Third Trimester Symptoms

Tweet

Pin It

I'm 34 weeks pregnant! 

Just saying (or writing) that still feels so strange. It feels like I've been pregnant forever, but it also feels like just yesterday that I was staring at my first positive pregnancy test in utter disbelief. 

And yet next week is already December?! 

How did that happen? 

I'm always super excited for December, because Christmas is by far my favorite time of year, but this year the arrival of the holiday season is weightier than usual. 

My 36 week scan is the second week of December and by Christmas our baby could really arrive any time!

I'm looking forward to watching cozy Christmas movies with my husband, playing Christmas music around the clock, and maybe doing some Christmas cookie baking if I haven't totally succumbed to third trimester fatigue yet.

I've been pretty lucky as far as third trimester symptoms go. While the first trimester was pretty rough with morning sickness, I've been feeling pretty great all second and third trimester! 

I have only slightly lower energy than usual during the day, but I wear out a lot faster. It's not at all unheard of for me to fall asleep at 8 or 9pm, much to my husband's dismay! He has to stay up alone and cuddle with the cats until it's a reasonable hour for an adult to go to sleep. 

I also still have some trouble concentrating on non-baby things, which could be due to my anemia or could just be the excitement of becoming a first time mom making me completely preoccupied with all things baby and pregnancy. 

Speaking of anemia, I've been on iron supplements since my first prenatal appointment, when they discovered that I'm a little low on iron. The supplements have helped keep my anemia in the moderate range even as my body and the baby have been demanding more and more iron. Now at 34 weeks I've hit the peak volume of blood I'll ever have in my body - 40% more than what it is when I'm not pregnant!

The drawback of iron supplements is that they're not too kind to my digestive system. It's nothing compared to first trimester nausea, but I do struggle with indigestion most evenings. All the more reason to go to bed early and speed the arrival of the next morning! Mornings are my best time.

One thing pregnant ladies wonder a lot about is the glow. 

It's completely understandable, in my opinion! 

Most pregnancy symptoms are more of a struggle. 

You're bloated. You're tired. You're nauseous. You're gassy. You waddle. You cry at the silliest things. You have ridiculous cravings. None of your normal clothes fit anymore. Your fingers might even swell up, so you can't wear your wedding ring anymore. The list goes on. 

So if there's a pregnancy symptom that's positive - hey, we're all for it!

My skin has always been my most complimented feature, so I was curious what pregnancy would do to it. 

If I already have a glow as my baseline, would I get glowier? Or would my skin go dull? 

I've never struggled with acne, but pregnancy floods your body with so many hormones. Would I break out?

I'd also been worrying about melasma, a pregnancy condition where your skin becomes hyperpigmented in patches. It's also known as the 'pregnancy mask.'

Vain as it is, I was really hoping not to experience any of those unpleasant skin changes.

Fortunately, I haven't! There's still time, but I'm hopeful that since I haven't experienced them yet I might be able to avoid them entirely. 

My skin has stayed pretty much the same as it was pre-pregnancy, as far as I can tell. It's not glowier or duller. I'm not breaking out. 

In the photos here I'm not wearing any makeup on my skin (just light eye makeup and tinted lip balm), so you can see how my skin looks bare. I'm happy with it! 

If you're pregnant and worried about the skin changes, don't be - you might experience the same. Even if you do have some of the 'anti-glow' experience, pregnancy is a transient condition!

I remind myself of that fact when it comes to a third trimester aesthetic symptom that I have been experiencing - varicose veins.

I spend a fair chunk of the day on my feet, which I think has been helpful for keeping the aches and pains at bay, but it also made me more at risk for varicose veins.

And yep, there they are.

They're only in my left leg and I wonder if that's because I sleep on my left side (as recommended, to avoid putting too much pressure on the vena cava). 

They run from my calf to my lower thigh and are very visible and you can even feel them if you run your fingers over my skin. No bueno. Fortunately, though, they're not painful or itchy! They're just not great to look at (but it's not like I ever leave the apartment at the moment anyway, other than for prenatal appointments, given the pandemic).

That said, I'm less bothered by them than I expected to be. I know that will change if they don't go away after delivery, but from what I've read it looks pretty promising that the varicose veins will disappear when I'm not pregnant anymore. 

We'll see! I'll update you if they don't go away by a few months postpartum.

For the time being, I'm wearing compression socks, the kind nurses and old people wear, to try to help my overburdened veins. I don't know if it's doing anything to prevent the varicose veins from getting worse, but I might as well try!

Moms, what symptoms did you experience in your third trimester?

Has anyone (mom or not) ever had varicose veins? Did they go away?