I Hate Being Pregnant
I usually feel guilty even saying that but I really, really hate being pregnant! Yet I’ve gone and done it twice! Before I became pregnant for the first time, I was seriously misled by every movie and pregnant woman that I have known. Being pregnant is not all sunshine and unicorn giggles. Being pregnant is hard! It takes a lot of effort and energy to grow a person.
I’ve decided to write this now in order to let go of my guilt. I refused to feel pressured into pretending that being pregnant is like prancing through a meadow on a beautiful summer day, surrounded by wildflowers and singing birds. It’s more like lumbering through a pool filled with peanut butter while carrying a 30 pound bowling ball.
There are so many unpleasant things about being pregnant. Morning sickness, headaches, and irrational, emotional outbursts are just the tip of the iceberg. During my pregnancies, I developed a love-hate relationship with food. For the first trimester, I spent a majority of my time hating food thanks to frequent and severe bouts of morning sickness. After the first trimester, I began to feel hungry all of the time but the ‘morning’ sickness continued. It is a very strange feeling to be violently ill one second and to then be begging your husband to go get you caramel brownies and coleslaw the next (yes, at one point I actually had a craving for chocolate and coleslaw at the same time!).
Another huge annoyance that I had during pregnancy was the random strangers who felt the need to either give me unwanted advice, tell me horrible and scary labor stories, or rub my belly. Here’s a hint: I don’t need some old lady coming up to me in my eighth month of pregnancy to tell me that I shouldn’t have gained so much ‘baby weight.’ After all, her doctor told her not to gain any more than 15 pounds and she only gained 12. Well, good for you, grandma. But you had your baby back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It is a lot easier to keep your weight down when you had to flee from the T-Rex on a daily basis.
And telling a pregnant woman scary labor and delivery stories is just plain inconsiderate. Believe me, with my first baby, I was scared enough. I didn’t need to hear about your brother-in-law’s aunt’s daughter whose blood pressure dropped so low during labor that she and her baby almost did not make it.
It is also unbelievably inappropriate to walk up to a stranger and touch her stomach. In some states that is considered assault, genius! My pregnant belly may be huge but that does not make it public property. Unless you are my husband, doctor, or daughter do not touch my stomach without permission. I am pregnant and, therefore, hungry. I will eat you!
I also spend the vast majority of my pregnancies being either uncomfortable or in pain. I get migraine headaches, which are made worse by the insanely fluctuating hormones during pregnancy. I refuse to take any medication during pregnancy unless I know it is absolutely safe (so, in other words, I do not take any medication) and my migraines get out of control. The lower back pain, sore hips, and swollen everything are also buckets of fun! Let’s talk heartburn. I honestly had no idea that heartburn could be really painful until I became pregnant. I could only lay flat for about five minutes before it felt like my stomach and throat were on fire. Learning to sleep while sitting up is a highly underrated, yet useful, skill.
The heartburn, back pain, and the fact that my stomach was so big that it had its own gravitational pull made it impossible for me to sleep. The last trimester, I was only getting about 2 to 3 hours of sleep per night. On the plus side, thanks to Netflix and my DVR, I caught up on every movie and television show that I was ever remotely interested in.
So if pregnancy is so awful, why did I elect to go through it again? Simple. Babies are awesome. Sure, it was a rough nine months. But at the end, I was given this amazing, beautiful, perfect baby girl. The bad stuff does not matter when you are cuddling your sleeping newborn, when you see her smile, or when you hear her say ‘mama’ for the first time. So I decided to give pregnancy another go. I am in my second semester and this pregnancy has been just as rough as the first. But that’s OK. Because soon, I’ll be cuddling my newborn, seeing him smile, and hearing him say ‘mama’ for the first time.
