Today at the Cuddledry blog we’re talking pregnancy. Think pregnancy is nine months of blooming and nesting? Think again! In this post, Ellen Arnison explores some of the more unexpected things pregnancy taught her. Ellen is, in her own words, a ‘journalist, writer, blogger, mother, wife and occasionally whole person.’ She has three sons: Boy One, Boy Two, Boy Three, and a husband, the Panther of News. If you like what you read, why not check out Ellen’s personal blog?
Many facts about me turned out to be untrue. I thought I was someone who by dint of effort could defy my body, but that wasn’t true. I also thought I had good balance and lots of energy and that wasn’t the case either.
Time plays tricks. When you stand there in the bathroom with pee-covered stick in your hand a real, live baby seems so far in the future you can hardly see it. However, through caution or superstition, you don’t rush to get anything and, suddenly, there are only days, you can hardly move, and you still don’t have a cot.
Pregnant women don’t often crave coal. They crave chocolate, mushrooms, orange ice lollies, coca cola, KFC chicken strips, steak, malt loaf, gazpacho, kebabs and more chocolate.
Standards of grooming are flexible. I stumbled on a mums’ internet group discussion about how to keep the topiary of your lady garden pruned and the need to do so before seeing the midwife/consultant/any other person permitted to rummage therein. I was astonished by how much this mattered to so many. In my case, as soon as I could no longer see what was going on, I didn’t care. And I hoped any healthcare professional had better things to worry about than the state of my bikini line.
It doesn’t matter what you rub on your belly, if you’re going to get stretch marks, you will. Sorry.
For a little while that last stone you’ve been unable to shift since the last baby becomes invisible. Poke your belly out with pride and forget that, at the moment, most of what’s filling your big knickers is the pizza binges from the last time round.
Things you once took for granted will seem marvellous, even miraculous. These things include bending over without grunting, just bending over, comfortable bowel movements, ankle bones, a full night’s sleep and not having to plan your route from toilet to toilet.
The world shrinks as you expand. Once international events mattered to me, national ones more so. I got bored easily and needed new people and things to fuel my mind. However, once up the duff I was quite happy to shuffle around the house only seeing family and friends and probably not talking to them much either.
Each pregnancy is as different as each child and you don’t just crave food. Boy One’s was serene, mystical and filled with the urge to wallow in the sea. Boy Two’s edgy, energetic and marked by a need for colourful things. Boy Three’s was tense, spaced out and filled with a desire to clear a big space around myself.
We’ve got weird ideas about the significance of mothers and babies. Some of the people who’ll come out of the woodwork full of curiosity about your gestation, can’t be seen for dust when the little darling arrives. Others who used to treat you like an equal, squirm and fidget around you perhaps because the presence of your growing foetus makes them think you might have actually had sex.
It might be mundane and commonplace, but every growing bump and subsequent newborn person is a source of amazement and wonder. And if that seems a long way off, don’t worry it’ll be here before you know it and you’ll be wondering what the fuss was all about.
What unexpected lessons did you learn from pregnancy? We’d love to hear your stories!
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You’re pregnant for a second time – ‘Hoorah!’, you think, ‘a chance to reuse my Cuddledry baby apron towel!’ And then your thoughts turn to the pregnancy. You’ve done it once already, you feel like you know what to expect. But does a second pregnancy always follow the same path? 
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