Shae, an expectant first time Mum on the Haakaa team, shares her thoughts on her pregnancy journey so far.
I am tired today. I even slunk away from the decaf coffee this morning and dabbled in a small cup of full, caffeinated glory. Yes, I can have real coffee, don't come for me.
I know, I KNOW "just wait until the baby is here" and "enjoy all that sleep now, while you can". I'm trying, trust me! Unfortunately, I wake up every couple of hours with my hip aching like I'm 82yrs old, only to flip over onto my other side and wince as sciatic nerve pain shoots down my body. Did I know what sciatic nerve pain was before becoming pregnant? Absolutely not. I'm at the stage where sleeping on my back and stomach is a no-no. The other day I went to flop face down onto the bed, only to remember the "no lying on your front" rule mid-air and awkwardly jerked into a weird, crouched cat position on landing. You'd think by now I'd remember I was pregnant, but sometimes I really don't! The gap I normally squeeze through to get past the house and into the car is now a no-go, and I've had to start parking a little further out. I found that one out the hard way when I became wedged like a sad little beetle.
Bending down to dry my feet after showering is about as comfortable now as it would be if you strapped a cabbage to your stomach. I feel full all the time, even when I'm hungry. My belly button is starting to go weirdly flat as well, and after 30 years of being a strict "innie", I'm anticipating its "outie" debut any day now. My safety net of bigger clothes is slowly but surely becoming smaller and smaller. My go-to "floaty dress" compressed my chest tight enough the other day to warrant me ripping it off and throwing it on the floor, swearing at it for betraying my trust like that. There is one small reprieve amongst my wardrobe woes, though - I've discovered a love for maternity pants. I don't like giving unsolicited advice since I've been on the receiving end of it almost every day for the last few months, but oh my! GET SOME. I only have one pair at the moment, and I would rather wear them day in day out for the foreseeable future than have my heart broken any further by the clothes I have treated with nothing but respect over these last few years. When they talk about finding out who your real friends are during pregnancy, they're referring to clothing designers.
I check in today at 31 weeks and can confirm that the "morning sickness" has indeed stuck around since my last blog. Most of the time, it just involves waking up feeling a bit "off" or teetering on the fence of nausea, but then after an hour or two, it subsides. Most of the time. Recently, I had just finished eating lunch and felt good, as is the case after most meals. I opened my mouth to tell my husband how much better I felt, only instead of words, I coughed, retched and then ran to the toilet to eject everything from my body. He came upstairs while I was still crouched on the bathroom floor, gently patted my back, and said, "Well, I guess sandwiches are out now too, huh?". A few days later, I was feeling worse in the morning than usual and particularly exhausted from a horrible sleep. I decided to treat myself to a hot breakfast instead of my normal, soggy Weetbix. The spaghetti on toast really hit the spot until about five minutes later when my body said "thanks, but no thanks", and I (literally) painted the walls and carpet orange. Let me tell you something, reflexively cupping your hands to try and catch vomit is a bad move - you get a kind of...sprinkler effect.
Don't get me wrong; there have been good parts too! I can feel the baby kicking now, and I can even see the little jolts and bumps he creates – most of the time, it happens after a meal, which seems about right given how much his parents love their food (minus sandwiches and spaghetti of course). My husband has managed to feel a few kicks, too, so now it feels more like "our" journey rather than something happening to just me. It'd still be nice if I could take this belly off now and then and hand it over to him for a few hours - if only to be able to pick something off the floor without groaning involuntarily.
We've bought most of the baby furniture now, which means it's time for me to start organising the nursery, and that's one thing I've been looking forward to the most since becoming pregnant (aside from the baby…obviously). We've managed to buy most of the furniture off Facebook Marketplace or from friends, so we haven't had to spend an awful lot yet. My most prized possession is my $30 "near new" nursing chair that would otherwise cost $150 brand new. It's amazing how much you can get for a good price or even for free when you tell people you're having a baby! We've had really generous offers and donations from friends and family, and most of them seem to act like I'M doing THEM a favour by taking this stuff off their hands!
I'm now in my third trimester, which seems to have taken forever and no time at all. Part of me is sitting here impatiently, wanting it to be over already so that I can meet this tiny person who seems to be causing an unequally large amount of chaos in a world he doesn't even know exists yet. The other part of me needs just another year or so to get used to the idea of a third person living in our house and taking up our spare room. Either way, he'll be here in around 9 weeks, so I better make sure I'm ready!
Written by: Mishaela Horler