Sadly, this is a bit of a depressing story. I never looked like I had a beautiful pregnant glow. And I certainly can’t say I felt great pregnant, or loved it. Actually I hated nearly every second of it. So I hope you can bear with me through these 2 nightmarish stories. I hope I don’t scare you away from ever getting pregnant. I promise there is a light at the end of the tunnel…not in these 2 stories but in round three. Also, most women don’t have it this bad. Somehow I got the short end of the stick. I’m just going to claim it means I wasn’t meant to have as many children as people who love being pregnant. (I think they are liars by the way.)

Round 1

I would give almost anything to have known what I know now about pregnancy before my first. I read the typical books like, “What to Expect When Your Expecting”. I got all the typical information form my doctor. But I knew very little about how the food I ate could completely alter a pregnancy. So my story is not all that inspiring. Actually, it is practically a night mare. So why share it? Because I want you to see the difference between my pregnant stories and how you can be in control, for the most part, of how it goes.

My husband and I had been married 6 months when we decided to give the world of parenthood a whirl. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but the baby hungry bug bit me anyway. And so it began. I made it to about 7 weeks before I became miserable. I started throwing up. I threw up a lot. The nausea would even wake me in the middle of the night and I would have to leap out of bed. My OB/GYN prescribed a nausea medication. I wish I could remember which one. It worked ok. But it was also a sedative. I would wake up in the morning at 7:00, get breakfast for my husband. Send him to work at 8:00. Clean house for an hour, and then lay down for nap. I’d sleep until noon. I’d get up for about an hour to make my husband lunch. I’d again fall back to sleep until five. I’d make dinner. And be awake until about 10. Then I was asleep for the night. I did this for about 10 weeks. I basically slept away 3 months of my life! And I still puked. Not 6 or 7 times a day, but at least twice. I also discovered that the water in our little apartment was completely intolerable. Every time I drank even a sip it would send me directly to the bathroom. I had to buy bottled water for the entirety of the pregnancy. Aside from the nausea and sleepiness I was an emotional basket case. I cried about everything, even pranks I played on someone else. Ha! My husband couldn’t hardly look at me without sending me into tears. It was beyond ridiculous. I was emotional for the entire pregnancy.

The second trimester, from about 17 weeks on went better. I still ate a lot, but as long as I didn’t drink our tap water I didn’t throw up much, and I slept a little less. I did start getting stretch marks, however. Every day I would look down at my belly with wide scared eyes as I watched them spread and spread. My little sister-in-law thought it was the coolest thing because I looked like I had flames across my entire belly. I didn’t think they were so cool. Instead I had nightmares about them tearing open because I couldn’t stretch anymore, and me bleeding to death. Not pleasant!

The third trimester was plagued with new problems. I had issues with sciatica, I couldn’t sleep, I was hot all of the time. In November I would spend the day with the windows all open, then before my husband got home I would hurry and shut them and kick the heat on for him. I also gained 50 lbs! Which I am sure added to my discomfort. But I was hungry all the time. I ate a lot of food.

Finally, 5 days ahead of schedule our first baby girl arrived. I woke up at 8:00 am with contractions. Shortly after arriving at the hospital I started throwing up with my contractions. I got an epidural and that stopped but I did get some pretty extreme shivers from the pain killers. I delivered at 4:30 in the afternoon, without complications.That was the easy part. And even though it was a really hard nine months I laid their in the hospital bed holding my brand new sleeping baby and thinking to myself that I have to do that again.

Round 2

That thought of again didn’t happen for almost four years. You are probably think this time you will hear a happy story. Or at least a better story, right? HA! Nope. This one is worse, and fresher in my memory. Actually, this experience was so bad that I didn’t think I would ever dare to have any more children. It was so bad, in fact, that talking about it can still bring me to tears. Actually, I had a lady just say to me the other day that I look so much better this time, and that last time I looked awful! But in truth I was awful.

Again the nausea began at 7 weeks. I puked on average 9-10 times per day. At about 12 weeks I was prescribed a nausea medication. A different one this time because with a daughter I couldn’t sleep all day. It didn’t help much. I was then put on 2 additional nausea medications and a laxative because one of them caused constipation. At some point a long the way I realized that I was terribly dehydrated. And for some reason the bodies natural coping mechanism for dehydration is to make you vomit more. So I went to the hospital and got an IV to regain some balance. That was probably the best 2 hours of that entire pregnancy. I felt wonderful. I secretly wanted to keep the IV and live in that hospital bed. Afterwards, I still puked a lot but it was kept in check around 4 or 5 times a day. I puked everyday multiple times for 10 weeks. Finally around 17 weeks the vomiting died off. It became an occasional once a week kind of event. And then disappeared. I was very emotional during this pregnancy too.

Again the second trimester was mostly normal. But I was severely emotional. I was tired. And I’d all but given up on keeping up on my responsibilities. I spent a great deal of time on my parents couch. (I’m very glad they live next door.) With a busy daughter and depleted energy I needed the help to keep an eye on her and keep her business channeled in good directions. 

The third trimester got worse again. I had made an oath to myself that I was not going to gain 50 lbs again. I went swimming several times per week through my second trimester but I started getting a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. The doctor didn’t tell me to stay in bed, but she might as well have. I had to count contractions, and if I exerted too much then I had to sit down. I couldn’t swim anymore. I couldn’t walk up the stairs, vacuum, or clean house to rapidly. Every little exertion gave me a contraction. The doctor recommended that I get a steroid shot to help develop the babies lungs in case she decided to come early. So I did. I also had severe sciatica again.

As things progressed I went into false labor twice. Both to my misfortune in the middle of the night. I was then afraid that I wouldn’t know when the labor was real. Gratefully, 3 weeks ahead of schedule, my water broke in the middle of the night. Four later my second baby girl arrived. Again, I was fortunate to have no complications. And although I was deeply in love with my beautiful baby, this time I thought I was probably done.

But I wasn’t…..

The story of round three is still in the making, and this time I think you will like it better.