Pregnancy is NOT for me

After years of thinking it would never happen, when we found out we were having a baby I already couldn’t wait to experience all the good things you hear about pregnancy. Radiant skin, long, thick, shiny hair, nesting, loving my bump etc.

NOPE.

This never happened to me. I never got “the glow”. In fact I got the opposite. I’ve always had breakouts but this was something else. My face, my back and my chest were suddenly covered in painful spots, my face got really dry and peely, my hands and fingers swelled and my hips, oh my hips! Every step I took I could feel my hips crunching and rolling over in bed was absolute agony. As a self confessed yo-yo dieter I was really uncomfortable looking at my ever growing self in the mirror, especially a full length mirror.
I had morning sickness for 16 weeks, I had headaches every day, I was SO tired. I barely went out the house for the whole 9 months, barely actually left my bed.
For some reason I also became “allergic” to my kitchen (some would say conveniently!) Even walking past the door made me feel queasy, I’m still not overly sure why, it just had ‘that smell’!
Phil literally became a domestic goddess. He took over all of the cooking/cleaning/washing, with hardly any complaints! At the start, the extent of Phil’s cooking was bung it in the oven or deep fry it. However he was soon mastering all my favourite vegan meals. This continued for pretty much 5 months until we moved house and my aversion to kitchens disappeared.

Throughout my pregnancy I had so many people asking to see ‘bump pics’ and why I wasn’t posting them on Instagram. This was -such- a trigger for me. It reminded me how much I wasn’t enjoying being pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, I loved feeling Brodie wriggle around and was amazed at how I could feel him hiccuping, just hated the way I looked. I know it sounds very self absorbed, but I really couldn’t help it. Luckily I didn’t really develop stretch marks till right at the end/postpartum as I think this might have tipped me over the edge!!
I tried to take one picture a week, due to my mum saying one day I might like to see them, and I’m glad I did.

All in all I gained just over three stone, and although I’m still carrying a few extra pounds, have a ‘mum tum’ and stripes a Southampton Football Club fan would be proud of, I’m in no rush to change it. I’m proud of my body for doing what was supposedly the impossible, and Brodie is worth it a thousand times over.

But a gentle reminder – if you know someone who is having a baby but doesn’t post any ‘bumpies’ there could be a good reason for this and asking is just adding fuel to the fire – everyone is different and there is no wrong way to feel ❤️

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