This is a bit of a TMI topic, but lately I genuinely can’t tell whether I need to poop or if it’s just the baby moving.
And I’m only six months pregnant.
I’ve heard this is pretty common when you’re closer to the finish line—around 36 weeks and beyond. A lot of women even say they spend those last few weeks wondering if they’re having contractions or just need to use the bathroom. Needless to say, I’m not exactly looking forward to that stage.
The wild part is that I still have about 15 weeks until my due date. Fifteen weeks! Somehow that feels both incredibly close and impossibly far away.
This was definitely not one of the pregnancy symptoms I was prepared for.
I’ve been reading the baby books. I’ve downloaded the apps. I know what fruit size the baby is every week and what organs they’re currently developing. But somehow I keep missing the chapter titled, “Here’s the weird thing your body is about to do.”
The books do a great job explaining what the baby is working on in there. What they don’t always explain is why Isuddenly feel like a completely different species.
So I end up doing what every pregnant woman does: Googling it.
Every single time, I convince myself something strange is happening, only for the internet to tell me, “Yep, that’s normal pregnancy stuff.”
Then I feel a little silly for looking it up in the first place.
The funny thing is that it’s never anything serious. It’s never something that requires urgent care or even a doctor’s appointment. It’s always just another random symptom that apparently every other pregnant woman already knew about and forgot to mention.
So here I am, once again wondering how the miracle of life can also be so disgustingly annoying.
Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy this time before the baby arrives, but I can’t put my shoes on without assistance, I can’t get comfortable in bed, and sleep has become a distant memory.
I used to be a champion sleeper. I could sleep through anything. I loved sleeping.
Now I’m awake at 3 or 4 a.m. every night for two or three hours, staring at the ceiling and questioning all of my life choices. Then I finally fall asleep around 7 or 9 a.m., wake up hours later, and feel guilty because half the day is gone.
Pregnancy is amazing. It really is.
But some days it feels like my body wakes up and says, “You know what would be fun? A brand-new inconvenience.”
