifestyle habits were. Because this pregnancy, I gained significantly less weight, but still had a very healthy baby who also had a healthy weight.
And if you remember correctly, I did promise a comparison photo between my 1st and 2nd pregnancy. So here it is! The first photo is of me at 36 weeks. The second photo is of me at 34 weeks. Ideally, I would have taken a photo of me at 36 weeks with the second kid, but since she came so early, it would have been a picture of me after giving birth. Not exactly a fair comparison. So I did the best I could. I don't know if you can tell the difference, but I definitely can! And most importantly, I felt different this second healthier time around.
