I think pretty much everyone I’ve encountered this week has commented on how quickly my pregnancy is “just flying by!”

Seriously, even the Hermes delivery man said it to me – although, to be fair, the Hermes delivery man is more or less part of our family now, we see him so often. (Totally not joking, btw – I’ve actually wondered if we should get the guy something for Christmas…)

Every time I get this comment, meanwhile, I just laugh hollowly and think, “LOL, NOPE.” Honestly, I suspect pregnancy only ever really “flies by” for the people who AREN’T pregnant. At this point, though, I currently feel like I’ve been pregnant for at least 100 years – with twice as long still to go. I think these last few weeks are shaping up to be some of the longest of my life: I’m 36 weeks today, which is SO close to the end – especially given that my c-section has been booked for 39 weeks, so I know I won’t go over that – but those three little weeks feel like an entire lifetime to me, and I’ve basically just resigned myself to being pregnant forever.

I know: dramatic, much?

On the plus side, though, time may have stopped moving forward – and I’m 98% sure it HAS – but, symptom-wise, week 35 has actually been not too bad, all things considered. For one thing, the baby moves so much (and feels so hyyyyugge) now that I haven’t been having quite as many “OMG, I haven’t felt him move in 30 seconds, WAH!” freak-outs as usual. I mean, I DO still have them, obviously – mostly in very public places, in fact, which makes me think the baby is just trolling me at this point- but, for the most part, he’s big enough now that when he moves it sometimes feels like he’s trying to fight his way out of my belly, which is as reassuring as it is occasionally uncomfortable. Like, seriously, what are you DOING in there, baby?
Little outfit – J by Jasper Conran at Debenhams, c/o my parents!

For another thing, although I’m feeling very, very large and clumsy, and walking up the stairs sometimes feels like an impossible task to me these days – like, can this girl get a medal or what? – for some reason I’ve actually been sleeping a little better this week, which is good, because, honestly, lying awake in those dark hours before dawn, and thinking about all of the things that could go wrong is NOT fun, let me tell you.

With that said, I may be sleeping better, but I’m still not sleeping great, and, as for Terry, I’m not sure he’s been sleeping at all: not only has the poor soul come down with a bad cold this week, which he’s manfully pretending not to have (Terry doesn’t get ‘Man Flu’ – instead he just lies his face off and says he’s feeling totally fine, even when he’s blatantly not…), I’m also apparently snoring so much that at one point this week I woke up to find him huddled on the rug next to the bed with a pillow clamped over his head to try to block me out: whoops!

The irony of this situation, of course, is that Terry has ALSO been snoring lately – in fact, when I woke up that night, I was really confused, because I couldn’t SEE him, but I could most definitely HEAR him. So, basically, we now have ourselves a situation whereby at least one of us is being kept awake by the other one’s snoring every night: some times it’s me, sometimes it’s him, but either way, only one of gets to sleep on any given night. (And no, we don’t have a spare bed one of us could go to, just the couch – which is looking increasingly like a good option!) So, yeah, that’s fun, too.

In more positive week 35 pregnancy news, though…

The car seat arrived!

This is the Maxi-Cosi Pebble Plus, and, as well as going into the car, it also clips onto the base of our stroller, so you can take the baby out of the car, and then wheel him around without having to wake him up by transferring him from car to pram:

The arrival of this car seat was actually a pretty big moment for us, because it basically means we’re all set now for the baby’s arrival. The nursery is done, the closet is fully stocked, the hospital bags are packed. In fact, all we really needed was a little toy elephant (Well, you do, don’t you?), and, as luck would have it, one turned up on my doorstep this week, courtesy of the kind people at WWF:

This was sent to me as part of their #justlikeus campaign, which reflects the fact that, just like us, elephants are complex mammals, who feel a wide range of emotions. Unlike us, though, these beautiful creatures are being killed every day for their tusks, so while I’m very happy to have this little guy for our little guy, I’m even happier to show my support for the campaign. The elephant toys are currently out of stock on the WWF website, but you’ll also receive one if you decide to adopt an elephant (And yes, I did decide to adopt an elephant while I was looking at the website so, er, Terry, we have an elephant now, and no, I’m not referring to this toy one…), so GO GO GO help an elephant, people!

(Random week 35 pregnancy symptoms: dissolving into floods of tears over the plight of the elephants. Wanting to adopt ALL the elephants. Also all of the dogs, cats, and random other animals that need it. Trying to convince Terry we need a micro pig. Being told that no, we cannot have a micro pig. Wanting to cry over this. Trying to convince Terry we should keep our old car, because cars have feeeeeeeelings too, and we cannot possibly hurt ours in this callous way by selling it. Being told NO. Actually crying over this. Being told that if I want to take over the monthly payments for the car, I can keep it. Realising I can’t really afford it. Buying a lottery ticket instead, even although the website made me open an account and add £10 to it, and I’d literally JUST bought that elephant. I mean, adopted that elephant. Writing this long, stream of consciousness paragraph, even although I know I should stop now. Stopping now.)

And that was week 35 of pregnancy: it was a strange mix of elephants, car seats and lottery tickets, but I’m 100% sure I’m going to catch Terry’s cold now, so I’m sure I’ll look back on it with fondness when I’m lying in bed feeling like death warmed up soon.

How was YOUR week?