What Month/Week?
Month 8, Week 35
How Big is Baby?
Baby is roughly the size of a honeydew melon, weighing over 5 pounds and measuring more than 18 inches in length.
Weight Gain
11.5kg
Symptoms
General tiredness; Pelvic Girdle Pain and Pregnancy Ligament Pain. All normal and nothing too disruptive though.
Cravings
None
Food Aversions
None
Reflections
Firstly, this month I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I got the news that my visa application had been accepted. In my last pregnancy update and in my Babymoon post I had talked about the process of applying for a new visa under the Family Route to stay here in the UK with my British fiance (and the father of my growing baby), Dan. I must admit – it had been weighing on my mind quite a bit that there was potential that I was going to be asked to leave the UK while either heavily pregnant or having recently given birth. Luckily, my visa was accepted so neither of those situations I had feared came to fruition and I can now simply enjoy my time until baby’s birth without that stress on my mind!
This month Dan and I also completed a Hypnobirthing course over a weekend, which we feel was extremely helpful in the lead up to giving birth. We both felt like we got so much out of the course, and are now so much better prepared for a calm and confident experience during labour and delivery. If you haven’t heard about Hypnobirthing before, it’s basically a method to help you stay in a relaxed state during labour and birth, and to help you feel calm, confident, in control and overall in a positive mindset about birth. It may sound a bit hippy-dippy on the surface, but trust me when I say that it’s not as “hippy” as it may sound. Even Dan – a huge sceptic about such things – came away from it feeling like it was super helpful for the both of us. In fact, I’m actually looking forward to giving birth, rather than feeling the “usual” feelings of fear and anxiety.
We also took a tour of the hospital I plan to give birth at this month, which we found very helpful and made us feel even more at ease about the impending birth. The hospital we plan to birth at includes both the regular delivery suites as well as a fully midwife-led birth centre, which is where I hope to give birth. The birth centre rooms each have a birthing pool, birthing mats and balls, dimmed lighting, a double bed, and just a general “homely” atmosphere, and it’s always been my hope to give birth in an environment such as that, as opposed to a classic hospital delivery room. However, I love the fact that if things don’t go to plan medically, or if I need higher pain relief than what they can provide in the midwife-led birth centre (the pain-relief options are quite limited there of course), the transfer to the central delivery suites is just up the corridor. It’s very comforting to know everything that I could possibly need for labour and delivery is all in one building and so easily accessible. The tour was also helpful in a practical sense in terms of knowing where to park, which door to enter the maternity unit through, and (Dan’s favourite piece of information) where to instruct them to deliver food when ordering takeaway…