11 Great Things About Being Pregnant…
1. It’s a really good excuse
Growing a baby is tough work and if you need to go to bed at 9 pm, leave an event early, excuse yourself from a meeting or take a sick day you have a pretty good excuse!
2. You get a cute squishy baby at the end
Ok let’s be serious, some women love being pregnant – most love the end result! We all do this for the cute squishy baby at the end 🙂
3. Your husband or significant other will pretty much do anything for you
Rub your feet, make dinner, clean the bathrooms… when you’re pregnant pretty much anything goes with your husband or significant other.
4. The prenatal vitamins will make your hair and nails look fabulous
You hair will grow long and thick and your nails will grow strong thanks to the small daily pill you are taking while you are pregnant.
5. You never go anywhere alone
Everywhere you go, your baby comes too. The small kicks will remind you, you are not alone. You don’t have to feel weird about talking to your stomach because they are listening and learning your voice.
6. The kicks, somersaults and karate chops
As your pregnancy progresses these kicks can get pretty painful, but they are a sweet reminder of the miracle inside you. With every kick and movement your baby is talking to you and preparing for their movement outside the womb.
7. Strangers are nice to you
You will be surprised how sometimes it seems the lady in the grocery line is more excited for you to have your baby than you are. They will hold doors, ask (sometimes unnecessary) questions and pamper you as much as possible while you are pregnant.
8. Shopping goes to a whole new level
Shopping is no longer about you. You are redesigning a room and filling a closet full of cute baby clothes for your newborn. Babies are small and they don’t need much, but it is so fun to decorate and dress up our little babes.
9. You have a new respect for your body
Women’s bodies are incredible. After childbirth you will look at every physical situation differently. If you can make a baby… you can do anything.
10. Nap time
As an adult if you take nap time and aren’t pregnant you are seen as lazy. Nap time when you are pregnant is seen as a necessity and totally normal. Take full advantage of this perk!
11. Hearing baby’s heartbeat
This sound never gets old. At each appointment as you listen to the life growing inside you, it makes you realize how amazing the process is.
… and 11 Not So Great Things about Pregnancy
1. Your shirts always have food dropped on them
Either you get clumsy, your belly gets bigger or a combination of both. Somewhere in the mix, all of your shirts will end up with food stains on your ever growing stomach.
2. You never sleep
Pregnancy insomnia is real. The restless legs, always needing to pee or crazy dreams will keep you up half the night. Some say this is your body preparing you to not sleep after baby is born, but I say take as many naps and go to bed as early as possible to suck out all the sleep you can from your body.
3. You want to eat everything in your pantry but your stomach is the size of a lemon
Your hunger is the size of Texas and your stomach is the size of Rhode Island. The more you shove in there the worse you feel, but you are so hungry… how can you stop?
4. You never poop
Pooping becomes a luxury. After eating your entire pantry, you have to pause to wonder where all that food goes because it is sure as anything not coming out.
5. You can’t eat any of your favorite foods
Wine. 5 cups of coffee a day. Raw tuna. cold deli sandwiches. hot dogs on the grill. Sushi. Unpasteurized cheeses. Runny Eggs. Raw cookie dough. Need I explain more?
6. Your ankles start to resemble those of an elephants
If you’re lucky this will hold off until the third trimester hits, but when your ankles start to swell you’ll know. One morning you will wake up (and if you can still see your feet at this point), look down and your ankles will no longer look like ankles, more like elephant stumps that go straight down in all their puffy glory.
7. None of your clothes fit
Your closet goes from having endless outfit options to rotating between 3 – 4 different shirts and 1-2 pairs of pants. If you are lucky to be pregnant during winter your jacket will most likely stop zipping around the second trimester and your shoes will feel tight as your feet swell and grow thanks to the hormones.
Your bras are too small, your pants don’t button, all while you are trying to avoid buying pregnancy clothes as long as possible to save a few extra dollars.
*my advice is to get some pregnancy pants early when you feel your belly start to expand. Your life will be so much more comfortable than trying to finangle yourself into your old pants.
8. Tying your shoes
As your belly grows bending over becomes your exercise for the day. Specifically tying your shoes leaves you out of breath and wondering if you just squished your baby in half. I don’t have any solution for this other than invest in slip ons.
9. You flip out, cry, scream or yell at people for no reason
You start apologizing a lot during your pregnancy, especially to your husband/significant other. Your emotions take over and for no reason at all you will be crying because you lost your sunglasses, screaming because your milk is expired and how could they let this happen or impatiently hating on the person in front of you at the grocery store because they are taking too long to pay their bill.
Emotions are scary things when you are pregnant.
10. You get a lot of unwanted attention
This goes back to the mention above of strangers being nice to you. While they will open doors and treat you like a delicate flower, they will also touch your belly without asking and treat you as if you are broken. They act like you can’t stand on your own two feet and are incapable of lifting anything heavier than a piece of paper.
You walk into a room and everyone stares. Maybe you’re in the ‘pregnant or fat’ stage and everyone is wondering “is she pregnant” or maybe you’re 8 1/2 months along and everyone just watches as you move around, almost as if they are waiting for you to go into labor in the middle of the mall.
11. You watch your weight increase to never been seen numbers
Every pound you gain is for baby and because of baby, but that doesn’t make the weekly weigh ins at the doctor any easier. During pregnancy you see your weight go to no-mans land, numbers you never wanted to see and can’t avoid (and shouldnt – baby needs to grow).
You will have your healthiest week of eating right and exercise, yet somehow manage to put on 6 lbs in 2 weeks. Just when you thought your belly couldn’t stretch anymore… it does!
What are your best and worsts of being pregnant? Leave them in the comments!