I definitely ordered a healthy, stress-free pregnancy this time around. And I am usually happy with Amazon's service, but I will definitely be filling out my customer feedback form!!!
My younger brother and sisters used to watch Perfect Strangers on TGIF. I had to babysit so many Fridays and had to sit through many episodes. There is only one episode which sticks out in my mind and probably will forever. The main characters were two cousins who lived together and evetually married the two women who lived upstairs. When the women became pregnant, one of them bloomed. She glowed. She was happy and carefree. The other woman was miserable. She was grumpy and couldn't understand why she had such a rough time while her friend was cheery. I was a teenager and right then and there I decided that if I ever became pregnant I would have the glowing version for sure.
Before my first pregnancy I bought in to the Hollywood version of pregnancy. The above episode was one of the few negative portrayals of pregnancy I had ever seen. I think for most of us, pregnancy looks like this:
A busy, working woman unknowingly becomes pregnant and carries on symptom free until she starts throwing up in the mornings. Unconcerend she carries on with her day job until a colleague makes a joke about pregnancy. After a bit of shock and/or excitement, she carries on, eventually becoming ravenously hungry and eating out the house until she becomes so big that she has a bit of backache. Then one day when she is shopping, or in the middle of an argument with her husband, her waters gush all over the floor. Then there is a mad dash to the hospital where she screams a lot until a beatiful baby is delivered and all is forgotten.
Overall, pregnancy looks to be ok. Shopping for baby stuff is fun, morning sickness isn't too disruptive, and your skin glows. Labour is scarey and treated like an emergency situation, but the lead up can be quite pleasant.
When I started reading pregnancy books during my first pregnancy I was shocked to find what I had in store. My favourite was The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy. I was told to expect nausea all day, piles, backache, peeing a lot, acne, lack of appetite, and long labours unlike the Hollywood version.
Even so when I became pregnant with my son I was not quite prepared for 8 months of nausea, cramping, bleeding, peeing ALL of the time, loose ligaments causing backache, heartburn, inability to sleep through the night (despite constant fatigue during the day), and premature labour.
Despite my strong love for my son and the inevitable feeling that "it was all worth it in the end," it took several years before I was willing to try it again. I did some research this time. I took heart in the fact that I knew people who were sick for the first pregnancy and not for the second. I bought lots of vitamins and read about healthy diets preventing nausea.
When I felt armed and ready I decided to go for it and became pregnant within the week. I went off coffee straight away, and everything started smelling strong. I fell asleep on the couch at the drop of a hat. I felt these were good signs and took my pregnancy test. Positive. Yeah! And beyond fatigue no symptoms. I told work at 6-7 weeks and filled out my risk assessment. And I was feeling ok. And then it hit. Nausea. It is constant, unrelenting, and debilitiating. I am at week 20 and it has eased only slightly.
I have tried ginger, peppermint, sea bands, dry crackers, eating small meals frequently, B6, magnesium, taking prenatals, not taking prenatals, eating fruit and veg, ginger ale, lemonade, resting, going out to distract myself, meditation, postiive thinking, and prayer. I would like try homeopathy and accupuncture, but my wages have taken a hit since being off sick for so long and I cannot afford them now.
I still live in hope that it will clear up this time. That I will feel better soon and start to bloom. There are some days I even feel that it is happening, but then I end up in bed for the next two. Oh, well. It is worth it in the end!!
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