“…by the end of this week, your pregnancy will be full-term and you could give birth any day…” – Babycentre app
This is it. This is really it. Today I am considered full-term. Full-term with a large baby in my tummy. A large baby who could decide to make a bid for freedom and fresh air at any moment. Terrifying. I keep having dreams about labour and I wake up thinking that my waters have broken; they’re still fully intact, and I know that my waters won’t necessarily break at the start of labour anyway, but the paranoia is still there.
I’m now into my last week of work, for which I am very grateful. If I could pass on one piece of advice to the ladies currently deciding when to stop work and start maternity leave I would say stop at 35 weeks. I completely underestimated how tired I would feel – thinking that just because I have a “desk job” I’d be fine – how wrong I was! No matter what job you do, you’re still growing a baby inside you and that is going to take its toll on your body.
It’s mostly the struggling to stay awake at my desk (thank you nightly pee-trips and early morning Braxton Hicks contractions), the uncomfortable-ness of sitting for more than about 10 minutes (and I have a lumbar support on my chair) and the constant waddling up and down the corridor to the toilet every half an hour. I’ve taken to stretching in my office to help with the discomfort of sitting, taking small cat-naps if I have a quiet 5 minutes and just generally moving as much as I can. It was only at my 34 week appointment, when asked by my Midwife: “When do you finish work?” (Me: “37 weeks”), that she said: “Oh, I would have advised you finish earlier than that.”
Not very useful advice when your maternity leave has been booked since 24 weeks, and there’s not much you can do about changing dates! But hey-ho, only 2.5 more days to go, and then I can start relaxing and nesting properly.
Hannah
| The advice I’m following…! Image from here |
A thought for the day: If you’re suffering from Braxton Hicks contractions at the same time each day, is this a good indication that labour could start at a similar time?
I am so following that advise too, especially after my son’s birthday party with lots of cake leftover…oops! Bet you can’t wait to finish work!
Re: thought for the day - didn’t work for me - I had lots of BHs in the evenings from about 25 weeks but my labour started at 5am.