The Long Nine Months

When your pregnant, nine months sure as hell feels like a LONG time! Then, when the day finally arrives you think "Wow, I can't believe how fast these past nine months went by!" Funny how that works.



Every woman experiences pregnancy differently. It could be a breeze for some, and quite a challange for others. I now have two children, and with both of my kids my pregnancies were very different.



With my daughter, I had absolutely no complications. I was healthy, active and energetic. I felt completely the same as I did before I was pregnant, just with some extra pounds on me. In the beginning I did have morning sickness, but I never threw up. It was always just the 'feeling' of wanting to vomit. Yet, nothing ever came up. Feeling sick all the time made me loose a lot of weight. I was very thin as it was and loosing an extra ten pounds almost made me look sick. I was also always very extremely tired. I swore I could fall asleep standing up if I just closed my eyes.



After that first trimester, it all began to be a piece of cake for me. I was still in high school so I was always walking from class to class. Then, since I didn't drive yet I would walk home from school. The walk was about two miles long! Thinking back, I don't know how I managed to walk two miles every day while I was pregnant!



One of my biggest cravings when I was pregnant with my daughter was hot cheetos. Boy how I loved them! I would sneak out of my class to go to a vending machine just to get a bag.



I think it all paid off though in the end when I went through such a traumatic labor and delivery. Guess we can't just have a perfect pregnancy and labor and delivery, can we?



Four years later, I get pregnant again. I found out when I was about two months pregnant with my son. It was quite a shocker, but considering I had gone down that road again and was not seventeen years old anymore, I felt I could handle it. Plus, this time I actually was with my baby's father and he wasn't going anywhere.



My pregnancy with my son was a bit more challanging for me. I always felt miserable, ever since the very beginning. In the beginning I was always sick. Morning sickness was just absolutely horrible for me. I couldn't eat anything, I would gag every time I brushed my teeth and just about whatever I ate ended up coming back up.



I got very moody too, absolutely everything and everyone irritated me.



Shortly after my first trimester, I began to show. I started showing a lot quicker than when I was pregnant with my daughter. For most people, after the first trimester, pregnancy gets a lot easier for them. Well, not for me. One day I woke up with very bad pain in my belly button. I couldn't even touch it because how sore it felt. Then, little by little I noticed that my belly button was beginning to protrude a lot. It did not look normal to me at all. So, I went to my doctor to see what was wrong with it and why it hurt so much. Turned out that I had developed an umbilical hernia.



An umbilical hernia is when there is a small hole in the abdominal wall which is allowing tissue to go through. So, in other words, you have your insides beginning to poke through that little hole. Yes, pretty gross I know. It looked horrible to me. I couldn't even wear tight shirts without my damn hernia poking out fiercely. If it atleast looked like a cute belly button popping out, I would definitely have played it off. But, it didn't. It looked like I had a giant marble shoved up my shirt.



My doctor told me that developing an umbilical hernia during pregnancy was normal and that it should go away after delivery so there really wasn't anything they could do about it.



Not too much longer later, the hernia began to turn black. Oh did my tummy look very attractive then!



At about five months pregnant, my back began to hurt a lot. From there, the pain began to go towards my pelvic area and legs. It was horrible. It was so hard to get up out of bed in the mornings because the pain was so unbearable sometimes. Finally, I knew that the pain just could not be normal so I went to my doctor to let her know. It turned out that since I had dislocated my pelvic bone during my daughters delivery, now that I was pregnant again, the pressure of the baby was pushing down into my pelvic area right where I had dislocated it.



That explained it. No wonder it hurt so much, and even more as I got bigger!



Feeling that very first kick. With my daughter I didn't feel the first kick until about three or four months. I had felt it earlier on because I was much thinner. With my son I was able to feel him kick at about fourteen weeks! It wasn't exactly kicks, it was more like little butterflies fluttering in my lower abdomen. And since I already knew what to look for, I knew right away that was him. I also was able to find out I was having a boy at twelve weeks! I didn't know it was possible to know that early on, but I guess with technology these days, just about anything is possible.



As you get farther along in your pregnancy though, the kicks and movements begin to get stronger. For most woman, they begin to feel the first kick at about twenty weeks pregnant. So if your earlier in your pregnancy and still have not felt a kick, don't worry it may take a little longer.



I got a lot bigger when I was pregnant with my son. With my daughter, I was very tiny. At full term I looked like I was only six months pregnant. With my son, at full term, there was no doubt that I was just about to pop any day now.



Not only did I have back pain, a nasty hernia, horrible pelvic pain, but my stretch marks on my thighs were beginning to get darker! Like things just couldn't get worst for me. With my daughter I got a lot of stretch marks on my stomach and my thighs, but throughout the years I had used several lotions and little by little they were beginning to fade. Then with my second pregnancy, some of them began to get darker which I absolutely hated. But hey, it's a part of pregnancy that some woman will have to face!

Then...third trimester comes along. That's when every day feels like a week and that you just get to the point that you do not want to be pregnant anymore. I wanted to enjoy my pregnancy so much, but it was just so impossible. I was ready to have my son, ready for him to just come out already!

I was also gaining about a pound a week! I felt disgusting, huge and unattractive. And, as much as people tried to convince me how 'cute' I looked, I knew that I looked like a fat cow and there was no way they could convince me that I looked cute! Now that I think about it though, that's how I felt. But, when I look at pregnant woman I think they are very beautiful and I can't help but stare at their bellies because even after two kids, it still amazes me.

Hang in there though, just keep telling yourself "I won't be pregnant forever." Somedays it may feel like you will be pregnant forever. But, I promise you that you won't be!

At 37 weeks pregnant you are considered full term. By this time, you will be having doctor appointments once a week and at about 38 weeks your doctor may even begin to check your cervix to see if you are beginning to dialate. When I was 37 weeks I was already dialated to two centimeters, but that didn't mean labor was right around the corner. I ended up getting induced at 39 weeks with my son. I was also induced with my daughter at 41 weeks.

Most of the time, if you have not gone into labor on your own by 42 weeks then your doctor will schedule to have you induced.

I got a lot of false labor during my pregnancy with my son. I felt a lot of braxton hicks contractions. This is when you are feeling contractions, but are not regular enough to be actual labor. Once you are beginning to feel contractions five minutes apart and they are feeling stronger, then it's time to start heading to the hospital.

What does a contraction feel like? Well, when I was getting the braxton hicks, I just felt my stomach tighten. If you feel your belly during a contraction, it will feel very hard. These could get a bit uncomfortable. Once I was in actual labor, my contractions began to feel more like menstrual cramps, just much, much worst!

But finally, the moment came when I held my son in my arms and I realized that all I had gone through the past 9 months was completely worth it!