It's official ladies! We are starting our third trimesters. My due date is March 1st, and I am 27 weeks today, so I know there are a few of us, and everyday there are a few more!!
I for one, am so excited to be entering into the third tri... It's the home stretch!! And so far (although that could change at any moment...) I feel pretty damn fabulous! It's pretty amazing to think that over the next 4 weeks we all will be looking down the final road until our babe's are in our arms.
I will officially start the big 3rd Tri on Monday. It's crazy how fast it's gone. I wish I could echo your enthusiasm babytoes regarding how I feel, but sadly this week has been rough. I optimistic that the 3rd will be my good trimester! 
But... did you maybe mean 14 weeks or 4 months?? I don't want to look down in 4 weeks and see my new little one. She needs to bake a little more. 
YAY!!! I cannot believe it, it has gone by so fast it is unbelievable!!! I am so excited to meet this little kick boxer in my tummy. We already have some routines , about 9am and about 8pm she is awake and lively, she responds to daddy's voice and if we shine a flashlight at my tummy she pokes at it. The other day I coughed really loud and she jumped, I scared the poor baby.
I still cannot believe that we are closing to the end of this journey.
@maydaymom10, sorry it's been a bad week, I've had a few of those this pregnancy.
@babytoes, I am excited to be in third sure do hope I can sustain my energy for a while.
Maydaymom, Actually I meant over the next four weeks all of us ladies will be going into our 3rd tri. After I reread it, it did come out a little strange, sorry to be confusing! No babies for at least another 10 weeks!!
Being due later in the month, I am watching you all with envy!!! Just like I did when you all entered the second tri and I was still hopelessly sick!
I feel like a little sister watching her older sister getting all sorts of older sister perks when I don't get them yet!
I guess it'll be the same when babies start coming!
I completely agree that it's hard to believe some of us are already in the home stretch!!!!
Technical question: when does 3rd officially start? 27 weeks?
I think it's 27 weeks. I'm nearly 25 weeks now - so gimme another 2-3 weeks and I'll be joining you all!
That IS exciting!! I'll be 24 weeks tomorrow, so I still won't be there for a few weeks. Getting close, though!
I am going to be joining u next saturday!!!! :) Sooo excited!~
2 weeks to go, here! How exciting! Home stretch, here we come!
I am 27wks today!!! I am so glad to be in the home stretch:)
Wow. 3rd Trimester... I've debated posting on this thread since I originally saw it on the weekend and had a mini panic-attack. But if I've learned one thing on MDC, it's that if I'm feeling something, someone else is probably feeling the same thing. So I'll share (only because I hope it makes someone else feel not alone, not to rain on this awesome 3rd tri parade!)
Wow. 3rd Trimester. 1st time soon-to-be-mom here. And while I am SOOOO excited to meet this LO, I am SOOOO not ready, on SOOOO many levels. Well, except the "material goods" level, I think we're pretty good on that one. A coat of paint and moving some furniture around, I think we're good.
It's the holy-crap-my-life-is-about-to-completely-change and I'm gonna be someone's MOTHER. That's deep. The same thing happened when I found out I was pregnant - how is it that something I've wanted so bad can freak me out so much once it happens?! And I'm looking forward to the birth and holding this baby and everything like that, it's just the realization that EVERYTHING will CHANGE that's got me freaking out / overwhelmed / scared... not really sure what I'm feeling, just a strong feeling that this is going by too quick!
Anyway, I'm not in my 3rd tri yet, so maybe in a couple weeks when I join you all, I'll be in a better place about it. Even just writing this, I feel a bit better (I mean, I still had to take a couple breaks to wipe away some tears, but that just seems to be the norm lately!)
Happy 3rd Trimester to those of you who have entered into this phase!
Scruff, I hear you.
I have ADD (diagnosed and treated) and the idea of a 40+ week pregnancy always sounded... interminable to me! I am NOT a patient person. Add to that the fact that I had a m/c with my first pregnancy and then immediately got pregnant again, by the time I have this baby, I will have been pregnant for literally a full calendar year (minus 6 weeks in-between pregnancies)! Actually, a little longer than a year.
And I will say that I did want to things to hurry up for the first 12-16 weeks-- but more because I wanted to get to a place in pregnancy where m/c was a lot less likely. Now... I wouldn't say that I am quite freaking out about only having 12-14 weeks to go (I'm almost 28). Buuuuuut... Well, as long as I'm not feeling like death, let's just say I'd rather babe come at 41-42 weeks! And if he/she comes at 39 or less-- yikes!
I feel like I have tons to do, even though I've already done tons. I am not feeling so much rushed in terms of baby stuff (been relatively prepared on that front, considering it's my first and my plans are super-ambitious-- BFing, CDing, ECing, etc.) But-- *gulp*-- DH just gave his 1-month notice at work and he will really, actually, for realz be joining me in my business starting January.
OOH, WOOOO HOOOO!!!! "The Plan" (to be dual/equal WAHP) is coming together!
OTOH, OMFG! There's a lot to prep for! Money (theoretically) shouldn't actually be loads tighter, because his help will earn us more via the business. And his previous income wasn't terribly steady, b/c it was also sales-/commission-based, so it's not like we'll be loads less "secure." But it kinda feels like pressure on me, b/c it's "my" business. Plus, I have to train him! And we're launching another arm of the business, so... It's just a lot!
It is weird, too, to really think of myself as someone's mom. I mean... for example, a couple days ago, I was looking at this kinda glamorous photo of DH and me and thinking of my kid pointing at it and saying, "Mommy?" And me replying, "Yep, that's Mommy!" And it kinda hit me! It's nothing for me to think of Buko calling DH "Daddy" or calling my mom "Grandma" (this is her first grandchild), etc., but me? Mommy? OMG!
Scruffy (and Buko) - I do not remember my emotions a whole lot during my first pregnancy, I know I had all the normal anxieties, but I think I was kind of in lala land thinking it would all be great and not so much of a change when the baby was born. I think it is good (and normal) to be freaking out a little now and then when you hold that baby for the first time so much of it will melt away! Unlike when i held the baby for the first time and then freaked out! It works out either way, the anxieties are normal. Hopefully working through them now will do you well after baby is here though. There is not a lot you can do about anything that you worry about now, but acknowledging them and accepting the fact that, yes, life changes, is good. Life will be so much better though. I was just thinking last night in the craziness of dinner, baths, homework and feeling under the weather that no matter how tired I am or how crazy life seems I would never go back to life before kids. They are amazing little creatures!
Yes, what Sarah said. I was kind of in lala land as well with #1 and came down to earth with a big bang after she was born. It would have been much healthier and more productive to freak out ahead of time!
So exciting that we're starting to have people reaching the third tri! I can't believe time is going by so fast!!
I'm due at the very end of March, so have another 3.5 weeks to go still of my second trimester, but at least I'm feeling good right now! 
And I think I'm okay with still having that extra bit of time. I still have so much to do on the practical *stuff* side of things, even though I don't want to get overwhelmed with getting stuff. At least we've started getting hand-me-downs coming in, so I don't feel like I have nothing. And while I have few final decisions on bigger items (like diapering), I have done enough research on several things that at least I feel more informed, and am leaning towards a decision.
scruffy - I totally had a freak-out moment a few weeks ago, while my husband and I were going to sleep and just talking about some things. And I was suddenly like, "ohmigod, we're going to have a BABY. We have no idea what to DO with a baby." He's hardly been around babies at all, and I have spent more time with them since so many of my friends have had babies within the past few years, but it's not like I was taking care of the babies. And I wasn't a babysitter as a kid either. So I kind of freaked out that we were completely and utterly unprepared! I'm glad people here are saying maybe it's better to freak out a little now, though, before the baby comes.
Also, I visited a friend in CA recently who had a 5-week-old at that point, and I got to carry him around in both a Moby carrier and an Ergo for a couple hours, to try them out, and got to change his diaper, and hear my friend's stories about what it was like to bring him home from the hospital (she had a moment of, "wait, why are they letting us leave the hospital with this baby? There aren't any adults at home to take care of him!" ), and after that few hours of a visit I felt so much better. I'm not sure I'll ever feel fully prepared, but at least I felt like I didn't have to be scared of changing diapers, carrying a baby around, etc. And seriously, having a little baby snuggled up to me for two hours was AMAZING.
I remember taking a newborn care class the first time around was really when it hit home to me - swaddling a doll and stuff and thinking "BUT IT'S GOING TO BE ALIVE!"
Second time around I have far too much dread already of the sleeplessness aspect. I'm trying to remember that it will all be worth it for a little baby that I love so much, but yeah, they're a lot of work at first.
I'll be back to this thread in a few weeks, due mid-March... Looking forward to officially being in the third trimester, because I sure look it.
Oh, that's interesting, Sarah and spughy. I was kind of offended when my aunts were teasing me over Thanksgiving (I was excited to show my cool cloth diapers to my grandma). They were kinda all "Oh, reality's going to hit you hard!!" Like having kids is all PITA and very little good stuff, and I'm off with my head in the clouds. 
Erm, I'm 34. Not that age is everything either, but what really kinda offended me was that-- duh! I know it's going to be really, really hard, and a huge upheaval. (I mean, to the extent I can know that-- it's fundamentally impossible to really imagine until you're a parent-- but then, there's no way to prepare for something unknowable, so... 
)
But that's a big part of why I didn't even try to have kids for 14 years! Hello! If I were that starry-eyed and naive about having kids (not that you guys were!), I think I might have had kids before my 10th wedding anniversary! But no-- in fact, for the longest time, the whole idea was so overwhelming, I could barely conceive of any/many upsides to child-rearing. So, it's like-- who are you talking to? Have we met?
Let me be a little excited! I'm pretty sure there's a little something rewarding and/or fun about having kids! Overall, I'm a pretty realistic kinda gal, but can't I be, you know-- happy? Geez.
But now I think they must have been projecting. Maybe they got hit hard when they held their babes for the first time, and are trying to "prepare" me. Kind of a crabs-in-a-barrel way of relating, but okay.
Oh, that's interesting, Sarah and spughy. I was kind of offended when my aunts were teasing me over Thanksgiving (I was excited to show my cool cloth diapers to my grandma). They were kinda all "Oh, reality's going to hit you hard!!" Like having kids is all PITA and very little good stuff, and I'm off with my head in the clouds. Erm, I'm 34. Not that age is everything either, but what really kinda offended me was that-- duh! I know it's going to be really, really hard, and a huge upheaval. (I mean, to the extent I can know that-- it's fundamentally impossible to really imagine until you're a parent-- but then, there's no way to prepare for something unknowable, so... )
But that's a big part of why I didn't even try to have kids for 14 years! Hello! If I were that starry-eyed and naive about having kids (not that you guys were!), I think I might have had kids before my 10th wedding anniversary! But no-- in fact, for the longest time, the whole idea was so overwhelming, I could barely conceive of any/many upsides to child-rearing. So, it's like-- who are you talking to? Have we met?
Let me be a little excited! I'm pretty sure there's a little something rewarding and/or fun about having kids! Overall, I'm a pretty realistic kinda gal, but can't I be, you know-- happy? Geez.
But now I think they must have been projecting. Maybe they got hit hard when they held their babes for the first time, and are trying to "prepare" me. Kind of a crabs-in-a-barrel way of relating, but okay.
Oh Buko...I can soo relate!
I just hate the "you'll see" comments, and if it's any consolation, most of the things I was supposed to "see" didn't materialise. I mean, yeah, the first few months are hard, super hard, but we're tough and can handle it! Every one does, in the end!
Funny also, alot of the comments I also got were around cloth diapers. And DD was in cloth until she started daycare at 22 months. So there. 
I try really hard not to say things in a "you'll see" way, more of a "babies are all people, you're basically inviting a whole new person into your home, 24/7, and you have no idea what kind of a house guest they'll be" kind of way. And I always hope that new mamas, no matter how starry-eyed and clueless, don't have anywhere near the issues I had. 
I had a really tough time. Most of you here won't have it anywhere near that bad - but even if you do, you CAN make it out the other side and you WILL love your baby in a way that makes it all worthwhile.
But, don't believe anyone about any particular facet of babyhood or postpartum recovery being either hard or easy. Everything's different for everyone. The dyad of you and your baby is unique - and while it's really important to be as informed as you can be, I think it's equally important to keep an open mind and be flexible to the extent you can. One thing I DID learn - after being a super-researching first-time mama - is that some things would have gone easier if I'd been a bit more chill about them. But that's in retrospect, and that wasn't me then. DD's first year was one whomping big learning experience and period of intense personal change for me. I think I'm a better person for it, but it sure as hell wasn't easy. That's the other thing - sometimes what's easy isn't what's best, and sometimes struggling with something makes it more worthwhile in the end. So don't be afraid of whatever struggles may come your way, and when someone warns you about potential horrors, know that the chances of that particular horror befalling you are distinctly less than 100% and that whoever is telling you that probably went through it herself and was probably damned miserable for a lengthy period because of it. So yes, it's annoying - but it's more of a plea for sympathy than actual advice.
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