Now that I’m on maternity leave I thought I’d pivot from #weeknotes, which often includes aspects of my job and related subjects, to #weekthings to open up the topics a bit. Perhaps document a bit about my maternity experience or as a first-time mum or just observations about things in general. Let’s see how it goes!
This is the first week of my maternity leave. 39 weeks is a long time to be pregnant. I thought I’d have a relaxing time and it’ll feel like a mini-vacation, the calm before the storm that a new life will bring. The reality is I feel constantly tired with aches all over my body. At this stage, I’m in disbelief that the belly can get any bigger. I’m slightly horrified at the thought of my belly never returning to the state they were before the pregnancy. The body can be both miraculous and unforgiving at the same time!
Carrying an extra nearly 20kg of weight all concentrated in one area makes it quite challenging to do a lot of things:
- Bending down: You know you’re heavily pregnant when you drop something on the floor, it’s dead to you
- Your belly gets in the way whenever you need to do things over a table or counter or sink. I have to bend awkwardly to wash my hands. This makes sit down meals, meal prepping and any washing particularly tricky
- Changing trousers is a struggle because it requires bending. That gets really uncomfortable. More often than not I find myself just kicking my trousers and underwear off
- Going to the toilet is a feat and requires ultra-stretchy trousers: in order to accommodate the giant mass of the belly, my default sitting position requires my legs to be spread as far apart as possible. Yes sitting like most dudes. Except it’s out of necessity. Only the super stretchy trousers allow my legs to extend far apart
- Getting breathless easily: my heart rate would average over 120bpm when just going for a stroll. Of course, my walk looks more like a penguin wobbling sideways while trying to move forward at the same time. There is no other way to walk if you want to minimise discomfort
Couches intend for relaxation are like death traps when you’re pregnant because getting out of them is impossible. It requires abs which Idon’t have. This also makes getting in and out of bed challenging. Don’t get me started when I want to change sides during the night. It’s an undertaking! Thankfully I got those giant u-shaped pillows that take over more than half of the bed for support. They are God sent!
The comfiest contraption for sitting is my trusty yoga ball. You naturally spread your legs when sitting on those bouncy balls and since they’re usually more elevated than a couch, you don’t have that sunk in feeling and getting out of them is a breeze cause you can literally use the ball’s elasticity to “bounce” up 😌. If I could, I’d carry around the yoga ball wherever I go with me in case I need to sit down.
These three images above describes my pregnancy experience quite well. 🥲😂
