This is not a picture of my stomach (will spare you that) but how cool is it...

Every pregnancy is different. And not just from one woman to the next. Every pregnancy is different even when it’s the same woman who’s pregnant.

I have good pregnancies, generally. I enjoy the physical state of being pregnant (mostly) and I’ve never had any major negative physical side effects.

Any complaints have been minor: a bit of back pain, heartburn if I eat bananas (or citrus fruit after lunchtime), some hormonal headaches and in the first four months, mid-range nausea and skin that resembles a pizza.

Compared to friends whose pregnancy side effects have included chronic back pain, unrelenting and severe nausea, haemorrhoids, separation of their pubic bone to the point they could barely walk and crippling migraines, my pregnancies are bright and breezy.

But I’ve definitely noticed that each of my pregnancies has been different.

I was 25 the first time. My body was young and strong but mentally? I was totally neurotic in that way most women are during your first pregnancy.

Read the rest of this post at Essential Baby......

Comments

[Dataceptionist]

Great piece Mia.

[m]

i loved this one too. it's all just so... true!

i wonder about the picture though. i'd seen it before, but am not actually convinced it's real. is it really real? is that possible? does anyone know?

I was almost able to "catch" my kids' feet by the end of my pregnancies. like, you could see them pushing against my belly, and i could almost grab hold of their feet - but their feet never showed like that. i am a little skeptical...

anyone able to clarify?

Mia, am really looking forward to your post-partum posts (if you have time for them). you know, stiches, and baby colic, and being covered in milk and baby vomit, and SLEEP DEPRIVATION... i really need someone to refresh my memory so i can stop thinking about having baby no.3! don't we ever learn?? :)

[Rosie]

Thank you! I had two totally different pregnancies - one was a breeze, the other a total nightmare of illness and scares. Although I had woeful all-day-for-the-entire-pregnancy sickness both times. Both pregnancies resulted in healthy babies though.

I am glad I had mine when I was young, I have friends who are in their mid-to-late 30's (like me) who are pregnant for the first or second time, and I don't think I could do it. Or rather, I don't think my body would ever recover! Not that it recovered anyway......

[Jlo]

M,
I have seen this pic too, and after discussions with my workmates (one being a midwife)our verdict was that it is definitely computer generated.

[Eliza]

I don't get it...
"No seafood! ... etc"
What's smoked salmon then?!

[Heidi]

Mia, so true.

I was 24 when I had my first baby and 25 when my second baby came. They are one year apart.

Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck. A 12 month old and a newborn is a guaranteed combination to send you half barmy.

The crazy things I did:

• I threw out the telly. I'd heard that they emitted radioactive waves that were surefire cancer makers.

• I banned 702, JJJ, and any music that wasn't Mozart or whale mating calls.

• I bought handloomed silk that had been dyed in beetroot juice to drape over my babies' cots, in order to reproduce the muted tones that they would have experienced in utero.

• I never left them. I was so terrified of them feeling abandoned that I ran myself ragged by always being the one looking after them.

• I obeyed the old-school nurse at the early childhood centre who said that taking them into bed with me would create a "rod for my own back".

Now, at the ripe old age of 33, and a single mum, I am craving another baby. I look back on my naive, youthful, idealistic self and I feel sadness that I would buy into the myths that new mums are bombarded with, to our detriment.

If I am ever blessed with another sweet, caramel-smelling, soft little baby, I will drink champagne, crank up the tunes, spend all day in bed with them and throw all the rules out the window.

Because mothers, when left to doing the right thing by their baby, will always intuitively know what is best.

Good luck Mia. This will be the most fun you've had.

[Danielle]

I was nodding along the whole time.
My first pregnancy was a breeze..second not so much.

We had a big age gap with our girls. Ef was 5 by the time Josceline was born and I really loved the BIG age gap because she was able to do so much by herself which was an amazing help to me especially when #2 came along.

Ef darling will you fetch me a nappy..
Ef have you seen the dummy..
Ef can you pass me the remote..

Sadly when school started my help went away..but it was nice while it lasted :)

[Dataceptionist]

Hey m and Jlo, the person who generated this pic has refused to come forward to confirm or deny the truth of the image, so as yet, it is unknown whether its truly real or fake.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/unborn-footprint.html

[Tatjana]

This article is so great and so funny. What a great writer you are Mia! It's good to see we all sail on the same boat though