As I mentioned (here),  I recently did a call out on my socials to ask what my readers wanted me to write about on my blog. The personal aspect seemed to be a favourite, despite the fact I have impeccable style ;p you just keep coming back for the juicy stuff!

So here is one real story for you…. (feel free to leave now if you are not into the mummy thing). I have had so many conversations with new mums, pregnant women and second time mothers all starting with the following ‘they never tell you that…’ or ‘No one ever told me that so and so would happen after I had a baby’. So I thought perhaps I would turn this into a series from pregnancy, birth, baby and second child. Let’s start with..

‘What they never told you about pregnancy’

  • That when you are trying to conceive, you will be totally addicted to peeing on a stick. You will pee and pee and pee on so many sticks with the hope that the next one will have two lines on it. Even if your period is due the next day and it still had only one line, you will try just incase its a mistake.
  • That if the pregnancy test has even a faint second line, you are pregnant, there is no faking the second line, it will get stronger each day as the hormones do so in your body.
  • That you may or may not get morning sickness starting from six weeks and it could last for a few weeks or several months or right through and sickness isn’t just in the morning, it is ALL.DAY.LONG (for me it was 5 months worth of ALL.DAY.LONG)
  • That once you are freshly pregnant, your nipples become so super sensitive that if even a feather brushed against them it would tingle and kind of hurt. Actually, this stage your boobs look fantastic and perky, I suggest you stare at them for as long as you can because it is all down hill in, oh, around 15months time.
  • You will put weight on in most places including your calves, for some reason my calves were HUGE both pregnancies and didn’t go down to normal size until at least 10 months post pregnancy. I also remember my mum telling me I should say goodbye to my hip bones, lucky I did, because I havent seen them since.
  • That the list of non-safe pregnancy food is very long and you will find it safer to eat junk food and bread (this explains my 25kgs I put on with my first pregnancy) one thing I missed eating was pre-made salad and sushi.
  • You will be very tired from basically, pee-on-stick days.
  • That you should essentially book in with an obstetrician (if private) from pee-on-stick days, incase all the other pee-on-stick women beat you too it and book him/her up during that time of delivery or maybe your ideal OB might be on holidays during that time, you will need to google another option.
  • You might lose your mojo… to cook. I was a great cook, a three course meal kind of wife, until, my first pregnancy, my first day of morning sickness and the smell of roast and broccoli had me over the toilet bowl for hours. Cooking has never been the same for me since that day.
  • That babies are very resilient in your tummy.
  • You will get a thrill about the baby gender guessing myths, no matter how many times you hear it from people, you love hearing what they guess each time.
  • That people will give you advice, every day, even strangers.
  • That you think you will give birth on your due date.
  • You can actually feel your ligaments stretching to get your body ready for the baby.
  • Your belly button may or may not make itself inside out and non existent with the stretching.
  • That your lips might be bigger and face more ‘botox like’. My lips always get plumper and had many comments asking if I had fillers! I also get a bigger nose! Gah!
  • Your hair will not fall out for 9 months and you will have the most lush and thick hair you have always wanted, until it all falls out and grows a random fringe 8 months post baby.
  • You might get a snail trail or dark line from pubic bone to belly button.
  • You boobs may not get bigger until after baby is born.
  • You get an intense gift of smell.
  • Baby brain begins! You start to get foggy, you forget things and you are so lucky to be able to blame it on the baby, but yes- baby brain is totally real!
  • You start to become uncomfortable with sleep, this my friend, is the beginning of the end of sleep as you know it. As your tummy grows and grows, you struggle to find a comfortable position to sleep in, you also need to pee several times throughout the night and then before you know it, you are in labour, you have been awake from the moment you work up that morning, pushed a child out and get your first ‘sleep’ aka max of two hour nap when your new born baby sleeps after a feed. That is, if you aren’t staring at it in awe that you created it, then which you will miss that chance to sleep and not get an opportunity to sleep again until and if the baby takes its next nap. They say you won’t get a good night sleep now until your children are moved out of your home.
  • You can’t sleep on your back or lay on your back, as you get heavier as the baby is pressing on the vein that returns blood from your lower body to your heart.
  • Apparently it is better to lay on your left side of your body as it has better circulation compared to your right…?
  • That you deserve a push present.