PREGNANCY: TRUTHS & MYTHS SO FAR (24 WEEKS)

I swear I started this pregnancy with good intentions. I was going to stay active, eat healthy, blog about the entire journey… and then the nausea, fatigue, back pain, you-name-it set in, and now here I am 24 weeks pregnant writing my first blog post! Instead of going into details of every week so far, I’ll try to keep this post short, and get better at blogging more frequently for the next 16 weeks!

Let’s start with some pregnancy Truths & Myths that I’ve encountered in my pregnancy so far:

Morning Sickness: MYTH! The sickness is, in fact, not dedicated to just the mornings, it is more like an All Day Sickness. I felt like I had a hangover from wake time to sleep time, and actually threw up every night before bed for about 8 weeks (weeks 9 – 16). Which leads me to my second MYTH about “morning sickness”. It does not always get better after the first trimester (week 13). I was nauseous/getting sick up until week 20.

Debilitating Fatigue: TRUTH! Oh man, this was one I was not anticipating at all. The fatigue was so bad I was falling asleep at my desk, and actually cried a few times from being so tired. The first hormonal/emotional breakdown I had was on a Saturday night at 7pm. I was trying SO HARD to stay awake and hang out with Mason, but I slowly went from a standing position to a leaning up against the door position, then I slid down the door and was sitting on the ground, and before I knew it I was in a pile on the floor SOBBING about how tired of being tired I was! Ha! Mason being the great husband he is, scooped me up, tucked me into bed, and told me it was all going to be okay. I was making a baby for goodness sake, I SHOULD be tired! He was right.

Pregnancy Glow: MYTH! Unless you count bright red pimples as glowing. I guess the beautiful skin and long lustrous hair isn’t for every pregnant lady. I still have a few months though, so maybe I’ll get the glow soon. I started using a new all-natural skin care line, TruSelf Organics, about two weeks ago and am seeing some improvement. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

Pregnancy Farts: TRUTH! No need to further explain this one.

Eating For Two: MYTH! This is not a healthy way to go about your pregnancy diet. Your body becomes more efficient with pregnancy, meaning you are able to absorb more of the nutrients you eat. So really, the “eating for two” mindset is just going to cause you to gain unnecessary weight/fat. However, I definitely thought I would be starving, but it has actually been the opposite. I am still eating plenty, and my doctor says everything is healthy (baby boy is growing like crazy, and that’s what matters)! But I am only about 5 lbs above pregnancy weight right now. I lost 10 pounds in the first trimester due to being so sick, not wanting to eat, and throwing up a lot, but at about 16 weeks I started gaining it back.

Baby Kicks Feel Like Gas: TRUTH! This one is funny. Baby kicks are absolutely amazing, and have become such a comfort to me. Baby boy kicks me a lot in the morning and a lot when I lay down for bed, and occasionally throughout the day (he’s actually moving quite a bit as I type this)! When I first felt something, I wasn’t sure if I had made it up in my head or if I actually felt the baby moving. It felt like butterflies in my tummy. Then, as baby boy got stronger, the kicks felt like gas and made me question if I needed to fart or make a run for the bathroom. Now that I know what they are, it’s pretty easy to differentiate between the two. So for all you first-time-preggos out there, just know that’s what it feels like at first!

Heartburn/Acid Reflux = Full Head of Hair: Still up in the air! But if it is true, that means my baby is coming out with 12 inch locks because WOOF the heartburn is real.

I love being pregnant, I really do. But man, those first few weeks/months were MISERABLE. I couldn’t open my fridge/walk into my kitchen/look at food without wanting to hurl. I felt like I had a hangover all day long from weeks 7 through 16, and threw up A LOT between weeks 9 and 20.

I lost a lot of weight, which was weird, but I have thankfully gained it all back plus about 5 pounds. Although I really wanted to, I did not work out the entire first trimester (too sick and way too tired). I started doing at-home prenatal yoga a couple times a week starting at week 16, and got back in the gym & weightlifting at week 20. I try to get about 2-3 gym sessions and 1-2 at-home yoga sessions in per week, I’m loving it. I feel strong & healthy and I know it is helping baby boy.

All of our doctor’s appointments have gone amazingly. They describe us as “boring patients” because Mason & I are both healthy humans with no history of anything too major in our families, and Baby Boy’s heartbeat always sounds super strong, and his ultrasounds always look good! The 20 week anatomy scan was AWESOME! It took about an hour, and they took over 100 pictures of every organ and bone in his body. They got good shots of his brain development, his beautiful 4-chamber heart, his spine and how everything is connecting, and everything else you can imagine. They even checked for cleft lip! I had no idea this was something they could determine before birth, but we were happy to hear everything on (and in) our son looks healthy and normal!

Pregnancy has been the most amazing experience of my life so far. The moment I found out I was pregnant, my mentality toward a lot of things changed.. but I said I wanted to keep this post short and it’s getting mighty long, so I’ll talk about my mental shifts in a different post soon!

If you have any questions about my pregnancy so far, I’d be happy to answer! Ask below or send me a message and let’s chat!

xo,

Kayla