Surviving the Last Weeks of Your Pregnancy

Bundle welcomes guest blogger Ashlee Johnson from The Tattooed Mumma for this blog post. Here Ashlee talks about the final weeks of her pregnancy - recounting feelings that may be familiar to those of you in the final stretch - and includes some of her hints and tips for making it to the finish line!

I found around the 35-week mark was when I really started to feel it all. It was like, aside from the morning sickness, the beginning of pregnancy flew by and I was halfway before I knew it. Then someone put the anchors on and I was going slower than a snail - I couldn't walk far without my hips beginning to ache or the need to sit down. A heat pack became my new best friend. I have always been a go, go, go type of girl, so I had to really learn to slow down and listen to my body when I was getting worn out.

One thing that kept me sane in the final few weeks was Netflix. I took up residence on the couch and binge watched endless seasons of TV shows I knew I wasn't going to be able to watch for a while. I would sit for hours on end (exceptions for pee breaks) and eat like a king and just completely veg out. After all it was the last time for a while that I would be home completely alone.

Another thing that I struggled with in my final stages were cravings - they hit me and they hit me hard! I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes so I had to really monitor what I was eating and of course the things I craved most were chocolate and sweets.

By week 36/37 I had turned into a complete emotional mess over random things. I was really struggling with not just drowning myself in a pool of chocolate. I would try to go for a short walk and get outdoors as much as I could even if I only made it 2 or 3 houses away. My body ached. I felt huge and I was convinced that someone had just hit the pause button on my pregnancy. 

I was finally at 39 weeks and I'd had enough. I became really irritated with not being able to do things - I could barely walk to the toilet without my hips aching, I couldn't bend down to plug the vacuum in, and I wanted bloody chocolate! 

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was meant to be going out for dinner at my in-laws house. I had been out doing errands with my partner all day and quite frankly I just wanted to retreat back to my Netflix and couch and ignore the world. I really didn't want to be around people and so my partner went on his own for a few hours while I did the usual 'sit and be internally beaten up by my unborn bubba'. It got to dinner time and I was starving (as usual) so I ended up being a rebel and ordering pizza; whilst ordering online my finger must of slipped because 4 of the chocolate brownie cakes arrived with the pizza.... if memory serves me right I don't think the pizza even got touched haha!

Chocolate had never tasted so good! I actually sat on my couch in tears because I had missed sweets so much (I'm not crazy!) I had eaten all of the brownies and my partner had gotten home but I was still in a foul mood so he went to bed. 

I went into labour that night.

My advice from personal experience:

• LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! 
• Wheat bags work wonders for aching hips (and also early stages of labour).
• If you need to sit down, sit down! I made the mistakes of pushing through to find myself barely able to move the next day.
• Lots of veggies and fruit - being unable to indulge on sweets I found I was eating a lot more of these but it was great for a energy boost.
• And lastly as much as you're uncomfortable; it's nearly over and you're getting closer to meeting your new little bundle of joy. You won't worry about how you're feeling once you hold your baby - nothing else will matter! 

As my partner tells me - you got this mumma!