The 31-year-old, who revealed in May that she was having a boy, tells PEOPLE that while she’s had an “incredibly healthy” pregnancy, it hasn’t been fun. She’s still suffering from morning sickness every day, she says, even though she’s more than eight months pregnant.
“I’m usually feeling pretty bad but always trying to stay positive,” she says. “When people say I’m glowing, I tell them it’s because someone needs to put on the AC. That whole ‘pregnancy glow’ thing is a joke! There is nothing pretty about pregnancy except creating a life – other than that I think it’s pretty gross.”
Being a model, D’Amato admits that she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t concerned about gaining weight during her pregnancy.
“I’m so disciplined with my quality of food and amount of food intake as well as my gym routine,” says D’Amato, who’s been doing low-impact workouts four days a week for 2½ hours, as well as swimming. “But pregnancy doesn’t care what I do or how I feel or think on the matter. It has a mind of its own.”
But rather than worry about it, she says she’s focused on the outcome. “I only want a happy healthy baby,” she says. “I can get my body back after.”
Her philosophy comes in part from the “pretty traumatic ride” she’s had this year.
D’Amato, who won the all-star cycle of Top Model in 2011, is still recovering from devastating facial injuries she suffered in January, after a freak accident left her with a broken nose and lacerations on her forehead, lips and chin.
“It takes a year to fully recover from my facial surgery scars and pregnancy actually makes it much more difficult to heal fast,” she says.
With the accident (which happened when she was two weeks pregnant) and a baby on the way, D’Amato admits that she’s had to scrap a lot of bookings that she had for shows, modeling and music video shoots but she sees it as a sign that she was “just supposed to slow down for once.”
“I’m just embracing being a new mom soon, which I’ve always wanted to be, and laying a bit low for my face to heal,” she says. “All in all, if something doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger, so I’m just adding more character to my repertoire being, as Tyra would say, ‘Flawsome.’ “
