The 5 Best (and 5 Worst) Things About Having a Honeymoon Baby

Maybe you watched a friend struggle to conceive or heard about your own mother's fertility issues and worried that you'd experience a similarly hard time getting pregnant. Instead, you've moved straight on to a new set of problems: the realities of pregnancy.

You know what's more serious than being declared husband and wife? Deciding to become parents. If you're both equally excited about the pregnancy (or even if you're not), you're now tied together for life by something even more serious than a marriage license — a human being you created together!

Honeymoon babies make for great stories. I mean, it's kind of funny that your honeymoon was so great that you came home with the ultimate souvenir, right? Just beware of retelling after your child is old enough to get what their origin story really means (i.e. mom and dad spent a lot of their honeymoon with no clothes on).

Maybe you decided to roll the dice on your honeymoon because you're both ready for a child or are concerned that conceiving one is going to be a long process. The upside: all those years of worrying about birth control are finally over, so enjoy!

While all of your friends who have been married for longer than six minutes are being asked when they'll have kids by every friend and family member they encounter, you've got the golden ticket out of that line of questioning. (Hint: the answer is in nine months or less!)

You're just coming down from the high that was your engagement, wedding, and honeymoon, and bam, you're dealing with the nausea, bloating, and exhaustion that's so often involved in creating new life. All that gestating makes it hard to focus on working out the kinks of married life, and in fact, can create a lot of new problems you never anticipated.

When I got pregnant with my honeymoon baby, I lived in a fourth-floor apartment, without an elevator or first-floor storage space for a stroller and with a dog who still expected to be walked multiple times a day. Even in my clueless, kid-less state, I knew that probably wasn't going to work long-term. So not only were my new husband and I preparing to be parents, we were also looking for a new home and considering moving to a new town to find one. Double the stress.

You know what's sexy? Being newlyweds. You know what's not sexy? Being a newlywed who feels like she's going to throw up at all times, yet somehow has still gained 20 pounds in less than two months (I blame my super low-cal bridal diet, quickly followed by the "only French fries, cheeseburgers, and milkshakes won't make me puke" pregnancy diet). While you're just trying to find a position that feels comfortable, your spouse is wondering where that fun, affectionate woman from your honeymoon went.

In my experience, weddings come in waves within friendship groups. If you were at the beginning of that wave, you're probably going to have to attend lots of what should be superfun engagement parties, showers, and weddings with a belly bump, completely sober, and praying that at least one of your friends comes home with a honeymoon baby, too, so you'll have someone to commiserate with.

For many women, being a bride is as close to experiencing celebrity as they'll ever experience. You're the center of attention, encouraged to enlist the help of a glam squad and buy a superexpensive dress, and people literally follow you around to make sure you're well taken care of and happy. Once you're pregnant, you're no longer the star of the show; your belly is. And while that's kind of great in a lot of ways, it's also a huge adjustment to make so soon after taking off that gorgeous gown.