19/08/2025
Itâs easy to look at a photo and think someone has it all together.
But the truth is always more layered than what you see.
You see a pretty picture â me, smiling with my bump, hand on belly, glowing in the light.
And thatâs true. Itâs beautiful. I am so deeply grateful.
But what you donât see is me huffing and puffing after the smallest walk.
You donât see me lying awake at 2am because the heartburn feels like fire in my chest.
You donât see the ache that runs through every inch of my body as it changes daily.
You donât see the moments where I feel like Iâm losing my mind inside a body that no longer feels like mine.
And yet â both are true.
I am deeply blessed and profoundly grateful and I am stretched, cracked open, and sometimes undone.
For a while I didnât want to share the struggles. Because what if it sounded like I was complaining?
What if people thought I wasnât thankful for this experience, this baby, this season?
What if naming the hard parts somehow cancelled out the miracle of it?
But hereâs what Iâm learning â gratitude and struggle can exist in the same breath.
Joy and discomfort can walk hand in hand.
You can be wildly in love with the life growing inside you, and also feel like your body is carrying more than you know how to hold.
These are the mantras I return to again and again â not new ones, not just for pregnancy, but the ones that have carried me through so many chapters.
They remind me that I donât need to be perfect, that I donât have to hold it all alone, and that even in the messiness, I can soften and be held.
You might not be walking this exact path, but I know youâve had your own seasons where beauty and hardship sit side by side.
Where youâre learning to hold gratitude and struggle at once, and letting yourself be expanded by both.
I see you, and you my love are pure magic.
LY,
El xx