No. 39: The 36 Week Pregnant Update + What to Expect

plus exactly what to watch this weekend

hi from houston, y’all!

Friends, as you read this I’ll officially be thirty-six weeks pregnant. If you type “Dallas, TX” into your weather app and do a quick scroll through the temps, you’ll know why I’m asking you to pray for me…pronto.

I remember looking at this month on the calendar and thinking of how long it would take to get here. As always, the first trimester and the start of the year absolutely crawled by but, like clockwork, the third trimester is like a Tom and Jerry episode where an anvil is at the end of a rope and the rope runs out quicker and quicker? That was pretty niche, I know. But that’s the visual.

They always tell you is to stay busy. “Don’t just watch the clock and wake up expecting today to be the day!” “Keep a full calendar!” “Have lots of plans, even if it’s just a walk or a lunch date!” Well we’ve got no shortage of plans here this month. That’s the thing about living near your parents and five of your siblings plus having three kids of your own—you’re certainly not at risk of laying on the couch for a thirty day stretch just watching the clock tick. Collectively, we have the birthdays of two nieces, my mom, my sister and O. We have Father’s Day and dance recital for the girls. The kids have basketball camp three days a week and as you read this, we’re driving home from a trip to Houston. We’ve got freezer meal prep and nesting to get out of the way plus trying to work ahead with this newsletter and tie up loose ends on another enormous project. Add in a midwife appointment every week, some chiropractor appointments for good measure and you’ve got yourself one very full month, friends.

Anytime I even begin to get a tingling itch of overwhelm, I remember myself at 35 weeks last time around. It was late April 2020 and every ounce of me was scared. Scared of how long this was going to last, scared my midwives appointments were over telehealth, scared of the loneliness of not leaving my house, scared of how scared I had consistently felt. My siblings and I all met up on my parents’ front lawn with what felt like miles between us on Easter Sunday towards the end. It was the first and last time I’d see them in person before going into labor and driving away with hot tears streaming down my face, I told O I couldn’t wait to do this again without that part. The pandemic part. The lonely part. The heartbreaking part.

And now, here I am. Full calendar, full heart.

From a physical standpoint, the update is quick: I’m 36 weeks pregnant with my fourth baby in the month of June in the South. They say a picture says a thousand words? I believe that sentence says a million. I’m much larger than I’ve ever been in pregnancy (30lbs + up last month) and gone are the days of my prenatal cardio videos. Mama is large. But I constantly have birth on the brain so I do keep up with things like walks and all the embarrassing poses and stretches before bed so that has to count for something?