34 weeks pregnant

I'm really heading towards the pointy end of this pregnancy now, and I'm ready to meet the baby. I'm still healthy, and fairly mobile, but I'm getting lots of very strong braxton-hicks contractions which exhaust me. Every time I get up from a chair, lean forwards, get out of bed, or when I'm walking to playgroup or the shops, I get these really uncomfortable tightenings. I've had them for the last 3 weeks, so I guess my body is just preparing for labour. If I spend a few hours resting in bed (only possible on the weekends when Gareth is home to look after Jambin) they stop, so I'm confident they are just a warm-up for the real thing in 6 weeks or so.

I don't think my belly looks any bigger in these photos than what it did 3 weeks ago. I've put on 11kgs so far, which is a bit of a worry. I only put on 10kgs total with Jambin, and he weighed 4.86kgs, so the rest must have been placenta, amniotic fluid and blood volume. I lost it very quickly with breastfeeding. I'm guessing that this time I've probably put on a bit of padding as well as baby, and it might not be as easy to lose this time around.

Gareth, Jambin and I went to Maroubra Beach on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. It was so nice to dig a big hole in the sand and lie face-down for a little bit. I even got brave and strutted around, bare belly, in a bikini. Some may have mistaken me for a beached whale though.