Well week 35 was definitely a tough one for me! A mix of the mundane to start with, and then lots of unexpected drama to round off the week.

 

What’s going on with the baby

The baby is now about the size of a honeydew melon and should be getting in position ready for birth. He’s pretty much fully formed at this point and is just putting on weight now ready to make his arrival.

 

What’s going on with me

I am so so sore in almost every part of my body! Getting up is a struggle, sitting down is a struggle, lying down is no better - the only comfortable place right now is sitting on my birthing ball!

I had my 34 week midwife appointment in the middle of this week (slightly late at 35 weeks, but I had to reschedule my appointment from last week), which was reassuring that the baby is now head down. He’s looking back to back at this point though, so we’ll see if some bouncing on the ball helps shift him. At this point with Max, the prospect of a back to back birth was really worrying, as they are supposed to be long and very painful, but I had a good birth experience with Max, even with a back to back labour, so it’s not something I’m going to worry overly about. It seems maybe back to back is just the way my body carries them!

I’ve also had a nasty cold which carried over from last week, but went down into my chest and turned into a chest infection, as so many colds do with me (I’m asthmatic, and it just seems to happen all the time). I managed to get a same day appointment on Friday with the doctor to beg for some antibiotics, but when they took my pulse, it was apparent that my heart rate was really fast, and combined with the breathing problems and chest pain (which I’d put down to bruised ribs from coughing so hard), they were worried that I might be having a pulmonary embolism, so I was sent over to the maternity ward at the hospital. I ended up there all afternoon, having various tests - x-ray, various blood tests, ECG’s - all of which came back inconclusive and meant an overnight stay at the hospital. Because apparently I needed more frequent monitoring as my heart rate was still high, I had to stay on the observation ward in the labour ward, sharing a room with 6 other women in various stages of labour or with newborns. Suffice to say it was not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had (read: it was one of the worst night’s sleep ever!). But thankfully at midnight the doctor turned up with antibiotics and a nebuliser, which meant that the chest problems finally started to ease. It took until lunchtime the following day to get discharged - and the doctor finally agreed that the problem was just a chest infection.

It does have implications for my birth plan though. Although I don’t have a firm birth plan, I would like to go to the midwife led birth centre at our hospital, rather than the labour ward. But my heart rate was fast during my last labour, and as a result I had to have an IV with fluids. Given that my heart rate was fast with the chest infection, I’m starting to think that that’s just how my body handles stress, so I don’t feel it’s a major concern, and certainly wasn’t a problem in my last labour, where I only ever saw a midwife. But I’m not sure whether the hospital view it in the same way and whether it would rule out being able to labour in the birth centre. One question for my next midwife appointment next week I guess! Oh, and I now need to repack my hospital bag, as it got raided for this trip!

 

Did you catch my 34 week pregnancy update? You can read it here