Week 34: Slowing Down And Preparing For Birth

0:10Speaker 1:Said, you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mom and Mayor acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on.

0:21Speaker 2:I am Pregnantty.

0:26Speaker 1:Welcome to hell he Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and hopefully more manageable. I'm Grace Reebray. I'm pregnant for the first time, and I'm starting to panic that nothing is organized.

0:36Speaker 2:Home yard of Pittman. I've got nothing organized, but that's because I do have six children. I'm also training to be an obstetrician, and I am a former sportsperson.

0:43Speaker 1:Each episode, we will be holding your hand a week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes quite stressful miracle that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy seed to a pupkin week week thirty four And what size are we?

0:59Speaker 2:Little one is now an apple pie your local bakery. Let's get like a round, nice chunky apple.

1:05Speaker 1:I can only imagine like a regional bakery job, a nice, big, chunky right. I feel like we're starting to get to melon territory.

1:12Speaker 2:Yeah, we're very close to melo territory. I got a baby wombat as well. For the Australian animal thing. Now this is actually the gestation that my twins came, so this is quite close to my heart, this one. So lots of things development wise for your bebit, your little girl. The bones are starting to harden, so their skulls getting harder. Now remember there's going to have those fontanelles and the ability for the little skull bones to cross over for birth.

1:33Speaker 2:But it is starting to get stronger in that bone strength capacity. So there's two fontenelles. They're the soft spots on the baby's head and then there's the skin that covers the gaps where the plates meet together.

1:43Speaker 1:When does their neck function as a neck.

1:45Speaker 2:Not too well after birth. That's why we need to support them. So I think that's the scary thing when you've got more than one child and your toddler is flinging your baby around there. They're a lot more robust and in fact, my first ever grace time to the ed was when my I think it was about nine weeks old, and he rolled off my bed. Like they say, do not leave a baby unattended, but I'm like, sure, it's nine weeks. Sure. I literally turned around to hang something in the club of a little bull. It's weird.

2:07Speaker 2:You know. I was in living in the UK at this point because I was back training again, and I went to the DA and the doctor said, I know, you feel like a terrible mum right now. I'd be the second one today. I'm like, oh, thank god, very robust.

2:17Speaker 1:I Actually I have think my sister called crying when her son rolled off the bed for the first time, so it feels like rolling off the.

2:23Speaker 2:Bed is the thing. He's a mark a marker, a terrible a good parenting. Yeah, but you will do You'll make mistakes, is what I'm saying. Most of the time it won't matter, but yeah, their next are particularly vulnerable, so we do need to look after them.

2:35Speaker 1:What what's happening to me and what's happening to us.

2:39Speaker 2:Well, at the beginning of pregnancy, you might have found that you're feeling quite tired and emotional. Well let's wind that up by about a hundred so it's really important to get plenty of sleep and plenty of rest. You're going to be starting to I think we talked about this a few weeks ago, starting to sort of nest and get things busy, and you're going to be thinking goodness, this is approaching quickly because we are only three weeks away from full term, so we consider term thirty seven to forty two weeks. So everyone says forty weeks is your golden golden time. That's when your due date is.

3:04Speaker 2:It's the date you'll have been given when you started getting pregnant. But anytime after thirty seven weeks is term. So with only a month to go, it's getting very real. Yes, but it's important that you don't feel this time because a lot of people will be starting to consider maternity to leave now. Don't feel the time. This is the time to really rejuvenate, relax, fuel well, get your massage, booking with your antienatal appointments, and start to wind down and get ready for this baby to come.

3:26Speaker 1:Is this normal?

3:27Speaker 2:Is normal?

3:29Speaker 1:Is this normal?

3:30Speaker 2:Is?

3:30Speaker 1:I was gardening on the weekend and was bending over a lot picking things up, and then I like had this huge pain on one side and I had to sit down and like wait for it to pass because I obviously I don't know, pulled something or I just can't make that movement anymore. And it was just a moment of ah, your body is not the same anymore. And you can't do certain things or even a time of recording. I'm about to hit thirty four weeks. I'm probably your weak left of being out to tie my own shoes.

3:58Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. You need to start getting some support now. Yes, that is what put me into labor with the twins. I thought I could still run up the stairs after my toddler and I lost balance and fell backwards. So because that's another big thing that's starting to happen. You're getting a lot more daor in your lower back and your whole center of gravity is moving forward, so your balance is really off. Now, don't get me wrong, And again I do not one hundred percent condone this for anyone listening. And I have severe in continence as a result of it. But I was still hurdling in my first pregnancy at this point because obviously I was a lead athlete. I was very worried about my finances and not being able to return to sports, so there was a bit of fear in that space. I don't condone it because I definitely think my peblic florist who are as the result of doing that. But you can't do as much as you think you can, and The argument here is why do you have to why do you need to garden now? Grace at thirty four weeks like, there is going to be plenty of time to put those roses in, But there's also, guys, plenty of time

4:48Speaker 2:to go back to the gym. So you know, we have a lot of women who are really pushing the envelope at this point in pregnancy. And don't get me wrong, it's great for mental health, it's great for weight, it's great for your energy, but it's also okay if your body starts to say enough's enough to start winding back down. You will not lose fitness. Your body will bounce back. It's time to really focus on what you're doing, which is growing a baby.

5:08Speaker 1:It's a hard one, especially when it's your first, because there is a resistance. But when we get to talk to a kid, I'm trying, yeah to just go oh I am limited.

5:21Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, And we again touched on this a few weeks ago. But it's also okay to ask your part was about driving you to work. Remember it's okay to ask your partner to step up and do things because we actually want them him or her to be a good support person. After birth. So start early. Let's train them, you know, train them to do some extra things for that little foot massage at night, you know, getting your cup of tea on the couch or hanging out the washing, doing those things that you will really need them to step up and doing the weeks afterwards. It's okay to start asking them now. Yeah.

5:49Speaker 1:I will just share one little story about my partner. He obviously came to the birth courses and he saw the pelvis being moved like in and out I'd say, like showing how it's gonna move. And for him, like I feel like everyone's had a moment of oh my gosh for having a baby. For him, it was the pelvis model that did it, and she was the person running the course, was moving the pelvist and it goes, oh, but yours won't move as much, and he was like as much, it's barely moving. What do you mean? And he it's like, your body's going to do so much, but you've already done so much, and you've been through so much already because you've been so sick. And then he went and brought me a gift.

6:25Speaker 2:Oh I'll take it.

6:27Speaker 1:I loved it, but like he's more wanting me to slow down than I am.

6:32Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's interesting because this will also be conversations that you'll have closer to birth of where you want your partner to stand in the birth unit, because you know they will see a significant change in your body and the way things go. And I personally think that is sometimes the making of partners. For them to be able to see the enormous effort you've gone to produce that baby gives a whole new respect for the woman going through that space. But it is a very big change, and it can be something that if you let your partner into it and take them along to these birth courses and they can really see what your body's doing, will hopefully lead to a wonderful respect and then a real shared journey together throughout pregnancy and beyond.

7:09Speaker 1:And what's in your took it.

7:10Speaker 2:I think it's really important now to start investing in a very good pair of shoes, because one, you can't tie you shoelaces. Two they're starting to swell. And so look, I was a CrOx girl. I want to be honest, because I just found them easy to put on. But something that's going to be supportive because again we want to back off the heavy exercise. But going from some nice walks together, particularly with your partner, as you asked, just the two of you, is a good idea.

7:30Speaker 1:Mine was It's a do as I say, not as I do. But I'm trying. I'm trying, and my app also told me is to start slowing down, which feels like the theme of this episode. There's a girl here in Mama Mia who she actually just had her baby, and a few weeks ago we were talking about the perception of women and brain fog and that you do slow like that people do treat you differently. And I was like, this is a few weeks ago. It's like, I don't want to be treated differently. I want to like be doing all the work and doing the long days.

7:57Speaker 1:And she was just a few weeks ahead of me, and she's like, I absolutely want to be treated differently. And now at thirty four weeks, I'm like, I get it. Yeah, I get it. I think it's a big change. Yeah, I do with the tiredness, the movement, like I've got a thirty minute walk to the office and a thirty like through the different public transport methods, and then it's a wad all. It's starting to be a bit of a slog. So I'm going to try and work from home on the days that I can set in all of those things.

8:26Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's a great message because so many people don't do that, or they get the guilts that they should be getting more and this is just really not the time to be kicking goals. This is a it's a stay. It's a stay phase to say, where you just just get the bare minimum done and then the rest of it will come. You're not going to lose that much in this in this couple of weeks. I like that.

8:47Speaker 1:We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We have so many episodes of this series filled with tips and stories from women and experts who've been through it all before.

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9:05Speaker 2:This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production by Tom Lyon. We'll cut Sue next time.

9:10Speaker 1:This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies Bye Bye