For some reason, I thought pregnancy was going to be a breeze.
Not so much.
I’m only like 40 days in; the nausea and fatigue I feel already sucks. As my little pregnancy app likes to tell me, only 249 days to go!
Great! Insert grimace here.
Here are the top 5 things about early pregnancy I wish I had prepared for:
It’s really freaking hard to keep a secret.
I’m not going to lie, I had an ulterior motive for this post: I had to tell someone my good news!
So there it is, dear reader! I’m having a baby. Please don’t tell anyone.
Now, if you choose to go ahead and proclaim your pregnancy from the proverbial rooftop, more power to you. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I have a lot of anxiety. I am, of course, absolutely thrilled about having a baby. But I’m worried about miscarriage – I am more anxious at the thought of telling people I’m pregnant, only to have to suffer through telling them I’m not pregnant anymore. So, I just prefer to keep my pregnancy between you and me for right now, but that doesn’t mean not spilling the beans hasn’t been easy.
Being Sober Over the Holidays is the Worst
I found out I was pregnant right before Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until our friends and family started showing up for the meal we hosted with copious amounts of wine and beer that I realized I couldn’t have any of that precious vino. As a consolation prize, I let myself have two pieces of pumpkin pie.*
I made it through Thanksgiving, but not before tallying up all the boozy holidays I’m going to miss out on this year: Christmas, New Year’s, St. Patrick’s Day, and Independence Day, just to name a few.
Now before you think I am some kind of boozehound, I’m not. But momma likes a glass of wine or three, and I’ve been indulging in this habit for a while now, so it’s hard to just quit cold turkey.
*I definitely did not eat the rest of that pie by myself later that night and then send my hubby out for discount pie the next day.
Everything Makes Me Cry
My hormones fluctuate like crazy right before my period, and I have a couple of days where I cry during a particularly sad commercial. How I feel right now? Times that by a billion. Since I found out I am pregnant, I have cried more collective tears than I did when I saw Titanic in theaters four times.
I cried because my mom said something mean about my grandmother on the phone. I cried over a news article I read about a single dad that braids his daughter’s hair. I cried because I didn’t want to fix dinner. The list goes on.
I sure as heck hope there isn’t nine more months of this, because I have no more tears.
No Hanky Panky, Please and Thank You
Before I got pregnant, I liked to get it on. I mean, that’s how I got to be in my current situation. For the past month, my poor husband has greeted me at the door each day as eagerly as a golden retriever, hoping today is the day I’ll feel like doing it.
Spoiler Alert: It’s never the day.
It’s hard to feel sexy when you feel super nauseous, tired, and as big as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I read somewhere that pregnancy hormones can cause your sex drive to surge, but for me it’s been the complete opposite.
Here’s hoping (for my husband’s sake) that the second trimester fares a little better in this department.
There Really is a Baby in There
This has maybe been the hardest thing for me to grasp. Yes, I know I peed on a stick and it told me I was pregnant. Aside from feeling gross all the time, it’s hard to believe that my body is already growing another tiny human. I mean, that’s nuts!
I don’t know when the reality of an actual physical baby will set in. The day we hear a heartbeat? When we find out the baby’s gender? The day the baby is born?
It’s just crazy, and slightly terrifying to me that right now, a little embryo the size of a chocolate chip (I love the food comparisons) is going to grow to the size of a small watermelon. And that it can’t stay inside me forever.
Is this your first pregnancy? Anything about early pregnancy you wish you had known? Sound off in the comments below!
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