Wow. The 1st trimester felt really long and then the 2nd trimester, well, it has just whizzed by so fast that I can’t quite believe that next week I’m going to be in the third trimester of our first pregnancy. For those that didn’t know our happy news, head over to this Instagram post for our little announcement. It was a rocky road to get here so we are thrilled to finally be on the other side and able to celebrate. Aside from feeling like I need many, many aids to feel human again and I’ve hardly slept for what feels like a decade (thanks pregnancy insomnia), it’s been such a magical time for us. Here’s 5 things that I’ve learnt being pregnant.
Oh the many tokens of supposed helpful advice comes at you thick and fast. If I had a £ for every time someone uttered the words “just you wait” I’d be a rich woman. What I’ve found is that it comes from people that you aren’t even that close to, whose advice you would most likely never take in a million years! Which I think makes it even more galling at the best of times. Surprisingly you would normally expect it from family, but they’ve all been nothing but supportive in our choices and decisions so far!
My advice – take everything with a pinch of salt. What’s the saying? Everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has ar-. You catch my drift!
Having had a tough few years getting to the point of actually conceiving, with many tests being done, new diagnosis’ of what was going on with my body and with the many influxes of baby announcements it was so, so hard to deal with at times. When I think about it I was a shell of a person for that time period, doing my best to find other ways to fulfill myself. In turn I probably pushed a lot of people away. When we finally felt pregnant I started to be the version of myself I’d always wanted to be which in turn made me a nicer person to be around.
My relationship with my mum has always been amazing, but as we enter this new chapter I am leaning on her a lot more. She can’t wait to be a Nana!
Like, really amazing. I was diagnosed with stage 2 endometriosis and various dermoid cysts, both of which were on my left ovary so there is no wonder we were finding it extremely difficult to conceive. It was starting to become a realisation that we might need a helping hand in the form of IVF or, adoption (which I have never ruled out since we found out we were expecting!) So, when we fell on naturally it really did feel like a miracle that our bodies had both been able to create another little human being. (Seeing them on screen for the first time is up there with one of the most beautiful moments in my life that I will ever experience.)
On the flip side though, the many days spent throwing up or wanting to really did take it’s toll on me in the first trimester. Thank god for that second trimester glow showing up!
I genuinely thought I’d find my current pregnant state horrible to look at, but every single day I take the time to look at my body shape changing and relish in this special time. Even those pesky stretch marks aren’t getting me down.
Some days you just gotta cry it out. One little tiktok video of a cute puppy could set me off for an hour or so, having spoken to lots of my Mummy friends, this is totally normal. That brings me on to my next point…
When the days are rough, you can offload to someone who totally gets it. When you buy the cute little outfit you can share this with them because they are in the same little baby bubble that you are. These are the people that just get it – they don’t come to you with unsolicited advice (see point 1) because they know all too fresh and well what it’s like.
Always hold space for them too, they might be having a bad day and you might be the friendliest face they will see all day.
