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When my partner and I first discussed having a baby I imagined things a lot differently for my pregnancy. The movies do not show you the reality at all. I was expecting a little bit of sickness and waddle walking, not everything else that came with it! Even asking my mum what her pregnancy was like couldn’t have prepared me for the reality.
Below I share the things that surprised me about pregnancy:
Dizziness
Now I’ve suffered with dizziness in the past, so this was an unwelcome addition to my symptoms. I had consistent dizziness from the beginning up until around month 4 when it eased off a bit. It was challenging, but as I’d suffered with a lot of dizziness in the past it was manageable.
Loss of appetite
In mainstream media you see pregnant women devouring every meal and having intense food cravings. For the first 5 months I really struggled to eat, at the beginning I even lost weight because of it. This was definitely the most challenging symptom and definitely contributed to the dizziness I was feeling. After month 5 I started really enjoying food again. My biggest craving was McDonalds mayonnaise (which I don’t even like when not pregnant!) and spicy food (which I really do like when not pregnant).
How much I loved my pregnancy body
I fully expected to feel huge and hate my appearance. Of course there were those days, but on the most part I got a surge of confidence. Pregnancy hormones made my hair look amazing so that helped a lot. The last couple months of pregnancy were my favourite. I loved the way my bump looked. Most of my negative symptoms went away. I wonder if it’s because I knew I *looked* pregnant in those months. In the early days, I would hold my pregnant belly so people knew it was a real baby and not a food baby.
Very little anxiety about it all
As a long time anxiety sufferer I was expecting it to hit me like a ton of bricks in pregnancy. Surprisingly I found that I mellowed out. There were the normal anxieties like “is my baby okay in there”, “am I doing the right things”. Honestly though, I couldn’t believe how well I coped with it all. It really helped that my partner is the most caring person I’ve ever met and looked after me well.
No one wants to talk about your pregnancy
Everyone would talk about the birth and what it would be like holding the baby. I had a particularly hard time with my symptoms. I imagine they would get boring to hear about. However, I did expect more questions and interest in my pregnancy. Most of the topics of conversation surrounded what the baby would look like or what they might be interested in. Not everyone falls into this category, but in a way it was probably good to not think about symptoms for 5 minutes.
How much people kept telling me my life was over
Pretty much everyone who had children kept telling me I’d never sleep again and the rest of my life would be filled with worry. This is absolutely NOT the case. I was surprised at everyone’s negative take on the experience. We’re already going through all these horrible symptoms and, joke or not, it’s not nice to hear how horrible life will be with a child.
How much I would miss pregnancy
If you’d asked me during the first 5 months of my pregnancy if I’d miss it I’d have told you “NO!”. Now that my daughter is here and I can no longer feel the little kicks inside me I definitely miss it. My daughter is the most amazing little human, but now I have to share her! When she was kicking me from the inside it was a special little bond between just me and her. I miss it a lot.
