37 Weeks – The Week I Had A Surprise Baby Shower

Hi Everyone,

Another week has absolutely flown by and I can’t believe I am 37 weeks! I’m full term, so although my due date is still 3 weeks away, baby is fully formed and if he or she wants to come now, it can!  So I suspect I am going to have to be very patient the next couple of weeks; not a particularly strong point of mine. I’ve been so busy this week with lovely lunches out, a pregnancy massage (every pregnant woman should have one, it was amazing) and even as I write this, I am in a happy relaxed haze having had a lovely facial and scalp massage this morning. I figured this week might be the last week I really felt up to going out and about loads and I think I was right, because this afternoon, I am absolutely exhausted. I think I am going to have to listen to my body now and next week I plan to do little more than watch films and read books!

It’s been a lovely week but the absolute highlight was my surprise baby shower! Last Saturday a few girlfriends and I had planned to go for lunch as a belated birthday celebration for me. My friend and I went to the restaurant we’d decided upon and we walked in and much to my surprise was an amazingly decorated room and table with some of my lovely friends, aunties and mother in law all there to surprise little old me! It was so lovely and unexpected, I actually started to cry (typical these days) because it was just so lovely and thoughtful. As you can see from these photos I was absolutely spoilt rotten and well fed and looked after:

It was lovely to see all my friends as well and ask their last minute advice on how to get through these last few weeks. We had a real giggle playing some funny games including some blind folded nappy changing (I was a bit slow at this), guessing the date the baby will come, what it’ll be and how much it will weigh, and guessing the size of my bump with a piece of string. It meant so much that everyone came and spoilt us so much; we had some incredible presents and my friend even made Baby Shower Cupcake Favours complete with little thank you notes and the date of the shower which is a lovely thought and I’ll be putting the note in the babies memory box. It meant so much to me that everyone went to so much effort and came along and enjoyed it. I went home feeling very blessed and loved. I honestly had no idea about the shower and clearly baby brain is in full force because apparently when my friend and I walked in we walked right past my mother in laws car but I didn’t even notice! It was a really special day.

So it’s been a real week of treats and being spoilt. My husband had booked me a pregnancy massage as part of my birthday present which I went and had on Monday. It was at a clinic that specialises in pregnancy massage so I didn’t have any worries about whether they were safe to put pressure on certain parts of my body and things. I’d half expected a table with a massive bump hole cut out of it, but instead I just lay on my side and switched as and when told to. It was so lovely and relaxing and, as always with massages and such treatments, it went far too quickly.  The therapist had asked what I’d been suffering with the most and of course I mentioned my hideous restless legs, so she focused a lot on my legs and gave me some advice on how to deal with it the last few weeks. It was so nice to have the massage done, and afterwards I went and spent my birthday vouchers on some lovely treats that I decided a mummy to be rightly deserves.

Here’s this weeks update (37 week update – OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

How Far Along: 37 weeks. I have one fully formed, cooked baby in my uterus! I cannot believe I am writing that, I can’t believe I am full term. I feel so grateful to be at this point and am so excited. But I can’t lie, the nerves are kicking in. As you can see from the picture, bump has definitely dropped and given the amount of Braxton hicks I’ve been experiencing, reality is setting in; baby is going to be here before we know it.

Weight Gain: Again, I’ve not actually weighed myself this week. Given the amount of cake I have eaten I will definitely have put on some weight. Bump is just plumping out now from what I’ve read and I can tell; my bump is massive now and it is feeling heavier and lower. I’ve noticed I can eat a proper meal now a bit better, without being full after a couple of mouthfuls, so much so that when I went for lunch with my lovely NCT girls this week, I had no choice but to treat myself to an all day breakfast!

Stretch Marks: Still none. With my birthday vouchers, I treated myself to some Champneys Mum To Be products including their stretch mark oil.  It is absolutely lush; smells amazing and makes your bump super soft. I use that in the morning and then Bio Oil in the evening. I’m not going to take anything for granted and will stick to using these until the baby arrives and keep everything crossed that I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid stretch marks.

Sleep: Since the weekend it’s been a bit better. I’ve got myself into a proper little bedtime routine to try and stop the torture of my legs going crazy; Sam makes me a banana smoothie (which I try and drink without throwing up – can’t stand bananas but apparently potassium helps relieve restless legs), then have a bounce on my birthing ball, followed by a warm bath, massage legs and read in bed with a hot drink. And touch wood it seems to be working; I’ve only had one night where it took me ages to get to sleep and I’ve not woken up at the usual 5am time for the last few mornings. I’m hoping it’s my body giving me a break and allowing me to rest now before my little baby comes along. Of course I still wake about 4 times a night for a wee but so long as I keep the lights off, don’t look at the clock and go back to bed lying the same way I was when I woke up, I have been getting back to sleep. So fingers crossed I can keep this up for the last few weeks. I am really tired in the day again now so I have been embracing naps when I can. Oddly enough I tend to find it easier to fall asleep and nap in the day sometimes, than when I try to go to bed at night. I’m hoping my napping skills come in handy when baby arrives and I take everyones advice of napping at the same time as him or her.

Best Moment This Week: Obviously as I mentioned at the start of this post, it has been my baby shower! I cannot gush enough about how special it was and how grateful I am. But I’ve also had some other lovely days this week; Husband and I decided to go into town on Sunday for a breakfast date which was really nice and a good chance to have a date, we’re taking every opportunity now before our baby comes along and plays third wheel!

I also had a lovely lunch this week with my friends from my NCT group. It’s so nice having a good catch up and comparing our bumps. One of the girls didn’t manage to make it to lunch, and we couldn’t get hold of her so we suspected perhaps her little one had decided to come. And we were right! Another early NCT baby, this time a lovely little girl! It was such exciting news to hear and I know the girls will agree with me when I say it just makes you even more excited, if that’s possible, about meeting our babies.

I also spent some time with one of my lovely friends having a good old catch up this week; she is also pregnant, 15 weeks, which is so exciting. We love our weekly catch ups and having a great excuse to have hot chocolate and cakes! It meant a lot when she said I’d been a great help since she’s been pregnant, giving her lots of advice and answering her questions. She is going to be the most beautiful pregnant girl and I am so happy for her! We both love a little quote so I found this one for her:

Miss Anything: My wedding rings!! I’ve had them off for a couple of weeks now and I hate not wearing them!  I had noticed my fingers swelling a bit cause I am always so hot so I took them off (it took some effort though!!) before they got stuck. I can’t bear not having them on so it’ll be lovely to be able to wear them again.

Also it’s November, and yet it’s still about 16 degrees – I miss cold weather. As any pregnant woman will agree, you spend half your time being boiling hot and I have been desperate for some cold crisp days. Plus they are the loveliest days to go for a walk! I’m sure I am the only person praying for cold weather!

I mentioned last week that I was missing driving without pain. This week the pain has increased and I’ve decided that other than short local drives, I won’t be doing any more long drives till baby arrives. The pain in my back this week literally had me pulling over to the side of the road in tears. Yes I am a wimp, and yes, this is why I know I’ll need lots of pain relief in labour 😉

Movements: Loads! Poor baby, I feel so sorry for him/her in there, running out of space. It’s moved down now but I doubt that’s increased space for it. It goes absolutely nuts every time I eat; it can be tricky trying to enjoy food just to then deal with a knee or a heel poking out from under my ribs. But I love feeling the movements; it’s reassuring and part of the bond you have with your bump and I use it as an opportunity to tell the baby not long now till we get to meet each other.

Food Cravings: A friend asked me what I was craving this week whilst we were at my baby shower and my MIL announced “look at her, she’s craving food”! I’d normally take offence (and luckily I wasn’t hormonal that day) but she’s probably right, I am just munching my way through everything now!! I am really trying to curb the sweet tooth but I’m not doing the best job at it. I’ve had one of my spontaneous cravings this week; someone mentioned about a sausage sandwich on the radio so I had no choice but to go to Tesco and get what I needed to make myself one. It was so worth it!

Sickness: It’s not been too bad this week. I’ve not thrown up too much, just when I’ve had really bad acid reflux. I’ve felt sick though, especially last night. My Braxton hicks were really sore and I couldn’t eat dinner as it was making me feel even worse. I was glad that when I got up this morning it appeared to have passed; I’m at that stage now where anything like that is going to put me on edge and make me think “is something starting to happen”. I’ll be keeping a close eye out for any signs and symptoms. I’d love to know of anything to look out for so if you had any specific signs before you went into labour, please leave me a comment below 🙂

Mood: I am so excited. It really has kicked in how close we are to meeting our baby! Obviously I’m nervous about things (in fact I did a related post on this yesterday so please have a read – https://beautybabyandme.wordpress.com/the-build-up-to-labour/) but I can’t stop thinking about who I’m going to meet; a boy or girl, and which of us it’ll look like. It’s so exciting and I am praying the time continues to fly by as much as it has so far.

I can’t lie, I’m tired too. I don’t want to say “I’ve had enough” cause I feel like that would be sound negative and I don’t want to be negative – I am so grateful to be pregnant and so close to meeting our baby. But pregnancy has taken its toll; I’ve been horrendously sick the whole way through with the exception of a nice 6 weeks in the summer, I’ve had the low lying placenta issue and had to rest a lot, and I’ve had low blood pressure so have had a lovely tendency to faint when my body decides. But it’s just the tiredness now, my body has decided it wants to chill out and relax in preparation for the next part…. getting baby out! Eeeek!!!

And of course I am feeling so grateful; I’ve been so well looked after this week and absolutely spoilt rotten. I am so lucky to have such amazing friends and family surrounding me and who are as excited as I am for this next chapter.

Looking Forward To: meeting my baby!!! I think that’s all that is going to be on my mind now. I can’t wait to see who this little person is.

I’ve got a nice weekend planned catching up with some family and I am also really looking forward to next week because I plan to do absolutely nothing. I’m going to catch up with DVD’s I’ve wanted to watch for ages, I’m going to read books I’ve not yet had a chance to and I’m going to allow myself to be completely lazy. Of course I still want to see friends and stuff but I am going to be really selfish (sorry guys) and ask them to come to see me if they fancy a catch up. Having had two friends give birth before their due dates over the last couple of weeks, I am really aware now that I just need to take it easy and be a bit selfish in that respect. But I know friends and family will understand that and will be happy to come and visit me, especially as I always have cake in the house these days 🙂

So that’s this week. Another one that has absolutely flown by! The time is going so fast now, and I know labour is going to be here before I know it. A terrifying thought but also an absolutely amazing and exciting prospect. I can’t wait to have my baby in my arms and smell his or her smell and kiss its little fingers. I am already so in love, I can’t even imagine how much that love is going to overwhelm me when we finally meet him or her.

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Thanks for reading xxx