What it’s Really like to be 30 Weeks Pregnant

I’ve read the countless leaflets from the midwife, the technical books on what’s happening inside my body and I even know what size fruit my baby is but sometimes I find gaining the best knowledge can be by chatting to someone who is going through pregnancy at the same time as you. Which is why I have decided to give you my very honest account on what my thoughts are at 30 weeks pregnant.

30 Weeks Pregnant – The Reality

Firstly I am no doctor, in-fact the complete opposite I manage a niche luxury store so this is more of a fun insight into the third trimester. A brief background on myself, as this my first pregnancy blog; I’m Charlotte,  I live in the Midlands with my husband of nearly 3 years, Mike and this year we will become a family. We have been told from two sonographers we are having a baby girl – I do hope so with all of the beautiful clothes we have been given (if not our baby boy will have to like dresses for the first 12 months!)

Only 10 Weeks left!

Seriously, there’s only 10 weeks until our baby will be here. If I’m being really honest I still can’t believe there’s a baby inside me. In fact our little girl is very active kicking away and we can physically see my bump changing shape through my T-shirt when she is wriggling around but linking that to the fact we will soon be a family still seems extraordinary to me.

What will they look like?

For some people this may have started weeks or months ago but I have only just started to question what colour hair and eyes will she have, whose nose and mouth? When we were about 25 weeks, we attended an additional scan at Meet your Miracle to allow my family to see an ultrasound (our NHS appointments would only allow 1 person to join me per visit) and to confirm the gender again- I would recommend them it was a lovely experience. Anyway, I have a 3D photo from the day and after studying it for a while I am quite convinced she has my husbands hands which has got me even more intrigued into thinking what will she look like.

O wow! There’s a bump

I’m a first time Mum and have always been a slender build. Pre-pregnancy I enjoyed doing weights at the gym to increase tone and general fitness, I had decreased my cardio years ago even though I enjoyed running because my high metabolism meant I lost weight quickly. Now in the first trimester I slowed down at the gym and started swimming, in the second I decided to hold my gym membership for a year and began pregnancy yoga classes instead and now, well I try to do a couple of youtube pregnancy yoga classes mainly to help me relax. My job means I am on my feet a lot and I feel I get quite a bit of exercise from day to day walking around.

For some reason I always had in my mind, I would have a little bump showing by about 3 months but in fact it wasn’t until over 6 months that anyone who didn’t know the news commented on my pregnancy. Of course this is different for everyone but it really did take a while for me to ‘look pregnant’. So at 30 weeks I am embracing the fact that wow there really is a bump and no, I can’t fit into any of my pre-pregnancy t-shirts, even though I keep trying. I also must start remembering I have a bump, for example after half opening a door and trying to walk through the other day, the handle was at perfect height to go straight into the bump. Ooops! It wasn’t too hard and she is well protected inside but I really need to remember I have a baby bump.

Current Symptoms

During the first trimester I suffered from terrible indigestion and acid reflux after everything I ate and at 30 weeks it’s back to say hello again, grrrrr! Night times are worse for me, I suppose lying down does not help with digestion. My tips include drinking a glass of milk before bed, not eating too late and take a tablet/medicine as you are getting into bed but generally I will get up to have a walk around a couple of times in the night to help ease it.

I’ve also had achy hips throughout and some days get worse than others. At present they are hurting again mainly at night and I change from side to side about every half hour through-out the night. All natural and apparently due to the pregnancy hormone relaxin but it doesn’t make night times very comfortable!

30 weeks has definitely been a marker for me to slow down a bit. I’m still working full-time (counting down the weeks to start maternity leave) and when I get home after my evening meal I am pretty much stuck to the sofa and this week has been the week I have asked my husband to actually help pull me up off the sofa. Not because I was being extremely lazy but because with tired legs and a growing bump my abdominal muscles seems to be strugging at the end of the evening to help me get up comfortably. I’m a very active person and this actually surprised me, I thought this would happen only in the last couple of weeks.

Babies head down!

Ok, so we went for our latest check-up with the midwife this week and aswell as us listening to babies heart beat we got told how she was positioned. So at 25 weeks, she was transverse (lying across sideways) at 28 weeks, she was in an oblique lie (diagonal) and at 30 weeks her head was down towards my pelvis.

My husbands face was a picture when she told us, I thought he was going to run for the car keys to get us to hospital! Her kicks have certainly been higher up lately and I have also found walking long distances more difficult. Ok, so my pregnancy waddle is now beginning to take shape!

Preparation

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, so that’s my moto on everything and my countless lists and organisation probably drives everyone crazy but I like to feel in control (labour will be fun for me then!)

So at the 30 week mark this is what we have completed this week;

Pram – We opened our pram out of the packaging and began playing with how to work it properly. I think we have managed to work out how to fold the frame and we can even add the car seat to it.

Hospital Bag – We started packing our hospital bags. The lists have been prepared for a while but this is the week I actually began adding to the actual bags. Now for ease of use, I will be having an overnight bag for myself, a nappy bag for everything baby and a small suitcase which will have all our snacks, camera, laptop and any extras Mike wants to put in (he will probably do this the week I am due!) Read more about my hospital bag checklist.

Photographer – I emailed our newborn photographer some style images as requested. We selected our newborn photographer in the second trimester and this week we have been in touch to finalise some details. Don’t worry it’s not too late to select yours, find a newborn photographer near you today