You have morning sickness, your menstruation is late, you feel somehow weird like you suddenly woke up in a movie where your role is not very clear. You may be pregnant.

The beginning of my pregnancy was a bit traumatic. Feaver, all symptoms of cold, sickness … and so for two weeks. I went to the doctor, took aspirins, anti-cold medicines, removed the temperature, bathed in thermal pools … so that after two weeks of exhaustion and various thoughts that I am suffering from some incurable disease, I took a pregnancy test. Two lines appear “you could saw them from the plane”. Immediately the same day, I took also a blood test to check the level of HCG. Result: 1823.1 mIU / mL. It was not enough for me, I wanted to be 100% sure. Finally, after a gynecological examination, I could sit down, take a deep breath and try to understand what just happened.

I always wanted to have kids and this pregnancy didn’t happen by accidental. Then my boyfriend, and now my husband and I “tried” to get pregnant, to see if we can. This sounds really irresponsible, but now in a sea of couples who are struggling to get pregnant, the next logical step was to ask ourselves and check what is the situation with us. We tried twice, and Oliver happened.

Shortly after the test, I also found out that I am A negative blood type, which meant an increased monitoring of antibodies in the blood during pregnancy.

After three weeks of exhaustion, nausea occurred. Before pregnancy, I heard about morning sickness, I saw in the movies girls falling into unconsciousness and running into a toilet as soon as they came to work, but it seemed a little different in my case. Nausea lasted 2 months every day for the whole day. I couldn’t get out of bed, I did not eat … I even lost 2kg.

After the first one, the second trimester followed – for me the most beautiful period in pregnancy. I began to deal with diet and my body. Most of all during pregnancy I was afraid of constipation on what almost all the women that I met talked. As I otherwise had a problem with “lazy bowels,” I started a searching of how to run them in a natural way and here are a few tips that helped me:

• Do not think too much about when you went to the toilet because if you fall into the trap to constantly put pressure on yourself, you will create a mental block that will not help you.
• Walk! What’s more, make sure to walk every day! Physical activity is very important for the proper functioning of the bowel, but also for the whole body.
• Take care of what you eat. Forget about artificial sugars and fatty foods. Pregnant women who are not allowed to eat gluten have a great benefit because dough, especially the one you can bay in a bakery, is not good for our body, nor for the development of a baby. Get as many fiber-rich foods as possible! My recipe for good metabolism is a healthy breakfast. In the fourth month of pregnancy, I started to practice homemade muesli for breakfast. Main ingredients include flaxseed, dried cranberries, almonds, Indian walnut, sunflower seeds, dates, cornflakes, and yogurt. I always add some seasonal fruit to it. It is important that you leave the flaxseeds at least an hour in yogurt to start swelling before eating it because that way you will get a more beneficial effect.
• Get plenty of water. It is recommended to drink at least 2 liters of water per day.

Diet during pregnancy is really very important for you and your baby who gets all food through you. Advice about what to eat and what not to eat you can find here.

Last trimester it is not easy even when you take care of everything. You are getting bigger and heavier. Even if you are not eating salty food, your legs start swelling especially if outside is 30+. You can’t control bladder 100% because the baby is bumping everything that stays on her way. All fear about giving birth and the pain that is unavoidable, slowly start to fade and feeling like excitement and happiness start growing because soon you will meet that special part of you that you have never seen before.

Like any pregnant woman, as soon as you get into a nine-month pregnancy, hopes that you will give a birth earlier start running through your mind.  I was firmly convinced that this would happen before the term, but as the month was passing and I did not open enough, I became suspicious. The baby was bigger and wilder, amniotic fluid slowly began to disappear, the umbilical cord was accidentally wrapped around the baby, and the measurements of my hips were/are too small for such a big baby. A decision was made to make a c – section. I was desperate. The night before the operation I spent at the hospital, it was the saddest night of my life by then. But you know how they say, mothers forget everything when they see their child. And it is sooo true! That morning at 8: 42h when they pulled him out of my stomach and showed me him, still bloody, I could never imagine anything more beautiful in my life. I thought my heart will jump out of my chest.

Food in the maternity hospital wasn’t gluten-free. Of course, they had some food that naturally doesn’t contain gluten, but I didn’t want to risk. My mother prepared my food and brought it fresh every day. The hardest thing was that I couldn’t drink plenty of water because of the breast milk. In fact, the amount of breast milk increases by drinking too much fluid, and during the first few days (or weeks in my case), milk coming in larger quantities than a newborn baby can drink, so you need to take care of it.

Breastfeeding

Delivery is nothing compared to what follows the next month. I was lucky that my breasts were able to produce milk. Maybe too much milk. Already in the maternity hospital, my milk was started. That was the colostrum. After returning home the agony began. Milk was coming up in indescribable quantities. Twice a day a nurse was coming to massage and exhale me, while in the period between her visits I was doing that alone all day. And all night. Bloody nipples, painful breasts, thirsty … and so for a month. But I close my eyes and try to think only about how much my baby needs that milk. I continue to breastfeed him and I hope that we will succeed to the first birthday because they say that although after the sixth month, breast milk no longer serves as the only baby food, its effect is still very high during those first 365 days of her life.

When you are breastfeeding, it is important that you eat healthy and calorie-full food. All the bad habits you had before pregnancy should wait a little longer. When I say this, I have cigarettes and alcohol on my mind, because through the milk you transfer the baby everything you bring into yourself .. good, but also all bad thing.

My dear future mothers, the baby brings a lot of sacrifices, worry, sleepless night, exhaustion … but happiness, fulfillment, and pride that come with it are the basis of your future role. Being a mom is the hardest, most responsible, but also the most beautiful and most important job you will ever have. Good luck!