The Circle of Life
I found out that I was having a little one when I was literally three weeks pregnant to the day. It’s funny because the week prior, I was having brunch and felt miserable – almost as if I had one too many drinks. I remember sitting at brunch like, “okay – you’re not even drinking any alcohol right now because you’re on a diet and trying to be fine for this summer body.” I texted Justin and asked him to bring me a couple of pregnancy tests home so that I could just see if I was pregnant. Mind you, at this point, my lady days were still about two weeks away and I hadn’t missed out on her visit yet. Justin brought the tests home and I took one and it immediately came back negative.
Anyway, literally five days later – I literally went off on Justin! I am not the one to really go off or fuss with my husband especially for no reason (I mean, I don’t even know why I got mad at him, but I was going in). I had such a cantankerous attitude – it was team too much. Mind you, Justin wasn’t the only person I went off on that day; I was chewing out everyone from the man driving in the car next to me to my best friends – attitude was on one thousand. I came home that night after a long, long, long day of school, work and rehearsal and thought to myself ‘girl, are you pregnant?’ I pulled out the pregnancy tests and decided to take them. At this point, I just needed answers. I took two different brands of pregnancy tests and they both immediately read PREGNANT! Y’all – I was just sitting there thinking no wonder your attitude has been out of control.
The next morning, I went to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy and about how far along I was. The doctor drew blood and was able to confirm that I was three weeks pregnant to the day.
So far my pregnancy has been so beautiful yet SO HARD! Every woman’s journey is so vastly different when it comes to their pregnancy and mine has been c o l o r f u l to say the least. There are so many things that I’ve learned about my body and what it can do and there are so many things that I wish I’d known that I could do to help soothe some of the symptoms I have had to deal with.
Listen to the women who have been in your situation before – I kept it mostly limited to my mothers and grandmothers who knew many of the old wives tricks to handle the symptoms. My number one symptomhas been morning sickness (which is just recently slowing down). Y’all, when I tell you that I hated all the food in the world and literally could not find a taste to eat anything, I lie to you not.
What Helped: Having bedside snacks. I made sure to keep a piece of fruit, crackers, a granola bar or a fruit and nut mix on my night-table that I could grab as soon as I woke up every morning. I was initially having morning sickness so often because I could not make myself eat – food going down would become food coming up. My mom and mom in love told me that I should try eating a few crackers in the morning before even climbing out of the bed to combat the icky feeling and . . . it worked.
What Didn’t Help: Allowing yourself to get too hungry. Ladies, try hard to find something that you can hold down. In my case, the crackers worked. It may help you too. But, I found that whenever I allowed myself to get too hungry – the flood gates would open.
As my journey continues over the next few months, I’ll be sure to check in with you all to share the ups and (the downs) of this beautiful experience.
