Pregnancy with Ava was a breeze. Seriously. I was of those moms that totally missed my belly — I missed the kicks inside of me, that feeling of carrying my baby around and protecting her wherever she went, I felt beautiful and really, I just loved everything about being pregnant.

I never got morning sickness (okay, literally once and I threw up and it was done and over with), I slept just fine, I wasn’t achey whatsoever and I had the quickest labor and the easiest delivery. Yeah Ava may have given me some heart burn and she may have loved to kick that same right rib over and over which wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but I loved it. I loved all of it.

I loved pregnancy and I missed it when it was gone.

Now this pregnancy could not be more different. It’s actually kind of crazy how different it is. Maybe it’s because this is a boy and Ava is (obviously) a girl or maybe my body is taking pregnancy differently this time around. But whatever it is, I just am not enjoying pregnancy so far.

I was sick all day every day for weeks past the first trimester. This wasn’t morning sickness - not at all. This was all day every day nausea to the point where I just layed there on the couch and had to consistently eat or I’d feel nauseous again.

I toss and turn all night long and some nights I take hours to fall asleep. I have aches and pains and my back hurts and my hips hurt and I’m tired as heck some days where I feel like I just can’t parent a toddler. Every day I feel all stuffed up (which I just found out was super common) and really, this pregnancy hasn’t been “fun",” to say the least. And today? I cried real tears for no reason at all. Like just started crying out of nowhere and it was the worst feeling in the world.

Hello hormones!

Don’t get me wrong — I still think pregnancy is a beautiful thing. I still love feeling those itty bitty kicks from my big boy and I love having him with me everywhere I go. And I also know that I have it a lot easier than so many of you. So many. I know I have it easy compared to those of you on bed rest or those who throw up multiple times a day, every single day for all 40 weeks.

I know all of this.

I know how lucky I am to be pregnant and I know I should just cherish these moments but man, growing a human is apparently hard the second time around. Or maybe Ava was just not the norm (which I know is true).

I’m not here to complain but I am here to tell you:

You are not alone.

If you see all of those pregnant women all over Instagram, loving on their bellies, looking beautiful and so in shape and raving about how much they love being pregnant, don’t get discouraged if that’s not you. You are not alone. You don’t have to love pregnancy because pregnancy affects us all so differently and that’s okay. Growing humans is hard work on us both physically and mentally and just know, you are doing the best you can. And you are not alone.

And hey, that little gift at the end of it all will make it so worth all of it. Eyes on the prize, ladies!