Pregnancy

Being pregnant is one of those stages in life where a lot changes in a short amount of time. The way I like to think of it is pregnancy took forever to go by in the blink of an eye. Now that I’m at the end, I’ve been able to reflect on what my experience has looked like and and what my pregnancy taught me about myself. *This post is not sponsored and may contain affiliate links. All content and opinions expressed are my own.* Pregnancy Taught Me More Than I Anticipated You don’t always get to choose the path your life takes, but you do get to choose how you deal with it. When I got pregnant, Eihab and I were not trying. In fact, I had just recently decided I was OK with waiting awhile and just enjoying each other’s company. Maybe doing a bit of traveling together. I had even started telling my friends and family when they would ask the inevitable “so when are you getting pregnant?” Then BAM. Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant LOL. Total shocker and not the way I thought things would go. It would have been really easy for me to feel bummed that maybe we weren’t going to get in all that traveling I’d hoped for, but then when I think about how amazing it will be to show our daughter the world, I’m so grateful that it happened when it did. Your priorities shift almost immediately when you become pregnant. It’s really the strangest thing, but nothing matures you and makes you see what’s really important like bringing another human into the world. I remember before I got pregnant, I was really excited to quit my day job at Providence and work for an image consultant full time. But within weeks of becoming pregnant I realized how important it was to me to maintain a job that would give my family health insurance. The peace of mind that comes with having a 9-to-5 job outweighed any desire I had to jump head-on into a career of working for myself. Even though it’s still a goal for me, pregnancy taught me that sometimes you have to change the path you’re on to get to the same destination. There’s a serious IDGAF mentality when you’re pregnant. I don’t know if it’s just me, but a lot of my priorities and things I was willing to put up with changed after I was pregnant for awhile. It’s a lot easier for me to say “no” to people now than ever before, and the type of relationships I value has become very clear to me. I’ve realized how important it is to me to have “low-maintenance” friends. People in your life who you don’t have to see or talk to every day, but when you do get together it’s like no time has passed…that’s what I crave more of. I also want to surround myself with just straight up good people. People who care about others and have the ability to put themselves in other’s shoes. Maybe it’s because I’m hormonal, but I think it has everything to do with the fact that the people I surround myself with are going to be the same people who are around my daughter, and I feel like I need to choose them wisely. Pregnancy taught me some negatives as well, like I have an unhealthy relationship with my weight and body image. I’ve always known to some degree that I cared more about my weight than I should, but being pregnant really intensified this awareness. It’s been extremely difficult for me to watch the number on the scale go up every week, and it’s been challenging to embrace the changes my body is going through. Even though I’m so grateful to be pregnant and can’t wait to have my Baby Girl here, I can’t help but get down on myself sometimes. I’m really glad I’ve made this realization though, because it means I have something I can work on and area where I need to grow. I’m not 100% sure how I want to go about learning and growing through this life lesson…I’ll probably read some books to be honest LOL. Maybe some blogs as well, but I’m not in to the tough love, “stop body shaming yourself cause you’re fabulous” type of thing. I just find those types of posts or advice to come from more of a shallow place without a lot of depth to the content or understanding from the writer. So we’ll see, but I’ll keep you all posted 🙂 !function(d,s,id){ var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? 'http' : 'https'; if(!d.getElementById(id)) { e = d.createElement(s); e.id = id; e.src = p + '://widgets.rewardstyle.com/js/shopthepost.js'; d.body.appendChild(e); } if(typeof window.__stp === 'object') if(d.readyState === 'complete') { window.__stp.init(); } }(document, 'script', 'shopthepost-script'); Turn on your JavaScript to view content Being pregnant has really taught me a lot about myself, and I have a feeling it’s not going to slow down any time soon lol. I hope you enjoyed this post though, and that you’ll leave me a comment below with a lesson a major life event has taught you 🙂 xo,B Photos taken by: Rachel Cossette PhotographyPhotos edited by: MeOutfit Details: Top & Skirt set from Janelle James Boutique (literally can’t find something similar to link, sorry!) | Franco Sarto slingback pumps (Chanel DUPE!) (available here) | BCBGeneration olive blazer (similar here) | Coach purse (similar here) P.S. I’m hosting a giveaway with 9 other fabulous bloggers! One lucky duck will win a $275 Target Giftcard (umm is it bad that I want this for myself???). Here are the details: Want more chances to win? All you have to do is complete all these tasks below which will enable you to unlock bonus tasks. And these bonus tasks can be done every day. The more tasks you do means the more chances you have of winning $275 Target gift card. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway To enter the giveaway, entrants will have to complete the required tasks as seen on the Rafflecopter widget, and/or the optional social media shares & engagement which can be done daily; no purchase required. This giveaway is not endorsed by or in any way connected to Target. The prize is $275 Target Gift Card to be fulfilled by One Awesome Momma. If One Awesome Momma doesn’t fulfill your prize, all the other host bloggers are not responsible for prize fulfillment. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents aged 18 and older only; void where prohibited. This giveaway starts on August 7th at 12 AM EDT and will end on August 22nd at 12 AM EDT. The winner will be selected randomly and will be notified through email within 24 hours after the giveaway closes. Please make sure to add giveaway@oneawesomemomma.com to your contacts to make sure you’ll receive the notification. If the prize is unclaimed after 48 hours of notification, we will choose another winner. Winner is responsible for reporting the value of his/her prize where required.