third trimester Archives - Mother Nurse Love

Reasons Why I Am Lucky To Be Full Term

by Sarah Jividen | Jan 5, 2018 | Pregnancy, The-Motherhood

As uncomfortable and large as I am right now, I am so lucky to be full term.

I’m actually even grateful for my current state of enormity and girth. Wow, I can’t believe I wrote that! That sounds so odd coming out of my head, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about it lately. And there are a lot of reasons to be so joyous and excited about it (besides the obvious excitement that comes with having a baby).

Some moms don’t get the opportunity to go full term.

It may not seem so lucky at the time but moms are lucky to be full term when they are pregnant.ome moms don’t get the opportunity to go full term.

Some moms don’t get the opportunity to carry a child for the full nine months. As the mother of a premature baby born at 33 weeks, I had a few moms mention that I was actually lucky to not have to deal with the hugeness that comes with carrying full term.

But the alternative is having an infant with potentially significant medical issues and spending weeks or even months in the NICU. Or even worse. The safest option for the baby is always the best one. From experience I can tell you that it sucks to be discharged from the hospital without your baby.

We are very lucky that our sweet little preemie was born so healthy and has no obvious residual effects from being born early. Not every mom is so lucky.

I get to have the whole experience of a full term pregnancy.

As I just mentioned, our daughter was born early (due to a spontaneous placental abruption at 33 weeks). After she was born I remember feeling like I wasn’t ready to not be pregnant anymore. I felt like i had somehow “missed out” on the full pregnancy experience. I thought other moms were so lucky to be full term and I still wanted to be pregnant.

Because of my past experience, I have been relishing In these last few weeks of my full term pregnancy. I am enjoying both the good and uncomfortable parts because this experience is so temporary.

Some women don’t get the opportunity to have children.

There was a time almost a decade ago when my husband and I discussed the possibility of not wanting to have children. We were much younger and our interests included our social life, travel, and pretty much anything that didn’t have to do with caring for anyone but ourselves.

I am lucky to be full term.

Fast forward many years and our priorities have completely changed. When we decided to start trying to have children we are very lucky that we were able to.

I know parents who wanted to have their own children but couldn’t, and it was devastating for them. I also know several women who have had to go through in vitro fertilization, which is not only extraordinarily expensive but requires months of doctors appointments, medications, and often repeated disappointments. Sadly, even after all that it doesn’t always work.

There is something really fun about being super pregnant.

Don’t get me wrong. I miss my wine. But I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I love it when people ask me questions about being pregnant. It is fun for me to talk about. The more I talk about the joys of pregnancy the more I realize how I am so lucky to be full term right now.

Even strangers stop me on the street to ask questions and the questions never get old. I happily tell people how far along I am, that I am having a boy, that it is my second child, and I couldn’t be more excited!

It’s better than being in the first trimester again.

I felt horrible during the first trimester. I was nauseous and felt hung over for at least two months. Work was difficult, especially since I as working and training as an emergency room nurse. Worst of all, it was early in the pregnancy so I couldn’t tell anyone that I was pregnant. I’m sure my co-workers thought it was weird that I was constantly snaking on a saltine.

At least when you are double your size with a huge baby bump people automatically know that you are most likely pretty uncomfortable. I often had people offer up their chairs so I could sit or ask if they could help me with anything. While it was usually unnecessary, their gestures are very kind and appreciated.

Being full term (and huge) is something I can bond with other moms about.

At nine months pregnant, it’s difficult to explain how enormous one feels to someone who has not experienced it. But other moms who have been in the same situation totally get it. Especially my need to continue nesting even 3 days before I have this baby!

I have even made friends with people whom I I’ve worked with for several years but never had a conversation with. It gives me an automatic connection with a lot of other women who I never may have spoken with.

Full-term babies have less complications and are generally healthier at birth.

This one is that obvious best reason that I am so lucky to have a full term pregnancy. I can feel our son moving around so much. It’s mostly because he is so big, and that makes me feel relieved since our daughter was born at 4 lbs. 3 oz. I am really excited to have a baby who will be at least in the 7 pound range. He will be born at the right time with the least amount of potential complications due to the fact that I am full term.

I have 3 more days until our son is here!

I am so excited to count all his fingers and toes and cuddle him silly. However, having a newborn in the house is going to be an adjustment and I know I won’t be getting any sleep for a while. So for the next three days I am going to just enjoy every minute of my full term largeness. This will be the only time in my life where I can be proud to be almost 30 pounds heavier and not feel guilty about it.

I am so lucky to be full term!

Sarah, Mother Nurse Love

Nesting Goals Before Baby Boy Arrives

by Sarah Jividen | Dec 22, 2017 | Mom Tips & Tricks, Pregnancy, The-Motherhood

I am 5 weeks away from having our baby boy! Woo hoo! Unfortunately though, that doesn’t leave me with a ton of time to finish up my final nesting goals. So I have some work to do!

Several weeks ago I was in full blown nesting mode and I wrote a blog about it. Wow, was that a great feeling at the time! By if I’m being honest, I’m starting to lose steam. I’m getting a lot more tired and bigger all around, both of which make it harder to tackle my nesting goals.

I can’t wait to have another set of super tiny feet in our home again.

It also hasn’t helped that my toddler recently shared her cold with me and I have been fighting it over the last week-and-a-half. We have been working on her sharing skills lately, but this was not what I had in mind!

Nonetheless, I am officially on the clock now. I have at most 5 weeks to go until baby #2 makes his arrival. Our little girl made her surprising arrival 7 weeks early (due to a placental abruption) which reminds me that our son really could show up at any time.

In light of all this, I have created a “nesting goals plan of attack” for the next couple of weeks:

#1. The kitchen

I will not be taken over by baby dishware, breast pump parts, and tiny silverware in my kitchen! Therefore, I will be organizing the following:

Assign a space in the kitchen for baby items and breast pump cleaning supplies
Dedicate 1 cabinet to baby kitchen supplies
- That way they don’t end up floating all over the kitchen and eventually end up lost.
Same for baby food
- Assign a cupboard to store baby food and formula.
Baby dish rack/cleaning area
- After cleaning I want to let babies bottles air dry in their own special place.
Purge old kitchen and pantry stuff
- Get rid of old food and expired spices, ect..
- Organize the adult food it the pantry.
Purge any old dishware or appliances that we haven’t used in years and are just taking up space.

#2. The baby’s closet and room

I will have a toddler and a newborn sharing a closet so I have divided their space right down the middle: newborn boy on left and toddler girl on right.

Organize the baby’s clothes into size and season
- After baby comes home I know I will be way too tired to sift through onsies to find the right sizes.
Hang as much clothing as possible
- I have found that it is so much easier and more organized to keep my kid’s stuff hanging up in the closet.
Things tend to get lost in the bottom of bins and backs of drawers. Hanging clothes on hangers makes them easier to see and keeps them from getting wrinkled.
Sort accessories
- Assign drawers or use tools to organize socks, headbands, hats, mittens, and other tiny accessories in place.

#3. Purge stuff and deep clean

De-clutering is great. It is so much easier to keep an organized house when you dont have a bunch of extra stuff you don’t need or use all over the house. My philosophy is that if it’s not serving a purpose or bringing me joy in some way then it’s got to go. Physical clutter just makes things more stressful because it makes the house messier and harder to keep picked up.

Stuff to organize and purge
- Go through bathrooms, kitchen, toy stations, bedrooms and even garage.
- Donate old toys that are no longer being used.
- Donate our daughters clothes that she has grown out of to other friends having little girls.
- Anything that doesn’t have a purpose and we haven’t used in two years needs to be donated to someone who will use it.
Deep clean the kitchen
- Get rid of old food and expired spices.
- Organize the pantry.
Hire a house cleaner
- I really want to have the bathrooms cleaned really well, specifically the bathtubs.

#4. Other random stuff

Make and freeze foods
- Prepare and freeze frozen lasagnas and crock pot cooker ingredients.
  - Note: Cooking is not my thing. We will see how successful I really am at this task. My idea of cooking has always been to throw a bunch of things in a bowl and mix it together. That is why I make a lot of salads and smoothies in my nutri bullet. However, I don’t want to have to keep running off to the store with two tiny humans in tow. I’ll give it my best.
Big items I still need for the new baby
- a double stroller
  My most important final nesting goal is to spend as much one-on -one time with this adorable unicorn as possible.
- a second sound machine
- a second video camera for viewing baby in crib.

That’s it! Phew, I’m getting tired just looking at all these nesting goals. We will see how much of this I can actually get done in the next five weeks. I need to keep in mind that I still have a two-year-old to care for and I am scheduled to work until 6 days before I give birth. So, it is probably a good idea for me to keep my expectations within a reasonable range.

There is a saying: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll end up among the stars.” (I work better with positive motivation if you can’t tell already by my other posts). In other words, I can just do the best I can and surely I will get a large chuck of this done in time.

Thanks for reading!