Monday
Jun062011
What to do in your last Trimester
A couple of days ago a lovely gal emailed asking how she should fill her time during the last weeks of her pregnancy. I thought it was a fantastic question so I posted it on Facebook and Twitter and got some fantastic answers. Here are just of few of the great ideas you peeps had (clearly it is unfortunate that we can't bank sleep) but feel free to add more.
- Go get a pregnancy massage
- Sleep, rest, watch tv, sleep some more, rest again...repeat.
- Figure out how all the baby gear works ahead of time. As someone who's not mechanically inclined, waiting until I was bleary-eyed with exhaustion and had zero patience was not the time to be reading instruction manuals.
- Follow every single impulse she has. If she wants to read, sit down and read, wants to take a bath, do so immediately, want to drive to the store and get a popsicle? Go. Feel like staring at the flowers in the garden, uninterrupted? Stare away......etc. After babe is born, any of these things will take careful planning weeks in advance to be able to do.
- Go to a matinee movie by yourself, put your feet up and read, go out to dinner with friends, go on a date night with the hubby. All things that are quite difficult to do afterwards!
- Every meal you make- double it. Put the leftovers in the freezer. You're not going to be up to cooking when your waking up every 1-3 hours to feed a baby. Also, get familiar with the stroller and carseat. You'll want to know how to put the darn thing in. You can do crafts in your free time. One good idea is to make the birth announcements so all you need to do is insert a picture. You have time now. Might as well do it while you can :)
- Eat ice cream, demand solitude, and schedule endless hours to spend snipping plastic tag attacher thingies off of baby clothes before washing them. Talk about time-consuming tasks...
- Some practical things that didn't get taken care of after our birth: get the dog groomed, vacuum out the car, get out your next seasons clothes, get a haircut, work out with a neighborhood kid/kids mom to mow/rake/shovel ( or hire a service), and something dumb that I wish I'd done was look at newborn photo shots and figure out what I pics I'd like to get. I could kick myself for not getting a pic of my nb twins in a frickin crocheted peapod.
- This will sound strange but enjoy peeing with the door closed ... Have not done this since April 25th
- Get a haircut.
- Have sex- the long time consuming kind because that won't happen for awhile. Also enjoy long hot showers that you don't have to rush through.
- Get a pedicure.
- Squeeze in as many datenights as you can.
- If you're planning on breastfeeding, learn as much about it as you can, including possible problems you might encounter. Then if something goes wrong, you'll be able to recognize it and you'll know what to do. Make sure you know where to get professional support. It might sound silly but trust me, when you're at your wits end being educated about what to expect and what to do can relieve a lot of stress!
- Get some pregnancy pictures done. I think pregnant women are beautiful.
- Vitamin E oil. Perineal massage. Just sayin'.
- Go shopping with your mom! Once you have a baby you arent the baby anymore, and it's one last time to take advange of being the one she buys a new outfit for. I was actually trying to induce labor by spending all day on my feet but my mom bought me a really cute coming home outfit out of the deal and we went and got our toes done cuz when my feet were up in the air I wanted to look at petty toes lol After baby I found it hard to go places with her w/o the baby cuz she was my babysitter.
- Get a wax downstairs if you know what i'm sayin'
- Stock freezer pantry and bathrooms. Set you DVR to tape all your favorite shows. Stock up on laundry detergents.
- Stock the freezer and sleep. and do all baby laundry now, if you haven't already...... oh, and sleep some more!!
- Drink your Third Trimester Earth Mama Organic Tea, it prepares your body for the delivery & takes away leg cramps!
- Go to the movies a lot, and spend lots of time with childless friends – you won't see them for dust once the baby comes!
You may also want watch this video of The Final Countdown from Europe to get you in the mood for the last lap. I know, there's nothing like a good 80s hairband to say, "I'm almost there."
Can you think of anymore?
13 Comments
Reader Comments (13)
Besides just sex, make sure to spend time (as in actual dates) with your husband. Although it's actually fairly easy to take a small infant out in public, 1. You won't feel much like going out if you haven't showered recently and 2. Even if baby sleeps through the whole thing, going out with child in tow just is NOT the same. Enjoy the feeling of shucking off all responsibility for an evening!
agreed: see movies- like the whole thing. Pedicure and Manicure and time with friends that don't have babies. Yes Yes Yes...our baby is 10 months old and I miss those 3 things most. Wish I wouldda made the announcement and been more informed about breast feeding/pumps ahead of time - great advice.
I love this... I might print it off and put it on the fridge hahah 6 weeks left to gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....
Not a whole lot of this seems to apply to people with a kiddo already, since I've already given up most of this stuff already! :) I need to find a way to deal with my impatience levels. I still have till 3 and a 1/2 months left and I want this baby OUT already!
Pedicure tops the list! Have to have pretty toes to look at when your legs are in stirrups. Takes your mind of everyone staring at your howdy-do.
Eat nice meals out, go to the bathroom by yourself, watch an entire move from end to end, take a trip with you husband, clean the house and have it stay clean for more than ten minutes, wear jewelry, get your hair done, make meals and freeze them, go out for dinner with a friend, make a long day of shopping, talk to your mom about what it was like for her when you were a baby, talk with your husband about how you will handle things like the baby crying, unwrap, unpack and wash all the baby stuff.
I couldn't agree more with the tip about educating yourself about breastfeeding. I figured I'd just read up on it as I was doing it...I mean how hard could it be...insert boob in baby's mouth and let nature take it's course. Well, it's not quite that simple. There's a lot to learn and doing as much of this as you can before baby would make it all much easier (I have to assume, being that I didn't do this!).
Buy nursing bras. The last thing you want to do after baby is go bra shopping. They adjust a lot so you can try them on now and hope. ;) (Band size shrinking offsets boob size expanding....)
Um, one thing I wish I had done was brush up on a few sleep training type books. I knew I wanted my Munchkin to sleep in our room at first, especially when he was nursing every 2 hours all day and night. But when it came to transitioning to his crib, in his room, "teaching" him how to learn to get himself back to sleep- I was a WRECK! I would have a screaming baby a few rooms away, crying over a stinkin' sleep book, ready to throw myself out the window because he sounded so pitiful. If you brush up now, you can figure out what you'll be comfortable with when the time comes.
Also, if you are planning on making a good bit of his/her baby food for when he/she starts on solid- go ahead and start now! You can make it ahead, freeze it and have it ready to thaw when it's time. I had so much trouble staying ahead of Munchkin's appetite once he started solid foods, I felt like I was making baby food constantly!
Oh, and sleep and read and relax and all that, too. :)
I made sure to get my eye exam done and new glasses/contacts ordered before baby came. I knew once he was born I was going to put those things on the back burner or struggle with him attempting those tasks. I did a few other appointments and things (dog groomed was another) in those last few weeks, that way I didn't have to worry about them. I also made a list that I put on my refrigerator for whomever was kind enough to come to my home to help out. It listed various family members' phone numbers, my stylist, our doctors, the nearest pizza joint, etc. I also made sure that ALL of my baby's things were washed and put away and his room was ready for a brand new resident whenever he chose to arrive.
Awwww man. .. wish I would've seen this 5 months ago;)
Knowing what i know now. .. i'd go to the beach. . .lie in the sand and (here's the best part. . ) CLOSE MY FRIGGIN EYES! It's sad, but I fantasize about this. . closing my eyes at the beach??? I literally haven't done that in 8 years (sob!) And probably won't get the chance again for another 10. . .do it do it now!!!!!!
Love these suggestions...spending time with your husband and sex sex sex...and then the necessary to-dos: pedi, highlights, massage, sitting and reading a book in a peaceful Starbucks...just relaxing!!
eff i love that song. i actually put it on my blog at 36 weeks, just to let everyone know where we were at in the mad dash. i love that we're on the same page PC.