Interviewee | Tarah Rupp

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

What were your expectations for pregnancy?

So, to be honest, I had such a negative expectation for pregnancy. 

The first point being my anxiety makes me expect the absolute worst of things, and two, all I heard were horror stories. There is something about a woman being pregnant that attracts all the other women with children’s experiences, and 9/10 of them aren’t encouraging. They’re more like, “Congrats, you’ll never sleep again.” Or “I had an emergency C-section because my baby was in distress.”

So, yeah…I got those stories before I was pregnant too, and I was scared.

I expected to be so nauseous that I couldn’t walk and looking dumb while being pregnant. (What a weird fear!) I expected to gain so much weight. I expected to be ridiculously emotional and so much more. And guess what? NONE of those things happened to me. I had an awesome pregnancy!

What is it like to be pregnant during a global pandemic?

There were positives and negatives to being pregnant in a pandemic. The positive was literally no one was going out or doing anything fun. Call it misery loves company if you will. When you become pregnant, there is a lot you have to sacrifice and many things you can’t do for the time being. I’m a person who loves to adventure and have fun, and I get FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) very easily. So, I kind of appreciated that I wasn’t missing out on much. 

The negatives of being pregnant in a pandemic are worrying about you and your unborn child’s health. When you’re pregnant, you’re more susceptible to sickness, so that was scary! Also, I had to go to all doctor appointments alone; my husband could never accompany me, which was very sad. 

Another thing was planning a baby shower was so stressful because you had to either be careless of the pandemic or super creative with how you threw it. Since everyone made the pandemic a political stance for whatever reason, I got a lot of push back/complaining for how I wanted to throw my showers. So, that was no fun. 

If you were to do this experience again during the pandemic, what would you do differently? 

So, I’ve been thinking about this one a lot. 

Maybe what I would have done differently is taking the time I had and spent more time praying and being in the Bible (I’m Christian) and documenting how I felt during the pregnancy. Even though it was kind of recently, I look back, and I don’t remember many symptoms or how the symptoms made me feel. 

Also, I would try to worry less. 

How are you doing? 

I feel like  “How are you?” is such a loaded question when you’re a mother. I’m great and stressed and sad that my baby is growing up so fast and proud and mad that I can’t get my house cleaned and motivated to follow my dream because I want to show my kids that a woman is so many good things. I am feeling many things in this season of life, and I’m embracing all of them because it’s okay to feel happy, sad, confused, melancholy, and grateful all at the same time. Life really is good. I’m blessed with a home, a beautiful family, many hobbies/and passions, a God that loves me, food, music! The whole sha-bang!

I notice that I am living in the “Good ol’ days” and am at the same time determined to make all my days “Good ol’ days.” 

Thanks for asking!