Pregnancy Is Hard Work

Me at 34 weeks with this pregnancy

I watched What To Expect with my brother and his wife a couple weeks ago, and when one of the pregnant women has a breakdown and talks about all that makes pregnancy unglamorous, which a lot of people won't talk about, I laughed and was right there with her.

Yes, pregnancy has a glow, pregnancy is a miracle, but pregnancy is hard work.  Let's face it, you're growing another human being within your own body, it's not going to be all sunshine and roses.  Just like other aspects of motherhood, there are goods and bads.

Your body is going through so many changes, not to mention the flood of hormones making you feel like a crazy person.  Your ligaments are all loosening for birth so you end up either in pain or walking like a turtle, unless you're lucky.  Your center of balance is off so if you try to squat in front of your five year old to talk you may end up flat on your butt in front of everyone in church wondering how that happened.  Sleeping is all you want to do, but if you get hit with pregnancy insomnia, which I still say is a very cruel joke, you just feel run down all the time.  And then there's the peeing all the time, the bowling ball growing between your legs, the kicks and punches to your cervix, the times when baby rubs you sciatic nerve and an entire leg almost falls out from under you.

Isn't pregnancy glamorous?

And yet, I wouldn't change anything.

I'm bigger than I've been in my entire life, but I wear the extra weight and belly that does look surprisingly like a basketball when I'm wearing clothes like a badge of honor.  My body may suck at a lot of things, but this time, it's growing a baby the way I've always wanted and craved.  I'm sore and miserable and cranky, but when this baby rolls around and kicks inside me, I can't help but marvel at the miracle of it.  I'm hungry all the time, but when I remember that my body is doing all the work for another human being, I make that next plate of spaghetti and feel so grateful that I am here.

I guess in the end, you take it all with either a smile or a growl or both, and that's okay.  When people tell you not to complain, just smile, nod, and then as you walk away curse them to the bowels of hell if that's how you feel.  No one knows what you've done to get to this point, no one knows how the pregnancy is wearing on your body, no one else but you can know how you feel.

So go ahead and complain.  Go ahead and be happy.  Go ahead and feel whatever you need to feel because pregnancy is hard work.  And know that at any given time, there are probably thousands of other pregnant women around the world feeling run down, cranky, happy, and blessed with you.