Ah, where to start with the whole pregnancy journey. I really hope this doesn’t come across as a moaning post and I don’t mean it in that vein but unfortunately my pregnancy wasn’t a bowl of sunshine. I’m grateful for the beautiful baby I got at the end and I would do it all again tomorrow but it was hard!
First of all, I knew being pregnant wasn’t going to be a walk in the park but oh my did I get a huge kick up the backside. I hate to admit it but before being pregnant, I had no real thought or proper knowledge about a pregnant lady. Being an employer myself, I’m ashamed of that. I genuinely did not realise the actual toll it has on a woman. Maybe as I was technically geriatric at 35 having my little girl I don’t know?!
I’ll split this into trimesters for those interested. I found out I was pregnant super early on. In the first couple of weeks I thought actually this isn’t too bad. Up until 8 weeks I had no real ‘symptoms’. If anything this really freaked me out. I like to think I’m a rational, together lady. That all went out the window when I was pregnant. While I didn’t get the common symptoms by 8 weeks I was starting to get migraines. It would be the migraines that would then plague me for the rest of my pregnancy. It got to the point where if I had one good day in a week I would be buzzing. Honestly, the pain was unreal, I went to my gp, asked the midwife but the answer was always the same, take paracetamol and call us if there is any change to your vision. The slightest movement was ridiculously painful and I can’t tell you how many times I ended up in tears with utter frustration. Even going to sleep didn’t help as the pain would keep me awake all night. If anyone is suffering from migraines, I feel you! Unfortunately, if you’re pregnant, I don’t have a curative tip but definitely: paracetamol, lots of water and sometimes the cooling gel packs helped. The first trimester also brought extreme fatigue. I mean wow it kicked my butt. You are that tired you can feel it in your bones. I literally could barely do anything. My house seemed to crumble around me and do you know what? I don’t think it’s recovered since!
The second trimester, the dreamy one right? Energy comes back, etc etc… nope! My migraines were still resting in my brain eating my brain cells slowly and carefully. To boot, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. I was honestly devastated! I mean of course I was concerned for my unborn child but selfishly on top of the migraines it just felt too much. I now couldn’t work on getting obscenely fat I had to really watch what I was eating. I had to massively limit sugar and carbs which were essentially my main cravings! I had to test my blood after every single meal, take medication and was progressively put on a lot of insulin. Because of the insulin, they would not let me go beyond 38 weeks so it was either induction or c section. I’ll probably write a whole blog on gestational diabetes as there is just too much to say about it.
The final trimester was actually my favourite. I could feel her so was less anxious about whether she was ok or not. My migraines settled down, maybe getting control of my diabetes helped this? Most importantly, the end was in sight! Now that it’s over I wish I was able to enjoy my pregnancy more but the reality is I didn’t. We were isolated because of Covid and some of our friends didn’t even see me pregnant. I was ready to see the back of being pregnant and enjoy being a mum. My husband was unable to be part of the appointments/scans so all in all it wasn’t the experience I had imagined. I work in a school so spent the whole time physically away from a job that I love. Every mum would say the same though once you meet your child… you would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Lifeafterkids 