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“They failed to tell me this about pregnancy”

Baby Carriers Australia would like to introduce the newest member of the Baby Carriers Australia team, Nelle McCauley. Nelle is a first time mum to be, who has already had her fair share of tummy rubbers and sex of the baby guessers. After 7 months of pregnancy she thought it was time to share these experiences with other mums to be. Nelle is intelligent, compassionate, funny, beautiful and completely inappropriate most of the time. She writes from real experiences which many of you will no doubt relate to. Grab a cuppa and sit back and enjoy Nelle McCauleys Blogs.

I have always dreamed of the day I would become a mum. I desperately wanted to have children in my mid 20’s. Thanks to cupid failing to shoot me in the butt with his arrow, I spent all of my 20’s dateless but not desperate.

Now in my 30’s it seems that all the missing pieces have fallen into place. Met an amazing man, fell pregnant, become engaged and have brought a house….I should add though in typical style for me it was all ass backwards. Met the man, became preggers then at 20 weeks pregnant we became engaged and bought our family home. However we find ourselves blissfully happy and awaiting the birth of our first child in a couple of months time and can’t wait for it all to start. Bring on the sleepless nights, dirty nappies and the fact there will be days I may have spew on me, hair not done and still in pyjamas at 4pm, I can’t wait!

I thought I had most of the pregnancy thing sorted. All my friends have been having babies for years, I have a niece and nephew and heaps of cousins, so being around pregnant women most of my life was common for me. I thought I knew what I was in for …
I couldn’t have been more wrong with that absurd idea. Firstly I can’t believe the amount of lies or hidden truths that pregnant women and mothers tell other poor suspecting fools such as me.
Luckily for me I had a work mate who was quite honest with me every step of her journey into becoming a mum. I vow to do the same to those around me so I am quite forthcoming with over sharing information and telling it how it truly is.
I remember many funny moments of my workmates pregnancy and her beautiful knack for brutal honesty, but the thing I have never forgotten was the day my mate came back from the toilet looking like she had won the lottery. I looked at her for a minute wondering why she looked ready to celebrate and she responded: “every poo you get to do when you’re pregnant will make you feel like this. Best feeling ever being able to poo when you have been clogged up for a few days.”
Now I can totally understand the feeling she was describing. I have always been able to go to the toilet everyday on schedule, but as soon as I became pregnant I lost the ability to go frequently. There were many noises and swear words heard from my bathroom when my daily routine was upset and I had failed to drop the kids off to the pool, now days I almost run around the house and ask for a high five from the puppies and my man as I’m as proud as punch with such a successful mission.
I thought the first symptom of me being pregnant would be a missed period or morning sickness. At least 2 weeks before my period was due I had begun severe food aversions. Devastated about not being able to sip my morning coffee, I skulled ginger beer like it was going out of fashion and I peed every 5 minutes. My breasts and nipples were the real dead giveaway for me. I am a tummy sleeper and that was an impossible mission and if you knew me you’d already be surprised I was able to sleep on my tummy in the first place with the kind of rig I own, but with the feeling of wanting to cut my boobs off, tummy sleeping was not even an option.
I was not aware nor had I been warned of how the simple everyday routine of taking a shower was a task on its own. I couldn’t even stand the water from the shower to land on my skin, it felt like a thousand sharp needles were stabbing into my breasts (not exaggerating) even wearing a bra was making my life a misery.
Sleeping for me is something I have prided myself at being an expert in, I’d sleep anywhere and through pretty much any noise. That was until I became knocked up, then it was like my body began a crusade to make me as tired, cranky and sleep deprived as possible.
The simplest noises would wake me, I couldn’t get comfortable and not to forget the litres of saliva my body began producing. My pillow was hardly dry. Then there was my gorgeous man lying next to me in a peaceful slumber minding his own business, whose snoring had not bothered me in the least prior to this, nowadays his hours of slumber had me plotting revenge for my lack of sleep, I even used to sneak into the spare bed or couch for a few hours peace, and I nearly forgot to mention our fur babies who also snored whilst they were sleeping.

Finally after 2 weeks of pure exhaustion, ginger beer addiction and the frequent need to urinate every few minutes I took a pregnancy test to confirm what I had suspected all along. I was indeed knocked up. Great news! So stoked, yet so freaked out at the same time. Not to forget to mention that I was about to head off on a holiday with my man to meet his family for the first time…I’d been dreaming of cocktails, wild rollercoaster rides at the amusement parks and shopping until I dropped. Now all of a sudden there were no amusement parks, no drinking, and a family I had never met were about to meet me… (And the poppy seed that I had just began growing). I was wondering how long I could hide it from them for. Luckily for me there was no need to, I was welcomed into the family very quickly and instead of spending weeks trying to avoid situations or people we broke the news to the new Grandparents to be and were met with tears of joy and absolute celebration, and our holiday was suddenly less pressure and more enjoyable.
The biggest part for me was trying to politely refuse alcohol when in social circumstances because the booze hound in me was screaming out for an ice cold beer or glass of wine with dinner. Instead I just sipped my ginger beer and settled my tummy which would churn constantly, there was no morning sickness and nausea, it was 24 hours 7 days nausea, the kind that would wake me at 2 in the morning just to remind me that there was a little spud in the oven and there was someone more important that I now had to look after. Even after all the sickness and frequent peeing I could not wipe the smile off my face and 7 months on I still can’t!