Skip forward a few months and bam! This life was now going to be mine! I couldn't wait for that "glowing" stage they say all pregnant ladies go through, whereby your hair is glossy 💁🏻♀️ your nails grow lushous and long 💅🏼 and your skin is as smooooth as your future Bubba's bum....🍑
....Well I'm currently 37 weeks pregnant and I feel cheated! My "glowing" Insta Mum phase never showed up! Instead I was blessed with sickness (oh, lots of sickness!!), breakouts all over my face, thick chaffing thighs and an ever growing chubby face with new chins that seemed to appear overnight! *Cries* 😭😭😭
Please don't get me wrong, I feel extremely blessed to have fallen pregnant in the first place and I would never like to appear ungrateful, however boy has this journey been tougher than I ever expected!
*Let's rewind for a second*
I found out quite early on that I was expecting. I remember sneaking into the toilets at work to take a test after a few weeks of feeling neuseous and my boobs being extremely sore and swollen. It had been a strange few weeks for me, as I was convinced I was pregnant even after just a mere few days! Don't ask me how but I just felt different and knew this wasn't just my normal build up to my next period. Even when I took my first test and it came back Negative I knew it had to be wrong and so when a few more days had passed and still no period I decided to take another.
For anyone who has ever taken a pregnancy test you may agree that 2 minute wait for the result to show up feels like an eternity!
As I paced the floor of the disabled toilets, I realised 2 minutes had past....Do I dare look??? Am I ready to be a Mum??? What about money??? What would my Other Half say??? So many questions ran through my mind however curiousity got the better of me as I worked up the courage to pick up the test.....PREGNANT. 2-3 WEEKS.
🤰🏻👶🏻🍼
🤰🏻👶🏻🍼
Excitement, fear, joy, worry (and about 100 other emotions) ran through my body. Wow. I'm going to be a Mummy!!!
I sat on the toilet for what seemed like a lifetime, but when looking back could only have been a matter of seconds, before grabbing my phone and calling the Other Half. As the phone rang I wondered how he would take the news that his life would forever change from that day and that nights out with the lads would soon become a distant memory however after blurting out my news like word vomit he was elated! We were going to be Parents!
Once the call ended and the news slowly started to sink in I was left sat infront of my computer screen at work googling what the hell I was supposed to do next 🖥️ Apart from my Sister, who had been pregnant 5 years beforehand, I hadn't been around anyone with a baby or who was pregnant and realised I had zilch knowledge of the next steps! 😬
Fast forward a few weeks and we had our first 8 week appointment. All went well and we were given the start of what would become my Hospital notes and were told we would soon receive a letter in the post to advise the date and time of our 12 week scan (Eeeeekkk!!!)
I had been experiencing extreme nausea from around 5-6 weeks and had started to graze constantly on copious amounts of ginger biscuits and chewy Wham! Bars. The evenings/night times were the worst. I can't even count the amount of nights I'd be up for hours just sat on toilet preparing myself for me and last night's Tea to meet once again.
By 7-8 weeks was when the sickness set in. I refuse to call it morning sickness as this certainly was NOT the case for me! More like all day, all night sickness! I was signed off work and had been bed bound for weeks before our 12 week scan rolled around. In-between this I had even struggled through 2 weddings - One of which was my Best Friends wedding, who I was Bridesmaid for.
* It's amazing what Makeup can do for a girl....*
* It's amazing what Makeup can do for a girl....*
12 weeks pregnant was when my sickness peaked. We had just been for our first scan and were so excited to have heard our babies heartbeat for the first time and to be shown that she was growing as she should be.
I remember feeling so ill in the car on the way back from the Hospital and even though I had been sick already that morning I knew something wasn't right. After waving the Other Half off to work I ran inside the house, straight up the stairs and lunged my head into the toilet. Up to 10 times a day I would be reunited with my new favourite room in the house and after days of not being able to keep down even a sip of water, I was admitted to Hospital due to severe dehydration.
This was probably my lowest point of my pregnancy and if it wasn't for such a supportive Boyfriend, Family and Friends I honestly have no idea how I would have got through the weeks and weeks of endless sickness. It sounds dramatic but it was such a lonely place to be at a time which is supposed to be filled with such happiness and excitement.
At this stage, apart from Kate Middleton, I had never known of anyone who had suffered as badly as I was during pregnancy. All of these women I was seeing on social media looked amazing and there was me going days without having a bath as even the slightest movement would set off my sickness for the day.
*Daddy-to-be trying to lighten the mood and rock a sick bowl hat*
(Sorry Rory! 😂😂😂)
*Daddy-to-be trying to lighten the mood and rock a sick bowl hat*
(Sorry Rory! 😂😂😂)
Since then I have spoken to so many lovely ladies who had gone through similar experiences as myself. I just wish I had known more about the support which was out there at the time. I honestly hold my hands up to all the women who experience Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Whether you manage to hold down a job and look after other children or if (like me) you find yourself struggling to get out of bed, just know you're all amazing and you can get through this!!!
It was around 19-20 weeks once my sickness had died down and I could finally return to work for full days (I had been lucky enough that when I went back to work at 16 weeks that I could work around my sickness) and boy was it nice to know I could get up out of bed through choice and not through thinking I would projectile vomit all over the bedroom walls if I didn't move at the speed of light to the toilet!
We even found out what we were expecting....💗
Since then I haven't *touch wood* had any further sickness however at 25 weeks pregnant I was signed off work for 2 weeks due to lower back pain of sitting on a chair 24/7. On top of this I had the added stress of also being made redundant from my Full Time job. Not exactly what I needed, especially after everything else I had gone through in this pregnancy, however I knew Bump was my priority and so with the help of my Other Half I began to enjoy the time off I had to prepare for Little Lady's arrival and rest up as much as I could.
I'm now 37 weeks pregnant and patiently waiting for her to come and complete our little Family. But until then you will find me frantically scrubbing floors and washing 100 tonnes of clothes to make sure we're prepared if she does decide to arrive early....Although if she's anything like her Daddy she definitely WON'T be on time!!!
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