The Third Trimester

(Read about the first trimester here and the second trimester here).

So, in discussing Chocolate Cranberry Quick Bread, I slipped that we had our baby, but I still haven't told you about my third trimester!  Before I give up the goods on our little doll face and flood this blog with baby pictures, lets talk about the last chunk of pregnancy.

In the last trimester I continued to grow and grow.  My feet seemed to be permanently swollen and my right ribcage perpetually bumped.  That said, these were small things and I felt good.  I continued with prenatal yoga and although some moves became more difficult, and others impossible, it still felt good to stretch my body and get centered in preparation for birth.

The hubs and I also did the Must Have Tools for Labor class at Herself Moms.  What a great class!  We wanted a class that focused on natural birth and we were hoping for something that we could knock out in 1 or 2 days as opposed to a week(s) or month long class.....this is the way to go if that is what you are also looking for.  The class mostly focused on how the partner can help mom through labor and gave so much great information.  I really can't say enough about it.

Also in the third trimester, two beautiful baby showers were thrown for me, I feel so lucky to have such a gigantic family.

 

The final thing for me to do in the third trimester was to figure out when to go out of work.  I really agonized over this!  If you are trying to figure out maternity leave in CA, this is the long and short of it:

4 weeks before birth

6-8 weeks after birth (6 weeks for a natural birth & 8 weeks for a C-section)

6 weeks Paid Family Leave (baby bonding time paid by the state...eligible if you pay into state disability)

 

So, that 4 weeks before.  I didn't think I needed 4 weeks before and I also didn't want to time it wrong where it cut into my time on the back end.  For example, if you are due 10/1, like I was, and you stop working 9/1 and then your baby is born 10/5, the time between the 1st of October and the 5th of October comes out of your 6-8 weeks post baby leave.  I was scheduled to have 9/17 be my last day of work.  I was convinced my baby would come late so I thought I would have a little over 2 weeks off before she arrived.  I ended up going out on the 15th instead.  I was tired and it was time.  My baby came on the 25th, so I only had 10 days before she was born.  My advice to new moms is take the whole 4 weeks, time it as best you can and don't stress out over it.  You will be more tired and get less done when your baby arrives, so just give yourself the time!

 

Overall the third trimester was another great section of pregnancy for me.  I was very blessed to have a really wonderful pregnancy, but that's not to say there weren't some big surprises at the end......but, I'm going to wait to share these when I tell you our birth story!  Stay tuned!

 

In the meantime watch me grow in superfast time....

  

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That is all for now friends.  Happy Monday!

♥TCW