Thursday, January 28, 2010

20 Weeks

Today I'm at my halfway point, 20 weeks. I never thought I'd make it this far so you can imagine how I feel about giving birth. This pregnancy seems like it's been going on for years. I can't understand why some people tell me it will fly by. Every moment is longer. Every day makes me more impatient. Every doctors visit seems to be light years away. The milestones of pregnancy, the heartbeats, the gender reveal, the first kick, outgrowing your clothes seem to take forever. At first, when people asked how far along I was, I would lie and round up to the next week because I wanted so badly to be farther along. I still feel that way, however I am honest about my dates now. I have to be Honestly Pregnant after all!! But I think it's interesting that before I was pregnant, women would tell me how precious pregnancy was. How they treasured having a life inside them and feeling the bond and the connection with the baby. They thought it was so sweet that I was trying to get pregnant and felt sympathy when it took me so long. But now these same women are finally letting the truth out and revealing how miserable and painful this whole thing is. It's odd that there is some kind of evolutionary conspiracy going on with women that they aren't telling the whole truth until there's no turning back. Of course the child is completely worth all the agony. I just would've appreciated a heads up, ladies.

My heads up on pregnancy would be the things I experienced. I understand every person is different. Here's what I've gone through so far:
You will feel more tired than you have ever felt in your entire life. Your boobs will hurts so bad you will cry. You will be so sick to your stomach that you're positive you will die. You will not start looking pregnant until about halfway or more into your pregnancy and it will piss you off because in general, people assume you can't possibly be sick or uncomfortable unless you are huge. You will have crazy weird dreams. Your hair will get really stringy and lose pigment. Your skin will dry out so bad you will never be able to keep up with enough moisturizer. Your skin will get very bumpy and blotchy and zity. You'll feel dizzy, so dizzy in fact that you will fall down and black out. You'll be so thirsty you can't get enough. Your back will ache and walking will be painful. Your belly will grow dark hair down the middle. You will eat with ravenous hunger or turn down entire meals depending on the moment. You will feel extremely unsexy. You will feel impatient for each doctors appt and each week to go by. You will have crazy wicked gas and heartburn. You will pee so much that sometimes you will turn right back around and go again right after you've finished peeing. And last but not least you will feel very accomplished and proud about the amazing life you are carrying around inside you.

If you are curious as to why these symptoms happen to pregnant women, Dr Oz's book You: having a baby is amazing at explaining it. For instance the nausea is to keep you eating bland safe foods to give you a better chance of survival. This is an evolutionary trait for the times of unsafe spoiled meats and contaminated plants before we became accustomed to the world of generally safe foods we live in today.

I hope you don't suffer all of the things that I did. But if you do, you're not alone. And remember to share those feelings and symptoms with other women. Especially women who haven't had babies so they know what they're in for. It's quite a shock when you aren't expecting it.

Honestly Pregnant,
Jen

1 comment:

Thunder Broad said...

I've been blessed with two easy pregnancies. No morning sickness or any major problems. I try to be upbeat when I talk about my pregnancy because I fear becoming the whiny pregnant chick that I despise. I find myself avoiding other pregnant women because I don't have the patience for their mommy blues. And I've been downright mean with this pregnancy & likely to say ANYthing. I'm praying that the 2nd half of my pregnancy is as easy as this 1st half has been.