Confessions Of A Pregnant Mom — Sleep, Eat, Panic, Repeat

It’s day 125 of my pregnancy, and my brain is officially in a full-blown panic mode, thanks to my not-so-healthy habit of googling every little thing.

I spend hours each day researching pregnancy symptoms, foods, what’s safe, what’s not, and then double-checking that research with more research. Being a content writer myself, I know that not every single piece of information you come across online is true, unless, of course, it’s coming from an authentic source like Parentune. (Yeah, that's me subtly promoting my company, because, why not?)

At this point, I am also convinced that Instagram and Facebook already know what not to show me, and they are feeding me exactly what I don’t need to see at times when I am most vulnerable. If I were to believe every reel I saw, I would need to grow food at home, lock myself in a room and buy every single baby-related product available online.

My feed is flooded with reels about pregnancy complications, scary labour experiences and every possible thing that stirs my panic mode back in action.

A few days back, I came across a reel about the dangers of eating organ meat in pregnancy and guess what I had for lunch just half an hour back. Liver curry

Next thing I know, I am sitting on the couch crying and blaming myself for not confirming earlier, like I do for every single thing I eat.

For the record, my Google history is filled with questions like ‘is kaccha mango bite safe for pregnant women?’ ‘Can pregnant women eat tapioca chips?’, ‘Is pizza safe in pregnancy?’ and so on.

My husband and mother-in-law spent half an hour trying to make me understand that a bite or two won’t make much difference.

I calmed down only after my aunt, who happens to be a gynaecologist, told me, “We literally recommend liver to pregnant women with low haemoglobin. Relax.”

Thanks to my panic mode, my husband’s blood pressure is higher than mine. He has to be prepared all the time because I can come up with crises at any point. Last to last week I mistook the baby's movement for severe gas and panicked so much that he almost cancelled our flight home.

And don’t even get me started on my future panics — like what if someone kisses the baby and gives them an infection? What if the baby cries at night and I don’t wake up?

The vicious cycle never really stops.

Read the previous chapter - Confessions Of A Pregnant Mom — Cookie Momster