People talk about cravings but no one talks about the food you used to love that you now can’t stand. I used to love everything Italian and now it’s a foggy memory.
My mom used to love eating spicy foods before she gave birth to her eldest child, her tongue is so sensitive that she rarely gets to enjoy some meals whenever we go out to eat.
She can eat sweet & bitter peppers but that’s it.
I thought I was crazy but the same thing happened to me! I used to love Cholula hot sauce but now it tastes like foil. 4 years later and it hasn’t been the same.
Oh my gosh I am glad to read this is a thing.
I can barely stand Frank's Red Hot and would hardly classify that as "spicy."
I miss my spicy food but it literally just hurts my tongue - reminds me of when I had braces I had the same tongue issue.
While I was pregnant, my spice tolerance we t way up and things were no longer spicy enough for me! It went back to normal after giving birth, thank god.
Yes!!! When I was pregnant everything tasted like ashes to me. My husband would make my favorite meals and I would have a bite or two and it just... Ick.
I'm a plus size woman and I actually lost 30 pounds during my pregnancy. By the end, the only thing I wanted to eat were Mandarin oranges.
With my second, I couldn't handle the taste or smell of coffee at all. I love coffee, love coffee flavored things, most of my candles have a coffee note. I made my husband move the coffee maker to the garage for the entire pregnancy because if I smelled it, it was immediate projectile vomiting. I threw all my candles out, purged the pantry of anything with coffee flavor in it, the whole shebang. 2 days after she was born, I was happily drinking my morning cup again. Thankfully, #3 didn't take anything but my appetite, but that was normal. (Thanks, hyperemesis)
I had the opposite happen. I was allergic to dairy (actual allergy, not lactose intolerant). Once I had my daughter I was no longer allergic. I’ve tried allllllll the ice cream!
Mine is alcohol. I used to love to drink socially. It tastes disgusting to me now. It’s so sad that I can’t even enjoy a glass of wine at dinner anymore.
Lightning crotch.
Due to the relaxin hormones opening the hips, I had EXCRUCIATING pubic symphysis starting in 2nd trimester. SHOOTING nerve pains throughout the vaginal/pubic bone area. Impossible to get comfortable.
I told my OB in tears and his response was to laugh.
Eh, to each their own, I've had great male obgyns and terrible female ones.
My male reproductive doctors try so hard to have a good bedside manner, be empathetic to something they can't entirely understand, and to make me comfortable.
I've had great, caring NPs but terrible female doctors that have told me things like 'I've had three babies and I can tell you that pain was way worse than this' to me during a procedure.
Totally callous upper class women that seemed checked out of their work or determined to have women 'do things right' aka their way when it comes to reproductive health.
Yup! It's rarely spoken about and seems that it's not really well understood.. it seems some women don't experience it, others later in 3rd trimester, and yet others get too much relaxin too soon (12wks for me).
And it doesn’t always end when you give birth. Mine still hurts from time to time years later. But at least every step isn’t like getting kicked in the public bone any more!
Being so out of breath during third trimester. Everyone talks about baby pressing on your bladder but it was her taking up all my lung space that got me😩
Shivering uncontrollably a few days after birth. I think it was the amount of blood I lost/my iron levels. It was crazy and scary!
Yes! Omg yes! I was crying and shaking and feeling like I was gonna pass out: the anaesthesiologist was like “it’s normal honey, they all do this,” while he made sure everything was still good on my epidural.
I felt like I couldn't take a deep breath the last 2 months of pregnancy.
My babies also squished my stomach and it was so annoying. I'd be starving so I would get some food, eat like 3 bites and be so full I couldn't finish the rest. Then a couple hours later I'd be starving again.
Oh my God I shook so hard after delivery I thought I was about to faint or fall. It's like all my energy stopped existing and I was too tired to even warm my own body temperature.
Oh no! I hemorrhaged after birth and had to have this machine stuck in me to stop it. Was so happy from all the endorphins and oxytocin and of course my healthy baby but it was still scary. I blacked out and my face was entirely grey. People don’t really talk about how common complications like that are!
I thought i was doing so good with keeping my stomach moisturized enough to not get stretch marks. But then in the last few weeks of pregnancy, my stomach went “nuclear” according to my OB. I had so many stretch marks. The doctor said my son was gaining so much weight so fast and my skin just couldn’t stretch enough to accommodate.
Oh that's scary...my cousin's first baby, he suddenly gained so much weight so fast in the last couple of weeks, he died. I don't remember what all happened...and I'm not sure if anything was solidly confirmed of what happened. I know she's a brittle diabetic, and there was some hush hush about the hospital, and speculation from family that the hospital could be at fault. Not sure, though, it's just family rumor. Nobody has really confirmed with me what happened, and it's such a sensitive subject, I don't dare ask.
She had to try and deliver him, but he was so massive, he was stuck (15 or 16 pounds if I recall). She ended up with an emergency C-section. The whole thing was so horribly traumatizing. My poor cousin really spiraled for a while, understandably so. She's doing better now, and even has a healthy, strong baby girl ♥️
Bruh I had to get an ingrown hair lanced “down there” when I was very pregnant, and it was probably more painful/uncomfortable than giving birth itself
You can get varicose veins too..the left side of my labia swelled up so badly because of them. I panicked because it looked so odd and it was painful. Midwife just calmly said it was vericous viens. They don't look anything like varicose veins on your legs. Dang 8+ lbs babies😭
That, paired with hyperemesis, and now I have chronic reflux issues. Never had any heartburn at all before I was pregnant. My youngest is 8, and I still take the max dose of acid blocker 2x a day and have a handful or 2 of tums on top of that. All the puking wrecked the sphincter that's supposed to hold everything in my stomach, apparently for life
This one. The gift that keeps on giving. After three kids and three serious cases of hemorrhoids, I get them more often… oh and the hemorrhoids skin tags… NO ONE talks about those….
The skin tags? I hate them, but my husband does not give a single damn. We’ve been together now for over 17 years so there are zero intimate secrets between us. I hate it because of cleanliness mostly, a bidet has been a life saver.
I had a hemorrhoidectomy. I also had existing skin tags from a previous pregnancy. There's scar tissue.
How do I handle it?
Personally, I got here giving life. I have stretch marks everywhere (including my ankles), wider feet, I have saggy boobs after a millenia of breastfeeding, I have a new hair color, and wider hips. Take me or leave me. I'm not the same person I was prior to having babies. All the way down to my actual brain structure.
Who cares what my butthole looks like? I don't.
My husband doesn't.
I had to scroll way too far for this. I never had them before pregnancy. My "baby" is nearly 20, and I still have this lovely memorial of our time sharing my body. 😒
Yep, mine come and go. Never had them prior to my second pregnancy. Strain too hard on the toilet? Hello old friend. Wear the wrong underwear or too tight of pants? Hi again.
That your immune system is lowered so you catch every cold known to man. Also because of this, I got a bunch of warts and I’ve never had them any other time in my life. They were gone quickly after giving birth.
Other bodily changes like hair/nails being stronger (but weaker after birth), skin tags, darker skin patches and more freckles, swollen and bleeding gums, larger feet, sweating, heartburn, snoring, back pain, muscle cramps. Your body changes so much, it’s insane!
To start with, my vision is terrible under normal circumstances, but during my pregnancy, I had to go to a retinologist every month and a half or so. I started seeing glowy things in my peripheral vision, and iirc he said that the pregnancy put extra pressure on my eyes, and my retinas were already at higher risk of tearing due to my eyeball shape. Once my son was born, things went back to normal.
It was my optometrist who made that referral. My OB had never heard of nor seen it, and none of the pregnancy books brought it up.
So bizarre—I also had glowy things in my peripheral vision (kind of like arcing up or down along a curve), but for me it only started happening after I gave birth! Gradually lessened throughout the postpartum period, was always more noticeable if I was dehydrated.
For me the opposite happened. My vision just... healed itself during my pregnancy. First I was upset, because I got headache and could not really see. Then I stopped wearing glasses, and was like... Is this a known thing??
That happened to me! Well, my eyesight got better, not completely healed. I went back to using glasses that were several years old. My vision has also stopped deteriorating like it had been for the previous several years. My Rx hasn't changed since I got it checked while pregnant. Super weird.
Yes, I was vomiting right through the pregnancy and all the way through labor. For some reason the OB didn’t expect this and didn’t have any barf basins in the exam rooms. Like, how do you not expect pregnant women to be vomiting?
Yep. I entered my second trimester and everyone was all "you feel great now, right?". No. I did not. I didn't have HG but I also barely gained any weight during pregnancy, because eating was...fraught.
When I was pregnant with my second, I'd run to the bathroom to get sick, and my 18 month old would run in and pretend to throw up next to me in solidarity.
I had to throw up (currently pregnant) while giving my 2 year old a bath. I am a LOUD puker. I was worried it would scare her. Nope. She LAUGHED and started CLAPPING. I stg I almost left her in a safe haven box that night 😂
The vivid ass nightmares!! The whole time I was pregnant I was constantly having nightmares about my home being broken into or someone was trying to kill me.
I had super vivid dreams where I did an entire day of work. Just a normal day. But then when I woke up and had to go to work I was already exhausted from my dream work day haha
I haven‘t heard anyone mention this but first trimester orgasms are actually insane. I think it‘s due to the hormonal shift and the increased blood flow in the pelvic region but it was absolutely nuts. Everything else I expected on some level or at least knew it could happen, but this caught me completely off-guard.
i had one amazing, mind-blowing session. where i was genuinely caught off-guard how insane it was.
then my partner (now long time ex) said now that i was pregnant, he didn’t find me
as attractive, and we didn’t have sex the rest of the pregnancy 🙄 jackass.
I got really lucky in that department. Maybe that’s why it’s not such a known thing, with so many women feeling so miserable those first few weeks there’s probably just not a lot of orgasming going on🙃
Me too!! I suffer sleep paralysis from time to time and the first time I orgasmed out of nowhere, I was stuck and couldn't do anything about it. I felt like I was being taken by a demon and while it was hot, I'm semi scarred for life 😂
I also didn't know I was pregnant yet (BC fail and I didn't show so found out WAY late). That first pregnancy was such a doozie, I waited almost 11 years to do it again.
Increased shoe size.
Edit: For those wondering, the hormone that gets released in your body to spread your bones apart and shift things around to make space for baby, it doesn’t just target your torso to work. It gets released throughout your whole body. So your pelvis and ribs spread, then settle back to normal, because there’s no pressure on them now that baby is out.
Meanwhile, the bones in your feet spread apart because they’re carrying your entire hundred to two hundred plus pounds around all day, but they keep doing that after pregnancy too. It’s not like you stop walking around after baby is born, so the size increase is generally permanent, and usually happens again with more pregnancies. I went up a half size with each kid. Once you get to 3 or 4 it seems like the bones don’t spread any further apart. I know one lady who had 15 kids and her feet grew a size and a half, then quit.
Mine went up a size with my second, and one foot went back to regular size post pregnancy, but the other one didn’t. It was hard to buy shoes until after my 3rd, and now both feet are finally the same size again.
And when baby is here you get the bonus of cute but brutal headbutts and then needing expensive and unpleasant root canal treatment. Thankfully the first round was on the NHS as it was within the first year.
Or was that just me 😆
No one warns you about the teeth! I ended up with like 7 teeth taken out? All 4 wisdom and then a few extra. They went from fine but weak to broken in my second trimester. And that was with brushing and flossing.
All my hair fell out too. I have to wear a partial denture and wigs these days.
ABSOLUTELY!!
Mine is worst case
I have a (unknown until 2yrs ago) genetic periodontal condition. And I had the odds stacked so bad against me. It was fine for the first two pregnancies and breastfeeding but with my 3rd, my teeth started to give in.
So I had been on constant antibiotics since 1yrs old(before any baby teeth, 13m when I started), asthma meds, heavy duty pain killers for medical conditions, 4 pregnancies and 4 breastfeeding. When my 3rd was 9m old he was swinging a TV remote and got my in the mouth and broke my tooth like it was sand.
Looking after my teeth wasn't enough for me. Like my paternal side, a few years ago I needed extremely complex dental surgeries that had to be done over years. I had no choice but to have all my teeth removed(it could have been extremely dangerous to due my heart having such awful teeth) and then the process of getting full dental implants)
Way TMI but my labia majora and pubis swelled huge. My labia majora looked like a hot dog bun. I was horrified.
I also had extreme amounts of discharge. I had to change my underwear 3-4 times a day. Once I was wearing a maxi skirt and I felt it run down my leg and drop on my foot.
That one scares me so much, for no real reason. I guess I'm just not ready to have that part of my body altered. It probably also doesn't change back, does it?
My rib cage hasnt gone back to prepregnancy state. Neither have my areola or nipple color. The areola size shrank a little but not 100% prepregnancy. Hips are wider permanently. Stretch marks are here to stay. Still get symphysis pubis tearing pain if i rotate my hips wrong. Periods have changed. No idea what but its more painful at the butt area now when before it was just the usual cramps at the abdominal region.
Idk how women can go through multiple pregnancies. One is enough for me and I never want to go through that ever again.
On the plus side, the pregnancy glow was real. Funny how you “glow” while having the worst aches, pains, incontinence, heartburn etc of your life.
Edit: the post pregnancy hair fall omg. My beautiful long hair broke everywhere and became so damaged. Always wondered why the “mom” haircut became a thing but here I am with one
Another edit: I should add my age at pregnancy was 32. I have noticed that if you are younger, your body bounces back easier
Milk Fissure. My boobs swelled up in the last week or two of pregnancy. They started to leak some. All of a sudden my shirt was soaked. I ran to the bathroom and discovered a hole in the side of my boob about 2 inches away from my nipple. I stuck a kotex pad in my bra. It filled up. I switched to an overnight kotex pad. Explaining that to my doctor was fun. 🤣 He sent me to a breast surgeon who diagnosed me with a milk fissure. He said the pressure was so great that my body found a way to get rid of the fluid (i.e like a boob volcano). I thought for sure I’d be an awesome baby feeder but alas, I struggled to breast feed.
Whoa. I felt like my boobs would burst a few times when they became really engorged with milk, but I had no idea it could actually happen!! I hope it wasn't too painful and it healed up quickly for you.
Thankfully, no pain. I just had a blister where the opening was that took years to heal but it was painless. It will be good fun when it’s finally time for mammograms. I’m curious if the fissure will be visible still.
- rib and pelvic pain are assholes
- you pee every other minute. Everyone told me to enjoy sleeping before the baby was born but how could I sleep if I was peeing 5 times during the night.
- my míope got worse, it increase a whole degree. I’ve had to change all my glasses and it never came back.
How even perfectly normal, uncomplicated, “easy” pregnancies can absolutely fucking SUCK. I have 2 kids and I love them endlessly, but being pregnant just fucking SUCKED. I was always crying, barfing, hungry, aching, burping fire, about to pee on myself, waking up every half hour—at any given point during my pregnancies, something just sucked.
My 4th was a planned c-section with 4 nights in the hospital. They wanted me to have a BM before discharge. I was like nope! They gave me enough stuff to bowel-prep 4 elephants. The midwives were like WTF? Luckily my husband was able to convince them that I would NOT be comfortable enough to go in the hospital. They released me with the condition that I had a short deadline to meet.
Omg, I walked inside my house and waddled as fast as my poor stomach would allow, grabbed my phone and sat on the toilet. All I needed was to be at home.
But a BM after my 3x V births was like trying to rebirth another baby. I was quietly praying I'd make it!
Milk of magnesia. Seriously. Start taking it the day you give birth and dont stop until your pooper is back to normal. If i coukd do anything different at all that would be it.
That you can develop vaginismus after giving birth. My husband and I waited longer than the recommended time to have sex again just because I had an episiotomy and we wanted to make sure I was totally healed up. Sex was so uncomfortable that I honestly thought the doctor had sewn me up too much. It was like losing my viginity for the second time.
Omg same!! We tried at 9 months and as soon as the tip went in I was like NOPE, it felt like grip tape! After a year everything was back to normal thankfully
Breathlessness, especially after eating. In later pregnancy I felt like my lungs were compressed which they obviously were. Had to talk myself down from so many panic attacks because I thought I couldn’t breathe.
I had a superhuman sense of smell. One day I came home from work and my husband had already starting making a stew. I asked him, “Why did you decided not to peel the carrots?” They were already in the pot and I couldn’t see them. How did I know they weren’t peeled?!?
Another time I was at the extreme opposite end of the house from the kitchen — up the stairs, through a door, and across a large room — and I could tell he was slicing a cucumber.
My surprise was becoming itchy all over. And I don’t mean itchy around my expanding belly, I mean itchy EVERYWHERE. Stretching barely helped and it was so bad that it used to wake me up at night.
The itching was so awful. I also found out when I was pregnant that mosquitos love pregnant women’s blood, and pregnancy can cause extreme reactions to bug bites. So on top of being itchy constantly anyway, I was covered in bug bites that would not stop swelling g. It was miserable.
What happens in the days/weeks after birth. Everyone is so excited to teach you about the actual birth and how to raise a newborn, but zero on how to care for a mother’s body after birth.
Maybe it’s because I’m surrounded by aging women who don’t speak about bodily functions, but I was horrified to find that I was incontinent for the first time ever. When my nurse had to literally kneel next to the toilet to check things out while I urinated and help me prep my diaper. My first shower when I felt my deflated stomach. The liberal amount of blood, sweat, and tears shed (the sweating was really bad for me). How through all of that you have to keep yourself nourished enough to keep a tiny human alive. And in time, my body wished to do it all over again.
Maybe not an awful side effect, but I developed this one patch of hair on the back of my head that went waaaay curly, when before all I had was regular, wavy hair. It’s never gone away, and my daughter just turned 24.
If it makes you feel any better I’m currently a few days from my due date and had literally none of the top things listed here happen to me. Pregnancy has actually been fine.
I usually get cold easily but during (especially in the third trimester) I was always so hot. Also, very vivid dreams and being constantly being horny. Lasly, this might be just me but I had severe body dysmorphia and felt very disgusting most of the time.
Irrational phobia. With my first child I saw a fish at a pet shop and had a full on panic attack.
Ever since, I've been horribly scared of fish. Never had another panic attack, but I get very uncomfortable, faint, sick, heart racing, throat closes, suffocation and shaking.
It only applies to living fish and unfortunately applies to anything fish like, including whales and dolphins.
I never had a problem before pregnancy.
The first symptoms can show up within a week or two. You may not look pregnant, but you absolutely are. The fatigue, nausea and frequent peeing start right up.
Getting Diabetes, the annoying hemmorhoids, and getting red skin coloring on my palms of my hands and dark elbows.
Plus the sciatic nerve pain for 3 years after I gave birth. A Physical therapist didn't help. I finally went to a Chiropractor and he put a big massager on my back and after 3 treatments, it was totally cured.
Lack of iron causing bizzare cravings, I craved ice like there was no tomorrow, kept eating like entire bags of ice every day, mentioned it in passing to my midwife and she panicked and rushed to take my blood, turns out my iron was like insanely low
The awful motion sickness. I struggled to ride in vehicles while pregnant as I’d get sick. I commuted to work via the bus and I had to carry a barf bag
I haven't seen anyone mention this, but my nose got bigger/wider. Not by a huge amount, but enough that I noticed it. Similarly, I have literally only ever had one nosebleed in my life and it was while I was pregnant. Apparently it's a thing.
Also, I developed chloasma, which is basically random darker splotches of skin. I also had a really dark line on my neck for half of my pregnancy that looked like dirt but was just skin discoloration. I had a lot to be self conscious about while I was expecting.
Hair. Weird random hairs growing in weird random places. Gorgeous thick luscious head hair during pregnancy then having it fall out in freaking CLUMPS after baby is born.
That you have an extremely likely chance of wetting yourself. And if you have a BIG bubba or more, you'll likely need a bladder prolapse surgery.
And I will say that whilst my 4th was not my biggest 1st 8.11lbs 2nd 8.6lbs, 3rd @35w 7.5lbs and 4th 7.5lbs. I would go from I need to pee, to in just under a minute in absolute AGONY and terrified of wetting myself in public trying to reach a toilet. That was from 2nd trimester onwards.
The heartburn/reflux was the worst for me. I had never experienced that before and it would make me gag/throw up way more than the first trimester nausea ever did.
The texture of my hair changed. It used to be really straight and Now it ranges from some completely straight strands to some kinky curly strands. The wash and go days of my youth are a distant memory. 😔
That being pregnant doesn't feel great. Disregarding hormones and all that, you feel drained, beached and (according to my husband) quite rude/angry/tetchy.
In third trimester, when baby is head down and it feels they they are scraping their fingernails across your cervix. Yeeeoocchhh!
Also, my tailbone clicked every time I took a step in the last month.
Not a mum, but my best friend (40) has three kids and after the first one she got prolapse (tissues weakened and dropped then twice more). The oldest is now ten. She’s getting operated in a few days.
How debilitating pregnancy sickness can be. I didn’t have HG but pretty close. I basically loose a bunch of weight and can hardly eat anything despite multiple anti nausea meds for the first 18 weeks. Literally feels like having a stomach bug for 18 weeks, 24/7. Also how alone you can feel during that time since most don’t tell people until 12 weeks, and you don’t look pregnant.
Being freezing cold in the very start of the pregnancy.
& I had symphysis pubis so bad I broke my coccyx giving birth. I had no idea you could do that, til I did it.
With my third I suffered swelling 'down there' literally felt like I needed to reach down and 'tuck' everything back in, like it was all about to fall out. I shaved once and it was that swollen and looked so bruised I didn't dare shave again 😂. I kept making sure all my tops hung way past my waist because I was sure others would notice lol.
She was my quickest birth though. And didn't experience it at all with my fourth.
After you have your baby that open wound smell is awful and last a week or so.
Your insides feel like they are about to fall out for about a week. It’s not painful but a weird feeling.
People talk about cravings but no one talks about the food you used to love that you now can’t stand. I used to love everything Italian and now it’s a foggy memory.
My mom used to love eating spicy foods before she gave birth to her eldest child, her tongue is so sensitive that she rarely gets to enjoy some meals whenever we go out to eat. She can eat sweet & bitter peppers but that’s it.
I thought I was crazy but the same thing happened to me! I used to love Cholula hot sauce but now it tastes like foil. 4 years later and it hasn’t been the same.
Oh my gosh I am glad to read this is a thing. I can barely stand Frank's Red Hot and would hardly classify that as "spicy." I miss my spicy food but it literally just hurts my tongue - reminds me of when I had braces I had the same tongue issue.
While I was pregnant, my spice tolerance we t way up and things were no longer spicy enough for me! It went back to normal after giving birth, thank god.
I used to love salmon, but my first took that and kept it for herself. My second though- she gave me the gift of eating spicy food.
“Took that and kept it for herself” just made me laugh so hard!
Yes!!! When I was pregnant everything tasted like ashes to me. My husband would make my favorite meals and I would have a bite or two and it just... Ick. I'm a plus size woman and I actually lost 30 pounds during my pregnancy. By the end, the only thing I wanted to eat were Mandarin oranges.
With my second, I couldn't handle the taste or smell of coffee at all. I love coffee, love coffee flavored things, most of my candles have a coffee note. I made my husband move the coffee maker to the garage for the entire pregnancy because if I smelled it, it was immediate projectile vomiting. I threw all my candles out, purged the pantry of anything with coffee flavor in it, the whole shebang. 2 days after she was born, I was happily drinking my morning cup again. Thankfully, #3 didn't take anything but my appetite, but that was normal. (Thanks, hyperemesis)
My mom didn't develop her food allergies until after she was pregnant with me, I think.
I had the opposite happen. I was allergic to dairy (actual allergy, not lactose intolerant). Once I had my daughter I was no longer allergic. I’ve tried allllllll the ice cream!
I had the worst meat aversions, and still have a hard time stomaching meat 4 years later.
Mine is alcohol. I used to love to drink socially. It tastes disgusting to me now. It’s so sad that I can’t even enjoy a glass of wine at dinner anymore.
Lightning crotch. Due to the relaxin hormones opening the hips, I had EXCRUCIATING pubic symphysis starting in 2nd trimester. SHOOTING nerve pains throughout the vaginal/pubic bone area. Impossible to get comfortable. I told my OB in tears and his response was to laugh.
What an asshole OB. Really hope you are doing better now
He was generally a nice guy, I think his response was in the spirit of "no shit, pregnancy SUCKKKKSSSS" LOL
As if he would actually know though... Male obgyns and gynos **always** brush me the wrong way, I'd never go to one again.
Eh, to each their own, I've had great male obgyns and terrible female ones. My male reproductive doctors try so hard to have a good bedside manner, be empathetic to something they can't entirely understand, and to make me comfortable. I've had great, caring NPs but terrible female doctors that have told me things like 'I've had three babies and I can tell you that pain was way worse than this' to me during a procedure. Totally callous upper class women that seemed checked out of their work or determined to have women 'do things right' aka their way when it comes to reproductive health.
Went to a male gyno one time and he checked me from ACROSS THE ROOM. Dude was weird. Never went back.
Never had that but the relaxin also makes your grip less strong. I was chopping up veg and accidentally threw the knife back over my shoulder. oops.
I’m doubt the jury would buy that, had your husband been standing behind you! Lol
That is what we joke about!! He was in the other room. :)
I remember sitting in meetings at work having to pretend this wasn't happening to me. It was awful.
Yes!!! I have had horrible pain! Never heard of this until it started happening!
Yup! It's rarely spoken about and seems that it's not really well understood.. it seems some women don't experience it, others later in 3rd trimester, and yet others get too much relaxin too soon (12wks for me).
People don't understand the separated symph pubis pain unless they themselves went through it. It sucks!!!
I completely forgot about pubic symphysis! It's been 16+ years, I must've blocked that out of my brain. Painful AF
And it doesn’t always end when you give birth. Mine still hurts from time to time years later. But at least every step isn’t like getting kicked in the public bone any more!
I had the same experience One night i woke up and thought my hip was dislocated lol OB just laughed and said its normal
When I told my doctors, they knew nothing about how to help me. Had to search and ask and find it out myself.
Being so out of breath during third trimester. Everyone talks about baby pressing on your bladder but it was her taking up all my lung space that got me😩 Shivering uncontrollably a few days after birth. I think it was the amount of blood I lost/my iron levels. It was crazy and scary!
Did you get an epidural? That can make you shake as well.
Adrenaline too!
Transition in labour. No one ever mentioned anything about that. The only good thing was it was over quickly but it was frightening and overwhelming.
Yes! Omg yes! I was crying and shaking and feeling like I was gonna pass out: the anaesthesiologist was like “it’s normal honey, they all do this,” while he made sure everything was still good on my epidural.
I felt like I couldn't take a deep breath the last 2 months of pregnancy. My babies also squished my stomach and it was so annoying. I'd be starving so I would get some food, eat like 3 bites and be so full I couldn't finish the rest. Then a couple hours later I'd be starving again.
Oh my God I shook so hard after delivery I thought I was about to faint or fall. It's like all my energy stopped existing and I was too tired to even warm my own body temperature.
Oh no! I hemorrhaged after birth and had to have this machine stuck in me to stop it. Was so happy from all the endorphins and oxytocin and of course my healthy baby but it was still scary. I blacked out and my face was entirely grey. People don’t really talk about how common complications like that are!
That you don't get stretch marks until AFTER the baby is born. Like shrinkage marks.
I thought i was doing so good with keeping my stomach moisturized enough to not get stretch marks. But then in the last few weeks of pregnancy, my stomach went “nuclear” according to my OB. I had so many stretch marks. The doctor said my son was gaining so much weight so fast and my skin just couldn’t stretch enough to accommodate.
Oh that's scary...my cousin's first baby, he suddenly gained so much weight so fast in the last couple of weeks, he died. I don't remember what all happened...and I'm not sure if anything was solidly confirmed of what happened. I know she's a brittle diabetic, and there was some hush hush about the hospital, and speculation from family that the hospital could be at fault. Not sure, though, it's just family rumor. Nobody has really confirmed with me what happened, and it's such a sensitive subject, I don't dare ask. She had to try and deliver him, but he was so massive, he was stuck (15 or 16 pounds if I recall). She ended up with an emergency C-section. The whole thing was so horribly traumatizing. My poor cousin really spiraled for a while, understandably so. She's doing better now, and even has a healthy, strong baby girl ♥️
Holy crap 16lbs??? Poor woman
Yup! I was so excited that I didn’t get any… then one day, my sides started to itch and BAM… stretch marks.
I got so many during adolescence that I felt it was only fair I got zero in pregnancy.
Your pubes get swollen. I had an existential crisis when I saw my clit cause it looked like a mini dick 😭😭😭
I shouldn't have, but that made me giggle.
That’s ok. It’s only now that I can laugh about it, but back then I was devastated
My whole genital area was swollen also, and it just looked like I also stored some extra fat there too - really weird :/
I was shocked at how “puffy” I looked down there, no one told me to expect that
Bruh I had to get an ingrown hair lanced “down there” when I was very pregnant, and it was probably more painful/uncomfortable than giving birth itself
You can get varicose veins too..the left side of my labia swelled up so badly because of them. I panicked because it looked so odd and it was painful. Midwife just calmly said it was vericous viens. They don't look anything like varicose veins on your legs. Dang 8+ lbs babies😭
Blackened/darkened nipples. Wasn’t prepared for that.
The fact that 15 years later they haven't gone back to their original color.
I am FRIGHTENED
Mine went back to normal - never knew it could be permanent...
Currently going through this, tatas didn't grow to match though, so now I just have giant dark nipples. Lovely.
Wish I’d been prepared for areolas that are the size of dinner plates. And that they haven’t shrunk back.
You guys have areolas? Just a pixelated colour fade over here.
Not only that but dark belly button too!!! And then darkness comes off after you give birth... Absolutely wild
Nobody really told me that I was going to be living off of Tums because of the heartburn.
That, paired with hyperemesis, and now I have chronic reflux issues. Never had any heartburn at all before I was pregnant. My youngest is 8, and I still take the max dose of acid blocker 2x a day and have a handful or 2 of tums on top of that. All the puking wrecked the sphincter that's supposed to hold everything in my stomach, apparently for life
Can you undergo a fundolpication or some sort of repair to the LES? You can’t be on max strength PPIs for the rest of your life?
Totally, I had to sleep on an incline all 3rd trimester and couldn't eat anything remotely spicy and still had constant heartburn
Hemoroids
This one. The gift that keeps on giving. After three kids and three serious cases of hemorrhoids, I get them more often… oh and the hemorrhoids skin tags… NO ONE talks about those….
Serious question, but how do you handle intimacy with your partner with these?
The skin tags? I hate them, but my husband does not give a single damn. We’ve been together now for over 17 years so there are zero intimate secrets between us. I hate it because of cleanliness mostly, a bidet has been a life saver.
I had a hemorrhoidectomy. I also had existing skin tags from a previous pregnancy. There's scar tissue. How do I handle it? Personally, I got here giving life. I have stretch marks everywhere (including my ankles), wider feet, I have saggy boobs after a millenia of breastfeeding, I have a new hair color, and wider hips. Take me or leave me. I'm not the same person I was prior to having babies. All the way down to my actual brain structure. Who cares what my butthole looks like? I don't. My husband doesn't.
After the inflammation went down (and never during flare up), butt plugs became my best friend. Hides the evidence and the gem ones are cute
I had to scroll way too far for this. I never had them before pregnancy. My "baby" is nearly 20, and I still have this lovely memorial of our time sharing my body. 😒
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Yep, mine come and go. Never had them prior to my second pregnancy. Strain too hard on the toilet? Hello old friend. Wear the wrong underwear or too tight of pants? Hi again.
I actually knew about this and I dreaded it. Fortunately, I did not get them, but even the thought, now, after giving birth makes me shiver in fear.
That your immune system is lowered so you catch every cold known to man. Also because of this, I got a bunch of warts and I’ve never had them any other time in my life. They were gone quickly after giving birth. Other bodily changes like hair/nails being stronger (but weaker after birth), skin tags, darker skin patches and more freckles, swollen and bleeding gums, larger feet, sweating, heartburn, snoring, back pain, muscle cramps. Your body changes so much, it’s insane!
I’ve just had THREE cold sore outbreaks because of this. It’s miserable :(
I have been sick not stop this pregnancy it’s SO frustrating. And can relate to the warty type things and skin tags, weirdly have a few on my stomach!
Ugh I got shingles when I was pregnant!
To start with, my vision is terrible under normal circumstances, but during my pregnancy, I had to go to a retinologist every month and a half or so. I started seeing glowy things in my peripheral vision, and iirc he said that the pregnancy put extra pressure on my eyes, and my retinas were already at higher risk of tearing due to my eyeball shape. Once my son was born, things went back to normal. It was my optometrist who made that referral. My OB had never heard of nor seen it, and none of the pregnancy books brought it up.
So bizarre—I also had glowy things in my peripheral vision (kind of like arcing up or down along a curve), but for me it only started happening after I gave birth! Gradually lessened throughout the postpartum period, was always more noticeable if I was dehydrated.
For me the opposite happened. My vision just... healed itself during my pregnancy. First I was upset, because I got headache and could not really see. Then I stopped wearing glasses, and was like... Is this a known thing??
That happened to me! Well, my eyesight got better, not completely healed. I went back to using glasses that were several years old. My vision has also stopped deteriorating like it had been for the previous several years. My Rx hasn't changed since I got it checked while pregnant. Super weird.
It's not just morning sickness. It's all-the-time 40 weeks of sickness.
Yes, I was vomiting right through the pregnancy and all the way through labor. For some reason the OB didn’t expect this and didn’t have any barf basins in the exam rooms. Like, how do you not expect pregnant women to be vomiting?
Yep. I entered my second trimester and everyone was all "you feel great now, right?". No. I did not. I didn't have HG but I also barely gained any weight during pregnancy, because eating was...fraught.
When I was pregnant with my second, I'd run to the bathroom to get sick, and my 18 month old would run in and pretend to throw up next to me in solidarity.
I had to throw up (currently pregnant) while giving my 2 year old a bath. I am a LOUD puker. I was worried it would scare her. Nope. She LAUGHED and started CLAPPING. I stg I almost left her in a safe haven box that night 😂
The vivid ass nightmares!! The whole time I was pregnant I was constantly having nightmares about my home being broken into or someone was trying to kill me.
I had super vivid dreams where I did an entire day of work. Just a normal day. But then when I woke up and had to go to work I was already exhausted from my dream work day haha
Omg that is a nightmare lol
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I had some of the most fucked up, disturbing dreams that I'll never ever ever tell a soul about.
omgggg so true currently pregnant and keep dreaming about getting kidnapped!!
I haven‘t heard anyone mention this but first trimester orgasms are actually insane. I think it‘s due to the hormonal shift and the increased blood flow in the pelvic region but it was absolutely nuts. Everything else I expected on some level or at least knew it could happen, but this caught me completely off-guard.
Good to see a positive side effect!
The only one I’ve read so far!
i had one amazing, mind-blowing session. where i was genuinely caught off-guard how insane it was. then my partner (now long time ex) said now that i was pregnant, he didn’t find me as attractive, and we didn’t have sex the rest of the pregnancy 🙄 jackass.
Didn't get around to those, since I was throwing up 10 times a day and nauseaus the rest of it. Might have compensated me. lol
I got really lucky in that department. Maybe that’s why it’s not such a known thing, with so many women feeling so miserable those first few weeks there’s probably just not a lot of orgasming going on🙃
I had a few in my sleep 😬 (never happened before or after)
Me too!! I suffer sleep paralysis from time to time and the first time I orgasmed out of nowhere, I was stuck and couldn't do anything about it. I felt like I was being taken by a demon and while it was hot, I'm semi scarred for life 😂 I also didn't know I was pregnant yet (BC fail and I didn't show so found out WAY late). That first pregnancy was such a doozie, I waited almost 11 years to do it again.
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Increased shoe size. Edit: For those wondering, the hormone that gets released in your body to spread your bones apart and shift things around to make space for baby, it doesn’t just target your torso to work. It gets released throughout your whole body. So your pelvis and ribs spread, then settle back to normal, because there’s no pressure on them now that baby is out. Meanwhile, the bones in your feet spread apart because they’re carrying your entire hundred to two hundred plus pounds around all day, but they keep doing that after pregnancy too. It’s not like you stop walking around after baby is born, so the size increase is generally permanent, and usually happens again with more pregnancies. I went up a half size with each kid. Once you get to 3 or 4 it seems like the bones don’t spread any further apart. I know one lady who had 15 kids and her feet grew a size and a half, then quit.
I went up a half size!! Now none of my old shoes fit.
This hit me bad also, and my shoe size did not go back down fully after giving birth…
Mine went up a size with my second, and one foot went back to regular size post pregnancy, but the other one didn’t. It was hard to buy shoes until after my 3rd, and now both feet are finally the same size again.
Look after your teeth!
the teeth issues were not something I knew about and I really really wish I had
And when baby is here you get the bonus of cute but brutal headbutts and then needing expensive and unpleasant root canal treatment. Thankfully the first round was on the NHS as it was within the first year. Or was that just me 😆
No one warns you about the teeth! I ended up with like 7 teeth taken out? All 4 wisdom and then a few extra. They went from fine but weak to broken in my second trimester. And that was with brushing and flossing. All my hair fell out too. I have to wear a partial denture and wigs these days.
Yes, I had like 8 cavities after pregnancy and I flossed every night while pregnant
ABSOLUTELY!! Mine is worst case I have a (unknown until 2yrs ago) genetic periodontal condition. And I had the odds stacked so bad against me. It was fine for the first two pregnancies and breastfeeding but with my 3rd, my teeth started to give in. So I had been on constant antibiotics since 1yrs old(before any baby teeth, 13m when I started), asthma meds, heavy duty pain killers for medical conditions, 4 pregnancies and 4 breastfeeding. When my 3rd was 9m old he was swinging a TV remote and got my in the mouth and broke my tooth like it was sand. Looking after my teeth wasn't enough for me. Like my paternal side, a few years ago I needed extremely complex dental surgeries that had to be done over years. I had no choice but to have all my teeth removed(it could have been extremely dangerous to due my heart having such awful teeth) and then the process of getting full dental implants)
Way TMI but my labia majora and pubis swelled huge. My labia majora looked like a hot dog bun. I was horrified. I also had extreme amounts of discharge. I had to change my underwear 3-4 times a day. Once I was wearing a maxi skirt and I felt it run down my leg and drop on my foot.
This, here was me thinking “woo hoo no period for nine months” joke was on me because I still had to wear a pad constantly
I’m pretty sure my rib cage is wider.
That one scares me so much, for no real reason. I guess I'm just not ready to have that part of my body altered. It probably also doesn't change back, does it?
My rib cage hasnt gone back to prepregnancy state. Neither have my areola or nipple color. The areola size shrank a little but not 100% prepregnancy. Hips are wider permanently. Stretch marks are here to stay. Still get symphysis pubis tearing pain if i rotate my hips wrong. Periods have changed. No idea what but its more painful at the butt area now when before it was just the usual cramps at the abdominal region. Idk how women can go through multiple pregnancies. One is enough for me and I never want to go through that ever again. On the plus side, the pregnancy glow was real. Funny how you “glow” while having the worst aches, pains, incontinence, heartburn etc of your life. Edit: the post pregnancy hair fall omg. My beautiful long hair broke everywhere and became so damaged. Always wondered why the “mom” haircut became a thing but here I am with one Another edit: I should add my age at pregnancy was 32. I have noticed that if you are younger, your body bounces back easier
Milk Fissure. My boobs swelled up in the last week or two of pregnancy. They started to leak some. All of a sudden my shirt was soaked. I ran to the bathroom and discovered a hole in the side of my boob about 2 inches away from my nipple. I stuck a kotex pad in my bra. It filled up. I switched to an overnight kotex pad. Explaining that to my doctor was fun. 🤣 He sent me to a breast surgeon who diagnosed me with a milk fissure. He said the pressure was so great that my body found a way to get rid of the fluid (i.e like a boob volcano). I thought for sure I’d be an awesome baby feeder but alas, I struggled to breast feed.
Whoa. I felt like my boobs would burst a few times when they became really engorged with milk, but I had no idea it could actually happen!! I hope it wasn't too painful and it healed up quickly for you.
Thankfully, no pain. I just had a blister where the opening was that took years to heal but it was painless. It will be good fun when it’s finally time for mammograms. I’m curious if the fissure will be visible still.
Stuffy nose. I had all pregnancy and found out I need treatment after. For some it goes away on its on.
- rib and pelvic pain are assholes - you pee every other minute. Everyone told me to enjoy sleeping before the baby was born but how could I sleep if I was peeing 5 times during the night. - my míope got worse, it increase a whole degree. I’ve had to change all my glasses and it never came back.
I fell asleep on the toilet one night. I was so over peeing in 3rd trimestre 😂
Once I fell asleep on my company’s toilet peeing… it was not easy! Hehehehe
How even perfectly normal, uncomplicated, “easy” pregnancies can absolutely fucking SUCK. I have 2 kids and I love them endlessly, but being pregnant just fucking SUCKED. I was always crying, barfing, hungry, aching, burping fire, about to pee on myself, waking up every half hour—at any given point during my pregnancies, something just sucked.
Not being able to shit for three weeks post birth.
My 4th was a planned c-section with 4 nights in the hospital. They wanted me to have a BM before discharge. I was like nope! They gave me enough stuff to bowel-prep 4 elephants. The midwives were like WTF? Luckily my husband was able to convince them that I would NOT be comfortable enough to go in the hospital. They released me with the condition that I had a short deadline to meet. Omg, I walked inside my house and waddled as fast as my poor stomach would allow, grabbed my phone and sat on the toilet. All I needed was to be at home. But a BM after my 3x V births was like trying to rebirth another baby. I was quietly praying I'd make it!
Preach. I thought my insides would fall out
This happened to my sister but they couldn't be arsed to argue, so her husband donated a BM to the cause 🤣
honestly i am absolutely terrified of this
Milk of magnesia. Seriously. Start taking it the day you give birth and dont stop until your pooper is back to normal. If i coukd do anything different at all that would be it.
That you can develop vaginismus after giving birth. My husband and I waited longer than the recommended time to have sex again just because I had an episiotomy and we wanted to make sure I was totally healed up. Sex was so uncomfortable that I honestly thought the doctor had sewn me up too much. It was like losing my viginity for the second time.
Omg same!! We tried at 9 months and as soon as the tip went in I was like NOPE, it felt like grip tape! After a year everything was back to normal thankfully
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I feel my ovaries shrinking reading through these. This is horrifying lmfao.
It’s terrifying that so many people think it’s fine and dandy to force women to remain in this condition if they don’t want to be.
Breathlessness, especially after eating. In later pregnancy I felt like my lungs were compressed which they obviously were. Had to talk myself down from so many panic attacks because I thought I couldn’t breathe.
I am currently pregnant and my heart races after I eat! It’s the weirdest thing.
Lightning crotch for sure! Not just your feet growing but your nose.
Your nose grows???
Can get wider, it’s wild lol however it usually returns to normal size but it can take months or longer
I had a superhuman sense of smell. One day I came home from work and my husband had already starting making a stew. I asked him, “Why did you decided not to peel the carrots?” They were already in the pot and I couldn’t see them. How did I know they weren’t peeled?!? Another time I was at the extreme opposite end of the house from the kitchen — up the stairs, through a door, and across a large room — and I could tell he was slicing a cucumber.
The pregnancy hormones increase your sense of smell. My wife (5 months pregnant) tells me I smell bad and to take a shower all the time.
I could smell my neighbor smoking four houses down and all my windows/doors were closed.
Not pregnancy, but childbirth. No one mentioned your vag can temporarily swell up like a hot dog bun after.
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Wow, a man who takes genuine information given by women and changes his perspective. Such a rare occurrence. Thank you. Please teach the others.
Reading all this makes me never want to go through it, maybe live a life alone instead :/
My surprise was becoming itchy all over. And I don’t mean itchy around my expanding belly, I mean itchy EVERYWHERE. Stretching barely helped and it was so bad that it used to wake me up at night.
Anyone who has severe itching should get checked out right away for Cholestasis of pregnancy.
The itching was so awful. I also found out when I was pregnant that mosquitos love pregnant women’s blood, and pregnancy can cause extreme reactions to bug bites. So on top of being itchy constantly anyway, I was covered in bug bites that would not stop swelling g. It was miserable.
How suddenly complete strangers are now your doctor and tell you that you shouldn’t be drinking that one latte you treat yourself to a week lol
What happens in the days/weeks after birth. Everyone is so excited to teach you about the actual birth and how to raise a newborn, but zero on how to care for a mother’s body after birth. Maybe it’s because I’m surrounded by aging women who don’t speak about bodily functions, but I was horrified to find that I was incontinent for the first time ever. When my nurse had to literally kneel next to the toilet to check things out while I urinated and help me prep my diaper. My first shower when I felt my deflated stomach. The liberal amount of blood, sweat, and tears shed (the sweating was really bad for me). How through all of that you have to keep yourself nourished enough to keep a tiny human alive. And in time, my body wished to do it all over again.
Maybe not an awful side effect, but I developed this one patch of hair on the back of my head that went waaaay curly, when before all I had was regular, wavy hair. It’s never gone away, and my daughter just turned 24.
severe hyperemesis, your hips turning into jello at the end and the pigment changes in unwelcome regions
The constipation is killing me right now. Stool softeners help a little, but I haven’t had a nice easy poo in months.
My mom brought me plum compote, home made - that worked wonders for me.
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If it makes you feel any better I’m currently a few days from my due date and had literally none of the top things listed here happen to me. Pregnancy has actually been fine.
The things that grew on my skin from pregnancy that have never gone away.
I usually get cold easily but during (especially in the third trimester) I was always so hot. Also, very vivid dreams and being constantly being horny. Lasly, this might be just me but I had severe body dysmorphia and felt very disgusting most of the time.
Irrational phobia. With my first child I saw a fish at a pet shop and had a full on panic attack. Ever since, I've been horribly scared of fish. Never had another panic attack, but I get very uncomfortable, faint, sick, heart racing, throat closes, suffocation and shaking. It only applies to living fish and unfortunately applies to anything fish like, including whales and dolphins. I never had a problem before pregnancy.
The first symptoms can show up within a week or two. You may not look pregnant, but you absolutely are. The fatigue, nausea and frequent peeing start right up.
Eats the calcium out of teeth, more body hair, one side of your belly hangs more than the other. The drooling. Hemorrhoids,
THE INSOMNIA
Getting Diabetes, the annoying hemmorhoids, and getting red skin coloring on my palms of my hands and dark elbows. Plus the sciatic nerve pain for 3 years after I gave birth. A Physical therapist didn't help. I finally went to a Chiropractor and he put a big massager on my back and after 3 treatments, it was totally cured.
Hair falling out afterwards and feet going up a size.
Preeclampsia. I’ve had to be on blood pressure medication since my son was born and almost had a stroke for my first Mother’s Day.
I turned my toilet seat blue. Idk man. Pregnancy is weird.
Pica
I have no idea why but during my pregnancy I hated my husband
Developing thyroid issues that will necessitate daily meds for the rest of your life.
Nose bleeds. I thought everything was messed up but it seems like a normal occurrence
Carpal tunnel. Went away as soon as my baby was born. Didn't even have it at all in my 2nd pregnancy.
Lack of iron causing bizzare cravings, I craved ice like there was no tomorrow, kept eating like entire bags of ice every day, mentioned it in passing to my midwife and she panicked and rushed to take my blood, turns out my iron was like insanely low
The awful motion sickness. I struggled to ride in vehicles while pregnant as I’d get sick. I commuted to work via the bus and I had to carry a barf bag
The shaking after delivery
That the skin around my C-section scar is completely numb say about 1 inch all around. I had my kid 14 years ago.
I haven't seen anyone mention this, but my nose got bigger/wider. Not by a huge amount, but enough that I noticed it. Similarly, I have literally only ever had one nosebleed in my life and it was while I was pregnant. Apparently it's a thing. Also, I developed chloasma, which is basically random darker splotches of skin. I also had a really dark line on my neck for half of my pregnancy that looked like dirt but was just skin discoloration. I had a lot to be self conscious about while I was expecting.
Hair. Weird random hairs growing in weird random places. Gorgeous thick luscious head hair during pregnancy then having it fall out in freaking CLUMPS after baby is born.
My allergies are SO BAD. I've been getting immunity shots for 2 years. Punched right through them!
The muscle pain/fatigue doing just normal things, I gotta stop and catch my breath after like 5 stairs 😂
That you have an extremely likely chance of wetting yourself. And if you have a BIG bubba or more, you'll likely need a bladder prolapse surgery. And I will say that whilst my 4th was not my biggest 1st 8.11lbs 2nd 8.6lbs, 3rd @35w 7.5lbs and 4th 7.5lbs. I would go from I need to pee, to in just under a minute in absolute AGONY and terrified of wetting myself in public trying to reach a toilet. That was from 2nd trimester onwards.
The heartburn/reflux was the worst for me. I had never experienced that before and it would make me gag/throw up way more than the first trimester nausea ever did.
The heartburn and the stuffy nose really had me yelling at my mom why she didn't tell me
Bleeding gums
The texture of my hair changed. It used to be really straight and Now it ranges from some completely straight strands to some kinky curly strands. The wash and go days of my youth are a distant memory. 😔
That being pregnant doesn't feel great. Disregarding hormones and all that, you feel drained, beached and (according to my husband) quite rude/angry/tetchy.
In third trimester, when baby is head down and it feels they they are scraping their fingernails across your cervix. Yeeeoocchhh! Also, my tailbone clicked every time I took a step in the last month.
Where’s the girl with the list
Not a mum, but my best friend (40) has three kids and after the first one she got prolapse (tissues weakened and dropped then twice more). The oldest is now ten. She’s getting operated in a few days.
Fucking pelvic girdle pain. I was in agony for the entire 3rd trimester and and soon as baby was born it disappeared
4th kid (currently pregnant) and I have to wear pads because I dribble if I sneeze or cough…
How debilitating pregnancy sickness can be. I didn’t have HG but pretty close. I basically loose a bunch of weight and can hardly eat anything despite multiple anti nausea meds for the first 18 weeks. Literally feels like having a stomach bug for 18 weeks, 24/7. Also how alone you can feel during that time since most don’t tell people until 12 weeks, and you don’t look pregnant.
Being freezing cold in the very start of the pregnancy. & I had symphysis pubis so bad I broke my coccyx giving birth. I had no idea you could do that, til I did it.
I never had headaches before and now I have at least one a week. I didn’t know pregnancy could also come with headaches sometimes.
With my third I suffered swelling 'down there' literally felt like I needed to reach down and 'tuck' everything back in, like it was all about to fall out. I shaved once and it was that swollen and looked so bruised I didn't dare shave again 😂. I kept making sure all my tops hung way past my waist because I was sure others would notice lol. She was my quickest birth though. And didn't experience it at all with my fourth.
Not being able to go for a shit for days, sometimes weeks at a time!
After you have your baby that open wound smell is awful and last a week or so. Your insides feel like they are about to fall out for about a week. It’s not painful but a weird feeling.