15 Women Share the Things They Wish They Knew Before They Got Pregnant
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Skin Changes
“Skin tags, so many skin tags! Moles growing into skin tags then dropping off, like WTF body. Sandpaper dry skin, which I still get from time to time, just this one patch on the back of my right hand. My facial skin changing from t-zone oily to t-zone flaky and never going back. My psoriasis on my scalp going away, this did come back but not as bad.”
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Morning Sickness Means Different Things
“Morning sickness isn’t just puking, it can also just be this awful hell of constant nausea. First pregnancy I puked about four times, this time ‘morning sickness’ was just constant nausea without any relief for four weeks.”
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Excess Thirst
“I’ve been constantly insanely thirsty since probably month 2. I’m drinking something like 8-10 12 oz glasses of water a day. And no, turns out it isn’t gestational diabetes…just pregnancy.”
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Constipation
“I wish someone would have warned me about the constipation. Corollary: I wish someone would have warned me that ‘fiber supplement’ does not equal ‘stool softener.’”
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Muscle Cramps
“I had to learn a new way to pop my ankles because every night I would pop them and get massive Charlie horses in my legs that my fiancé had to massage out.”
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Hair Loss
“After I had my kid, I lost a ton of hair. I would pull fists full of hair during my showers. I thought there was something wrong with me because no one told me about this. Went to Google, totally normal and it happens to everyone. It grows back eventually, and you’ll go through an awkward baby hair phase.”
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Loss of Mobility
“Your body produces a hormone called relaxin that helps loosen your pelvis in preparation for birth. Some women get waayyy too much too soon and it loosens everything to the point you lose mobility and every day all day is painful.”
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Breast Pain
“I hit one in my sleep and woke up in excruciating pain. Like…wtf. I knew they got bigger, but the pain was a surprise.”
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Cravings for Things Other Than Food
“I craved dirt, particularly beach sand. The smell of the beach was excruciating, I just wanted to shovel handfuls into my mouth. I never ate dirt or sand and the craving went away when baby was born. A friend of a friend told me she craved freshly poured asphalt so in a way I’m glad my craving was just dirt.”
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Insomnia
“The sickest joke of all: you stop being able to sleep way before the baby gets here. Everyone loves to tell me to ‘sleep now while I can’ but pregnancy leads to unexplained insomnia and I’m a total wreck already.”
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Nosebleeds
“When I was pregnant, I got nosebleeds every few days during the first and second trimesters.”
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Temporary Blindness
“I went partially blind in one eye. Apparently temporary blindness can happen in pregnancy, but my eyesight never returned. (Also increased my shoe size by one, and developed year round allergies.)”
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Labor Can Take a Long Time
“For some people, labor doesn’t start with water breaking and 30 minutes later there’s a baby. My water broke and 29 hours later the baby decided to show up.”
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Every Pregnancy is Different
“This means some pregnant women can work out, hike, do their normal stuff just a little slower most of their pregnancy. Then there are some women who throw up the whole time, and they are weak and tired and just standing up takes time and effort. I was the latter, expecting at the same time as another in the former and I was constantly compared and judged.”
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Postpartum Depression is Common
“That no matter how much you planned and wanted your baby – postpartum depression can happen to you and it is very, very real. It is not something you can control. Hormones are liars. Partners of new moms please pay close attention. Get help. Do not try to tough it out. Get. Help.”
What’s something you experienced during pregnancy that you didn’t know was a thing?
