The Third Trimester.

Well. I suppose what's annoying about the third trimester is having to keep track of the baby's movements and kicks. Or at least there's a page in the pink book where expectant mothers are supposed to jot down baby's ten movements from 9 AM, and we should be alarmed if we couldn't feel those ten kicks in the span of twelve hours. (9 AM 'til 9 PM basically.)

But.. I mean.. during the fasting month.. I only fall asleep after suhur.. I can't be expected to wake up at nine just to count Nugget's kicks! huhuu..
It's fine, though.. Nugget basically kicks a little extra around 3 PM and 5 PM. Probably kicking me to get some food but it's fine.

I've been preferring sitting down or standing than laying down anywhere. Turning my body in any way was getting hard. Between the size of my belly and the aches and pains I've been having, turning to my side, or getting out of bed has been a feat.

Experienced my first swollen feet some nights ago. Thought to myself.. "this is it; goodbye tiny feet." (I'm a size UK 4, believe it or not.) Then I woke up the next day with my feet looking as normal as ever. Feels like it might be because I had been in the car for too long the previous day. Hubs and I had spent four hours lounging at his friend's house then spent three hours travelling back from Kuantan.
Swollen feet was alarming. It didn't feel like anything at all but they looked.. SO weird! Kinda reminded me of an elephant's foot! hahahahha!
I showed them to Monkey and he too was amused.

My ninth check up at the health clinic at Week 31(ish) took two hours. Got there a little after nine AM and spent most my time there just waiting for my number. It took almost an hour before I got my number called to get my Hb checked and my urine tested.

Took another fifty minutes before my nurse saw me and called me to come into the nurses' room -- and basically cut the queue, actually! hahahha! She said she didn't know the two ladies that are supposed to be ahead of me.. hahahha! Suppose it was unfair, but still it amused me.

Anyway, she reminded me to have a balanced diet and a little extra extra since my Hb hadn't increased since my last visit. As per normal, she then carried on with measuring the fundal height (she measured my belly to check the height of my uterus to see the foetal growth,) and checked on baby's heartbeat which came out normal.

Check up in Umra went on like every other check up except that they did a vaginal swab of my discharge to get them tested for any unwanted bacterias that could affect the baby.
Not sure if this gets done at the government health clinic (I'll check with my nurse the next time I see her, if I remember it!) but apparently it's quite a common test that gets done on an expectant mother as she gets closer to her due date.

I'm getting my check up every two weeks now that I've past Week 30 of pregnancy. Honestly I find it annoying to have to get to the clinic/hospital every so often! hahahha!
At least my visits are getting shorter though. Took just a little over an hour at the health clinic the other day. (Pretty sure because my "appointment" was set at ten AM anyways.) I was also really stoked that my Hb spiked since the last visit. Probably because Ramadhan was over so at least I've been eating normally again. (Hadn't really increased on those leafy greens, cockles and internal organs that were supposed to help with increasing the red blood cells! heehee)

Interestingly though, I'd gained 1.6 kg in the span of fifteen days! I mean, third trimester is really when the baby just gets beefed up before popping out, but 1.6! That seemed a LOT!

My check-ups just got really shorter these days. There isn't much to do once I get to see the doctor or nurse. My check up in Umra at Week 34 didn't even take half an hour! I got there at 11:35AM, paid our bill at 11:57! It was really quick. Just did the routine weight, BP and urine then have a little scan of the baby.

Then my most recent check-up at the health clinic took almost two hours -- because of the wait, really. Just like the previous check-up. We talked about baby's movements, my Hb; since it dropped again, nothing much. I feel like most times I'm there we'd chat about random little things that I observe around the clinic.
By the way, I forgot to ask my nurse about the vaginal swab in government clinics. *smacks forehead*

Note on third trimester:
1. It's annoying to track baby's movement, honestly. Annoying when you take it really seriously and truly jot down the time of baby's tenth movement. I honestly didn't start my time at 9:00 AM as I was supposed to, but I know my baby. Nugget's always most active around the same time so I wasn't worried.
Honestly I don't think it's TOO important to get your time "right" as long as you are aware of the baby's movement. You should know when the baby hadn't moved for a while or moving too too much. It's good that the baby is active, but there's that concern for their umbilical cord to get tangled around them if they moved too much.
2. As much as my Hb worries me, my nurse isn't too bothered it seemed. Said that my Hb seemed to be playing around the same numbers and it hadn't dropped to the point of "worry" just yet. She mentioned that a woman lost about 400 to 500 ml of blood during labour so if my Hb had dropped to anywhere around eight or nine, then we all should worry! hahaha

Alright, I don't think there will be a "second part" of my third trimester. I will still share some bits of what's left of this pregnancy, though. I'm just not going to compile it like I have done here and throughout this pregnancy series, if we could call it that.
Leave me a comment if you have any questions -- that you think I could answer. hahahaha

Oooh.. my feelings are all over the place right now!