Pregnancy is WAY DIFFERENT Than I Thought it Would Be…Here's Why! (Plus: What AI Thinks our Baby will Look Like!)

beautybeyondbones

February 15

I'm officially 18 weeks pregnant, and am on the very tail end of my Covid quarantine. Let me tell you -- these last 10 days have been quite the exercise in mental fortitude. I am not the type of person that "get sick" often -- in fact, I'm more a "mind over matter" kind of gal where, unless I'm actually physically vomiting or running a fever that has me sweating and under the covers with my teeth chattering...I'm going to muscle through it.

But this time, I was knocked on my butt. Not because it was particularly severe...in fact it was quite mild. But the FATIGUE...now that was another story entirely.

Which leads me to the point of tonight's post. I'm almost halfway through this beautiful journey of becoming a mother, and I've got to admit: pregnancy is not at all what I thought it would be.

Granted, I have been blessed with an incredibly easy go of it so far: literally not a lick of morning sickness, no food aversions, no nausea, no acne. Nothing like that. So in that sense, I am very fortunate.

Eating meat for the first time

But then, I never really thought that I would be knocked off my feet by any of those things. Again...mind over matter.

But what I WAS SHOCKED by was....the tiredness.

I'm telling you...once dinner is made, eaten and cleaned up...I am ready to call it a day!

Peep our stroller in the background 🙂

I typically wake up around 6:45am: have a very active morning: I do some yoga and go for an hour power walk. And then we're off on the daily grind by 9am.

But wow - now, after a long day, we sit down to watch a TV show around 7:00pm, and by 7:30 I'm out cold.

During the first month, I'd just fall asleep on the couch downstairs, but after about week 4, we just would go straight upstairs and watch TV from bed! Steven would bring his laptop and putz on the computer, and I would watch about 10 minutes and then be out like a light.

I didn't realize how exhausted I would be!

I was chatting with one of my friends who has three children, and she said: Caralyn, you're growing a human. Even when you're sitting down, your body is climbing a mountain!

So there you go: I was exhausted from the mountain climbing I participated in that day. 🙂

But other than that -- pregnancy is going pretty swimmingly.

I had fun the other day doing one of those "what will my baby look like" AI generators…here's what AI came up with! I personally think -- especially the boy -- could be spot on 🙂

I have officially outgrown my clothes, but the truth of the matter is that I'm okay with that. Sure, this week was a little tough with a) Covid and b) I got a sty in my eye, so I couldn't wear makeup all week and had this unsightly eye -- I was looking a little rough....and I definitely broke down in tears feeling like an ogre...BUT for the most part, I have been loving my changing body, and have embraced all the new curves.

If I had ONE piece of advice: okay...well two...

Buy new workout tops immediately.
- I waited too long, thinking I could still squeeze into my XS sports tops, and this was problematic for two reasons:
  - 1) I developed terrible chaffing in my underarms from the "spillage", thanks to my increasing bust. This was because I was power walking and swinging my arms for an hour. But dang -- chafing is dang near impossible to get rid of once it's started. New sports bras, not shaving (😫) and taking two weeks off (thanks to Covid) really helped with the healing!
  - 2) It was really bad for my body image to see myself literally poured into tops -- and shorts, for that matter -- that were too small. I felt like I was a sausage in sausage casing. Everything got so much better when I finally bought clothes that fit. This was the set I got on Amazon in several colors.

2. My second piece of advice: don't schedule many evening social engagements during your first trimester: you're going to be just way too tired come the end of the day to get all dressed up (and find clothes that fit) and have to be "on." Save your socializing for the second trimester when you'll have much more energy.

Now that it's the second trimester, we've got things scheduled every Friday and Saturday for six weeks out. Yes, I still get tired every night at 7:30, BUT at least now, the thought of going out and socializing after 8pm doesn't put me in the fetal position.

Oh -- and one more little tip: which really is for any time of life, not just during pregnancy: don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry. Write a list and stick to it! Otherwise, you'll end up buying so many impulse purchases just because dried mangoes or macadamia nut butter sounded good when your stomach was doing the shopping!

LASTLY: I just ordered these books and I'm really excited for them to arrive!:

Nine Months with God and your Baby