A Final Post Before “Maternity Leave” 💖🎀

38 weeks, extremely pregnant, and waiting to see if this baby chooses Pisces or Aries 🤰🏽

I'm using the phrase “maternity leave” very loosely here as I'm fully self-employed at this point, so when I “return to work” is pretty much entirely up to me.

Of course I’m going to listen to my body and focus on healing, but with my first baby, easing back into work actually helped my mental health tremendously. It was probably around 10 days postpartum when I started doing a few astrology readings again. I’d put my daughter in my Solly Baby Wrap and work for short stretches, and honestly it felt grounding. It reminded me that I could still be me and that motherhood had expanded my identity, not erased it.

So I plan to listen to my body again this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m back doing readings / posts on here fairly soon… even with a baby sleeping on my chest. 💖

I’ll be 38 weeks tomorrow, and I genuinely never thought I would make it this far.

Officially full term.

Sometimes I still can’t believe it when I say it out loud.

As many of you know, my first was born at 35 weeks and no medical explanation was ever found. Having one premature baby increases the odds of another by up to 30%, so mentally I was preparing myself to maybe make it to 35 weeks at most.

Then 35 weeks came … and went.

So now here I am at 38 weeks simultaneously incredibly grateful, proud of my body, and also very much ready to be done with pregnancy.

At this point I’m doing every trick in the book to get things moving.

Six dates a day.

Red raspberry leaf tea.

Evening primrose oil.

Clary sage oil.

Perineum massages.

Hip-opening stretches.

An abundance of sex (as if that’s anything new for us 😂).

Oh, and curb walking. Which my pregnancy brain accidentally referred to out loud as “curb stomping.”

Imagine the look of horror on my husband’s face when I confidently asked him if he could do ten minutes of curb stomping with me every day.

Whoops.

At this point my body and brain both feel fried. Caffeine feels like water. My ADHD meds may as well be sugar pills. But somehow we’ve managed to get a freezer full of nutritious postpartum meals ready, and pretty much all baby essentials are in place.

Now all I’m asking the universe for is a smooth VBAC and the birth experience I didn’t get to have last time.

Before I disappear for a little while, let’s do a fun little poll. Will baby L be a Pisces or an Aries?

Both my husband and I are guessing Pisces, and if I’m honest we may have a very slight preference there. Both of our 5th house rulers are in Pisces (my Pisces Venus in the 3rd and his Pisces Mercury in the 11th) ...

But…

My current solar return has a Leo-ruled 5th house, and sitting right there is 0° Mars, ruled by Aries.

So the real question is, will she arrive as a soft, watery Jupiter-Neptune princess, or a tiny blazing fireball kicking off the spring equinox?

We’ll find out soon enough.

Be back soon, friends.

Thank you all so much for the love, support, encouragement, and kind messages throughout this pregnancy. It has meant more than you know. 💖👶🏻🎀