Lots of things happen to your body when you’re pregnant.
Things get bigger, things shift around, things start to feel a bit weird.
Maybe sometimes even things feel a bit awful, but it’s rare that this is talked about – especially not on Instagram.
Over there, things tend to seem perfect even when they’re not.
And with the help of filters, stickers, and photoshop, it’s not all that difficult to make them seem that way either.
One mum-to-be, however, who is pretty much over pretending that everything’s been absolutely swell during her pregnancy is Fenella Scarlett McCall.
Since July, she’s been sharing pregnancy updates on her Instagram account including everything from stretch marks to exhaustion to mental health issues.
When she was just over two months along, she shared a photo of her bump admitting that it looked more like it was a load of pasta that was “poking her tummy out.”
She also took the opportunity to say that even though she was delighted, she was also anxious about the changes to come.
“I’m also scared, nervous, anxious, happy, and so much more…
“Have you guys had babies?? Did anyone else experience exhaustion in the first trimester then get energy back?? This is my hope!
“We’ve been blessed and I feel ready to embrace the changes that are going to happen. Anxious. But ready.”
A few months later and Fenella said that she had put on “double my recommended weight gain.”
She also said she’d “be lying if I said it didn’t worry me.”
She wrote:
“I’ve been looking at other women who are the same number of weeks or further along than me thinking ‘oh dear Fen, you are getting too big.'”
Fennella, usually mad into her veggies, also said that the usual traditional ‘healthy’ foods she had been eating had been making her feel sick.
“I couldn’t exercise either. Utter exhaustion, along with an almost debilitating depression kept me on the couch.
“With that, came the negative self talk. I honestly wondered if I’d ever feel like ‘me’ again.”
Also a recovering addict, Fenella has spoken candidly about the changes her body has undergone since she stopped using and the further changes that started occurring once she discovering she was expecting.
“The person I got to know since getting clean 2 years ago – who I had worked so hard to find and learn to love.
“But since coming into the second trimester, at the start of week 14, I’m finally feeling ‘okay’ again. Energy is coming back, but my healthy habits have been broken.”
But even with the exhaustion, the depression, and the body changes, Fenella says that she’s always been determined to pull through and not be too hard on herself no matter what she’s going through.
