30 Weeks Pregnant Already? Prenatal Depression, Adrenal Fatigue, Hiring Mama's Helpers

Hi guys, this is Megan with the blog, WilsonHomestead.com. And today I'm doing my 30 week pregnancy update. I cannot believe that there are only about 10 weeks left of this pregnancy. That seems so weird. We've been so busy this pregnancy that it seems like it's just totally flying by. So, a little bit in shock from that, but let's get right into this update. My baby center app, which I just really enjoy following just for the fun of it, says the baby's about the size of a cabbage, about 15 and three quarters inches long and three pounds. All of their kicks and movements are getting bigger. There's more rolling movements where they roll their leg or their foot across your stomach. And it's just the coolest feeling ever. They've also been doing this thing where they must be like trying to run or trying to swim, but they'll like kick so fast, like so many times in a row. I'm like, how are you even making my stomach do that? I don't even know. It almost like, are you having a seizure in there? Like they're very, very active, which I'm very happy to see. It's always nice when the baby's just super active. All my babies have, I haven't ever had to worry about kick counts or anything because I just feel them all the time. And it's just a relief when you feel the baby a lot. I think I finally started to have some bracts and hicks. I cannot believe it took this long because my last two pregnancies, they started around 15 to 20 weeks and kept through the entire pregnancy every single day. And this time it took till about 30 weeks. And I feel like I finally started having some. I mean, it's hard to tell because it's been a while since I've had bracts and hicks. It's either a bracts and hicks or the baby's stretching in a really weird way and they like have their back across my stomach and they're like making it feel tight. I feel like it's probably a bracts and hicks though. But yeah, it's weird. Because when you start having them again, you're like, I've kind of forgotten what this feeling is like. Is this a bracts and hicks? I don't know. Lately, I've been getting stuck in, like stuck in my chair or different places because I'll think I have to pee a little bit. I'm like, oh, I'll pee in a little while. And then the baby moves onto my bladder or something. And I'm like, oh crap. If I move at all, I'm going to leak. And I just have to stay there and hold perfectly still until the baby decides to move off my bladder. It's like totally ridiculous. Before I could like make it to the bathroom if they got on my bladder. But now it's like, like, nope, I just need to stay here. There's no way I'm even going to make it. I think I mentioned last time that I'm having a bit of a hard time emotionally with the move and everything. We recently moved for the first time in three years to hopefully our more permanent homestead. But it's been so hard. The kids have really taken it hard, especially my oldest, my two-year-old. And I've just really struggled with feeling so sad about leaving the house and not feeling at home here yet and just pregnancy hormones. And then just everything seems to like pile on all at once. Like my toddler was just not sleeping well. I think I lost over 10 hours of sleep that second week we were here because she would wake up and be awake for like three hours at night. I'm like, I can't do this. I need my sleep. So just like everything piled on. I started feeling really depressed and like this feeling of despair almost. It was not good. And then everything that would happen during the day, like if the toddler would hit the other toddler, it would be so hard to not take it personally and feel like I was just a terrible mother. I'm not doing this properly, even though that is totally normal toddler behavior. And I deal with it every time. It's not like I just let them run wild, but I need to realize that even with discipline, toddlers are still gonna be toddlers. And I just have to be consistent with it. And as she is older, she'll get better at resisting things like that. And it's not something I'm doing wrong, but it's so hard for me to not take that personally when I'm feeling like this. So all that to say, I had a midwife appointment last week. She actually came down and saw our house for the first time, saw our new house, so she knows where to go when I go into labor. And it was just really fun to show her around. But I mentioned to her that I've been struggling a bit with some depression. She was like, oh, tell me about it. And she wanted to hear everything that's been going on and all my feelings and thoughts. It was really nice to get it all out. And afterwards she mentioned that she feels like, well, because between that and then before we moved, I was struggling a little bit with migraines and I've been very fatigued. I've been forgetting to eat. She said, I feel like you're having adrenal fatigue and possibly some hormonal imbalances. She said I could go on a progesterone cream until 36 weeks if I wanted to try that. But she said if I can ask my naturopath what like herbs or tinctures or supplements that I can get on that are supportive of the adrenal glands, that that's really gonna help. She said, you have to remember to eat every two hours. Even if it's not a ton, you have to eat every two hours. She said, you have to be really consistent with your prenatal. You have to drink enough water. You have to try to get as much sleep as you can. So she gave me some assignments. I was supposed to find mama's helpers to come at least once a week, possibly more as we get used to them, which will be nice to have Sophia and Demi used to the mama's helpers before the baby's born because then they can help after baby too. So I've been working on my assignments from my midwife. I went to get a blood draw from my naturopath just to see if there's any thyroid stuff going on as well. My naturopath gave me a pregnancy tonic with like red raspberry and different things that are gonna help with mood support and all that. I'm still waiting back to hear about my thyroid labs. Hopefully, hopefully they're not too far off, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were because those usually go hand in hand. Adrenal stuff and thyroid stuff. I also found some mama's helpers. There are the sweetest twins that live not too far from our new house. This family will be known forever. Their oldest sister is one of my best friends. She has two kids my kids' ages. So we're all really close. And so the twin teenage girls are going to be my mama's helpers. They're gonna start coming every week, one day a week to start, probably either Tuesdays or Wednesdays. I'm usually really terrible at asking for help. So I'm glad that I did though, because I'm really excited about it. I feel like it's gonna be really nice. They're mostly gonna be helping me watch the kids while I can just think about something else for a little while I can get more business work done while like, even if I'm still there with the kids and with them and like somewhat supervising, I don't have to like look at them all the time. It'll be nice. Because if Sophia and Demi are playing together, I feel like I have to, like I can't do anything else. Like I have to supervise and make sure no one gets hurt. And I know it's just the phase they're in, but it'll just be nice to have someone else there. They can stop anything from happening before it happens. And I can be nearby working on something, but I don't have to be so on all the time. I'm just, I'm very excited about it. They possibly do a little bit of cleaning, but I think mostly I just want them to help with the kids. Cause that's what I feel like I need more of a break from. So it is really hard for me to let people help, but I am so glad that I made the call. I found some people to help. It'll just be really nice. So they're starting today is their first day. So the kids are actually both napping right now. And then when the kids wake up, they're going to come and help me for the rest of the afternoon. So I feel like what's going to be most helpful is on the days they come have the kids nap at the same time. So I have that break. And then when the kids wake up, they'll get here. And then they said they could basically stay until Luke gets home. So I don't have to be alone in the afternoon and evening, which is the hardest for me. Cause everyone's getting tired and you start getting into witching hour. So I'm really excited. I feel like I'll like it so much that I'm going to be like, Hey, can you come like every day of the week that Luke's working? Cause this is really nice. So I feel like between all that, that I'm trying to do is to support myself. I've been slowly feeling better this last weekend. I was feeling almost back to normal, but Luke was home helping me and I was able to do more self-care things. And then Monday hit and it was really hard. I feel like I'm getting better, but it's really fluctuating. Yesterday, Monday was really hard. Luke was gone for like over 12 hours. And that's just a long time to be alone with toddlers and not see any other adults. It's just a lot of mentally draining stuff. So I'm hopeful about all the stuff that I have planned. I'm hopeful that we can get my thyroid more under control, figure out what's going on with that. I can be more consistent with eating. I will have more help with the kids. I was also thinking about having my mother-in-law babysit them once every other week, just letting other people take stuff off my plate a little bit more, because I think people really want to help. It's just hard for me to ask. So I need to learn how to ask. I've started getting postpartum things ready because I really want to make sure that I'm well supported this postpartum so that any of this prenatal depression doesn't bleed over into postpartum depression as much as I can help it, because that would be really hard. I had pretty bad baby blues with Sophia and that was terrible. I did not like it at all. So I'm hoping that that doesn't happen, but I have tinctures and all kinds of stuff ready for postpartum. I will do an entire video on what I'm preparing for postpartum. So if you're interested in that, make sure you keep an eye out, but let's show you guys the bump now. So here's the 30 week bump. So I think that's pretty much it for this pregnancy update. It was, hopefully that wasn't too depressing for you guys. This was just a really real talk, like what's been going on with me lately. That's also why I haven't been super consistent with videos. It's just like, I'm so tired and unmotivated that it's really hard for me to do extra stuff. So, but hopefully I'll be a little bit more consistent now, at least until the baby's born, we'll see. But thank you guys for watching this video and I will see you next time. Bye.