When Libby Matthews found herself constantly vomiting and feeling ill, she knew something was up.
Little did the 28-year-old blogger and health expert know that she was in fact pregnant, and is now set to become a mum before the end of 2016.
"I had no idea I was pregnant, my partner and I hadn't been actively trying for a baby," Ms Matthews told Daily Mail Australia.
"I almost passed out in shock after I found out. Me? Pregnant? Ahhhhhh!! [sic] How is this going to work? I'm not married, I'm not engaged.
"This is not how I planned my life," she said.
Matthews explained via an extremely honest and powerful blog post that it has taken her quite a long time to come round to the idea of being a mum:
"I'm not going to sugar coat anything and pretend that my pregnancy has been a dream, because quite frankly it has been the opposite," she said.
"Not living in the same city, let alone the same continent as your partner is an extremely hard and frustrating time."
As well as battling the fact that her partner lives and works in South Africa, Matthews also struggled with dizziness, nausea, hormonal acne, exhaustion and more during her first trimester, alongside a lingering unhappiness which she just couldn't shake:
"All you hear is people telling you how amazing pregnancy is and how you have a certain glow about them.
"Where the f*** is my glow?!," she wrote.
"I wondered when I would start to feel like other women who love every minute of it...
"I would ask myself, when was I going to feel excited about bringing a baby into the world?".
However, now that she is past the first trimester and has decided to move to South Africa for the baby's birth in December, Libby Matthews admits that things have got much easier:
"After I passed the 18-week mark, my sickness eased and I suddenly felt excited," she told Daily Mail Australia.
"These days, I feel so maternal. I've been eating a LOT more, while all I ate for three months before was toast and crackers with butter.
"I think when I move to Johannesburg at the beginning of October and start furnishing a bedroom and things, it'll all become really real."
With the baby due around Christmas time, and Ms Matthews having had a baby shower a fortnight ago, things are slowly becoming more normal for the expectant mum:
"After we had the scan and I saw my baby's heartbeat, I was just so excited," she told Daily Mail Australia.
"The more I learn about pregnancy, the more I realise what a miracle it is and that there never really is a "perfect time" to fall pregnant."