CONFESSIONS OF A PREGNANT WOMAN

Confessions of a pregnant woman:

Pregnancy. From the moment you find out you are expecting you are filled with joy and excitement, especially if it is planned like my first pregnancy was but what I did not plan was what follows, the sickness, the opinions and the hormonal lows. Pregnancy is hard. Understand, every women’s pregnancy is different and we may all experience different things during each individual pregnancy. These are my confessions.

Sickness-

I had always heard about ‘morning sickness’ but I would have never imagined how sever it could be or how it was in my case. I call it ‘all day sickness’ or ‘never ending pregnancy nausea’ because it was with me 24/7. I could hardly keep any food down (especially in the first four months) I would even gag and vomit bile every morning while brushing my teeth. Imagine having this happen to you everyday. It makes you feel tired and miserable but you are still expected to work and feel magnificent about your pregnancy.

For some lucky women they only experience- nausea in the first three months or not at all, but in my case I was not lucky.

Tiredness-

Let’s talk about the tiredness. Never in my life has anything ever made me so tired and lethargic. Growing a baby takes all of your energy and most people just don’t understand that. I can not go through out my day without taking a nap and doing any task is exhausting and keeping up a normal working day becomes harder. It frustrating when my husband may say I’m being lazy if I forget to being the bin in or take a power nap on the couch but he should try growing a human!

Hormones-

Ok, not only do they make you sick and tired all the time, they make you emotional. Very emotional. You have all these new hormones coursing through your body and sometimes your up and sometimes your down. A lot seemed to upset me and most people don’t seem to be sensitive about this, which only made me further upset. These hormones also give you cramps, sore breasts, bleeding gums and irritations, but still we are expected to smile and ‘glow’. No.

Opinions-

Once you decide to announce your pregnancy there should be a cense of happiness and excitement in the air, which there is but it also comes along with the opinions. People should know by now not to upset a hormonal pregnant woman but that doesn’t stop them. You may find your family or friends feel the need to have to comment on your pregnancy and your baby. On how to raise your baby, what your baby will be like, what your life will be like. Well in my opinion I say its is not their baby its yours and they have no way of telling what the future holds.

People may also comment on YOU. They may speak about your tummy growth like how small or big you are or on the way your handling your pregnancy. I myself had had a lot of people speak their opinion on my doctor’s orders food restrictions. Most people know this day and age with new research that during pregnancy women should not consume soft cheeses, sushi, deli meats, bay Marie foods, undercooked foods, alcohol and cigarettes. This is because of the harm it could cause to your unborn baby. But of course people would say things to me like, ‘who cares what the doctors say, just eat whatever you want’ and ‘that’s ridiculous, as if it matters’.

Well it matters to me what the doctor had ordered and I made the choice to stick with it. Babies development have improved over the years by women making these dietary restrictions and it doesn’t bother me one bit to not eat a piece of cheese.

Lastly they may already be hounding you and your partner about how many children you are going to have. I believe it is a personal choice made by you and your partner, it is not anyone else’s decision. My tip is to try and ignore their comments at the time and then later vent to your husband later about how much it bothers you, you will feel better trust me.

Working-

Working while pregnant for me had been a nightmare. As women we are still expected to work during this strenuous part of our lives due to financial reasons or social stature. It seems you are not considered a ‘strong independent women’ if you are not to continue working during your pregnancy, at least this is how I find it.

So I still carried out my same work duties of standing for long shift without any extra quick breaks which for me was hard considering I suffered from HG during my pregnancy.

My co workers also seemed to take pregnancy lightly saying this to me like ‘you can get through, your only pregnant’. I would think to myself ‘ONLY pregnant’ like creating life isn’t a big deal or anything?!

In the end I ended up leaving work on maternity leave three months before my due date due to sever sickness and I fell whether you work for a little or all the way through your pregnancy or not at all it is up to you and your partner, it comes down to financial status and most importantly what is best for your health and the health of the baby.

Baby brain-

Lastly and actually quite amusing side effect of pregnancy is ‘baby brain’ which is a term used to explain the forgetful or silly moments pregnant women may experience. Further in my pregnancy I seemed to start doing things like walking into a room and forgetting what for, leaving my mobile phone in the car all day, leaving the house wearing slippers and loosing my name badge and finding it in the fruit bowl!

Baby brain may get frustrating at time but just try to laugh it off later, it can make for some funny stories.

In conclusion, these are the confessions about my personal pregnancy and some women may have the same, similar or completely different things happen to them during these 9 months. My advice, try to keep healthy as your can, and calm and you can, and try to enjoy it as much as you can. Whether you choose to have one child or ten each one of your pregnancies could be different and special to each and every one of us. After all the bad comes the good- a beautiful bundle of joy!

-The mummy blog.