Preggy Diaries: Recap of the Third Trimester

As I’m writing this, it has been almost two weeks since I gave birth. Before I share with you my son’s birth story, I thought I’d do a recap of the third trimester first.

My third trimester for this pregnancy started out great. I was feeling stronger. I had started gaining weight. When the 7th month started I had gained a total of 6 lbs. already, which doesn’t seem much. However, since I hadn’t gained weight at all during the first 4 months, the 6 lbs was already a good accomplishment.

I thought the rest of the third trimester would go on fine but I was wrong. In early August, a routine urinalysis revealed that I got UTI. It was a first for me in all of my 37 years of life. I was shocked to say the least. What was even more shocking and disturbing was that the UTI recurred until almost the time I gave birth, which meant I had to endure weekly rounds of urinalysis and medication, plus even a urine culture and sensitivity test.

As if that wasn’t enough, I suddenly had yeast infection too, which also kept recurring until almost I gave birth. Of course, it had to be treated with it’s own set of medications too. It was really scary because I found out that if my UTI and yeast infection were not treated by the time I give birth, my baby could get infected too and he will have to get his own set of treatments for it. Of course, we didn’t want that to happen.

What’s even scarier was that UTI, as I learned, can also cause contractions and preterm labor. That was really scary for me because I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions already since the first trimester. The combination of all these during my third trimester actually caused me to have early labor contractions around my 8th month of pregnancy, which meant I had to go on bed rest for some time and take additional medicines.

Oh, and let’s not forget I also got PUPP, which are red rashes that commonly appear on the third trimester. There’s no cure for it and it supposedly disappears after you give birth. Mine is still here though and it appears in huge patches of red on my legs and thighs. Sucks!

Suffice it to say that we spent A LOT OF MONEY during the third trimester, which really caused me to become depressed at some point. I really wanted to save that money for the hospital expenses and instead we had to spend it on all those tests and medications. Plus, I felt there were still so much I needed to do before giving birth that I couldn’t finish because I had to go on bed rest.

So what got me out of my slump? A lot of love from friends and other kind people.

One Saturday, I was expecting one or two friends to visit me at home while I was on bed rest. As it turns out, my whole high school barkada came to surprise me with a baby shower! Well, not all of them came because some are already based abroad but they were still there in spirit. They came bearing food and gifts. But what I appreciated the most was the thoughtful gesture.

I never expected anyone to throw me a baby shower again especially since this is already my fourth child. But because they knew how depressed I was, they went above and beyond what was necessary and actually organized that party in a few days. More than the gifts and the food, I really needed some time to just talk and laugh with friends and they gave me that opportunity that day. I really have the best friends ever! Thank you guys!

Aside from my high school friends, there are other kind people, also sent me some love. Some of them are friends I only got to know during the past few years. A lot of them were people I don’t even know and have never met. They came from this group of moms that I’m a part of on Facebook. They found out we needed some help completing the baby’s needs because of my condition and quite a few of them pitched in and sent us a LOT of baby stuff. Just look at these!

There were so many that I decided to send some of them to my sister-in-law in Davao who’s giving birth too in a few days. To all those who sent stuff for our baby, thank you so much! Hubby and I will forever be grateful for your generosity.

Slowly, I was finally able to enjoy the last few weeks of my third trimester. I was finally able to pack our hospital bags and organize the baby’s cabinet.

I was also able to take a biophysical ultrasound that revealed that despite my issues, our baby was doing just great inside me.

My due date was supposed to be on October 2 but I knew I wouldn’t last that long. All my 3 kids were born 2 weeks early so I was expecting this one to be the same. However, my hubby wanted our baby to be born on September 11, which was his birthday. That was the exact day I was on my 37th week already (3 weeks before due date) and delivering the baby would have already been safe. So, we even celebrated hubby’s birthday a day early. The plan was to eat a lot of spicy food and walk around a lot as well. So, we went to A-won Korean Restaurant and I ate a lot of kimchi (hahaha!). Then off we went to Boulangerie 22 at Festival Mall for dessert.

As it happened, I didn’t go into labor that night or the next day during hubby’s actual birthday. On hubby’s birthday, we even went out again hoping that I’d go into labor already to no avail (haha!).

I went into labor the day after his birthday instead (haha!) but that story is for another post. So, you’ll just have to wait for that next week (hopefully!).

Anyway, it was an epic third trimester, the hardest pregnancy experience I’ve ever had and it culminated with an epic birth too. I learned so many things from the ordeal though. I learned to not lose hope and to just put my faith in God. Despite feeling like my body failed me during my third trimester, my baby turned out healthy. I didn’t give birth too early. We were still able to prepare everything in time for the birth.

I also learned how great my friends truly are. I’ve always known they were awesome but this experience reminded me of that. I also learned that there’s still a lot of kind people in the world. There are still those who are willing to help out even if they don’t even know you. There’s still hope for the world after all and that makes me feel really, really good.