34TH WEEK OF PREGNANCY // Update, What To Expect, And Pregnancy Tips For The Third Trimester

Hello my friends! Today I am breaking down what to expect in pregnancy at 34 weeks. Coming up! Hey there and welcome back to my channel. If you happen to be new, hi! My name is Nicole. I'm a mama. I am an intentional parenting coach as well as a licensed pediatric occupational therapist. And this channel is geared to help make motherhood a more beautiful, joyful, ease-filled experience. So if that sounds like something you're into, do me a favor and hit the subscribe button below. Alright you guys, time is flying. I am 34 weeks pregnant as of today filming and a lot is shifting. Something stayed the same. So in this video I just wanted to break down some of the main things that you should be aware of at 34 weeks of pregnancy and throw in a couple of helpful tips in case you happen to be behind me in pregnancy or you're just very curious about what 34 weeks looks like. Alright guys, let's get into it. Okay at 34 weeks you're probably noticing that your baby's style of movement has shifted quite a bit. So I'm a very active kiddo in tote and many of this baby's movements prior to this time was quite jerky, very pronounced, and I couldn't have missed it. So in terms of needing to count kicks or do anything like that, I just was not concerned with that because I felt this baby moving all day, every day. Now at 34 weeks with baby being as big as baby is and space being as limited as it is, the style of movement has really shifted. So instead of it being so jerky and pronounced, I will feel more of like a rolling movement or a wave-like movement, which tends to feel a bit more subtle than the straight punches, kicks and jabs. I find myself being a little more mindful of like, what's baby doing? Where is baby? Still a lot of movement, but again, if you are busy and about your day, you might have to check in and say, what's going on with babe? Definitely around 34 weeks, maybe even prior, you are noting that your stomach has a lot less room. So your uterus has expanded to the point where you can't probably eat a full meal anymore. And so your best bet is and really always has been in terms of digestion and how quickly the stomach is getting squished or limited. Small frequent snacks, small frequent meals. I will have a ginormous appetite and I will put all this food on my plate and then after five, six, seven bites, I'm like, oh, that's it. We have hit capacity. So just being mindful of making time to have frequent snacks because we are really hungry. We're growing this kiddo and this kiddo is getting bigger. But for our digestion sake and for our comfort level, it is best to just take it down and eat the smaller and more frequent meals. So I feel like I'm finally getting into a rhythm of flowing with my energy levels. It is literally hit or miss. I will have a few hours of just like great energy and I've learned to capitalize on that when it comes because typically on the backside of that, I am exhausted and I really don't want to move at all. So I've been really mindful to adjust my days, my schedules, my expectations to match my body's needs. And I just want to reiterate that I've stated this in a previous video, but honoring our body and giving it what it needs, including rest and not trying to push through is super important because it's easy to miss or not acknowledge or see just how much our body is doing because it is this automatic process that nurtures and sustains life for the better part of a year. But like our body is doing so much really nurturing ourselves, nurturing our body and giving ourselves the space and the time to relax and just be, uh, please do it. It's so important. Okay. So now let's get into a couple of tips. If you are 34 weeks pregnant or even beyond, I would say now's the time to start looking into packing your hospital bag because you just never know babies come when they want to come. So it's just better to be prepared and the more mobile you are, the easier it's going to be to gather these items or find these resources and have them set aside for when you actually need them. And I'm going to be putting together my hospital bag video shortly and it's going to be quite different. I actually didn't put one together when I was pregnant with Kai because I didn't have a YouTube channel until the very end, but it's different. What I packed the first time around is much more excessive than what I'll be packing this time around. So it's going to be what you really need. So if you're interested in that, keep an eye out because I will be releasing that shortly. The other tip I want to give you guys, especially in the specific times we're in is because a lot of hospital tours have been nixed and you're not able to go in and tours, say the labor and delivery floor, do a drive by of the hospital, get acquainted with where you would need to park, where you're going to be entering, and also get familiar with your hospital's policies in terms of any admission paperwork that needs to be done because sometimes you can do that on the front end and have that all taken care of. That way you're not sitting in the front of admissions having gnarly contractions and trying to do paperwork. So give your hospital a call or your birthing center a call and see what needs to be done before you show up to have a baby. And last but not least, I will say that acupuncture has been a saving grace for me. I have had five sessions thus far and it did take a few sessions for me to really start feeling the longer term effects of the acupuncture, but unexpectedly I went in with the hope that it would just help ease a lot of the back pain that I've been feeling, which it has helped with that, but even more so it has helped with my state of mind, it has helped with anxiety, it has helped with patience, it has helped me sort of just ground, reground, recenter and find my footing because I've noted that especially in the third trimester your patience might be a little bit slim and on top of having maybe limited patience, you might also have limited energy and so surprisingly acupuncture helps with that as well. I've noted that some sessions I've had energy almost the entire day for multiple days, which stood out drastically to me because most days I am exhausted and I have very little energy for very little things. Just some really beautiful unexpected benefits come from acupuncture so if that's something you're open to, check out my video on the benefits of acupuncture in pregnancy because I break it down by trimesters. Even starting really before you're pregnant, it can actually help with conception, so pretty cool thing to check out if you're interested in that, but if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below, otherwise thank you so much for hanging out with me today and watching this video and I'll catch you in the next one. Bye!