The third trimester is considered to be the remaining 14 weeks of pregnancy (week 27 and on). This trimester is characterized by rapid fetal growth, along with new, uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms, as your body prepares to give birth. The third trimester is typically when most moms have a baby shower to celebrate the arrival of their upcoming newborn. Maternity photoshoots are also common during this trimester, as your bump is reaching its full potential growing bigger and bigger.
Symptoms
Common symptoms can include back pain (or round ligament pain too), swelling (primarily in the feet and ankles), heartburn, and frequent urination. While I was blessed to not have too many uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms in the first two trimesters, my third trimester was plagued with terrible acid reflux. I tried all of the home remedies including tums, chewing gum, avoiding trigger foods (spicy foods, fried foods, citrus, etc.), not lying down after eating, but I could not avoid the heartburn.
My sister-in-law gave me her pregnancy wedge pillow, which I started to use at night time (in addition to using a pregnancy pillow)—our bed was overtaken with pillows during the third trimester! The wedge (or cheese pillow as I call it), did help a little bit as my head was more elevated while I slept. At this late stage in pregnancy, I struggled to sleep through the night (uncomfortable sleeping positions along with urinating a few times during the night).
That is one thing that I missed the most after getting pregnant – sleep. I considered myself to be an pretty good sleeper before pregnancy, and once I got pregnant, there were very few, if any, nights where I slept all the way through the night. And once baby came, I definitely wasn’t sleeping through the night (although that did eventually come later!)
Doctor's Appointments
Throughout my pregnancy, I saw my OBGYN every ~4 weeks, until the last month where I saw her every 2 weeks (really only week 38, as I gave birth early in week 39, so the week 40 appointment was not needed). Depending on your pregnancy risk level, you may see your doctor more often. It’s important to continue with prenatal care, as the third trimester is massive in terms of growth of the baby.
A few things surprised me during this trimester—first, I didn’t realize that for low risk pregnancies (or at least my pregnancy), there are only 3 ultrasounds for the entirety of the pregnancy (at 8 weeks (to confirm pregnancy), at 12 weeks (to confirm dating and visibility), and at 20 weeks (to assess baby’s development and anatomy). I was definitely hoping for more ultrasounds so that I could see my daughter. And I thought doctors would want to check baby’s positioning and growth closer to delivery date as well (I think this ultrasound is more common in high risk pregnancies). I understand that we could have paid an outside doctor for a 3D ultrasound, but we opted not to do that.
Second, I did not realize that not all health care providers have the OBGYN deliver the baby. For me, my OBGYN confirmed that she would in fact not be delivering my baby. After thinking about it, this made sense to me—as I could give birth at any point in the day, and my OBGYN already works 8am-5pm, and is not on call the rest of her day. My OBGYN also told me that I probably wouldn’t want her to deliver my baby, as she doesn’t deliver babies often since she is more focused on prenatal care for moms. And that it would be better to have the on call doctor deliver my baby as they are well versed with delivering babies on a regular basis. I was ok with this in the end, but it took me by surprise!
Maternity Photoshoot
One fun activity to do in the third trimester, if you choose to do, is a maternity photoshoot. If you’ve seen pictures online, you know that this photoshoot can vary widely in terms of how expensive and expansive it can be. There are some moms who choose to wear a big gown with the front opening to show the baby bump. While other moms may choose to wear a dress or unbuttoned jeans with a button down top. Some photoshoots are at a destination with beach and ocean or trees and mountains as the backdrop. Other photoshoots are done at home in the backyard or front lawn. It’s up to you on how (or if) you want to do a maternity photoshoot.
I would like to think I am a rational person, so when the topic of maternity photos came up, I debated whether or not to do. My first thought was “what am I going to do with these photos?” Will I hang them up in my house? If so, where will they go? I would post them on social media, but did I want to go through the whole process of maternity photos just to post online? I also don’t consider myself to be “good” at photoshoots as I’m always unsure how to pose.
In the end, my husband and I decided to do a maternity photoshoot, but I wanted to keep it fairly simple. I thought it would be fun to dress up a bit (no frilly gown or anything – no offense to moms who chose to do that, but I just wanted to wear a nice dress) and show off my growing baby bump. I planned to post a handful of the photos on social media, but I also printed out a couple of the photos and put in picture frames in our living room.
I ordered a maternity dress online from Pink Blush (they have the CUTEST maternity dresses — I ordered like 3 or 4 from there during my pregnancy). My husband wore khaki jeans and a white short sleeve button down, as this paired well with any dress I decided to pick. We did the photoshoot at a nearby lake, and what made the photoshoot even more special was that we had one of our friends take the photos. She’s an amazing photographer, who has photographed us before, so we were so excited when she offered to take our maternity photos. She did an incredible job capturing our growing family and I am forever thankful!
Baby Shower
Another fun activity during the third trimester is the baby shower! For a lot of moms, baby showers are usually hosted for them; however, if not, then moms can definitely plan their own baby showers. As the Accounting Momma, I do love planning, but I was very thankful to have family help plan my baby showers. I was able to help provide input into the planning process, but it was very nice to not have to plan every detail of the shower and organize it (there was enough else I was planning for!).
When
If you look online, a lot of websites say to have your baby shower one to two months before your due date. My initial thought was that was way too close to the due date and that I wanted more time to organize everything for baby before she arrived (and god forbid she comes early and there is even less time after the shower to organize).
I ended up having two baby showers—after looking at the number of guests that would be invited, having only one baby shower would have been too difficult for one home to host. As such, my cousins hosted a baby shower for my side of the family, and then my mother-in-law/ sister-in-law hosted a baby shower for my husband’s side of the family + my girlfriends. This honestly worked out so well, as I was able to interact with everyone equally at each baby shower and was not overwhelmed with too many people.
My first baby shower was in late-April at 30 weeks pregnant. And my second baby shower was in mid-May at 34 weeks pregnant. While I was worried at first about the timing, these baby shower dates allowed me plenty of time to organize all of the baby items and send out thank you cards. I started my maternity leave at the very end of May, so I had 3 weeks (as baby girl came a week early) to nest and prepare.
Themes/ Decor/ Games
My first baby shower theme was Baby in Bloom, while my second baby shower theme was Ready to Pop. The Baby in Bloom theme had beautiful floral decor, and the Ready to Pop theme was focused on balloons. Both baby showers had a mom-osa bar which was for guests to enjoy mimosas with a variety of fruit juices. The food was delectable at both, focusing on brunch-related food. My first baby shower (Baby in Bloom) had an elegant strawberry cake, while my second baby shower (Ready to Pop) had adorable cake “pops” for guests.
Some games/ activities that I found fun at the baby showers included pop the balloon, who has the baby daddy, and guess how many are in the jar. At my Ready to Pop baby shower, my mother-in-law came up with a game of popping a balloon to find the baby’s name. Each balloon had a strip of paper inside with a name on it. At the time of my shower, my husband and I had already decided on the name Emma. So each guest popped one balloon and whoever had ‘Emma’ in their balloon won a prize!
One of the funnier games that was played was ‘find the baby daddy’. Everyone was handed a card that had a man’s body holding a baby with a scratch off face. At the same time, everyone scratched off the face to see if they had a photo of my husband (the baby daddy). Whoever did, won a prize. While one card had my husband’s face, other cards had random celebrity faces from Ryan Reynolds to Arnold Schwarzenegger; it was hilarious!
One common game is guessing the number of items in a jar. For my baby shower, there were watermelon sour candies in a jar (as baby would be the size of a watermelon at birth) and guests had to guess how many were in the jar. Whoever guessed right, or closest, won a prize.
If you’ve read this far and you’re wondering about my baby registry, I have a separate blog post specifically about my baby registry and my top recommendations!
The third trimester is coming to a close, and baby will be here sooner than you think! Cheers to a healthy and safe delivery!