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For many pregnant women, the first 2 trimesters are a breeze.
With little to no morning sickness, average weight gain, and glowing skin, it may not seem like there’s much to complain about — until the third trimester arrives.
In just a short amount of time, baby will be in your arms instead of inside of you. However, your 3rd trimester may leave you feeling like you’re ready to throw in the towel, long before childbirth is imminent.
Reality is starting to hit you. All of a sudden you don’t have as much time as you want to adjust. You may feel like panicking, or you may just feel like kicking back and waiting for things to transpire.
Me? I panicked.
What My Third Trimester Was Like
I’ve always been a busy body. However, with this pregnancy, I wasn’t able to be as busy as I wanted to be.
I’m not going to sugar-coat things. By the time I was in my 3rd trimester, I was just plain tired and over the thought of being pregnant.
Emotionally, I was a wasteland — because it took so much energy to even think of the simplest things. I also had a toddler and a teenager to deal with, which were often pretty challenging.
On any given day, I found myself experiencing the following pregnancy issues:
Pain – My body hurt all of the time. Most of the pregnancy pain was due to my baby’s growth and the effect of pregnancy hormones loosening my joints up. It made sitting, sleeping, and walking unbearable at times. Eventually I had to see a chiropractor to get some relief — so I could keep my sanity.- Hunger – I had gestational diabetes. So I no longer had the freedom to eat as much as I wanted or to eat what I craved. Having to maintain a limited diet made me a grouchy wreck — because I often felt like I couldn’t get enough to eat.
- Food Envy – Gestational diabetes equals food envy. In most cases, this resolves immediately after childbirth.
- Anxiety – I had already been through pregnancy and childbirth a couple of times before, so you’d think that would make me feel more at ease about what was to come. However, I actually felt more anxious about everything — especially my baby’s health. I was a lot more worried this time around, because I was much more aware and educated about most things that can occur to babies while they are in utero than I was during my other pregnancies. When they say ignorance is bliss, it was in my case years ago.
- Guilt – Assuming no complications, a healthy pregnancy is supposed to last at least 40 weeks. I was barely into my 3rd trimester and I was ready to evict the little person who had taken over my body. I abhorred having to interrupt my sleep to go to the bathroom, having to get assistance getting out of chairs or off the couch, and making dumb statements because of pregnancy brain. All of this and more made me feel guilty about my feelings. I knew I should have been thankful about being pregnant and I was — but I was also just ready to be my normal self again.
- Fear – You’d think that with two kids already I wouldn’t have any worries about how much I would love and care for the new baby. But I did. It drove me crazy, because it took me a long time to adjust to having 2 kids at first — and now I was going to have 3. Looking back, I realize that I was simply feeling a little uncertain and overwhelmed, even though the new baby hadn’t arrived yet.
It’s often said that no two pregnancies are alike, and that is 100% true.
It doesn’t matter how fit or healthy you are, you never know how your body (or mind!) will respond to being pregnant. Many of the things I experienced during my third trimester others will experience too. You may or may not have the same pregnancy issues.
No matter how you feel, just know that you are not alone and that the end of this journey is approaching and the start of another will soon begin. Once your baby is born, it will all be worth it!
I’m a stay-at-home mom and writer. Having experienced the joys and discomforts of pregnancy 3 times, I have a lot of advice to offer expecting mothers. I’m committed to providing new moms with an in-depth and honest view on pregnancy, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect and a good feel for what pregnancy is really like.
