You may experience back pain as the baby grows and you are trying to maintain your center of gravity. Fluctuating hormone levels can relax joints in the pelvic area which may cause hip pain because your growing belly can throw your posture out of line, increasing joint pain.
Ask your spouse or significant other for a massage which can relax the muscles and hey the pampering doesn’t hurt. If you must stand for awhile try putting one foot on a stool or box. Apply ice to the painful areas. If back pain doesn’t improve call your doctor or health care provider.
Swollen ankles and feet - Your growing uterus puts pressure on veins causing fluid retention and dilated (expanded) blood vessels. Relieve the swelling by lying down with legs elevated on a couple of pillows or go swimming.
Puffy face and eyes - Reduce with cold packs.
Shortness of breath - You will feel winded because there is less room to expand your lungs. Try to maintain good posture, sleep on your side and do aerobic exercises.
Heart burn - The expanding uterus pushes against your stomach. Eat several small meals all day long and avoid gas producing foods and very spicy foods. Drink plenty of fluids.
Veins - You may experience spider or varicose veins. Use support stockings and sit and sleep with your legs elevated. Sleep on your side.
One of the most annoying third trimester symptoms or effects are stretch marks on your belly. They may be pink or red or purple and while they do fade, they don’t go away entirely. They can also appear on your breasts, upper arms, buttocks and thighs. The affected area can be itchy. Apply a moisturizer which will help.
At some point, as the growing uterus puts pressure on your bladder, you will feel a frequent urge to urinate. You may even leak urine, but this problem will pretty much heal itself once the baby is born.
Your breasts will enlarge due to the buildup of milk and fat. Here too, as time goes on you may leak milk.
On a lighter note, many women who have chronic skin conditions such as acne or eczema, find their skin improves somewhat, possibly due to hormone levels. While others claim there is no change or their skin worsens.
You probably won’t have the emotional ups and downs of the first trimester, but you may get depressed due to hormones and being close to the end but not there yet. If this persists for more than a couple of days, call your health care provider and let her know what is going on. She may be able to help.
You may feel contractions and get nervous thinking you are in labor. If the contractions are not coming at regular intervals and do not increase in intensity, they are most likely Braxton-Hicks contractions, a.k.a. false labor. If you have pain and spotting or bleeding, call your doctor immediately. He may want to see you and might tell you to meet him at the emergency room so he can check you out. He will let you know if it is true labor or not. He may put you on bed rest since it could be the early stages of labor and he wants to hold off for awhile since every day closer to the due date, the better it is for the baby’s health.
There is one symptom almost all are upset about. You can expect to gain between 25 and 35 pounds over the course of your pregnancy. Unfortunately you don’t lose it all the moment your baby is born. You will lose it slowly if you eat properly and get exercise, which with a new baby to take care of you will get plenty of that.
Emotionally you will be all over the place, especially if this is your first baby. you are thrilled to be a mother but are worried you won’t be a good one. You probably are also concerned that you might not be able to take care of him the way you should. We, your mother, friends, and mother-in-law may all tell you you will be fine but you are still worried. That is normal.
You are in the process of setting up your nursery and followed all the safety rules when buying furniture and accessories for the baby’s room. Yet you are afraid you might have left something undone. Don’t worry you probably did everything you needed to. If you are really concerned, ask a friend to check things out for you.
You are at the point where every day you wake up and wonder is today THE day? You can’t wait for the baby to arrive and yet you are nervous about it at the same time. Relax, we’ve all been in the same state of mind. None of us are perfect but millions of moms all over the world manage to raise happy healthy kids despite their imperfections. you will do the same and in a few years be amused about how nervous you were before the baby was born.
Another common fear of new mothers is that their partner may no longer find them sexually attractive because of the changes in her body. This is, in most cases, definitely not so. Many new fathers find the image of their wife holding their son extremely exciting.
After a couple of weeks you need to get your mom or mother-in-law to sit with the baby while you and your husband go out to dinner or even just for a cup of coffee. The baby will be fine. Remember, these women raised the baby’s parents so they will take good care of their grandson.
