Pregnancy after bypass: Week 34 pregnancy diary

Compared to last week this week seemed easy! I didn’t have anywhere near as much going on and I needed the break to be honest. I only had one pregnancy appointment on the cards and it was my second to last week at work! The baby is the size of a butternut squash this week and it certainly feels like I have a pumpkin hanging out in my stomach.

This week at work I was asked to help out with another product. It has certainly kept me busy as it’s so different to what I normally work on, just when I thought I could start winding down my brain and handing everything over to others! It kept me on my toes so much that it made the week go really quickly and I have to say with how exhausting it is getting through each day it was a bit of a relief for the week to fly by.

I had a few more Christmas presents that I had ordered online arrive this week. I managed to get it all wrapped too so December hasn’t even started and I’m done and ready. I don’t think I’ve ever been this organised but gosh it feels good. Especially when I can already notice the mall getting busier and people getting more stressed.

On Friday I had another growth scan. The baby is looking pretty good in there and my placenta is finally starting to behave itself. It had moved far away from my cervix and is nicely up and away from my previous c-section scar. The baby has continued to grow along the trendline from last time so she’s sitting on the 27^th centlie, slightly up from the 24^th centile that she was on last time. Fingers crossed this is exactly what the obstetrician wants to see when I go to see her again next week.

One really cool thing we saw during the scan was that this baby already has hair, and lots of it! She’s been head down for a while but wasn’t as firmly planted down in my pelvis this time and we could see her hair floating about. The sonographer measured it and it’s already about 2.5cm long! How crazy is that? I told my mum and she said I had to have my first haircut at five weeks old so maybe she takes after her Mama!

On Saturday we had a fun day. I took my little guy to see Santa at the mall and he was so cute. He was a bit star struck when he went to say hello to Santa and had the sweetest little conversation with him. Then we headed to the beach in the afternoon and took my niece along too which meant our little guy was way easier than usual since he had someone to play with! I was a bit naughty and didn’t put much sunblock on myself, I got a little bit of patchy sunburn on my legs where I failed to put on enough sunblock. Just as well that won’t affect the baby.

How far along? 34 weeks! Only one more week of work left!

How big is the peanut? About the size of a butternut squash. It certainly feels like I have a pumpkin in there.

Total weight gain/loss? This week my weight nudged up by about 300g. It’s been sitting around the same point for a few weeks now which is good.

Sleep? Apart from not getting enough my sleep has been pretty decent when I can get it this week. I have figured out a good pillow configuration and it’s really helping my poor tired and sore body.

Best moment this week? Seeing our little girl at the scan. She was moving her lips around and we could see her moving her fingers about too. Finding out how much hair she’s got was pretty cool too.

Belly button in or out? When I sit down my belly button is getting shallower but I don’t think, standing up, it’s going to poke out, there’s still enough loose skin from losing so much weight that I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.

What I miss? Wine, I had to tell my husband to stop mentioning alcohol this week because it was seriously starting to annoy me that he can drink and I can’t.

What I’m looking forward to? Seeing the obstetrician next week and what she has to say.

Bump? People are still commenting that it’s small but to me it seems huge.