If Jimin could make a list of what this pregnancy was like, he would separate it into two different and contrasting sections. The first section would be the worst things about pregnancy, and the other would be the best things about pregnancy. 

He and Jungkook had tried to get pregnant for a year and when that positive test finally showed up, it was one of the best things either had ever experienced. A fortunate of serendipity. They were finally going to have the baby they had planned for a few years into their marriage. The pair were just recently in a stable enough place where they could afford to care for a baby and not have any worries financially. This was all so perfect and it was finally happening for the both of them. 

Only, pregnancy was complicated. It had its good days and its bad days, or weeks, or months. It really just depended on where Jimin was in gestational development. His mother had warned him that pregnancy was no easy ride. She had detailed her own pregnancies with both of her sons and how each pregnancy was so different. Ranging from easy to difficult, there were billions of ways to go with the baby growing process. Making the baby was the easiest part of it all, but growing that baby was hard. ‘Don’t even start on raising the baby’, Jimin’s mother had warned, her wrinkles showing. Evidence of her own raising of her two sons. 

Jimin truly hadn’t believed her, always picturing those smiling mothers, both male and female, with smiles on their faces as they looked down at their perfectly round baby bumps. Pregnancy was a time of relaxation and was a beautiful journey that he was going to tell all his friends about. Jimin would glow and look so perfect, everyone would want to look like him when he was pregnant. He was going to look like he belonged on the front of a magazine, sharing how wonderful his journey was and how it had changed his life. 

But it wasn’t like that at all. That brings us to the first thing on the first section of the list: 

The Worst Things About Pregnancy: 

Morning Sickness

Jimin would list this as one of the worst things because of how annoying it is to feel nauseous after every meal and even when he didn’t have food in his stomach. It was the worst in the first few weeks of the pregnancy, but it never really went away. His OB/GYN had almost promised him that his nausea would let up but it never had and he felt nauseous until his last day, even going as far as throwing up during labor. 

There was once where he was hit with a wave of nausea so intense that he hadn’t even had time to process what was happening to his body. He had thrown up on Jungkook who had tried to comfort his husband a little too late before there was half-digested chicken japchae on his oversized hoodie. And he hadn’t stopped there. He continued and spewed regurgitated noodles on the carpet of the elevator they were riding in. Jungkook had needed to make a very embarrassing phone call to the building superintendent and explain the situation. Luckily, he was kind and understanding but Jimin had been beet red when Jungkook returned to their bedroom where Jimin was recovering once the job was done. 

He had nearly thrown up countless times at his job as a third grade teacher and for some reason, it was always during their math lessons. He had associated his nausea with the annoyance of numbers and trying to help his students understand. Math was always the hardest to teach and he hoped he was doing a good job while he suffered through the nausea of morning sickness. 

The ‘morning’ part of morning sickness was absolute bull , it’s really all day sickness. Jimin would love to start a petition to change the name rather than sticking to the expectation that it’s only during the morning. 

Weight Gain

You would think Jimin would actually lose weight with pregnancy with how many times he threw up, but of course he gained weight. A total of thirty-three pounds to be exact. He had never really felt confident about his body, always thinking there was something to fix. But now he couldn’t even work on that because he had a baby in his belly to think about. Losing weight would be problematic to both him and his baby’s health. 

In his opinion, he was huge. His mother had always told him how small and neat his bump was but really, he felt like a whale. He had made sure to change his name in Jungkook’s phone to whale with maybe twenty of the whale emojis. Jungkook had thought it was so funny that he kept it, much to Jimin’s dismay.

“If you’re a whale, then you’re the cutest whale I’ve ever seen,” Jungkook had claimed before cuddling him right then and there. Much to his amusement, he quoted ‘Finding Nemo’ to lighten the situation, “Did you know I speak whale?” Every time he asked, he would follow with whale noises like Dory would in the movies. Jimin would always feel embarrassed but he would also laugh because Jungkook was such a sweet boy. 

While most of the weight he gained went to his belly, everything else filled out and the cheeks Jimin had worked so hard on losing returned and made him look about ten years younger, how he looked when he was eighteen and younger. None of his work clothes fit and he had needed to buy a whole new wardrobe to conform to his swollen form. With all the weight gain, putting on and taking off clothes was also a chore. He was too heavy to do it comfortably. 

Jimin liked to stay active too, and being so heavy was putting a damper on all the dancing he wanted to do while he was pregnant. It was hard to run when he had a belly bouncing all over the place and he couldn’t lift weights due to the strain it put on his body. He could do pregnancy yoga and even that was uncomfortable because all Jimin was was round. The yoga was supposed to help but after four classes, Jimin was done and he begged Jungkook not to take him anymore. And who was Jungkook to tell him no?

Anxiety/Insomnia

Lack of comfort typically led to lack of sleep, but then there was the anxiety that kept him awake as well. The anxiety of thinking there’s something wrong with his baby after every pain and negative symptom was more than common but that didn’t make it any easier. 

It was the worst when his pregnancy started out. The fear of miscarriage was a monster to him, afraid that his precious baby could die any minute was horrifying and he couldn’t help how much he feared it happening to him. He’d had two aunts who miscarried their first pregnancies. 

The statistics of miscarrying a pregnancy was an actual 50% chance of it happening to him, usually happening within the first three months. There’s a 5% chance of miscarriage happening in the second trimester, and although much lower, was still truly terrifying. His child could die, his baby. 

Even in the last trimester up to birth, still birth could happen. He’d had a cousin give birth to a blue baby, not breathing and not moving due to complications in the womb. She couldn’t have helped it and it could happen to anyone. He had asked his OB an unknown amount of times if his baby was going to be okay and she had assured him that yes, his pregnancy was perfect and his baby was going to be born healthy and alive. Jimin was just afraid. 

The anxiety of being a failure of a parent was also present. Jimin could be a horrible mother and his actions while raising his baby could affect his or her life in the future, his or her decisions. Jungkook was already a wonderful father, was so attentive and made sure Jimin got everything he needed or wanted and he knew he would do the same for their baby. Jungkook shared his dreams of playing with their child, dancing and running around in the yard of the house they were going to buy in the future, maybe after their second kid. 

The fear of not being able to compare to Jungkook was palpable and it kept him awake for hours at night. The thought of failing was a known fact to Jungkook and he always reassured Jimin that he was going to be wonderful and perfect and he would be a model mother. With his constant reassurance, Jimin started to believe it too, but it was still at the forefront of his mind. Being a parent was terrifying and he didn’t want to mess that up. 

Sore Feet/Back Pain/Chest Pain/General Pregnancy Pains

The whole discomfort spectrum was wide and horribly extended to whatever situation Jimin tended to find himself in. There were several different pains all over his body and they never ceased, not once until he gave birth. Jimin can’t remember where the first pain started, maybe it was his ligaments in his abdomen stretching to accommodate the baby. Following that, maybe the lightest pain there was to begin with, Jimin was sure it was the chest pain and soreness. 

The tissue was starting to form and it took its toll on his body quite early on in gestation. Just touching the skin of his chest brought on pain and he had to take several pregnancy friendly pain relievers in order for it to leave any semblance of comfort. That was only for his forming s, not even the rest of his body. 

His back was one of the many things that bore the brunt of pregnancy through the entirety of his second and third trimester. His spine started to curve in as his body grew a giant belly for his baby to call home and holding up all its weight proved dramatic at such an awkward curve. Everything had to be adjusted in order for him to find comfort while sitting, standing, and lying down. His center of gravity was thrown off completely and he had needed a whole new axis with the shift he was dealing with. His back pain led to his inevitable hip and pelvis discomfort that made it so he could barely sit without wanting to curl up in a ball and cry. Shifting from side to side became habit as he attempted to find the sweet release of relaxation in something as trivial as sitting. 

His legs and feet were always sore, the worst concentration since those were his mode of transportation most of the time he was on his feet rather than sitting in a chair. As a teacher, he was always standing in front of his class all day at the white board, no time to really sit down when he had a bunch of rowdy kids to corral. When he finished his day at work, he would usually have to take his shoes off in order to drive home due to how swollen his feet were, too sore to properly press on the brakes and gas pedal when his toes were being pinched. 

Sometimes even his hands were sore, swelling some near the end of his pregnancy. He couldn’t even wear his wedding ring due to how sore it made his swollen fingers. Nothing Jimin moved was not sore or in pain, his entire body was in pain no matter what. Jungkook always tried to help by giving massages but there was only so much he could do. It was hard to deal with. 

Appetite/Distaste towards his once favorite foods

What Jimin liked to eat pre-pregnancy became his least favorite foods and what Jimin didn’t like to eat pre-pregnancy became his favorite foods. And his baby made him eat gross things. 

Like for example: gaebul and ice cream with gochujang. He wasn’t a fan of gaebul in the first place, despite it being a Busan specialty. It was phallic and gross and slimy and he really didn’t like them, but once he hit about twelve weeks along, he wanted them with a burning passion. He had dragged Jungkook along to the Jagalchi marketplace so he could force him to buy him a whole basket of gaebul to take home and cook. 

Once cooked, because Jimin doesn’t eat raw anything, he took his first bite but immediately he knew that it was missing something. The knowledge that there was vanilla ice cream in the freezer caught his attention and the tub of gochujang in the fridge made him excited. Jungkook watched in horror as his husband dished out a generous portion of ice cream onto his plate of cooked gaebul before adding gochujang like it was chocolate sauce on top of his ice cream. When he took that first bite, it had tasted like heaven. And that nightmare of a craving stuck till the end, the oddest combination put together and he ate it at least twice a week. 

His once favorite foods made him nauseous during his pregnancy. He used to love fruits, ate plenty of them and always had at least one type during his three meals of the day. But once he found out he was pregnant, all fruits turned sour to him and lost that flavor he loved his entire life. The only fruit he could even eat without wanting to throw up was watermelon and even then there was a limit to what he could consume. Jimin had missed fruit his entire pregnancy and when his baby was finally born, the first thing he ate was a fruit salad with an apple and a banana. It was the best first meal as a mother ever. 

His entire palette had been screwed over and it had taken a month before his original taste returned and he could stomach what he usually ate. He ate what he needed to in order to feed his child and it was one of the few things that made him feel normal again. 

Exhaustion 

Exhaustion typically came out of nowhere. Jimin would be fine one minute, grading papers while he was at home and then the next, he was ready to pass out and go to bed four hours early. He took many naps throughout the day and when the school year ended he was more than thankful, allowed to nap whenever he felt like it and whenever he wanted to. Jungkook encouraged it, wanted Jimin to get all the rest he needed and made sure that Jimin had enough pillows and enough blankets and enough room. Jimin took up most of the bed at night and Jungkook didn’t mind. If Jimin wanted to sleep in the bed horizontally, Jungkook didn’t argue. He would let Jimin sleep and would deal with it because Jimin was ten times more uncomfortable that he was. If Jimin needed the sleep, he wasn’t going to interrupt that and wake him up. 

When Jimin’s students went off to recess and were eating lunch, he was taking power naps at either his desk or in the teacher’s lounge in order to recharge. A lot of his schooling and teaching skills suffered at the beginning of his pregnancy due to his exhaustion, but it improved when he gripped a handle on the situation, managing his time better and finding ways he could improve his sleeping habits. But Jimin never got enough sleep, never. He was always exhausted and always needed a nap because growing a baby was so god damn hard. 

His lack of proper rest or lack thereof led to a major symptom of his pregnancy that Jungkook often suffered at the latter half. 

Mood Swings

Jimin was a hormonal monster in all honesty. While they didn’t affect Jimin per se in a negative way, they did Jungkook. Jungkook was at the receiving end of this symptom and with all the patience in the world, he accepted every blow given to him with dignity and grace. 

Their four year wedding anniversary occurred during Jimin’s pregnancy, around his seventh month when he was super pregnant and cranky. Jungkook had planned and slaved over the perfect date for the two of them and he made sure that everything was according to plan so that Jimin would have one of the best nights he’s had in a while. Nights were hard as his body started to slow down and the weight of his day started weighing down on his shoulders. Jungkook could see how draining life was becoming and his desire to improve his day was so intense that he was sure this anniversary celebration was going to rock his world. He was sure of it. 

But he failed to take into account how Jimin’s mood would adhere to all of Jungkook’s plans and how it would affect their night. 

Jimin was not having any of it. He hadn’t slept well the night before and he had used every last bit of his patience for the day on his third grade students. There had been an assembly at school that day with a guest who riled everyone up to the point that getting them to line up to go back to their classroom was painful. Returning to the classroom, the kids continued with their immense energy and were basically running around, mimicking the tricks that their guest had showed them. Jimin had been on edge all day and once all of the c