There is a lot to complain about during pregnancy. The nausea and morning sickness; the fatigue; the constant bathroom breaks; the aching back and stretching belly; the cravings and aversions; the stretch marks and hemorrhoids; the irritability and weepiness; that glorious bowling ball in your lady parts feeling at the end!
Aside from the whole getting a baby at the end thing, pregnancy really isn’t that glamorous. BUT, there are a few beauty benefits of pregnancy that the glorious hormones raging through your body are supposed to bring which include better hair, skin and nails.
When I first became pregnant with Honeybun and started reading up on pregnancy (though most of my reading was on birth) and I saw that pregnancy brings longer, stronger, thicker, shinier hair, I was ecstatic! I’ve always had pretty thin, straightish, not too much exciting going on hair so the thought of finally having really healthy, beautiful locks put me over the moon! I waited 41 1/2 weeks and nothing happened. My hair continued to fall out as usual, it didn’t get any thicker, stronger or shinier. And then after Honeybun was born, it fell out in even larger amounts like most women experience. Fast forward four pregnancies and I’ve still never reaped the benefits of pregnancy hair though I do very much get the hair falling out after birth thing, unfortunately!
Another beauty benefit of pregnancy hormones is better skin, that “pregnancy glow” that you often hear about. I can’t say I didn’t get that one with my other pregnancies but I don’t remember a major change. This pregnancy, however, I have noticed a major change…but not in the positive way! In fact, my face broke out during those first few weeks and has yet to fully recover. Just when I think it’s going to clear up and I’ll get my “glow” on, it just breaks out again. The initial breaking out was actually one of the things that tipped me off I might be pregnant (and the continuing breakouts is making me hope that means I’ve got another little girl coming as I’ve heard more skin problems occur when carrying baby girls!)
The third beauty benefit of pregnancy is longer, stronger nails. And thankfully, I can say “check!” on that one. Anyone who knows me well outside of Beyond Mommying will tell you I’m an avid nail biter (usually unconsciously, though). It’s a habit I’ve had for years and one I’ve just come to accept. I don’t beat myself up for it anymore or even really work on trying to stop. I figure it’s not really harming anyone or anything (other than my nails!) and there are much worse habits I could have so I’d rather focus my energy and attention on more important things. But, I have noticed my past two pregnancies that my nails grow like crazy! Part of it at the beginning is probably that I don’t feel well enough to bite them, combined with those hormones that make them grow fast and strong. And once I have them then I get excited and work really hard to keep them (aside from my thumbs, they are my “cheat”).
The only other time I’ve had respectable nails outside of pregnancy was at my wedding when I managed to grow my nails out to a beautifully respectable length, however, they were still brittle and broke often and by the time I was pregnant with Honeybun just a few weeks later, they had all cracked and broken off. But with Doodle and now this pregnancy, I’ve been able to keep them, until recently. Unfortunately the move had taken a toll on what used to be nice, even, beautifully long nails but at least I still have something to show for all those “good” pregnancy hormones!
