PBF Baby #2: 39 Weeks

Hi friends! Tomorrow is our baby’s DUTE DATE! What!?

To be completely honest, I didn’t think I’d still be pregnant at this point based solely on the fact that Chase was born two weeks early but here we are and I’m feeling R-E-A-D-Y to meet this little one. I wanted to share a pregnancy update this week since I never got to share a 38 week or 39 week pregnancy update with Chase and truthfully I really just want to have this documented for my personal memories.

Here are my past updates from this pregnancy if you’re just catching up:

• A Miracle On The Way
• The First and Second Trimester (So Far)
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 20-23
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 24-27
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 28-31
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 32-34
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 35-36
• PBF Baby #2: Pregnancy Weeks 37-38
• What I’m Going To Pack In My Hospital Bag

All of my weekly pregnancy updates from my first pregnancy with Chase may also be found on the Pregnancy page of this blog.

And now for a recap of the 39th week of my pregnancy!

Baby Updates

(39 Weeks, 5 days)

At 39 weeks, baby is full term! Baby is the size of a pumpkin, roughly 20 inches long and weighs approximately 7.3 pounds.

During my 39 week prenatal appointment on Wednesday, I was checked and learned that I was 2 centimeters dilated and 60 percent effaced. Our midwife told me our baby had dropped and that his or her head is “very low.” She told me labor likely wasn’t too far off and offered to strip my membranes. At this point I said no thank you only because I was still feeling good and figured I’d likely go into labor within a couple of days since I had Chase at 38 weeks.

Fast forward to today and multiple days of false labor later (more on this below!) and I’m now considering having my membranes stripped at my 40-week appointment assuming I still haven’t delivered by Wednesday morning. Have any of you had this procedure done before? Was it painful? Do you think it helped naturally induce labor? I’d love to hear from anyone with first-hand experience!

Weight Gained

My weight gain is holding steady around 26ish pounds after my random fluctuations and weight loss over the past three weeks. When I see this number, I’m kind of shocked because I feel softer, heavier and definitely bigger than I felt when my weight was up 30 pounds during this pregnancy. I feel like I’m eating all the time without much thought other than eating whatever sounds good whenever it sounds good. 

Workouts

I made it to the gym three times last week and it was so ridiculously good for my mental health. I didn’t exert myself too much and hardly worked up a sweat but simply moving my body, surrounding myself with my favorite boot camp friends and getting out of the house and doing something for myself that also helped take my mind off labor was wonderful.

I also did my fair share of walking with Sadie on days I didn’t make it to the gym and generally covered between two and three miles.

Symptoms

The Braxton Hicks contractions I began experiencing a couple of weeks ago lingered this week but the biggest new-to-me symptom I experienced twice this week was prodromal labor (aka false labor). Talk about a frustrating experience!

While I never went to the hospital, on both Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon, I experienced regular contractions for several hours (different than Braxton Hicks) and truly thought labor was on the horizon. My contractions were fairly regular and close together enough for me to feel mentally convinced they would continue to progress into real labor, especially when they lasted for hours both times.

While the experience was obviously physically uncomfortable, it was more emotionally frustrating because I couldn’t help but feel excited, anxious and ready to head to the hospital only to have contractions dissipate. This left me feeling disappointed and almost embarrassed for not knowing what was happening to my body since this is my second baby and I’ve been through labor and contractions before.  

Other than false labor, from a physical standpoint, I feel like my belly grew a lot this week, too! It’s crazy to me how bellies can continue to grow so much up until the very end.

Food Aversions

I’m still not experiencing any real aversions but definitely don’t care much for animal proteins beyond seafood (I was on a shrimp kick last week). Cooked vegetables also aren’t overly appealing right now.  

Food Cravings

FRUIT. I ate an entire pound of grapes in one day last week (the cotton candy grapes are SO ridiculously good) and couldn’t get enough of everything from cherries and blueberries to watermelon and raspberries. We also took Chase blackberry picking on Thursday and it sparked a craving in me for pie and ice cream. But, then again, I want ice cream all day every day right now.  

Sleep

I don’t want to sugarcoat anything so I’ll just be blunt: Sleep sucks right now. I’m waking up all the time to pee and also had a few nights toward the end of the week where I woke up with contractions that initially made me wonder if labor was pending so my adrenaline spiked and then getting back to sleep was just a joke.

Any Baby/Pregnancy Related Purchases?

None.

Feeling…

This week was such a crazy rollercoaster. I began the week feeling fantastic! Week 38 was one of my best weeks of pregnancy from an energy and lack-of-nausea standpoint and week 39 began on a similar note. I felt great and early in the week made the mistake of saying something along the lines of, “I could be pregnant for a while longer if I continue to feel like this!” Gah! 

The end of the week looked quite a bit different when things seemed to change after my first experience with false labor on Thursday night. I’m not sure if things shifted in my body physically after a few hours of contractions but I’ve felt increasingly uncomfortable. I just feel large and simple things like bending over (oh please noooo!), squatting down, carrying Chase around and getting up off the floor or couch feel cumbersome and will often bring about Braxton Hicks contractions.

I’m also feeling unmotivated to do too much right now (the exact opposite of me one week ago when I wanted to do ALL THE THINGS) and I’m admittedly feeling rather preoccupied with when our baby will arrive. It’s much easier for me to distract myself and not think about labor when I’m not experiencing contractions but right now between the Braxton Hicks contractions and my two experiences with false labor, I feel like my body keeps physically making me focus on labor. It’s a mind game for sure!

I almost hate to share some of the above feelings and physical symptoms I’m experiencing right now because they read rather negative but I’m trying hard to be honest about these final days of pregnancy. I wouldn’t want to paint a picture that isn’t accurate since I think many women can agree that the end of pregnancy can be uncomfortable and bring about a range of emotions you might not expect so I hope you can read these words and know that while I may be on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, the overwhelming feeling I have every day is gratitude. Truly.

I found myself in tears yet again on Saturday evening when I let myself think about our baby, our journey to this moment in our lives and how fortunate I feel to be in the place I am right now. It’s not something I take for granted for one second and I’m continuing to pray hard for a healthy baby and delivery in the coming days. During my two experiences with false labor, I really left myself think ahead to labor and delivery and it made me realize all over again just how ridiculously excited I am for the moment I actually get to meet our little one – whenever and however he or she decides to arrive. We are ready for you, Baby!!!

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