Pregnancy - The third and final trimester

Me at the end, I wasn't joking when I said HUGE

The last stretch lies ahead. By now I was loving my pregnant belly, and the fact that people would let me go to the front of lines, or would get up to let me have a seat, pick up things I might have accidentally dropped on the ground and just being nicer and friendlier in general was amazing. {{You do not understand, I was HUGE and am sure many people thought there must be more than one in there}} I loved feeling you kick and move all the time, but overall you remained a calm little angel and slept a lot and had many hiccups. I loved to sleep and eat all the time too. Your dad persistently states that I violently started to snore, but I will deny this for life ;) Sweet and hot flavors remained popular. At the end I had very swollen feet, so swollen, that I could no longer wear closed shoes. My boss was so kind and gave me a pair of bigger flip flops she still had from her wedding favors and I received special permission to wear these daily. :) Imagine that! And in winter too! Your were my internal heater as I never got cold.

Your dad was just as excited and it felt like forever until we would finally meet you. We also finally found a birth class that would be held in a single session on a Saturday and not be spread over many weeks. It is very tough for us to attend anything during the week as we spend about 3 hours alone in traffic to a from work each day and only get home around 19:00 in the evening. By this time we are normally exhausted and do not feel like socializing or attending training classes with anybody as it would just require more than we could give. So I was excited to find this workshop and booked us straight away. We had not created our birth plan yet; just knew we would like natural birth at the Panorama Mediclinic. One does not learn breathing during pregnancy classes (Lamaze classes) like one sees in all the movies, in actual fact, if I think back now, I do not think I learned all that much at all and would not recommend any one else attending. I am not sure if this is because I researched a lot of topics at length on my own or whether this class was really created for parents with absolute no knowledge. I did enjoy the time with your dad however and just focusing on the topic for the morning, so I guess each one should decide for themselves. 

The other very exciting thing was that we were eagerly preparing your room for your arrival. Painting, decorating (a colorful jungle theme), buying furniture, bedding, baby monitor, toys, clothes and so on. This is when your daddy stumbled across the famous rabbit aka “Dr. Snuggles” whom you now drag around with you on his ear and cannot sleep without. We worked on your room all the way until the last weekend before your arrival, adding the final touches. I remember sticking your glow in the dark stars to the ceiling right at the end. 

Toffee still being a wee little puppy himself, had integrated very nicely and was protecting me at all costs. He slept on top of my tummy and I am sure could hear you inside of me. The fact that I could not sleep long stretches anymore {{ I firmly believe this is natures way of preparing a mother for what is to come }} helped nicely with potty training Toffee. We were up every 3 hours, learning to pee outside on the grass and not on the carpets inside. And yes, you kept me nice and warm as it is no joke out there in the middle of winter. And after just 3 weeks, little Toffee knew his business belonged outside. 

We were now getting to a stage where you were getting bigger and walking was becoming uncomfortable for me, but I still loved every second. We now had to see the doctor every week for a check up to see whether the amniotic fluid was still sufficient for our little man or whether they would need to schedule emergency C-section. The Dr predicted you would weigh at least 3.8kg, which by most accounts meant HUGE! I planned my last day with my boss and this was 1 day before your due date, 28 July 2012!!! Little did we know that you were enjoying it inside so much that you decided to let us wait another week! Hehe. You also did not "drop" or descend downwards, meaning that we were not able to have your birth naturally. We waited and waited until the last end. In between we did stress tests, to ensure you were doing well while we were going over the full term. On our last visit, our Gynie could now see that the fluid was getting too little and calcification of the placenta was just starting to take place. So intervention was needed and we had to plan the Caesarean section for the 03rd of August. Man o man, all our plans out the window, and we all know how I feel about planning things. We had done all shopping for energy snacks etc for your dad and I to keep going through impossible hours of labor, had our bags packed, Toffee sorted and all was ready to go. And now we had to rethink it all... 
 
But more of that up next. The Birth!

Blog Photo Attribution: By Alex Derr, alex1derr 
Blog Photo 2 Attribution: By itsjustlo