End of Pregnancy Recap and Birth Preparation for Baby #4

We are deep into birth and postpartum preparation here at our house as I enter my “birth month” timelines. I’ve never gone into labor before my “due date,” so I don’t anticipate I will with this pregnancy either. If I remember correctly, our oldest was born at 40 weeks and 2 days. Our second was born at 40 weeks and 3 days. And our third was 40 weeks and 5 days. Since I seem to be trending LONGER pregnancies, I’ve mentally tried to prepare for breaking my length of pregnancy record.

In fact, one of the first things I do at the beginning of pregnancy when it comes to birth and postpartum preparation is I try my hardest to forget my “due date.” Due dates are simply estimation dates based on the first day of your last menstrual cycle prior to conception. It is NOT all that good of a guess – statistically speaking – for when a woman might go into spontaneous labor. Not only does ovulation not always occur at day 14 for every woman, but also, there is a good 5-week span for normal gestation for babies.

This article has some fascinating research on the benefits of waiting for spontaneous labor and when that might be. (Spoiler: only 50% of women will spontaneously go into labor by 5 days after their “due date.” 75% will go into spontaneous labor by 9 days after their due date. So a better true estimation of pregnancy length would be 41 weeks of gestation). The plan for me is to just wait it out (with ongoing monitoring from my midwife and the advised non-stress tests) unless I get past 42 weeks. And then I’ll consider risks and options.

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Recap of how this pregnancy has gone:

As of writing, I’m 38 weeks pregnant. I was quite nauseous (especially in the evenings) and threw up a few times during the first 15 weeks or so. That’s normal for me. After the actual morning sickness (which is usually afternoon/night sickness for me) wears off, I typically experience some ongoing digestive discomfort. So that was common until about halfway through second trimester.

In an effort to try to get on top of the bloating, heart burn, and “blah” digestion I was experiencing, I opted to take a slightly different approach to eating from about 20 weeks onward. This included following a modified intermittent fasting schedule. Experimenting from about 15-20 weeks, I realized I wasn’t having digestion discomfort if I made sure to eat my food well before I went to bed, and I made sure I had a nice, long digestive “rest” each night.

So I started planning to do a 14-16 hour fast after my evening meal, and I tried to make my evening meal a bit earlier than we usually eat (finishing eating by 5:30 or 6pm). From 20 weeks onward, I was very focused on the digestion rest, eating at least 70 grams of protein per day, and alternating walking 3 miles per day with 30 minutes of pilates workouts on alternate days.

This worked really, really well for me for quite awhile. In fact, I felt great with that schedule, my body wasn’t sore, I was gaining weight but at a really steady, sustainable rate, and I mentally felt like I was really taking care of myself and doing great preparation for birth and postpartum. But then some things started to develop…

Slight Curve Ball in the 3rd Trimester:

At my 30 week appointment, my fundal height measurement was lagging a bit behind. This is familiar territory for me, since I had some low fundal height measurements with both Mara and Jem’s pregnancies. My midwife brought up possibly doing a growth scan. I declined at that time, opting for a “wait and see how it looks in 3 weeks and we’ll talk again then if we need to” approach.

At my next appointment (33 weeks), my fundal height had grown from the previous measurement. But it was still a bit low (although never below 3cm of my pregnancy week number). My midwife explained that she was not feeling concerned about the baby’s size from her palpations, but rather about the baby’s fluid levels. She could feel the baby’s limbs with a lot of precision. She offered a growth scan again, but I opted to go home, research olygohydramnios (low amniotic fluid) and whether there is anything that can be done to increase amniotic fluid levels (there is: making sure to hydrate really, really well!), and wait and see again in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, as a precaution, I started logging the baby’s movements in detail to make sure the baby was still very active.

That was also when I started to change things up regarding my eating and exercising. I started reducing the intensity of my pilates workouts. They were all prenatal workouts, but I shifted any weight lifting to about half the amount I was doing previously, and choosing workouts that were closer to 20 minutes long rather than 30-35 minutes long. I upped my fruit intake (more fluid in food form). And I put in A LOT of effort for hydration – aiming for about 4.5 liters of water intake per day (a little over a gallon of water).

The Results of Making a Few Lifestyle Changes:

At my 35 week appointment, and after making those changes, I had a normal fundal height reading. But at my 37 week appointment, it was behind again. During week 36, I had had a busy week, and my water intake and food intake wasn’t quite as intentional as it had been the previous few weeks. I had another conversation with my midwife. We decided that although I am hesitant about 3rd trimester scans, I wanted to make sure I was fully informed of risks around deciding where to have this baby. If the baby was, in fact, small or I had low fluid levels, I wanted to have time to research and consider my options in a non-rushed way.

We scheduled a growth scan for 38 weeks. And I went home and tried to be really intentional about my fluid intake again (swapping out 1 liter of water per day for a liter of coconut water). I also tweaked my activity a little more. I tried to lay down each afternoon for at least 45 minutes. And I switched to a rotation of one day of walking (only 2 miles), one day of pilates (focus on stretching), and then a rest day.

When I had the scan this week, everything came back looking normal. The baby’s size is normal and the fluid levels are normal. And at my weekly appointment, my fundal height was back to being right on track. So, anecdotally, tweaking diet and activity level and making sure to hydrate really well DOES seem to help!

Physical Preparation for Birth and Postpartum:

I’ve always tried to be proactive about physical preparation for birth and postpartum. But I do switch it up a little with every pregnancy. This time around, I’ve tried to be physically active in a well-rounded, diverse way (walking, strength training, and stretching). And I’ve tried to prioritize high protein, dense-nutrition eating as part of my preparation for birth and postpartum as well.

I’ve been seeing a chiropractor regularly since about week 24, and I started doing some Spinning Babies Daily Activities regularly. Although I don’t have a perfect schedule, I frequently hit many of the daily activities throughout the course of a week. These include: walking (usually 3-4 times per week intentionally, but also just chasing my other kids!), resting smart, being intentional about maternal positioning, hip opener stretches, forward leaning inversion, cat/cow stretching, and pelvic tilts (usually in the form of 30 squats per day with an intentional pelvic tuck/glute squeeze at the top).

As I near the end of pregnancy, I’m focusing more on stretching and relaxing. I also have done a couple rounds of perineum massage (which can reduce the risk of 3rd and 4th degree tearing, as well as ongoing vaginal pain at 3 months postpartum). And I’m trying to eat 6 dates per day (which may shorten the early labor stage and help soften the cervix prior to labor). I’ve also begin inserting a capsule of 1000mg of Evening Primrose Oil vaginally every night before I go to sleep (which may help ripen the cervix and thus shorten the early stage of labor).

I plan to continue these practices until I go into labor… Or until something comes up that indicates I need to tweak something again.

Household and Job Preparation for Birth and Postpartum:

Before Lazlo was born, I was VERY intentional about postpartum preparation. After we actually went through postpartum with Laz, I wrote up a report about what I would do again. That has basically been my guide for preparing for this baby’s arrival as well!

I’ve done a lot of meal preparation, and I’ve tried to work ahead a bit on the blog and pinterest. I also have tried to get ahead on household administration stuff. And I’ve worked ahead a few months on the very part time job I have writing a newsletter for a local ministry.

I haven’t done a huge house clean this time around. Mostly I’ve just done our weekly pre-sabbath cleans and tackling any other cleaning or organizational tasks that catch my attention. Since we’re into autumn here in New Zealand, I’ve switched over the kids’ wardrobes to warmer clothes. Basically, I feel like I’ve just done household maintenance with a little bit of looking ahead.

Since I don’t have any big projects or tasks still on my list before this baby is born, my main focus is actually to try to rest and relax. We’ve excused ourselves from most social commitments as we enter a bit of a family “cocoon” before this baby comes. Obviously, nobody knows exactly when they’ll go into spontaneous labor, so we’re just approaching this month with an attitude of: “If the baby comes tonight, we want to be rested and prepared, but if it doesn’t come for a few more weeks, we want to make good memories and enjoy this time together as a family before the transition.”

Emotional Preparation for Birth and Postpartum:

Even though I’ve done this labor and birth thing a few times, I still have a few jitters when I think about going through another labor and birth. Labor is intense, and since I’ve done it before, I know how intense it is from personal experience! So I do feel a little intimidated knowing it is looming on the horizon. I think that’s really normal!

I’ve followed my own recommendations for how to prepare for a good birth in regard to building my support team, trying to be as informed as possible, using my voice to be a part of prenatal care and decisions along the way, and preparing physically and emotionally for birth.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of pregnancy and birth podcasts. These include:

• the Down to Birth Show
• The Homebirth Midwife Podcast (these ladies took care of my sister for her 3rd birth, which was a successful VBAC, and I just love them and their approach to individualized care and informed consent!)
• The Pregnancy and Birth Made Easy Podcast
• Pregnancy with Physio Laura (she’s stopped podcasting since the end of 2023, but her old podcast episodes still have some gold nuggets in them!)
• At Home with Kelly + Tiffany
• and the Happy Homebirth Podcast (I believe the host has stopped recording new episodes, but the archives still have tons of great stories)

Basically, I’m trying to get my thoughts into a place of trusting God’s creation of my body, trusting God’s creation of this baby, and trusting that the Lord will be with me and will provide me with everything I need in labor and during the birth – including caring and competent medical support, wisdom for Gabe and me to make decisions, and comfort and resilience for whatever happens during birth and postpartum.

Our Postpartum Plan:

Our basic postpartum plan is to maximize sleep and make meals as easy and simple as possible for as long as possible. Gabe’ll be home the first two weeks, and then will hopefully be able to have a little bit of a half-time work schedule, but within a month of the baby arriving, I’ll be on full time kid and household care.

I know it’ll be a couple busy and challenging months of newborn feeds and sleep schedule while caring for three older kids, keeping the house running, and homeschooling a first grader and preschooler. So hopefully the freezer meal stock, a meal train for a few nights per week, and asking people for help will get us through! I’m also working on adjusting my expectations of how this next season goes to a relaxed, survive-and-try-to-enjoy mode rather than doing and accomplishing!

And there you have it! That’s the current update on this pregnancy. I hope it was helpful for you to get a glimpse into how this is going for us, and maybe some of the resources will be useful for you as well. Let me know in the comments below if you’re currently pregnant, how your pregnancy is going, and if there is anything else that might be helpful for you to hear from me regarding my experiences with pregnancy!