Photo by Maine Photo Co. http://www.mainephotoco.com

All my friends are getting pregnant, many for the second time. While I’m not jumping on that bandwagon again, there are a few things I actually miss about being pregnant. Pregnancy hormones are totally fucked up. Some breeze through clear minded and symptom free. Others turn into total psychos, sprout hair on their chins, lose their lunch (and/or breakfast, and/or dinner) at the mere mention of fish or beans or oatmeal for god’s sake, blow up like a balloon, grow pimples the size of your thumb and on and on. I was lucky. I did have morning sickness in the beginning, and I did have to quit running early on in the process, but that’s about all it did to me. I gained 17 pounds total and for the most part, looked and felt great. However, I’ve learned my experience wasn’t that much different than a lot of people and as I look across my friends, much of the benefits of pregnancy seems to grace them as well.

So what do I miss? 

1. Clear skin! I’ve always struggled with acne and it’s generally been fairly correlated with hormones. But a
   mere few weeks into being knocked up and my skin looked and felt like I was 10 years old again. This lasted a good six months afterwards too. To my chagrin, the acne returned with some new friends called age spots and wrinkles. Sweet!
2. Shiny, silky, full and fast growing hair. By the end, I looked like a Pantene commercial. Those models in the hair care commercials have got to be pregnant. #Justsayin. Never in my life has my hair looked so awesome. After the kid arrived, my hair fell out for 3 months, turned dull and got super frizzy. #FAIL
3. No shaving! While the hair on my head grew twice as fast, the hair on my legs all but stopped and turned downy soft and almost blond like I’d never shaved at all. No more waxing or tweezing and I only had to shave every few weeks. It lasted till my period returned. One week later, I was calling to schedule a laser appointment. ‘Nuf said.
4. Boobs! Week 8 or so, my boobs were full, perky and perfectly shaped. I felt like a Victoria’s Secret model. It continued while breastfeeding. That is, minus the first month of breastfeeding when my boobs swelled so much I could rest my chin on them. No seriously, I freaked out the day my milk came in. Thank god my Aunt Patty the lactation consultant was in town or I would have thrown out half my clothes and/or scheduled a breast reduction. But as the milk wanes, so do the boobs. Two years later I’m left with pancakes that hang much closer to my middle than my chest.
5. Loose, flexible muscles and joints. I’ve always suffered from tightness in my muscles, fascial tissue and joints. I was in PT on and off for 6 years before I got pregnant battling all kinds of hip, leg, foot and back pain. After I got pregnant, my hormones made everything go lax. No pain! I was better at yoga, lifting, and even (swimming buoyancy!) No more icing and foam rolling for me. This lasted until about 5 months postpartum when I ended up right back where I was before.

There are of course additional benefits not related to your body – I didn’t have to lift heavy things, I could go to bed at 7pm and nobody would try to talk me out of it, I couldn’t take out the cat litter, I could eat as much food as I wanted, and justified bi-weekly massages to my husband. But that’s a post for another day.

What do you miss about being pregnant?