How I'm Honouring My Pregnancy
If you can’t already tell based on the photo - this is the blog post where I’m officially announcing my pregnancy! Woo hoo!
Yup, I’ve been busy over here lately, gestating. A new tiny human is going to enter my life in just a few short months. My partner and I are becoming a family of three. :)
I find myself on the cusp of my third trimester, and I wonder, where have these weeks and months disappeared to?
Real talk:
Pregnancy has been easy for me. There hasn’t been anything about it that I’ve had to suffer through or endure. I haven’t had any struggles that have interfered with my daily activities. I’ve been going about my life, doing my work, often forgetting for periods of time about the life I’m carrying inside me.
I’m so grateful for this, really. My wish is that my pregnancy remains uneventful.
Yet, a couple weeks ago, as my second trimester started coming to a close, I began to feel a little anxiety. Pretty soon it will all be over, and I’ll have a baby to show for it, but what will I have to show for the pregnancy itself? How will I remember this time?
My brain started listing all the things I haven’t been doing: I haven’t been taking belly photos. I haven’t been journalling all that much. I’ve barely been doing any pregnancy book reading.
My partner Jason and I have been watching weekly YouTube videos, so there’s that, but even as I watch these pregnancy videos I often think to myself: These people remember all of their experiences so vividly! They remember they started to feel XYZ at 24 weeks! And they have photos and videos of themselves that they can look back on later...What will I have??
All of a sudden there was not enough time anymore. There was not enough time to do everything to prepare for birth and postpartum, much less honour this pregnancy in some way!
I let myself stress out about this for a little bit. Then I got out a pen and paper and starting making lists, and started to feel much better. (Ah, the therapeutic power of lists...who feels me on this?)
I realized there are lots of things I can do to honour this season of my life, and plenty of time left to fully embrace it all. Here are some of the ideas I have:
Have a blessing ceremony. Have you heard of a Blessingway? It’s a Navajo tradition honouring a woman’s journey into motherhood. I’m not doing this since I’m not Navajo, but I absolutely adore the idea behind it. My friend Natalie leads personalized mother baby blessings, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled when she offered to host one for me.
Do a belly cast. I’m so excited to do this! It is exactly what it sounds like, making a cast of the belly. I plan to do this a bit later in pregnancy when I’m even bigger. My friend Amancaya, who specializes in pregnancy art, might paint it for me when she’s back in Canada working on her Birth Stories book project.
Take some photos. J took some of me recently, and I’m finally starting to take a few selfie snaps with my phone here and there. Who cares if they’re not all Instagram worthy? :)
Practice mindfulness. I recently attended a mala making workshop and have been using my mala daily in a Japa Mala style meditation, which I’m liking. I’ll share more about this mala later, probably in an IG post.
Pick up my guitar and strum a few chords for baby. Anyone have any song suggestions for me?
Have a babymoon. J and I are planning a weekend getaway before baby comes. I feel this is a nice way to celebrate both the pregnancy journey we’ve been on together, and the huge journey that’s yet to come.
Did you do anything special during your pregnancy to honour your journey? If so, please share in the comments; I’d love to hear.
In addition to these ideas above, I’m going to continue to take care of my body, with good food, sleep, and going to prenatal yoga and prenatal aquafit classes. I can’t forget that these things are an important way of honouring my body and all that it’s doing for me right now, especially as I walk through my pregnancy feeling, for the most part, really great.
I also feel it’s important to acknowledge all the simple things that can be done during pregnancy to honour the body and journey, like applying a belly balm nightly, or drinking pregnancy-specific herbal tea. I stressed myself out and forgot about the little things I’ve been doing!
I won’t pretend that I’m not still a little nervous about the quickly passing time - but time is like that, and I know it’s a fairly common feeling in pregnancy, with all the To Do’s (more on that later).
For now, I will simply do my best to embrace each of my remaining pregnant days with gratitude and love, as I prepare for the next phase of my life.