9 Things I Liked About Pregnancy

I want to start by being honest and saying that in general I did not like being pregnant. When I hear other moms say things like "I miss being pregnant," or "I love being pregnant," I just can't relate.

It's easy to find plenty of reasons to dislike pregnancy. Discomfort, raging hormones and unstable emotions, "morning" (all day) sickness, swollen feet, off limit beverages. I look at pictures of myself when I was pregnant and I do think my pregnant body was beautiful, and a miracle, but the main thing those pictures bring to mind is "that was so uncomfortable."

So with all that out of the way, I want to tell you nine things I did like about being pregnant. Pregnancy is so so so so so so worth it, because for 9 months you nurture a human life and at the end you get a baby (and babies are the best things ever), so if it's something I'm gonna do anyway, I might as well focus on the positive. So here is a challenge for myself, to write about nine things I genuinely did like about being pregnant.

Announcing the news

I was ecstatic about sharing the happy news with our families and close friends. So much so that we didn't wait the classic amount of time (until after the first trimester), we told our families like 2 days after seeing the positive pregnancy test. Our close friends came soon after, and we shared it on Facebook after the 20 week ultrasound.

There was an atmosphere of overwhelming joy and excitement surrounding this time. Everyone was so happy for us and were so encouraging (even if they may have been a bit surprised that we were already pregnant and had only been married 2 months). I was so excited to tell our parents they would be becoming grandparents, and our siblings that they would be becoming aunts and uncles.

We decided to find out the gender of Rose (because I was so curious. Next baby we are planning on keeping a surprise because that's what Matt wanted to do!), and even revealing that to everyone was so much fun.

The announcement of our pregnancy was a time of so much celebration and I loved it.

Feeling the baby move

There is nothing in the world like feeling your baby move inside you. From the first little flutters to the 3rd trimester when they are using you as a punching bag... no but really, it is its own sort of miracle to feel your baby alive and moving inside of you. Reminding you that they are there.

It was also amazing to be able to share this feeling (to some extent). I have such fond memories of laying in bed at night with Matt's hand on my belly, feeling Rose's kicks. Or our siblings excitement as they felt her kick for the first time.

Oh also! The times when you're staring at your belly and you see the waves of movement and you are in awe because it's a m a z i n g.

The excitement and anticipation

The anticipation of our coming daughter was so exciting. Daydreaming of what she would be like, what she would look like, what life would be like with her in it.

I started writing to Rose in a journal when I was pregnant. I actually wrote in it more often while pregnant than I do now that she's on the outside, because the anticipation was with me so strongly every day. I thought about her all the time, and I wanted a way to tell her how much I loved her already and was so excited about her coming arrival. I hope I continue to write in it every once in a while as she grows, and then I can give it to her when she's older.

Pregnant women are very cute though,
I must say. Not to brag ;)

Having my baby so close to me constantly, and forming a bond with her

What a unique experience, having a person so close to you (closer than you have ever experienced before) constantly. With you as you go through your whole day. In the beginning it didn't even seem real that a baby was in there, but the bonding started right at the beginning. Then with the ultrasound and baby kicks, it all became more real, and before I knew it (just kidding it felt like forever) Rose was on the outside with us!

Name picking

Okay this one was enjoyable at times and a little less so at others. In general I enjoyed it though. Boy names were easy for us, but girl names less so. I was constantly thinking of names I liked, making lists, revising lists, and reading name lists on the internet. Matt was of the opinion that we could just chose a name about a month before the due date, and we actually didn't need to talk about name possibilities every single night ;).

Of my three favourite girl names, Matt said he liked Rose best. I love the name Rose because it so feminine and pretty. It's simple and elegant. It's old-fashioned but doesn't remind me of an old lady (sorry if that sounds harsh). If you can't tell, I really thought this name through. It was fun (but occasionally a little stressful) picking a name that our kid would have the rest of her life.

Little Rose inside of me!

The ultrasound

Seeing Rose on the 20 week ultrasound brought tears to my eyes. Finding out she was a girl brought more tears. Seeing the ultrasound made her feel all the more real, it was a beautiful experience.

How kind people were to me

People are so nice to pregnant ladies! They give up their seats for you, they offer to carry your groceries, they put up signs to reserve parking spots for you, they ask if you need anything and you don't even feel like a pain for accepting help because getting out of your seat requires a huge amount of effort. They give you compliments and feel your belly (I know lots of pregnant women hate this, but I think it's such a nice and endearing gesture), and the world is a more cheerful place. Honestly, I noticed a big difference.  People were more likely to smile at me as I walked by or strike up a conversation, and in general the world just felt like a kinder and warmer place.

Unfortunately the line "but I'm pregnant," got old very quickly with my siblings though. I may have overused it. Hopefully it renews with the next pregnancy ;)

Nesting

I find it kind of funny that it's called nesting, like we're mama birds. Everyone has their own way of doing this, and I think other moms are a lot more hardcore than me as far as cleaning and organizing goes. However the parts of nesting that I really enjoyed were collecting the adorable baby girl clothes and sorting it into sizes, collecting the baby things I thought I would need, and collecting used cloth diapers from various moms around the city. Also, things like coming home to see Matt had set up the crib, or creating a little Noah's Ark painting to put in the little ones bedroom.

The fact that my body was doing something seriously amazing

Pregnancy is crazy!!! It's crazy how a woman's body stretches and changes to support a new life. Seeing my body go through all the changes, and marveling at the way God designed it all to work so well was beautiful.

For the story of how the birth went...

ROSE'S BIRTH STORY

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