My Super Sick Pregnancy - The Shutdown and The Blessing
Finding out I was pregnant was one of the most exciting moments of my life, as it is for most women. I knew I always wanted kids, and it was something I had dreamed about for years. As beautiful as I think it is to carry life as a woman, I was beyond grateful for the miracle and was looking forward to the 9 months of belly bumping!
But the excitement soon fizzled. My mom and older sister had been telling me, “Well, at least you’re not sick.” I was around 6 weeks at the time and thought, “I’m the exception. I’m about to have an easy, sick free pregnancy, suckas!” But literally days away from my 7-week mark, I started to feel a bit out of sorts.
I wasn’t really feeling ill, but I wasn’t feeling 100 percent myself either. But by the time I reached 8 weeks, I was full blown miserable. I began to feel queasy, nauseous and just downright repulsed by the thought of even getting out of bed. The sight and smell of food was enough to make my insides feel like they were being pumped with rotten chicken blood (Don’t question my analogies).
Bad odors and potent fragrances sent me over the edge. The task force could have hired me to replace their K-9 unit because my sense of smell was so heightened I could literally sniff out human flesh. I couldn’t even be within arm’s reach of my husband because of this, and our dirty clothes hamper had to be removed from our bathroom.
I began throwing up multiple times a day. I couldn’t keep anything down. One day, I threw up every ounce of water I consumed. And my regurgitation sessions weren’t your basic 2 or 3 upchucks and done. I was violently ill. My legs would kick out repeatedly as I forcefully hurled into the toilet over and over again day in and day out. I would be absolutely exhausted afterwards.
Car rides were torturous and the thought of socializing was a joke. I couldn’t even gather the strength to pick up my phone and text people.
And the worst part of all of this? I was still working full time, sitting in about 3 hours of Atlanta traffic per day to drive back and forth between the corporate office I worked for. Some days I could barely function and fought just to keep my head up because I was purely exhausted and drained.
Keeping my head up became an extremely daunting task let alone getting up the energy to think and actually type anything at my desk. I wanted to quit so bad but feared no one would understand. I had already been scolded by a few people who knew I was sick for not looking happy enough and not working hard enough.
And it was almost as though my doctors were waiting for me to reach near death before considering putting me on bed rest. I was expressing my ailments but it was as though no one truly believed me or they just couldn’t register how awful I actually felt. I fought through every single second of every single day and dreamed of it all being over. All I could do was come home, breathe a sigh of relief once I finally made it there, drag myself up the stairs and hug my bed.
There were some nights I would drop to my knees and rock myself back and forth in tears crying for God to please help me and take the pain away. One night got so bad, I literally thought I was going to die. I Googled, “Can you die from pregnancy?” and called my sister and husband and asked them if they thought I would die. I was NOT joking.
I thought for sure I would be one of the first women to simply perish from pregnancy sickness. This went on for a total of about 4 months. So, my entire first trimester was an utter nightmare, and it was inarguably one of the most challenging and difficult experiences of my life.
Though my second trimester was much better to me, I still was highly food averse. My body would pick which food to tolerate by the week. And by my third trimester, my heartburn was so outrageous I couldn’t even sleep laying down. I was so swollen I could barely walk and standing and breathing became a struggle.
That being said, I could no longer operate my blog which focused on the very things my body could no longer tolerate – food, drinks and fitness. Pregnancy placed an abrupt halt on Phresh Wishes that I had no control over whatsoever. Honestly, even the mere sight of the images from my page and blog posts made me sick to my stomach.
Now, 6 months postpartum (healthy baby and all Thank God!), I am finally getting back to the point where I feel like my pre-pregnancy self again and can tolerate all the foods and exercises I did before my blessed little nugget began forming in my womb.
I hope my story helps someone who can relate or ever experienced a difficult pregnancy, but I mainly wanted to share with you where on earth I’ve been and why I fell off from this precious digital space so suddenly. This is the start of a new beginning. I’ve been working on some new recipes and fitness hacks and can’t wait to share them with you! And baby girl will be along for the ride on some of the content!
I’ll also very soon be sharing my weight loss journey with you since giving birth. I bet you can’t guess how many pounds your girl gained during pregnancy!
From breastfeeding, lifestyle hacks as a new mom, workouts and even beauty tips, we’ll be getting into some new, “phresh” topics you won’t want to miss!
Anywho, Phresh Wishes is back yall! Thank you for joining me! And please, if you have any questions feel free to ask away in the comments below or on my IG page!