Pregnancy is one of the most natural things in the world but I wish I had known more about it (not the birds and the bees bit) It may sound really silly but I had no clue what to expect other than that I would soon become a parent.
Pregnancy seems designed to prepare you for life as a mother. You start making sacrifices nine months before the child is born, so by the time they put in an appearance you are used to giving things up for them
Pregnancy gave me a huge reality check and there’s no secret it came a a huge shock to me. As you may have read before, my morning sickness was a killer, but it wasn’t just morning sickness, it was all day and all night. I never knew it would be like that and for me it lasted a lot longer than just the first trimester, I had this sickness right up until my daughters birth.
Speaking of trimesters, I never knew about those either in relation to pregnancy.
My boobs hurt, it was like I had been punched…in both of them. I had heard of mums to be complaining about how sore they were but in my mind it must have been just sore nipples or something but nope, no such luck, for me it was like waking up the morning after doing 10 rounds in a boxing ring.
Why was I so tired? It didn’t matter how much I slept, I still always felt like I could sleep for another 6 hours. The Mr was also confused my my tiredness, especially when I took a nap a couple of hours before going to bed.
I went off food completely and I discovered that I had developed a phobia of food. I worried all the time that I would not like something and it would make me sick. My diet consisted of Lucozade, fruit and cheese & crackers for the majority of my pregnancy. I wouldn’t even touch the foods that I knew I loved just in case.
I was expecting that pregnancy glow, you know the one that people talk about and say “oh you look radiant” well for me that didn’t happen. Instead I looked tired and ill
The same goes for my hair, I didn’t get the lovely thick and glossy hair that would envy the contestants at Crufts. Instead my hair took on a life of its own and I resembled a feral cat, my glossy hair was none existent.
Then came the ligament pain, my hips and back felt as though they were being pulled apart, I later learned that I had developed a case of SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction)
I really wish somebody had told me about the itching, my skin had become dry , I can only presume that the little baby that was growing inside me was taking a good chunk of my nutrients. I smothered myself several times a day with Palmers Cocoa butter which seemed to help.
When my bump started to show, it suddenly became acceptable to be touched as people assumed it was ok to touch your belly…seriously if I started touching someone when they weren’t pregnant I’d probably be locked away in a darkened room somewhere or slapped with a restraining order of some kind. So as soon as you become pregnant the general public can and will try and touch your growing bump….be warned.
I was hit with a serious case of baby brain, I was forgetful, I mixed up my words and also forgot the names and correct words of things. I spent one evening calling my bowel, my bowl….I wasn’t corrected on this but the Mr and my bestie did have a good chuckle about it. I was reaching all new levels of stupidity.
I felt lied to in pregnancy, that whole 9 months is actually 10…..yep pregnancy lasts for 10 months not 9.
Nobody told me about bladder weakness in pregnancy so when I saw a physiotherapist regarding my SPD and we discussed exercises to help with my pain and getting around, she also told me that some of the exercises were great for bladder weakness to. Not wanting to risk wetting myself when I sneezed or coughed I took those exercises seriously. Pregnancy is not glamorous in the slightest!
For the actual birth, nobody had told me what to expect afterwards and how I would feel. Well the recovery period can be just as painful but luckily I was advised to purchase arnica tablets to help with the healing process after the birth.
Nobody told me about back labour, all the pain from the contractions was focussed in my back. I was expecting to have the pains in my stomach but nope it felt like my spine was being crushed from the inside. I have nothing to compare this to but I hope that when I have our next child that it is not a back to back labour again.
So I’m guessing now that if you are expecting your first child and you have read this that I have scared the crap out of you? Well I’m going to tell you its not all that bad and I know women who loved being pregnant, they glowed and had no complaints. Everyone experiences it differently and if it was really that bad, then why the hell would I want to go through it again?
I discovered that I wasn’t along in pregnancy, and there were many places where I found valuable information. I took to websites like bounty for pregnancy advice, I visited them a lot through pregnancy, every time I was worried or had a little concern I would check there and discover that there was nothing terribly wrong and it was just a part of pregnancy. Reading that it was normal to have excessive heartburn so you drink gaviscon straight from the bottle is something that many expectant mothers go through put me at ease, I wasn’t doing anything wrong and it was perfectly normal.
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Losing weight after pregnancy
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Keep up the great writing.