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If Instagram pictures of a pregnant Kim K or Beyoncé ever got you all misty-eyed about the wonders of impending motherhood maybe it’s time for a sobering reality check.
Most social media documenters don’t show the aching back, the swollen feet, the mood swings and the extra kilos in places you didn’t even know you had!
This is why mom-of-two, Maya Vorderstrasse from New Jersey in the US, decided she would get candid on Instagram about what pregnancy and having children is really like.
She told Metro, “I started because I just couldn’t fit into the whole motherhood is so easy/my baby sleeps well/being pregnant is blissful scene.”
“I tried so hard to portray that and finally realised that it wasn’t my reality. Some days were so rough. I was achy, sore, exhausted, emotional.
“Since I use humour in my own life to deal with those things, I thought it would be nice to translate those symptoms into board messages, hoping people would also relate and think that we’re all normal,” she said.
At 27-40 weeks pregnant, Maya used the new letter board trend on her Instagram and posted pictures showing the realities of pregnancy to her 62 500 followers.
She created hilarious to create witty signs about what was bugging her from in her later pregnancy, from the fact that her shoes no longer fit to the idea that she was almost ready to push something the size of a watermelon through something the size of a hole in a doughnut. Ouch!
Hold that thought. Gotta pee. Again. #pregnancyproblems ????
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How can that fit through that??!? Asking for a friend... ??#40weekspregnant
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Finally, Maya gave birth and confirmed that her baby was indeed not a watermelon.
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She also hasn’t stopped there. Now she documents the ups and downs of life with her two daughters, Hazel and Zoey, who are both under the age of two.
She told Huffpost that her boards sum up exactly what she’s feeling for that week, and sometimes she gets help from her “incredibly supportive” partner.
'I'll keep laughing my way out of diapers and screams because when I look back at my life, I'll want to remember it as fun, light and filled with love,' she says.
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