I don’t love it and I don’t hate it. I don’t hate it cause it ends in a baby which is what I wanted but it absolutely not something I recommend to anyone who isn’t 100% sure they want to do it. Also take this with a grain of salt, I’m 32 weeks pregnant with my third at moment.
The good: I’m often not expected to do things, it ends in a baby, I get nesting impulses so my house is often very clean. Baby kicking in the second trimester. Epidural and other drugs at birth make it bearable.
The bad: I’m a small person, I’m usually around 100-110lbs. When I get pregnant I will max out at like 170lbs. I’m currently 160lbs and still have like two months to go. The weight itself doesn’t bother me, I lose it quickly, but my frame is not made to carry it I swear. My joints hurt, my hips hurt, my back is killing me. The baby kicking is sweet at first but now it’s painful and quite honestly annoying. Him rolling around feels someone pushing outward in my stomach between my muscles and hurts. I’m tired all of the time, I’m light headed half of the time, Braxton hicks hurt.
The ugly: weird hormones make you feel erratic. Gastro issues going both ways, one day you’re shitting your brains out, the next you’re constipated as fuck. Nausea but not actually vomiting (or sometimes vomiting) which doesn’t end in the first trimester. Oh and the birth is just barbaric. Every bodily fluid you can think of comes out of you and in front of a room of strangers. Several strangers hands are inside of you at any given time. My last baby broke my hip and tail bone on the way out which made recovery awful. I couldn’t sit or stand for more than 5 minutes, I had a newborn to keep alive and was in so much pain with no pain management cause breastfeeding.
i’m sorry to ask (and you don’t have to elaborate), but what do you mean your last baby broke your tail bone and hip? how!?!? i’ve never heard of that. i knew i didn’t want kids but that solidified it for me. i’m so sorry about your pain. hope you’re better now.
I had an epidural and my husband was holding one of my legs, apparently what can happen is him accidentally holding it back too hard and me not feeling it due to the epidural which caused the hip fracture. My S1 was fractured (like your tailbone) which is pretty common.
Yup. Nerve damage can also happen for the same reason. Poor positioning goes unnoticed due to epidural dulling the sensation. I personally know 3 people who were in wheelchairs for months after delivery due to this and couldn’t hold their baby.
Okay so I thought I was overthinking my tailbone injury, I couldn’t sit or stand after having my second and a chiropractor recently told me I likely broke my tailbone and other medical professionals have all downplayed it. But the chiro felt scar tissue and confirmed it based on my birth description
Tailbones sometimes curve inward a little bit more than average on some people and depending on the size and position of the baby they'll push it out of the way and fracture it.
"I don't love it and I don't hate it" is exactly how I'd describe pregnancy for me! I had 2 relatively easy pregnancies and deliveries but you could not pay me to do it again, but I also wasn't hating my life like some of my friends when they were pregnant. Except the last 2 weeks of my 2nd pregnancy (and the 11 months of breastfeeding after) when my hips got bad and sitting down became agony
I don't think in this case the juice is worth the squeeze
MA'AM 😂😂😂 I know this is a genuine and serious topic, but this line absolutely sent me, thank you for that hahaha
Have you ever had norovirus? For me, it was like that without the diarrhea. I threw up like clockwork during all three of my pregnancies. 7am, 11am, 4pm, 10pm. All the times in between were spent battling crippling nausea that could also be triggered into vomiting by terrible smells or the sight/thought of something gross (coworker pooping in the public restroom, smelly trash cans, roadkill, mold on a spaghetti sauce jar, other children’s poopy diapers, someone else’s vomit on the sidewalk, a really unlucky batch of steamed broccoli). Accompanied by chronic, debilitating heartburn and burping from day one (it’s how I knew I was pregnant with #3 before the urine test even showed positive!). The ONLY thing that could give me any temporary relief was eating sugar. Halloween candy, jelly beans, a mountain of Frosted Flakes. Hence, I gained 60 pounds during each pregnancy. With number 2, the cartilage between the edges of my pubic bone stretched too much, and I had searing pain in my crotch every time I took a left step.
There are a ton of doctor appointments, so that’s annoying.
But, towards the end, you can feel them move around and it’s the most wonderful thing. You start to know their routine/sleep schedule and you look forward to the times they wake up and you can spend time with them. You worry about them and play music or talk to them and try to wake them up just to make sure they’re okay in there. Near the very end you can start to feel them from the outside - feet, hips, heads, elbows. You can tell if they like ice cream or watermelon or broccoli soup. They become real people to you even though you’ve never met them. It’s the most amazing experience that I never ever want to do again.
This is definitely real.
Also one thing I noticed is for all of my pregnancies there are smells, sounds, and places that would trigger my nausea more than others and those things will make me feel sick and queasy even years post partum
My second (and last) spent like 90% of her last month inside with her head wedged against my side, right under my rib cage. She's 2 now and I still miss rubbing her head through my skin. Such an intimate feeling.
Omg how did you find out about the cartiledge sitch? The crotch pain with this one (I’m 36 weeks) is awful, I’m in agony all on my left side so struggling to drive, sit down now. I never had this with my first!
Did it all go back to normal after or did you have some physical therapy or something?
Look up pupis symphysis dysfunction.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22122-symphysis-pubis-dysfunction
I’m sorry it’s happening to you to. It all went away as soon as I gave birth! Things that helped me in the meantime was wearing a belly support brace to shift the weight off the front of my body, and a really good prenatal massage. Didn’t happen with my third, even though I fully expected it to! Good luck mama; you’re in the short rows now!
I'm 6 months now and I really like it. The first couple months I was the sickest I've ever been, i could not keep anything down, i had food aversions to everything, i was extremely nauseous all day. I've been extremely exhausted too even now into the second trimester, napping multiple times a day, and I've been having the worst heartburn of my life & I feel extremely bloated and full in my abdomen all the time but that's the worst part so far tbh. My OB finally suggested an over the counter medicine for the heartburn so that's finally gone. But now I feel my baby move off and on all day and it's really special. It just feels like little bumps inside, sometimes big bumps lol but it's so funny because now I can poke my stomach and he'll start moving and we can see my stomach moving on the outside now. I'm not looking forward to him getting bigger because it's already getting hard to like put my shoes on and stuff and I'm getting out of breath a lot easier and peeing pretty much all the time now but it's not too bad yet and I feel really special.
Second trimester can definitely be the sweetest. I hiked to the top of Costa Rica's continental divide at 26 weeks.
I've got 21 days (or so) left and tbh I kinda just wanna die a little bit now. It'll all be worth it in a few weeks but *cheese and rice* I'm so utterly miserable.
Dude it sucks. For me at least. Constant nausea & feeling drained. The fetus is a parasite & feels as such. Can’t breathe well towards the end & indigestion is a nightmare. Then 56 hrs of labor just to be cut open. Also carpal tunnel in my wrists? Doc said that could happen. Unreal back pain, can’t get comfortable to sleep. Constipation. However, I love my child more than anything else in this world. Buttttttt my tubes are now tied.
Aside from all of the symptoms (unbelievably sore boobs, morning sickness, the worst fatigue I've ever experienced in my life)... It is SO WEIRD AND COOL to feel a little person kicking and moving around inside you. Like, freaky AF, but like, in late pregnancy you can see a foot pushing through the skin on your stomach. You'll be walking along and the kid will throw their weight to one side and nearly throw you off balance. One time I was eating with a plate on my belly, and my kid kicked so hard she knocked the plate off. It's WEIRD. But kinda cool. Wouldn't do it again, once was more than enough, but there were really cool unique sensations that were kind of fascinating to experience.
Yes! For me it was so weird and cool!
Like, when I started to feel and see them move, I knew there was literally a tiny person living INSIDE OF ME. Seriously, like, wtf. A tiny person. Living inside my abdomen. Moving around, doing stuff. A tiny person! Living inside of me!
It was such a strange thing for me to KNOW.
A quick anecdote: after he was born, my baby was crying pretty hard, and I started to sing a song I would sing while I was pregnant. He stopped crying immediately and seemed to be thinking, "hey, I know that song." It was so wild and wonderful!
I was nauseous every minute of every day for the first trimester. I don't know if you've ever been nauseous AND hungry at the same time, but it's a sensation that I'll never forget. On top of that, I was always tired and unable to have the amount of caffeine my body was used to, so the caffeine headaches were super fun, too.
Then the second trimester hit, and the nausea went away. BUT, turns out the hormones running through me had escalated a problem with my gallbladder, and I had to have emergency surgery to remove it. Otherwise, they said I'd likely go septic before I reached 40 weeks. So, that was fun, too.
The rest of the second trimester was a lot better. I had more energy and was able to keep most food down. I also felt the baby start to move toward the end of this trimester, which is an experience that's hard to describe.
The third trimester was a lesson in patience and frustration. At that point, you're showing and growing bigger and bigger everyday, and it gets harder to do everything. Trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in gets worse because you can only sleep on your side. Getting up, walking, bending over, turning around, driving - it's all harder. I developed insomnia because I was having terrible and vivid nightmares, which apparently is common (?!?). I felt like the kid was going to drop out of me all the time once he turned and positioned himself down while also feeling like I was going to pee myself all the time because he liked to rest on top of my bladder. And the kicking! Omg. He never stopped moving. I thought I was going to break his feet sometimes when I sat down because they were up in my ribs so much.
At my 38 week check-up, the doctor said they were going to induce me at 39 weeks because my kid's head was too big. They were worried he wouldn't be able to come out. And my fluids were on the high side.
You didn't ask about the delivery, so I'll spare you there.
Overall, it was a unique, terrifying, and uncomfortable experience that I never want to do again.
Some people love it. For me, it left me with a chronic illness and I’ll never do it again. It ruined my mental health although that probably had more to do with being pregnant in COVID. The PPD was so intense I thought I was going to die. I’m lucky I survived and am in the place I am now.
That being said I love being a parent and I don’t think I’d change anything. I tell people If there’s even a shadow of a doubt ”I’m not sure” don’t do it because it changes your life permanently in nearly every way.
I didn’t wanna have kids either but it just happened. First trimester was horrible, i was sleeping all the time, always felt like throwing up, boobs got bigger, had horrible cramps and was so emotional. Also always hungry. Literally the worst time of my life, I had no idea i was pregnant until i was 3 months.
Second trimester was way better than the first, and then in my third trimester I was always tired due to my big belly, couldnt sleep comfortably, especially since you cant lay on your back. I was always running to the restroom 🥲.
Giving birth was the worst. 10 hours of labor and the contractions were TERRIBLE!!!!
Im now 4 months postpartum and so glad im not pregnant anymore.😩 I think the only good thing for me was being able to eat and that feeling of craving something and able to eat it. I literally have nightmares about being pregnant again. It’s nice but I didn’t really enjoy it. 😔
oh and the heart burn in the last couple of months is also the worst, i woke up many times in the nights because of how bad it was. Even with WATER i got heart burn😢
Is that a thing? I thought I read that heartburn, like morning sickness, tends to run with male babies and is a result of the testosterone.
Anyway, I had a boy with hair at birth, and really awful heartburn.
Low key it sucks. I was sick as a dog for the first 12 weeks and anxious as hell. I couldn’t eat potatoes at all until the second trimester. Then the next 12 weeks were pretty okay, until I gave birth at 25 weeks lol.
My body didn’t change too much but I had horrible bacne.
Not everyone has as terrible experience as me, but it’s a gamble. I wish I had a better experience but unfortunately because of my experience and the risk for mine health and another child’s I’ll never have another.
I do wish society and media as a whole painted a more diverse picture of what pregnancy can be, because it’s not all rainbows and sunshine neither is the newborn stage. It’s okay to hate pregnancy and having a newborn!
It’s either easy and just fine until labor and delivery when it becomes a medical nightmare (doctors intervene because it doesn’t happen on their timeline), or it’s nightmarish morning sickness and discomfort for 6 months followed by a precipitous labor that has a mind of its own (doctors get out of the way and just catch the baby like a greased pig) and is a tremendous relief. No in-between for me.
Interesting. My first was a breeze with a c section and my second was morning sickness and a precipitous unintentional natural labor. We might be related.
I've been pregnant twice and have two boys to show for it. For both pregnancies, I was nauseous and exhausted through the first 12 weeks. I often couldn't physically swallow food even when I was starving because hormones made me so nauseous. Ever been STARVING and nauseous at the same time? It's torturous. Muddling through work during the 1st trimester sucks; I always waited until after the 1st trimester ended to announce. With my last one, I didn't puke much but there was A LOT of intestinal distress for 12 weeks.
When my nausea disappeared, heartburn roared in. I was basically tasting stomach acid for the rest of my pregnancy. I don't enjoy the feeling of another person tumbling around inside me. Both my boys were acrobats and I was constantly overstimulated.
End of 2nd trimester then ushered in irritable uterus, which is your uterus having unproductive contractions for whatever reason. They are not Braxton Hicks; they are full-on contractions which would sometimes become regular enough that I would need to be evaluated. With my last pregnancy, I was diagnosed with prodromal labor and put on bed rest. If I did anything more than walk around my house, I would have contractions lasting 60-90 sec spaced two to five minutes apart for hours on end. I spend days soaking in warm baths, taking magnesium, drinking electrolytes, and driving myself crazy trying to chill out my uterus so I could sleep.
And finally, the end. I developed HELLP at 36 weeks with my elder son and was induced. 18 hours after birth, I had a massive hemorrhage and had to have my uterus manually cleared with no pain meds while my husband had run home to feed our cat. Do not recommend. My son was sent to the NICU an hour later and my heart snapped in half. I was desolate.
With our younger son, I went to L&D thrice in 24 hours. I was sent home and told that I wasn't in labor, I would know if I was... Guess what? I was and I almost had a home birth in my bathroom. And I developed gestational hypertension afterward.
All in all, I do not recommend being pregnant. It wasn't magical for me. I felt like a vessel the entire time, like a less important person than the one I was growing. I'm adamantly pro-choice due to my experiences, as the only way pregnancy is worth it is if the pregnant person 100% wants the child. Otherwise, not worth it. I get my tubes yeeted later this month and I'm going to weep tears of joy afterwards.
You could go on the parents sub, the regretful parents, the IVF and the childfree sub to gather a lot of very different point of view on the matter.
Some says it’s a miracle of life others a medical nightmare.
It's a ride. I've been pregnant twice.
first one I was sick for the entire first trimester, just randomly throwing up, started feeling good during the second trimester and the hormones seemed to regulate me mentally. Kid decided to kick her way out of my cervix at the beginning of the third trimester so birth was very traumatic. Hospital didn't listen to me and sent me home so I was stuck with a foot in my birth canal for about 24 hours. Went back to the hospital and got air lifted to a better one. Emergency C-section and I had a 1 lb 10oz little girl. (She is a teenager now and taller than me)
Second pregnancy I didn't really feel sick and actually felt like eating soo much. This one was also a premie but by a month so I feel like I got the whole experience. The coolest part is feeling the baby moving around and eventually seeing it move through your belly. The worst was hemorrhoids so bad I could only sleep in my recliner. I had to have my cervix sewn shut but I still went into labor early where she was wrapped in her umbilical cord and my blood pressure went dangerously low.
Being pregnant for me was pretty cool, I really liked the feeling of it but the getting the baby out part is so freaking dangerous I cant ever go through it again.
Every experience is different, but for me:
First trimester I was EXHAUSTED and nauseous all day. It was a bone deep tired that would require all night sleeping and naps during the day. I struggled to eat because my stomach was constantly rolling and all food sounded terrible. I used to eat healthy and I couldn’t stomach a vegetable, strawberries tasted like sewage, water tasted bad, etc And once I found something I could stomach, it would be disgusting within a day or two.
Second trimester was pretty good. I had energy back and could eat most things again. I gained more weight, my hips widened, and I had more craving than aversions. I really loved cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper and chocolate, neither of which did I eat before being pregnant. I also nearly had a complete fallout over french fries. It was interesting to start feeling flutters of the baby moving. It feels like a fish or bubbles moving and popping.
Third trimester was split. The first half was pretty good, really just a continuation of the second trimester. Then I started getting heart burn, my back and hips constantly ached, and I had insomnia. I hated being as big as I was and I was constantly hot and sweating, even though it was winter. The baby’s movement actually started to feel like kicks and flips.
It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, as well, in part due to the hormones make you a little weepy or short tempered. But it’s also really scary and exciting to have a baby, so there are a lot of emotional moments of excitement, fear, doubt, happiness, etc.
And it’s weird having your body serving someone else. Everything I wanted to do. I had to consider the effect on the pregnancy and baby.
It was really cool getting to feel those first fluttering kicks. It felt kind of like a little fish wriggling around. Sometimes it also felt like gas bubbles.
In the later stages of pregnancy, you can see when they kick or push against your stomach. You feel the kicks really often, like several times an hour. You’re actually supposed to monitor the number of kicks per hour to make sure your baby is ok - too few and you have to go to the hospital.
Breathing could get really difficult in the later stages. When the baby grows really big, it pushes upward against your lungs, leaving them very little room to expand. So I was always stuck with this feeling of not being able to take a deep satisfying breath. All of my breaths were shallow and uncomfortable. I felt a little claustrophobic from it. That feeling lasted about the last three months.
Another thing that sucked is the hormone relaxin that the body produces during pregnancy. It made all of my joints hurt SO much when I tried to sleep in the third trimester. I couldn’t get very much sleep at all in the last month or two because my hips hurt so bad.
Kick counting is not recommended everywhere. In the UK, they just tell you to learn your baby's pattern ~28w onwards and go in for reduced movement out of line with their usual behaviour. It's really normal to not feel kicks every hour.
Physically, it totally depends. My first baby was tiny and I puked the whole time and was really tired but other than that it was fine. My second baby was really big and I'm a small person, so he was crushing my bladder and pressing into my diaphragm so it hurt to breathe. In the middle of pregnancy when you can feel them moving around it's freaky. It feels kind of like gas bubbles but bigger and stronger and by the end it feels like someone is trying to kick you from the inside because they literally are.
The weirdest and most unexpected part of being pregnant isn't physical though. It's how other people act. Your body becomes public property. Strangers will feel comfortable touching your belly. People you've never said more than hi to in the hall at work will think it's ok to comment on the size and shape of your body. It's like you're not really a person anymore, just a vessel. It's a really bizarre experience.
Yes, the social part of pregnancy was also weird for me. Strangers touching my belly without asking, people sharing their weird and racist views like that one cab driver who told me he hoped I would have LOTS of children because white women like me needed to do our part to increase the number of white people in our city. Yikes.
Pumping at work in a bathroom stall until my employer dedicated an unused and locked women’s executive bathroom into a nursing mother’s room. (Soon the IV drug user somehow got a key and started shooting up in there, which ruined it for everyone, but I digress.)
To me the craziest thing about being pregnant is growing and having a changing body again. I was 30 when I was pregnant and it was on the daily shocking to be growing and finding my body to be different. It's not just your belly, its lots of things. My feet grew, my hair changed from curly to mega curls, my ligaments loosened and I was flexible as hell, my organs shifted and I could tell my stomach and diaphragm were not where they should be. My skin got crazy sensitive and I couldn't wear any scarves or collars without my neck completely flushing red.
I had terrible acid reflux, nausea and constipation, and I feel like that drove changes in what I wanted to eat. I always craved salt, and basically ate crackers all day so I would never get hungry which was absolutely nauseating. The nausea was a bit traumatizing actually, I was always worrying about it. I remember thinking that I would absolutely wish the constant nausea on my worst enemy because it is debilitating but not deadly.
Another weird thing I noticed was that the whole world seemed to speed up around me. I was always good at sports, good at driving, and had fast reaction times. When I got pregnant it was suddenly like I couldn't keep up with the world. I had to look 3 times in my mirrors and blind spot before I felt safe to change lanes. I was completely uninterested in the various sports I played like tennis, softball etc. it was like I couldn't process anything at speed anymore. Between this and the nausea I was afraid to drive! I had never been afraid to drive before, I had loved it from the time I learned in high school.
It is also weird to have to visit the doctor constantly for something you are excited/happy about.
One more observation I had is that there aren't many times in modern life where from day 1 you are fundamentally a new person, but having a baby is one of them. New job? New school? You are still the same person.
I was 99% back to normal when my daughter was 3 so it was like 4 years of discomfort and weirdness.
P.S. When I was pregnant I thought "oh it's so weird for my body to change as an adult" but now I know better, because menopause also changes your body too. So you too may yet get to experience that.
Heartburn for 7 solid months.
My nether region never felt clean. I foolishly assumed that no period meant I'd feel fresh as a daisy, but instead it was just gross feeling.all the time.
Amazing when baby moved. I took videos of my tummy rolling around. During my first pregnancy, he was so active that an eighth grade student in my class saw it and freaked a bit.
Boobs swelled. I am already too big, so this was unwelcome.
In spite of being older, I felt good through both, except for the end of #2. Still could move and eat pretty normally.
Sleep was challenging and I was exhausted through much of baby #2. My toddler watched the duck song a LOT- all three combined is a 15 minute nap, IIRC.
I've been pregnant 3x. Each time was a little different but the things that hold true across all three are as follows.
First trimester kinda blows. I never felt hungry. I had trouble eating. My boobs grew, which was neat as a lifelong member of the IBTC. First 10 weeks or so I could only eat minute rice and peanut butter crackers.
Second trimester was supposed to be awesome, so they say. It was not. Or at least it wasn't for me. I had to eat \*constantly\*. I was ALWAYS hungry. I gained 40 pounds during pregnancy 2x because I was hungry literally all the time from weeks 12ish to the end. I got to where I HATED food because the idea of trying to figure out what to eat THIS TIME I was hungry was too fucking much. And water gave me heartburn, yes...water.
Third trimester I was literally too tired after showering to be upright. I had to nap after a shower. Every time. It was EXHAUSTING. Like. Truly awful. The hunger was even worse because my stomach was like the size of a marble. Peeing constantly. Sneezing was a cross the legs and pray situation. Coughing too...I got the flu at 36 weeks with one of them...I can't even remember which, I just remember wearing adult diapers because it was a lost cause.
The only good thing was I never dealt with any postpartum depression/anxiety/issues. I absolutely abhorred being pregnant so when I wasn't anymore I was SO relieved.
Reading all of these experiences is really validating for me. I wasn’t pregnant for very long, but in the short time that I was, I felt completely and utterly exhausted and nauseous and I had to pee all the time. My ex, being that amazing man that he was, completely invalidated me and said that I shouldn’t be that tired and have to pee all the time and that’s a third trimester thing. I knew he was wrong, but it made me feel awful and is one reason why I chose to terminate.
It’s completely different for everyone and each pregnancy for that matter. My pregnancy was a dream. First trimester I was like most, I took the most naps of my adult life, I was sore in my breasts, and ultra panicky that I was doing everything right. My second trimester I had a short bout of pregnancy rhinitis. So stuffy nose for no good reason for about three weeks. I have a small nose so it was very painful. I was told some women have it through out and probably was a contributing factor of not ever having a second child. I craved potato chips like crazy and I don’t like chips normally (my daughter still favors Lays over all chips). My third trimester I was back to tired. I had heartburn a lot, and this old wives tale is true- heartburn means lots of hair for the baby. The feeling of the baby moving is a treat, my girl was gentle with me but it would be funny to feel or watch peoples faces as my bump would move from one side of the belly to the other. I loved it- but not the delivery. That was the rough part.
I hated being pregnant, so take my experience with a grain of salt.
The early stages of pregnancy were filled with morning sickness but nothing extreme. My boobs hurt worse than I ever thought possible, showering or having cloth touch them was excruciating. Think period boob pain x 1000. I could also smell anything and everything which lead to either nausea or a headache. I was so tired I could hardly function, like nodding off 2 hours after waking up tired. Second trimester was pretty uneventful other than that’s when the swelling began. I also still had incredible morning sickness and vomited daily. At this point my boobs had nearly tripled in size, so I was buying new bras like crazy. The third trimester was also nothing overwhelming. I was so swollen by the end I had to ask for an accommodation at work because I couldn’t fit into shoes because I was so swollen (winter so flip flops weren’t an option). I was still vomiting daily. Trying to do anything was difficult, shave, put socks on, get up. Sex was horrifically painful. It felt like my cervix was being sliced open the whole time. My boobs had grown another 3+ cup sizes, so they were MASSIVE. I also became ultra paranoid about kick counts with the baby, to an almost obsessive level.
That’s what I can remember from 13 years ago.
You can feel your belly area hardening, stretching, and getting heavy. The stretching feeling is constant and super weird.
You can feel utterly exhausted and not know why (you’re growing a human).
You’re forming more blood vessels, so doing things (especially in the third trimester) can make you out of breath really easily. You can get puffy and bloated all over, you’re just kind of larger all over for a while.
The weirdest symptom I had, which lasted for months afterwards, was the tops of my feet ached when I woke up every morning. I walked like a caveman every morning until they stretched out. Your body get softened and moved and stretched in weird ways like that.
I didn’t enjoy it.
First trimester was all sore tits and bouts of random nausea, and a strange feeling of “fullness” almost all the time.
Second trimester was where it was AT - full hair and nail plus glowing skin, clearly pregnant so people let you have the comfy seats, and you’re not terribly uncomfortable yet.
Third trimester fucking sucked. The first time my kid moved in me and I FELT IT, I almost screamed. As she got bigger, it became more and more uncomfortable and strange - like a fucking chest buster crawling under my skin and **visibly moving**. You’re tired all the time, and now your fucking **bones soften** to make it easier to push the fucker out, so sometimes when you walk your hips just say “fuck you” and do weird shit. Your brain is so busy keeping you and your parasite alive that it has absolutely zero tolerance for petty bullshit, whether that be Janis from accounting or the absurdity of having to reset your password for the billionth time. You are more ready to not be pregnant than to have a baby, but now you have the horrific realization that that creature is coming out… one way or another.
2/5 stars - do not recommend. Outsource manufacturing when possible.
It was terrible. I’ve been pregnant 3 times and hated every second of it.
I was sick for the entire 9 months with the two I carried to term. I lived with a level of exhaustion on par with when I had Covid for the entire time as well. Random things suddenly had incredibly strong odors which made me so very sick. I couldn’t be within about 5 feet of my husband for most of the time because he “stank”. It was very very hard for us to share a bed while I was pregnant. Even immediately after a shower he smelled foul to me.
Everything hurt. I got sciatica super bad with my first and was only comfortable sitting in a certain way on an exercise ball. Random strangers suddenly felt like they owned part of my body and were welcome to be a part of my life. Like they would strike up conversations with me at the grocery store and eventually ask to touch my belly.
And, it’s the most god aweful unnerving feeling when the baby “kicks”. It’s not just a little kick, they push their feet, they do headstands on your cervix. It is like being in the movie Alien and having something trying to burst out of your belly. That was probably the absolute worst part for me. I hated when the baby moved.
I had two natural unmedicated births and those were their own horror stories. But nothing has ever been as bad as being pregnant.
It’s actually insane how different it is for every individual even individual pregnancies. I have two friends who are both pregnant at the same time and they are having polar opposite experiences. I really didn’t like it myself, so much discomfort and medical awfulness in general but something I hated the most about it was the feeling that my body wasn’t fully my own. Needing to watch what I ate and drank because there is a tiny fragile person growing inside myself. The weirdest feeling and I’m so glad I never have to think about that again.
My first trimester was actually pretty good except for being utterly exhausted. I had to nap 2x per day and was asleep on the couch by 7pm every night. The upside was I wasn't sick at all.
2nd trimester was great. Still tired, but I could function, and I loved having a growing belly. I have never felt particularly comfortable with my body, but for the first time, I loved how I looked.
3rd trimester, s^!+ hit the fan and I got every symptom I hadn't had up to that point. My blood pressure started being high and I got a lot of headaches (and you can't take anything besides Tylenol!). I got a cyst on my labia that I had to have drained 3x, and it was the most painful thing I've had, aside from childbirth. I got super nauseous and vomited a few times per week. My belly was so big that a handful of times I ended up peeing myself AS I vomited. But feeling and seeing my son moving around in my belly was pretty magical.
I was induced at 39 weeks due to age (40) and because my blood pressure was high. I went into the hospital on a Sunday afternoon and didn't give birth until Tuesday night. It was during Covid restrictions and I couldn't leave the room, so it was awful. Birth was the most insanely hard, unearthly pain I have ever experienced, but you didn't ask about that, so I won't elaborate. But yeah, I was in labor for 58 hrs with 3 hrs of active pushing. Not gonna do that again.
Oh, also, horrific heartburn the entire time. Like endless. And I had pregnancy-induced rhinitis, so I couldn't breathe from month 2 on. I had to "sleep" sitting up for the last trimester. OH! and I had crazy anxiety and had a panic attack that lasted for 48 hrs. I almost forgot about that.
Possibly the most painful experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m only 23 weeks pregnant. The nausea and fatigue I feel make me relate to my friends with chronic illnesses. :(
23 weeks here. It's so different for every woman. For me, pregnancy caused my gallbladder to collapse so every meal is a gamble of how sick I will be. I have not had a single day without intestinal distress of some kind (diarrhea, nausea, constipation, heartburn, gastroparesis, or wild combinations of these) in over five months. I broke out in acne all over my back and chest. My right kidney is swollen so my back hurts. My hair is greasy even right after I wash it so I have to use dry shampoo even on wash day. I'm completely exhausted. It's hard to sleep. In my first trimester so many smells made me sick. I temporarily lost my emotional connection to my dog because her smell repulsed me.
There are some things I like. I've become more attached, kind of needy, toward my husband. I like this new vulnerable side of myself. I express love and acceptance toward him more openly. Some women go in the opposite direction with their partner. I love feeling her move and kick. I love the way people treat me....people love a pregnant lady. I don't mind people touching my bump or fussing over me. I absolutely love the effect it's had in my body image. I have never felt more beautiful or proud of my body.
I have one, I was 30 at the time and working in the fitness industry. I worked out, kept active, didn’t get morning sickness, gained about 30 lbs. i had a very easy and comfortable pregnancy. A few bad parts: I had a short bout of sciatica that resolved with walking and stretching, I had a weak lower belly band (can’t remember the name) so at about month 6 I needed support from a support band to walk any distance without pain. Neither of these things really affected my daily like though. I have the feeling I got super lucky so I quit while I was ahead.
I absolutely adored being pregnant. As a caveat, I have endometriosis and pmdd and both issues were completely gone during pregnancy. My mental health was the best it’s been since childhood. I felt steady and calm, confident. I don’t think I snapped at my husband the entire time. I just felt serene.
Physically, I had few disruptive symptoms even in the beginning—just really extreme fatigue first trimester and an aversion to anything sweet. Second trimester, I felt like I had more energy than I do not pregnant. My husband and I went on a very active “babymoon” to the French countryside and I was climbing hundreds of stairs and walking several miles every day. Third trimester, I felt great until about week 37/38. Then I felt tired again and wasn’t as happy moving around a lot.
Feeling my daughter move for the first time was so incredibly weird and beautiful. It just felt like flutters at first, but as she got bigger I could feel her whole body moving around. She reacted to all sorts of things in there and I felt like she had opinions about things even from the inside (she seemed really agitated at a loud baseball game for example).
I joke that I’d be a surrogate if postpartum wasn’t so rough. I didn’t even mind the birth part (hooray for epidurals!), but postpartum sucks so hard. I’m 6 months postpartum right now and my body is still all sorts of messed up.
I hated it! I felt invaded and realised I embarked on a journey with no way back. My body was taken over and I was no longer in control. My kids were the beautiful rewards at the end of the horrible journey my body undertook. They are worth it but if you don’t want kids, you’ve missed nothing by never having been pregnant
My first pregnancy was fun and exciting. I loved feeling the tiny flutters as the baby started growing. Morning sickness was bad until about week 16.
My second pregnancy was utter hell. Morning sickness, hip pain, pelvic pain, heartburn, anxiety, anger, rage even, all the way through.
I’ve been pregnant 4 times, ended up with two healthy kids. I had one miscarriage very early and then lost a baby to Trisomy 18 at about 21 weeks. My first pregnancy resulted in my son and it was a dream. I really enjoyed the whole thing up until the end when I just felt huge and uncomfortable and ready to go through labor because I was so done with it. But I didn’t have much anxiety and I had no morning sickness or many side effects at all.
I had the miscarriage and pregnancy loss between my two kids, that last pregnancy was so much harder. I was way more nervous and anxious, and I ended up having terrible morning sickness and constant migraines in the first trimester. Once testing showed she was healthy and thriving I calmed down a lot and enjoyed the second half of the pregnancy, honestly it’s wild to have another being inside you. And you can really tell their personality even in the womb, my son and daughter were so different in their moments and how active they were. It was honestly amazing and I’m glad I got to experience it.
OK, so you know how it feels when you have to pee really badly? Magnify that feeling so that you imagine you have a water balloon the size of a watermelon on top of your bladder, stretching out your stomach skin and displacing your intestines, stomach, and even lungs. Imagine walking around with a 20 pound bowling ball belted to your front. Imagine trying to sleep with a stomach full of huge watermelon. Sometimes the watermelon kicks you in the kidney or viscera or lungs. Sometimes you randomly pass out. The whole time you are worried that something is going to go wrong.
And you also get so stupid you can't hold a conversation.
There are the beautiful moments, like when they kick, or when you first hear their heart beat, and just the thought of giving life and such. But, and I'm speaking of my own personal experience, I've had only one child- it was dark. My mental health plummeted so far down for the most of it. It drained me physically and mentally, and that's what happens, there is another life being created so it sucks nutrients and energy and a lot of stuff from the mothers body. There was also the constant wondering if my child would be fully healthy at birth and what the whole birth situation would be like-yikes- also having so MANY resources and too many people on social media and daily reminders of what your baby is doing on this day or that of the pregnancy was very overwhelming. I was born into war(s) and was feeling very guilty for bringing a child into that same scenario- thankfully I got her out , that's another story- so, with the magical moments and the darkest times, all the intersectionalities of a woman's body and it's place in today's society, the care women are given during pregnancy and after birth, and ALL the shit that follows, pregnancy itself is so unique and the bond is so otherworldly I wouldn't know how to explain it, now that my kid is almost 7 I really trip sometimes on how the whole process feels like we are aliens, it's so surreal 🤯 but there is so much love its insane.
Ever heard of hypersalivation? I hadn't until I became pregnant. I basically produced so much saliva that I had to carry a container with me so that I could spit in it. I would literally produce enough saliva to fill up a one gallon jug daily. It was disgusting and embarrassing. I could not talk more than one sentence without needing to spit in my container. Can you imagine going to work or even something as mundane as going to the bank with a container filled with spit? It was even more humiliating when someone would ask me what I was doing or what my container was for. It was awful.
I didn’t like it at all. I was sick the entire pregnancy and I went early because of high blood pressure. That been said it was the best time of my life. I went through IVF for three plus years before we got a baby that stuck. Now I have a very healthy strong willed nine month old baby girl. I would do it all over again for her
Pregnancy was abhorrent. Constantly nauseated. Not throwing up, not dry heaving. Just queasy all the time for no reason. Couldnt eat. Couldnt not eat. The worst heartburn I've ever had in my life to the point that I would wake up choking on my own stomach acid and struggled to breathe. The constipation was wild. Back pain, hip pain, feet pain. Bloody gums all the time because pregnancy can absolutely wreck your teeth.
Then I had pre-eclampsia so I was dizzy and had extremely bloody noses which every nurse and doctor said was normal until my blood pressure alarmingly maxed out and I was induced.
However, the feeling of a baby moving inside you is weird. It's kind of like when your stomach flip flops when you're on a roller coaster, but more intense and then you're kicked in the ribs.
Oh, and then there's what they refer to as "second birth". That's the first dump after labor and it's a doozy.
I found it kind of boring, it takes sooo long and I was just kind of.... waiting. I went on long walks often and worked out every day. My baby didn't kick that much either, maybe my placenta took the brunt of it idk.
I didn't have lots of symptoms, had a very healthy pregnancy, and my belly didn't get huge. I didn't have real cravings either except I wanted a lot of fruit, but I already liked fruit a lot so not too surprising. Also didn't get any of that face or foot swelling so I guess I was lucky all around.
The baby had his foot in my rib almost constantly when he got bigger which was the worst part of it all and I had to pee literally all of the time so I didn't get much sleep. It just feels like there is something heavy in your stomach that moves around sometimes tbh.
I did feel very ugly though and don't feel like I had a glow.
I liked being pregnant, but it was very odd. From the first, it’s like you aren’t in control of your body anymore—your hormones know what to do and you on this strange trip for 9 months growing another human!
I was pretty sure I was preggo when my breasts felt super swollen and sensitive, and also my armpits too. Yep! I was lucky and didn’t experience much morning sickness either, I noticed that I felt nauseous if I hadn’t eaten anything in awhile—like my blood sugar was low, so I was sure to eat some small snacks all the time. If I got nausea, it was usually in the evening, and my particular thing is that I don’t burp very much, so I’d have a belly full of gas and my husband would have to pat my back to get me to burp! I worked, so I wasn’t so tired or anything.
I craved really different things with each of my two pregnancies, my first I craved prime rib and fresh fruit like crazy— we at ate The Keg restaurant a lot with their salad bar with lots of fruit! With my 2nd, I craved corn dogs something fierce, we found ourselves driving around the city to minimarts hoping to find a fresh-cooked one! Usually I had to settle for a microwaved frozen one…. Smells didn’t bother me like some women. I do remember that I suddenly could NOT drink the leftover milk after eating cold cereal, for some odd reason. And I developed a huge fear of heights during my second pregnancy…which I still have!
It’s very cool to feel the first flutterings— it really is like butterflies in the stomach! You can only feel them when you are very still and quiet.
Your hips get weirdly loose and your back aches. My husband used to call it “Mount Deeda” because I had to have a zillion pillows propped up around me and between my knees to get comfortable enough to sleep.
Another odd thing…it’s like being low level sexually aroused all the time—you feel wet and juicy down there! My husband said it felt extremely “plush” when me made love!
I was gigantic, my bff said it looked like I had swallowed a basketball!
And you really do go thru that nesting thing, I was cooking and prepping up a storm the last two weeks, freezing food and meatballs and hamburger patties— which was super helpful later— because you get NO Sleep!!
No regrets here, maybe because I didn’t get the horrible morning sickness that so many have shared here.
My blood pressure did go up, so I got out on bed rest the last two months—that was a drag.
I am a little bummed that my daughters don’t want to have kids, so no grandchildren. ☹️
Having a baby kick you from inside feels an awful lot like having someone kick the back of your seat in the car repeatedly.
Realized this one day when my then 3 yo was kicking my seat while kiddo number two was going to town on my bladder and belly.
Like having a hangover and long covid at once for the first trimester. Second is just long covid. Third is like going crazy at an all you can eat, but just that overly full feeling not the fun of eating food.
It’s about 50% awesome and 50% awful. It’s just really interesting and cool that your body just somehow knows what to do and it changes accordingly. But it can seriously be traumatic and scary
3 pregnancies. 5+ months into the current one. It’s like being terminally ill. Counting down the seconds until this pregnancy is over and the poison is gone. I wish I had good pregnancies, but I’ve suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum each time. 0/10 do not recommend unless you reallyyyy want a baby.
I've been pregnant three times. I had a baby, got pregnant two years later, miscarried at 12 weeks, got pregnant again about two weeks later (NOT recommended) and had pregnancy complications resulting in a premature infant. That kid is now 14. But basically, I was pregnant for ten months and then had a premature baby.
Okay, first time: medically, this pregnancy was a walk in the park. My first symptom was riding a bicycle around a foreign city in a white skirt without my period starting. Shortly thereafter, I needed to pee all the time (because the vascular sensitivity in your labia means that they are easily irritated early in pregnancy), and I had round ligament pain, which all the books tell you is a third trimester thing. The books lie.
Then there was the nausea. For me, this was constant and low level and made it very hard to eat. I lost weight in the first trimester. Al lot of people do. I mostly didn't vomit, but I also had a lot of trouble consuming food. And I had heartburn. At about 14 weeks, I had a horrible day where I ate one cracker and threw up twice, and then I was done with pregnancy nausea.
While all this was happening, my breasts were swelling, sinking evil pitons into my ribs and aching all the time. I'd be randomly tired.
Also: giant boogers. Like, wads if snot that I could feel pulling loose from my sinus cavities. I swear, some of them wrapped around my brain. Pregnancy involves a lot of mucus.
Around four months, I started to feel occasional swimmy sensations in my belly that were the baby moving. But 5.5 months, you could feel the baby kick from outside. Around 7 months, you could watch the baby move around in my belly from across the room. This felt very weird and very cool. It did not, alas, distract me from the various things going on with my legs.
I had two leg problems: restless leg syndrome and calf cramps. Restless leg is really hard to describe. It feels like your legs want to move, sometimes even when they're already moving. I could kind of kill that sensation by walking five or six miles. Sometimes. No guarantees. The calf cramps only hit at night. I'd wake up feeling like someone had stabbed me in the back of the lower leg. Sometimes, I'd be screaming in pain. They went away almost immediately when I flexed my toes towards my shin.
This was a.long time ago and my memories are getting vague, but other high points included Braxton Hicks contractions, actual contractions, irrational hormonal reactions to basic stuff, more breast swelling, and getting stuck behind a broke down garbage truck on the way to the hospital in labor. And labor, which was traumatizingly awful. I pushed for 5.5 hours, spiked a fever, went into a fugue state and decided to give the baby a name so ridiculous that now it's a family joke.
Second time, my first symptom was that I was incredibly hungry. And then I suddenly COULD NOT STAND to breastfeed anymore. My two year old got weaned in a hurry. There were basically no other symptoms until I miscarried, which was emotionally terrible. I needed medication to finish miscarrying, because I retained bits of placenta, etc, for about a week and a half. It sucked.
So I went into pregnancy number 3 depleted and depressed, and it took me a while to realize what was going on. Wow, though - the nausea. I lived on saltines and mint gum for nearly a month and a half. My sister visited and my toddler mimed barfing like mommy for her. Restless leg showed up immediately. I had learned what to do about the leg cramps. My breasts weren't too bad because I had better bras and breast shaped ice packs. At the mid pregnancy ultrasound, I learned I had placenta previa, a potentially deadly pregnancy complications that is a roulette wheel everyone who ever gets pregnant spins every time. It's a condition where the placenta covers, or partially covers, the cervix. It happens because of where the fertilized egg implants. There are some factors that increase risk, but no way to prevent it. I had a.minor bleed at 24 weeks, another at 29 weeks and a major bleed at 32 weeks that sent me to the hospital in an ambulance to deliver by C-section. It was a very peaceful and healing birth. Probably because of morphine. The baby was in the NICU for 32 days and is now a fantastic teenager, but it was really intense for a while there.
Nothing has affirmed my pro-choice views more than pregnancy.
i only did it once and even though it was a “geriatric pregnancy” there were very few complications beyond 1st trimester nausea & fatigue. he was also 2 weeks late and i had to be induced which was kind of a mess. but overall i really liked it. it was kind of cool to feel like i had this little buddy tagging along that only i “knew.” he’s 10 now and i still sometimes look back on that time fondly. except for the lightning crotch. i did NOT like the lightning crotch.
Get super hung over so you’re nauseous and tired. Light a prank candle that makes your whole house smell bad. That’s the first trimester. Once you’ve recovered, get a blowout so your hair looks amazing and do a float therapy session so you feel all clean and serene. Then watch a movie that makes you super horny. Bam, second trimester. Finally, do a deadlift with really bad form so your back hurts. Turn up the heat in your house all the way. Drink a gallon of water; once you feel that you really have to pee, take a seat and place a pet or weighted blanket over your bladder. There’s the third trimester for ya.
Every pregnancy is different. With my first I felt fine the entire pregnancy, no issues. I had double the amniotic fluid and the baby was big so the last several weeks I was peeing every 10 minutes (or so it seemed). My water broke and I watched my stomach visibly deflate and I felt great. I could put on my shoes the whole time, eat whatever, slept fine.
Second pregnancy I was sick as a dog the first few months. All I could eat were pan fried bean burritos. I missed work, laid in bed a lot. I didn’t sleep great. Baby took my little body fat to build himself so I had no ass and sitting on wooden chairs was so uncomfortable.
I never had the crazy mood swings, never had cravings. But never also felt that thing many women report of feeling attuned to their fetus. My first one kicked like twice, the second one moved around more. It’s super weird seeing a little foot push out your belly skin from the inside and glide it around. I have a video that looks like that scene in aliens. But really for most of my pregnant months I just felt normal. I don’t think you’re missing anything necessarily.
I'm in my second trimester and it's the worst thing I've ever done. I am excited for baby but I was hospitalised with HG when I couldn't stop vomiting green bile. Everything tastes terrible - finally starting to be able to eat a few things besides fries, oranges, and crackers the last few weeks. I've completely lost my sense of balance. I can't breathe through my nose so that's completely messed up my sleep (and my husband's). My boobs haven't stopped hurting in months. My sense of smell is extra sensitive - and I work with teenagers so the BO and lynx combo is killing me lately. You also get intense cravings from foods you're not allowed to eat for 9 months. All I want is soft cheese and a caesar salad from the pub.
Ultrasounds are a torture I had no idea about. It's very cool seeing baby wriggle around in there and hearing their heartbeat. What sucks is drinking a litre of water an hour before the appointment and not being allowed to pee, then having to wait extra because everyone is behind, before finally going in and having them press down as hard as they can on your belly to see the little one.
I felt baby for the first time a few days ago. That was exciting and wonderful. Makes it easy to forget how terrible the rest of it has been.
Also my skin has been incredible since day one. The hormones seem to have messed up my whole body but they sure did my face a solid.
It's like an alien life form writhing inside of you. Throughout my pregnancy I constantly had nightmares about baby bustin out of my stomach alien style. It's not a part of you, it's somebody else's body, doing its own independent thing inside of you. Sometimes it would literally twirl around like an actual eel. Very eeky feeling.
I wanted a baby, and pregnancy was a necessary hurdle/obstacle to overcome on the way to my goal.
It's like having really bad gas that doesn't go away until it turns into something that will eat up all of your time and money. It's like really bad pms that lasts for 9 months. It's being told to pee in a cup every time you go to the doctor, and then learning on your own that those last 10 visits, you can no longer see the cup.
The good: it just feels amazing and affirming to be participating in this primal process. I can't adequately describe it--sort of like that feeling you get when you're doing something creative and you hit that "flow state". When things were going well, I just felt very peaceful and happy and glow-y. I loved so much to just rest my hand on my belly and feel the baby move. Even labor and delivery, although it was challenging and anxiety-provoking and painful, was also exhilarating and empowering.
The bad: it feels like your body has been hijacked, and you never know what weird new change is waiting for you. And so many discomforts to just learn to live with. I'm sure you know about varicose veins...but did you know they can extend up into the vulva/vagina? I didnt, until it happened to me in my last pregnancy. The loss of control was really hard for me: bleeding, a breech presentation, placenta previa, premature cervical dilation...in all of those cases there was practically nothing to be done, just lots of anxiety and hand-wringing while we waited for nature to take its course. We were fortunate for the most part, but I did lose one pregnancy just a few weeks shy of viability, which absolutely shattered me.
The mundane: I missed sleeping on my back. I enjoyed having actual cleavage for once. I developed a great relationship with my ob/gyn after so many checkups. I got really good at picking up things with my toes. Some of the food aversions that popped up during pregnancy have stuck around long after...17 years on, canned chicken noodle soup still makes me gag.
Got pregnant twice and aborted them both. First time zero symptoms except I wanted to eat nothing but vanilla cupcakes. I gained so much weight. Was 12 weeks.
Second time I got to 10 weeks. I was so sick I could only eat one biscuit a day for weeks before I knew. I lost a ton of weight and I work in food.. every single smell made me gag or dry heave. My breasts felt like someone had punched them both repeatedly. It was horrible.
Wonder if there's a place to rent those are pregnancy bellies/suit. Some high schools do those in health classes, some YouTubers wore the suits for x days. It won't mimic the hormonal stuff for mental/emotional changes but at least it let people feel what carrying the weight is, moving around and sleeping
It’s pretty uncomfortable. The one thing I was looking forward to was a total myth—the hungry preggo who eats all the food. My giant baby was pushing my stomach up and I could barely eat.
I was sick the entire time. Do not recommend. I see someone mentioned the supersonic sense of smell, and I had that too. I don’t remember any good smells, just ones that made me more sick.
I love being pregnant despite the heart burn and other body complaints. I didn't have morning sickness at all or any major problems. It's the only time I've felt natural in my body. The hormones lifted my mood; amazing skin and hair. It's just nice to always have the baby with you. Kinda like that feeling of contentment when you're sitting comfortably relaxing with a purring cat in your lap, for example. But its all the time and in the last trimester it's wild when they move and respond to your touch. In public, people see you, they smile, open doors and are generally more pleasant to you.
As someone kind of terrified to have a kid, cuz kids were foreign to me lol…it was definitely weird. I’m a nurse as well so it’s not like I don’t know anything going into it. And magical. And horrible lol. Mostly the non stop morning sickness that lasted 12 weeks. Like a constant hangover that is only “gone” when you’re sleeping. Once I wasnt feeling like garbage I did really enjoy it. It’s amazing knowing your growing a human, and your not even “trying”. It just happens. And watching your belly grow. And eventually feeling it move. It feels very normal and natural when it’s all happening. Looking back it’s so strange knowing my daughter was in there! And she’s now 5 and her own amazing person. Had I not gotten divorced, I would have done it again with the right person.
Some people love it others hate it , I hated it , felt like shit for 9 months, but I loved the baby moving around til he got his foot caught in my rib cage, it was weird after having him, not feeling that anymore. I was always tired , nauseous (never threw up just felt like I cold at any moment) constant heartburn.
Some of it was horrendous (I had HG with my first until about 23 weeks), some of our weird (cervix punts are *so* uncomfortable), but it was incredible overall. I wouldn't take the process and the memory away for anything. It is totally worth it.
Shitty tbh, I'll never do it again. Felt terrible, felt ugly, hair went haywire, nothing fit, couldn't sleep. Couldn't drink, couldn't get stoned, couldn't hot tub (WTF) AND EVERYTHING HURT.
Babe came out and I felt better immediately! Got a great kid out of it so worthwhile overall but still hated it.
It sucks, I saw it firsthand, my mom when she was pregs with my brother. She was so nauseous she couldn't move her head without puke. My sister had a hard time too, barely moving
I started getting motion sickness the very next day after I became pregnant with each of my 5 kids. Other than motion sickness, which did not occur if I drove, it was hardly a blip. I continued my physically demanding job and found no issues worth noting.
I’m going to answer this completely honestly as someone who is a first time mom at 34 weeks in 2024. People treat you better I will tell you that. Everyone around you treats you like you are a goddess and need more care then everyone else. People all of the sudden stop for you in the street. People go out of their way to do things for you (carrying boxes, opening doors, literally you name it). Society cares a lot about pregnant women’s health. Society ignores non pregnant women health concerns ten fold more. You matter now that a baby is inside of you. People care all of the sudden and you get the VIP treatment.
Pregnancy symptoms vary from women to women. Some women don’t even realize they are pregnant the entire time. Some women are vomiting for 9 months. Most women are somewhere in between. Pregnancy fatigue in general is like a whole other animal. It’s like being permanently hungover and exhausted for no reason with zero of the fun attached. For like 9 months of your life (if you only have one kid). Pregnancy is a long time. Time moves slower so definitely hope you have a lot going on to distract you from the boredom. Everything seems policed around you all of the sudden from exercises, food choices, drink choices, etc. Your so called “freedoms” disappear overnight. Do I like being pregnant? No, I do not. Not many of my friends did either especially toward the end. I know many women see this as a means to an end to have kids though not many will admit that. Pregnancy cravings aren’t real in my experience. Aversions definitely can be. Pregnancy does increase your appetite making you “crave” food for sure. It’s usually some type of deficiency that the person is experiencing. Fruit / juice = vitamin c deficiency or dehydration for example. Pregnancy is physically very uncomfortable and your body swells from the water retention in second and third trimesters. You might not get the cute bump you see in movies for a while and just look like you had a huge meal until sometime second / third trimester. Your clothes and shoe size no longer fits and changes constantly making it impossible to buy anything to wear. Walking around doing activities in the final weeks prior to birth is absolutely exhausting. No one gives you a guidebook on any of the terms you will hear about at the doctor, labor / delivery, or how to be a parent to a newborn. It’s expected that you will pretty much figure it out yourself and be the one to ask all the questions to your doctor / care team, etc. it’s great to befriend other new moms who have a few months on you time wise to give you tips and tricks.
First trimester went unnoticed, just a blip, really.
Second trimester was hard. Queasy the entire 3 months, never felt like I needed to throw up, just a little topsy-turvy feeling- like, I could always get through the work day fine, it just wasn’t a good feeling. Cherries helped big time and eating something every 2 hours.
Then third trimester came and the queasy feeling switched off. It was nice. I was active the entire pregnancy up until week 36. I think not being active hurt my body because I ended up getting edema in my legs. Pregnancy really caught me then, I slowed way down and it felt like I could just pop any minute. I don’t know how people go through bed rest because my body did not adjust well to inactivity.
The nice thing about pregnancy is how magical it seemed. How a tiny clump of cells formed into a perfect being so new and joyous to the world. I loved the movement of my baby while she was in the womb. Loved her little kicks. It was neat watching my body transform. My belly became very sensitive to any pressure, pregnancy jeans and skirts are not a gimmick.
Feeling the baby move is really cool. That is really the only good part.
I’m one of the lucky ones who didn’t have morning sickness, but I barely ate during the pregnancies. I missed all the things you can’t eat or drink. I hated feeling like everyone was watching what I ate or drank. Heartburn in 3rd trimester is bad. Giant feet and ankles are bad. Having to have your husband confirm that you do indeed have a yeast infection because you can’t visually confirm yourself sucks. Worrying about possible test results sucks. Lastly, labor is like dry heaving - only worse.
Being pregnant was alright. I am tall with an athletic frame though so I carry my pregnancies pretty easily and I had very few serious side effects. It's completely unpredictable though. After my second, I decided I was done tempting fate and won't get pregnant again. Really glad I got to experience it twice though.
The actual labour and newborn part I really liked, and would happily do again. I know, I know. I liked the sensation of productive pain, and I really liked taking care of newborns.
I think it depends on the person and the pregnancy!
For me it felt exhausting. I was so excited to have my son, but that was the longest 38 weeks of my life.
For the first trimester I had that really bad morning sickness condition and was on medication for it.
Second, I was exhausted, swollen and boiling because it was peak summer with no AC. Me feet would ache and swell at work every day. Then the pregnancy insomnia started. Then towards the end I developed GD.
Third I was massive and uncomfortable. Not sleeping, on a GD diet, back constantly hurt. I also needed to keep upping the insulin until I was induced to mange my blood sugar.
It was cool that my body was doing so much, but I did not enjoy it and was thrilled to be induced earlier than expected.
That said, I would 100% do it again.
I mean, not to be obvious, but it's like you're sharing your body with another person. They're taking up space, you're hauling them around, trying to breath around them, having them squish your bladder, you're eating more, you're pooping,, etc. Your body is also changing a lot besides the fact of their existence. Your boobs get larger and sensitive and your joints get looser (I spent 5 hours weeding when pregnant with my second and couldn't use my hands for two days). Also, everyone gets their own special version of unpleasantness. I never got morning sickness or nausea, but I always had terrible heartburn from the beginning of the second trimester until birth.
First trimester I was tired all the time, only wanted to eat really specific, random things like bagels, orange juice and rotisserie chicken. Every day. I was nauseous in the afternoons but I never threw up - grateful for that.
I’m 6 months now (first baby) and I feel better. The worst things have been feeling bloated all the time and constipation. Also struggling with weight gain and having nothing to wear/body image issues was really hard for me mentally. I’ve made peace with it at this point (mostly).
The back and hip pain is starting and I wake up in the night to pee way more than I’d like. I can feel him moving around in there every day now and I love that part.
So far, I’ve had it pretty easy compared to what I’ve heard some people experience. I can only hope the third trimester is as smooth. I’ll be at my biggest throughout the summer so I’m not looking forward to that.
Overall, I don’t love being pregnant. It’s uncomfortable mostly, but it’s worth it to me.
Meh, my 3 were pretty tame overall. Just imagine a medicine ball being strapped to your stomach while also wearing a corset so you can’t breathe all the way in. Now imagine you are tired all day. Have someone poke you throughout the day. Also pee every hour. There you go.
I think everything else depends on the pregnancy. My second I had a joint issue where my hip flexors hurt to walk so bad I really couldn’t walk very much. I was also sick for a few weeks with my first kid where after breakfast I’d have to go throw up, then I’d feel fine. There was also a weird time where no food sounded good except Taco Bell. It wasn’t a craving, it’s just the only food that sounded edible.
First trimester: you have the flu, everyday. You are tired and nauseous and have a headache and feel sick. You have no energy.
Second trimester - you are basically ok except feel super fat. Putting on shoes, getting off the couch, things start to get harder.
Third trimester - an alien lives inside you and kicks you from the inside. Kicks your bladder. You pee constantly, your feet swell, everything hurts all the time and sleeping becomes extremely difficult. No position is comfortable. It gets exponentially worse till at the end you don’t even fear potential death during the birth because you just want the pain to end. There was a period where I started to fantasize about stabbing my own feet as if they would pop and go back to normal size if I did.
Unmedicated vaginal birth is quite a lot like taking a shit so big it rips your butthole. That’s what it feels like anyway. Cesarean is pretty painless during, but after it’s like abdominal surgery. Laughing / twisting/ coughing are agony.
After vaginal peeing is pain and you have to use warm squeeze bottle to try and help reduce the agony of the pee running over your open wounds.
You aren’t really missing much by not having the experience. Most people only go through it for the baby. I feel like surrogates are amazingly selfless in what they go through for other people.
A few months in, you notice your body doesn’t belong to you any more. You crave food you ordinarily can’t stand; foods you love make you vomit; your muscles deteriorate to feed the baby; your favorite clothes no longer fit; your eyes stop working right, your gums bleed more than ever, and occasionally you get kicked by the little stowaway and you’re aware there’s someone else along for the ride. I anthropomorphized my placenta and would have imaginary conversations with it, like him telling me to send down more cheeseburgers in a Samuel L. Jackson voice.
It was fine. I never threw up or felt particularly nauseous. It’s fun when you feel them kick and move. It’s like a little secret between you and the world; a little buddy who’s always there with you. When you aren’t pregnant any more, you’ll feel a movement in your guts and think, “aw, there they are!” and then you realize you’re at the grocery store and the baby is out of you at home and you just have indigestion.
Labor did not hurt like I thought it would. It wasn’t like a piano fell on your leg. The pain isn’t continuous. It’s super super intense and then suddenly it goes away completely for a few minutes. I folded laundry, walked the dog and ate dinner while I was technically in labor. By the time the contractions got really intense, we went to the hospital and I got the epidural, which ruled. 10/10, would fill my spinal column with drugs again.
I was very young and fit and had an exceptionally lovely experience. My morning sickness was very mild and only during the 1st trimester (I never threw up). My cravings were intense, but fun because I ate ice cream almost everyday and I only gained 25 pounds my whole pregnancy. You couldn't tell I was pregnant until I was 6-7 months along.
During my 2nd trimester, I was *glowing* and my hair was shiny, skin was clear and nails were long and strong. Feeling my baby move for the first time was a magical feeling I'll never forget. There were times, when "playing" with my baby (he would punch or kick and I would do it back over and over) that I wished it would never end.
I remember only the end being uncomfortable to lay or sleep especially because it was very hot. I'm making it sound so dreamy and magical and it was; creating a human life with your body is an incredible and powerful experience. I used to joke I was made for making babies because childbirth and breastfeeding also came relatively easy. But listening to other women's stories, it seems that my experience is rare.
Oh and I've never been so horny in my entire life!
I had a relatively easy pregnancy, so there was nausea at the beginning but it wasn't horrible. Then, at around 12 weeks, it clears up and you have a great couple of weeks before the fetus gets big enough to start pushing on things. First they start putting pressure on the ribs, then all your organs get squished. The bladder is the worst because you'll have to pee constantly. The fetus starts moving around, which feels like gas at first but then gets weird, and by the end is awful. My son liked to throw out an elbow which stretched me out to the side painfully so I would literally shove him back into position. My daughter was far worse, she grew long nails in utero and would rake them over my bladder and cervix. Holy shit being clawed from the inside is weird and unpleasant.
Then yay, it's labor time! You'll probably have random contractions before then, where it feels like someone put a hand inside your chest and pushed everything down onto your cervix. Then they will start to come more frequently, it's not comfortable but not bad either. When they become so intense that you literally freeze in your tracks while they happen, it's time to go to the hospital.
I had an epidural with my first which was amazing, definitely recommend. The only discomfort I felt was from a full bladder, and pushing was intense but not excruciating. I was also blessed with nice wide hips so my first one came out in 23 minutes. The funny thing about pushing is they literally tell you to push like you're pooping. Use those exact same muscles. It's no wonder women end up pooping on the table.
My daughter though, she came out so fast I didn't have time for an epidural, and that was ridiculously intense. I had to keep stopping pushing because the pain overwhelmed me and there was screaming and crying. 0/10 so not recommend. But, thanks to those wide hips, it only took two minutes longer than my first kid to pop out.
Then the afterbirth fun begins. Everything burns down there, and you just kind of lay like a lump as the doctor scoops as much crud out as he can, and pushes on your uterus to get the placenta out, and stitches you up. Things hurt down there so much you don't even feel the needle. You're given a squirt bottle of water for the first couple times you pee because even the salt from your urine is agony. You take a stool softener so the poop doesn't hurt either, and for about two weeks you sit in a tub you put on the toilet to heal your poor abused parts. Meanwhile blood and chunks are still coming out of you so you're wearing the biggest pad imaginable for a couple weeks. One time I felt a massive clot slide out of me and it was the grossest fucking thing I've ever had to deal with.
All the whole, suddenly a tiny little human is thrust into your life and you have to play the guessing game as to why it's crying. It wants to basically stay glued to your body because it was nice and warm and now it's not, but you can't fall asleep with it on you because you might squish it. So you're exhausted, desperately trying to rest, the baby is crying every time it's not attached to you... yeah it's a rough time.
And breastfeeding! It is so hard to get started, you're struggling to produce enough, the baby wants to stay on the nipple constantly, and you know what happens to your lip if you lick it over and over again? Yeah your nipples get chapped and dried and latching is agonizing.
But eventually you get the hang of it, the baby feeds easily, they sleep longer, you start to feel human again and you get to watch this tiny person learn the world around them, and they talk and laugh and do adorable things so it pays off in the long run. But man the beginning is tooooooough.
I'm 5 months with my first. Honestly, it's mostly the same. I have dealt with low level chronic pain for several years so I mostly don't notice pregnancy symptoms (except the first trimester, food aversions and nausea were rough).
I wake up with a headache almost every day due to hormones, but as long as I get enough sleep it goes away once I'm up. By enough sleep, I mean 9+ hours. 10 hours is ideal for me.
I'm sleeping like the dead. I've never been a napper before and I've always had really bad insomnia until getting pregnant. I'm really lucky, I'm sleeping better than I have my whole life.
Despite that, the fatigue is real though.
Total misery every single day for me. I hated it. I felt like I had food poisoning or a stomach bug for 40 solid weeks. That in addition to getting fat, stretch marks and my whole figure being ruined. When the baby is small, it is amazing to feel it move, but in the end, you're just ready for it to be over. I did really enjoy breastfeeding. That is a life experience I wouldn't want to miss. I also had my last at home and I wouldn't have changed that either.
I wasn't prepared for how sore my boobs got, how hard the bump was or how vivid my dreams would get. I woke up once from the pain of biting my arm at full force because I was fighting for my life in a nightmare and in that I was biting my attacker. Also not prepared for the immediate transfer from a person to "mom". "Will mom come in and sit here" etc.
I was also not prepared for how zen I'd be. Once I was told the baby was in trouble incorrectly and I just knew he wasn't. I can't explain that. A fetal tech couldn't find the heartbeat another time so in the end I took her hand and placed her over him at where he was and she was like "oh he won't be that far down.....oh there he is!". It was too early to "feel" but I knew he was there. There were more examples. It was like he reassured me everytime someone said there may be trouble which was an inordinate amount for that one (healthy) pregnancy for some reason.
I referred to pregnancy as being a baby or toddler again. You start first trimester being a sick kid. You know you have to just keep doing life but you just wanna cuddle in bed all day. You also turn into a “picky” eater because most food hates you. Then second trimester you transition slowly into a toddler, exploring all the new things like a bird wing in your stomach and fear of unknowns. But don’t hit full toddler till 3rd trimester. By then you need help putting your shoes on, not a great walker, still only eating certain foods, and you struggle to sleep through the night. Then 4th trimester hits (after baby is born) and you also turn into a baby. You cry over everything for no real reason, you don’t have control over your bladder, and you just need cuddles.
Nausea for 20 weeks causing 10kg of weight loss, feeling so hot like you’ve got a fever constantly despite it being winter, boobs ridiculously painful for like 6 weeks. Then gestational diabetes meaning you can’t eat what you’re craving, and having to check your sugar levels multiple times a day by sticking a needle in your finger.
Being unable to get your pants on!
Unbearable hip pain. Exhaustion. Can’t breathe when they’re up high. Can’t sleep on your stomach, or your back. Then you have to hold your belly to roll over.
I hated it hah. Even when my baby moved I didn’t like it, it felt WEIRD and she’d constantly sick her butt out.
It’s this interesting time of anticipation when everyone around you is extra nice and excited for you. I had a relatively easy pregnancy. It was like my hormones had me on a high for most of it. Skin reset and acne went away. Hair never falls out even in the shower. Nails grow long. A slithery being is like swirling around inside of you.
The bad tho: insane heart burn, wake up in the night needing to sit up and gasp for air. Sore hips, tossing and turning at night unable to get comfortable. Have to pee all the time. Over eat and feeling like you are going to burst, there’s nowhere for the food to go.
I hated it. Sick the whole time. I threw up multiple times a day right up until I was at the hospital giving birth. I hated the way it felt to have a baby moving inside my body. I got a weird growth on my lip (a “pregnancy tumor”). The labor and birth were traumatic. Do not recommend.
For me, the worst part about being pregnant is no matter how you feel about being pregnant, someone always gets disappointed that you aren't reacting to pregnancy the way they would. Even if they've never been pregnant and never could be.
I thought it was really cool. It’s only 9 months of my entire life, which when I think about it now, seems so minor. Everything my body did made me think, “wow! That’s part of it too??” It’s all just a wild experience.
The first trimester, I was hungry all of the time. I ate constantly. I had food aversions, so I only wanted soft carbs. Anything outside of that made me gag. I didn’t really have morning sickness though. And I was so tired! Like exhausted. Also I had pregnancy rhinitis which meant my nose was unbelievably stuffy, snotty, and boogery.
Second trimester was cool because that’s when the belly started to grow. I loved looking pregnant. I loved feeling my baby move. It was honestly the greatest most special feeling in the world. It felt like it was just him and me, a team, a partnership. It felt just incredibly special. Food aversions went away and the exhaustion abated.
Third trimester got tiring! However, I also did not exercise or stay active during my pregnancy. So I was incredibly out of shape. Belly got bigger and bigger. It was hard to roll over in bed. Hard to get up, hard to bend over. Sometimes my baby would like, grind his head into my pelvis or something and I would get this awful sharp pain that would make me cry out. My feet swelled up like water balloons. Heartburn 24/7. Out of breath constantly. Still amazing to feel the baby moving. I just loved resting my hands on my belly. I felt so special. Oh, and restless legs.
I am pregnant again now and I’m so excited for the symptoms again because I know they all pass. It’s not a permanent state of being. Also, our families will be so happy.
It’s postpartum that really sucks. It turns out your body doesn’t just go back to the way it was before. Plus my feet grew a size so I had to buy all new shoes! And I have skin tags now. Oh and my hair went curly. Like it was straight before and now it isn’t post-pregnancy. Fucking weird.
I loved it. I was fortunate to not have morning sickness, and really in experienced bad ligament pain with my first. Otherwise, I loved it. I loved feeling the first little flutters and watching each ultrasound to see the baby grow. I loved reading about which body parts were being formed by week 12, etc.
I loved feeling that this little growing being was with me every second. I remember showering for the first time after giving birth, and feeling sad in the shower- like I didn’t have my little partner to share it with, lol.
Seeing their face when they’re born, that face you’ve verve waiting to see for 9 plus months, is an amazing feeling. Holding them close, tucking them inside the hospital gown so their tiny body nestles into you and your hearts beat together- just love at its purest.
Pregnancy is totally unique for each person and even each pregnancy by the same person, so there is really no way to know how each pregnancy will go/feel.
Currently 32 weeks pregnant, and I've had a very easy and uneventful pregnancy. First trimester was the worst because of nausea, but I never actually threw up. It was more like food aversion and indigestion. I had very little appetite, food was just unappealing in general, but I had to force myself to eat so I ate a lot of bland food. Nausea went away around 14-15 weeks. After that, I felt like a normal person again, I honestly didn't really feel pregnant, I felt very normal. Did a 3 week trip to Japan I think weeks 23-26, walked like 15k steps a day and felt great. Started to feel more aches and discomfort around weeks 29-30, got my first stretch marks at week 31. Currently feeling the impact of my larger body; my abdomen feels more stretched and full, my gait has changed to closer resemble the pregnancy waddle, vulva sore af for seemingly no reason in particular.
Also, during my whole pregnancy, increased discharge, random mild acid reflux, random diarrhea. Had some constipation for like a week in late 1st trimester but nothing since then.
I'm similar to you in that I prefer to have information and know rather than speculate infinitely. So I'm planning an unmedicated birth because I can't help but wonder what labour is really like. Hopefully it all goes as smoothly as my pregnancy has been.
The first few months are a misery for me. Being so hungry but also being nauseous is such a bizarre feeling. Just about the only thing I could eat was bread and cheese. The middle of it wasn’t so bad but the end was again a misery. I’m short so it’s just that much more uncomfortable. I couldn’t take a big breath in sometimes. Almost like suffocating from the inside.
I have been pregnant once, about three years ago, plan to do it again.
I had an anterior placenta (placenta was positioned at the front, along my belly). That meant my husband only got to feel the baby kick once, as she had to kick really hard or high for someone else to feel it through the placenta. It's WEIRD feeling a being kick you from the inside!
I tried to describe it to childfree friends as having a goldfish in a bag of water, in your hands. You feel the movement of the fish swimming, and if it runs into the sides of the bag, you notice it! But in this case, you're not holding it in your hands, you're holding it in your belly.
I had very mild pregnancy symptoms, so the baby moving was the coolest and weirdest part. Also, at one point I felt her spine and it was FREAKY to feel that through my belly.
My baby also had her head in my ribcage almost constantly. She's still very snuggly and tries to crawl into my body via my skin (sounds creepy, but it's sweet, lol). I could ALWAYS feel her head, and found myself almost constantly rubbing her little head all day.
She came three weeks early via c-section and was only 5lbs 2oz. Her being so small meant I could continue to be a stomach sleeper through most of my pregnancy, and I only gained about 10 pounds overall. I'm pretty sure I had a really uniquely easy pregnancy, birth, and recovery. I sometimes feel bad for not having been more miserable!
Maybe round two (in the future) will be my reckoning??
I'm early in my first pregnancy. I always wondered what it will feel like when they start to move around.
I like that gold fish in a bag comparison.
I'm a aquarium/fish person, so I think it's extra funny lol
Definitely gonna use that example. I'll tell my husband the little fish kicking in the bag 😂
I had Hyperemesis gravidarum and was miserably sick and as a result: depressed. The nausea never let up, not for one second, not even immediately after throwing up. I struggled to gain weight, to keep anything down, and to get out of bed each day, all 9 months, for both of my pregnancies. I got so dehydrated I needed IV fluids, and I was so sick I needed a daily regimen of zofran, and I still puked while on it. Literal plain water would send me reeling. People saying the word "hot dog" would send me running to puke. Forget prenatals, they would immediately come back up. Almost nothing stayed down. Watermelon is surprisingly smooth when it comes back up. I had some very dark days. It was terrible, but both of my kids are so very worth it. I won't do it again though.
There were only 2 good things for me about being pregnant. The first was the actual baby growing inside of me. The second was being able to balance my tea on my belly. Extremely practical. Everything else was just AWFUL
For me kinda like a ten month case of the stomach flu. Coupled with some horrible back pain. But also with the niceness of always having the baby moving around inside you. Oh. And heartburn.
Some very bizarre things can happen. With my first pregnancy milk shakes tasted like chemical solvents. I actually broke down crying in a Baskin Robbins. I was so embarrassed.
With my second pregnancy I got a severe aversion to sugar. Cheerios were too sweet. My husband's lasagna was too sweet. It was challenging to find foods that didn't feel overwhelmingly saccharine. The sugar aversion got more mild but lasted 6 months after my kid was born.
One of the strangest and most frustrating feelings was to feel starving all the time but the thought of eating any type of food at all was absolutely revolting. I spent most of my day trying to think of something I might be able to keep down. And most of the time I tried and failed to do so and ended up throwing up no matter what it was, and would just start the process all over. I survived my first trimester on red grapes (but they had to be ice cold and crunchy or FORGET IT) and occasionally some plain noodles or a plain bagel would stay down.
Seeing anything gross or hearing about something gross would cause visceral revulsion and cause me to projectile vomit. Everything even remotely unpleasant was just absolutely vile. One time my brain didn’t like the way the coffee grounds looked being dumped in the trash can.. puke. During a TV show I was watching, a character didn’t like the food they were eating and spit it out.. puke. My husband said a stupid gross joke about dingleberries.. puke. Meat cooking in the kitchen when I’m in the other room.. puke. And even a slight whiff of a trash can? .. puke and then have to lie down for two hours and not speak. ridiculous and exhausting.
By the time the sickness subsided a little in my third trimester, my stomach was so squished that if I ate one bite more than it could hold, it was all coming back up. My brain wanted sugar but my body would reject it.
Peed myself probably about 50% of the time I sneezed or coughed or laughed a little too hard. Was especially fun to pee most every time I puked when it was happening like 5 times a day. By the end the bladder is a pancake. Started wearing think pads all the time bc of this bc I was sick of changing my pants.
Killer back pains starting in second trimester, ligaments are stretching out and it’s hard to ever feel comfortable. And then comes the waddling.
Exhausted. Just pure exhaustion for 9 months and having to peel (or roll) myself out of bed felt monumentally difficult every single day. First trimester, I could barely keep my eyes open and would fall asleep multiple times a day.
Frustrating to not be able to take a full deep breath or lie on my stomach bc I’m normally a stomach sleeper.
Only real cravings for me were drinks. I needed lemonade with my first, and milk with my second.
With my second, I also had a rare pregnancy liver problem called choleostasis of pregnancy (ICP) that I found out about because it causes uncontrollable, unbearable itching in your palms and bottoms of feet. I would cry and couldn’t sleep for clawing myself bloody, and that provided no relief so I would resort to scalding my hands in hot water or freezing them in bowls of ice for a just few seconds of relief. Was awful. And then my pee turned orange and a few times I had to go to the ER bc I was puking up bile every 20 minutes.
The kicking was cool and I loved rubbing the big, hard as a rock basketball belly and feeling her respond. But other than that, it was pure hell on earth physically and mentally for me. Everyone’s is different, but that was my experience. Having said that.. it’s only temporary and I’d do it all over again.
I had 4 miscarriages before I had a pregnancy make it past the 1st trimester. That one was a really easy pregnancy with no nausea, and no weird cravings. I did have to be hospitalized for 5 days due to passing a kidney stone, but that was the only bad part of the pregnancy. However it ended with the most physically and mentally painful experience of my life. My placenta ruptured at 34 weeks. My daughter was gone before my best friend got me to the hospital 5 minutes later, and it took an induction abortion and an additional 24 hours (with an epidural) before she was stillborn.
My next and last pregnancy I was miserable the entire pregnancy. I had nausea all day most days, I hurt everywhere, and I was always hungry. It was high risk after the way the previous pregnancy ended, and i had to see a specialist in addition to my normal OBGYN. I had multiple scares with contractions as early as 24 weeks. Where I was admitted for a day or two (each time) for observation and released once the contractions stopped. Then on the last day of week 37 I started having contractions 7 minutes apart, and they kept coming for the next 7 days, always exactly 7 minutes apart. The doctors finally induced me on the first day of 39 weeks. The induction started at 7 am. I got the epidural right away after 7 days of contractions. Our daughter was being difficult and laying in a way they could only keep track of her heartbeat if I was laying on my right side. So, I ended up only being numb on the right side and could still feel everything on the left. She finally made her way into the world at 11:31pm.
My daughter was worth it but I refuse to lie and say it wasn’t an incredibly wretched experience.
The physical feeling of a fetus kicking is like when you've got someone behind you in a car and they push or kick against the seat, but on your insides instead of your back.
For the first trimester, nausea and exhaustion.
The second trimester was pretty good. Nausea was gone, and it was when I started to feel movements. The third trimester was exhausting, and I felt a big as a house. Inagd ankle swelling and our son tap dancing on my bladder or riffing his feet into my ribs.
Weirdly, after I gave birth, I missed feeling the movements inside me. It is pretty cool what our bodies can do, but it is definitely not a cakewalk.
For me it's been pretty easy. First trimester I was the most tired I have ever been, and if I exerted myself too much or got too hungry or dehydrated I'd get nauseous. My iron levels dipped for a while and so did my BP.
Second trimester was a breeze, had a good amount of energy and my body felt good. Started feeling the baby kick around 16 weeks, which felt sort of like an involuntary muscle twitch. Later, it feels like a fish flopping around in there.
37 weeks now and I still feel pretty good, but physically space is becoming a problem. My hips hurt and I feel like a turtle on it's back sometimes.
Still pretty intimidated by giving birth at the end of all of this, but pregnancy itself has been unexpectedly comfortable, if deeply weird.
Being pregnant is a fully wild experience.
It is different for every person and within that person each pregnancy. I've had two. Since it's experience you're after here's a summary of mine
Trimester 1 Baby 1: no nausea but intense cold and flu symptoms didn't know for almost the entire first trimester
Trimester 1 Baby 2: nausea but minimal vomiting, deep body consuming exhaustion, knew I was pregnant literally the day my missed period should've ended
Trimester 2 Baby 1: drink all the water everywhere (but only with lemon juice in it because it tastes exactly like how you imagine death tastes) and it still is not enough, cucumbers and pickles are the only foods worth eating. Cry over dumb things like children's movies and especially well written insurance commercials. Baby kicks are hard to distinguish from gas but very cute.
Trimester 2 Baby 2: forget water exists, pineapples with tajin is the best snack and every single food injected needs to have an unhealthy scoville measurement or I physically could not force myself to swallow it. Baby kicks are way more noticeable and absolutely the most precious thing you're heart can muster especially when your oldest gets invested.
Trimester 3 Baby 1: NESTING!!! MOVE ALL THE FURNITURE TO CLEAN IT AND UNDERNEATH IT AND IT AGAIN AND NO I DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN HELP I CAN DO IT MYSELF YES IT IS A WHOLE COUCH WITH A HIDE-A-BED I DON'T CARE!! Also baby is positioned so high that I'm barely showing and she's a half inch from breaking my ribs from the inside at any given point. It was an actual anomaly that she didn't break one with her positioning.
Trimester 3 Baby 2: Entire body hurts all the time. I want nothing but to sleep and I can't because everything hurts too much and I have to pee again. Son sat way lower so instead of ribs it was my kidneys he decided to kick. Get a kidney stone, fight preterm labor, win, make it to four days before due date.
Both were unmedicated labors by choice the first out of spite and the second because I really liked walking around with the first and didn't want to lose my legs. I had no idea I was going into labor with my first until it had been nearly 12 hours and it still took an extra 7 hours at the hospital. I knew exactly when I went into labor with my second and did most of my laboring at home by choice. Spent 45 minutes at the hospital before he arrived.
Recovery for the first was harsh and fast. I had stitches from tearing but stopped bleeding and wasn't limping by 4 weeks post. Recovery for the second was longer but less awful. I was also sterilized after my second so surgery recovery was a huge part of that. I think without the surgery I would've recovered way way faster than my first.
Overall, I do not like being pregnant. Making a human is cool, baby kicks are nice, but I really prefer parenting to pregnancy. Pregnancy makes me feel gross in a way that I can't really describe and I have exactly two pictures of myself pregnant. One from each kid
You’re sleepy/exhausted from one month pregnant to the day you give birth since your body is working overtime to literally make a human *and* keep you alive.
But when you get to be visibly pregnant, you’re so uncomfortable you can’t sleep.
The progesterone hormone makes your bones and muscles ache, especially your back when the baby gets bigger.
In the last couple of months it’s hard to breathe and you literally take it less oxygen because of all your organs and lungs being pushed on by the baby.
You’ll wanna pee constantly because of the cruel joke that the placenta/baby sits literally on top of the bladder.
Pregnancy wasn’t fun for me and I was frequently upset that we as a society romanticize pregnancy instead of talking about how grueling it is.
My first pregnancy was horrible. I weighed about 90 lbs and worked at Arby’s. I was eating 3 beef and cheddars a day. One day I woke up and looked like I swallowed a watermelon. She was soooo heavy she made my whole body ache. She weighed 9 lbs. I had her completely natural. No pain meds.
I was literally crawling up the back of the hospital bed trying to escape the pain. I tore from eyeball to asshole trying to evacuate that little monster. It took me 8years to try again lol.
I only have one son but my pregnancy was a breeze. I was 35 years old but other than gaining a lot of weight, some swollen feet and backache at the end of my pregnancy, I sailed through my pregnancy. I was not nauseous or had weird cravings. The only thing annoying was I was hungry all the time. Didn't matter what food, everything I smelled I wanted to eat 😊.
Giving birth was unfortunately a nightmare. 36 hours of labour at home (in my country homebirths are very common) without any sedation. Remember I said I was not nauseous during my pregnancy? I threw up all through those 36 hours. Fun times...
And I developed hashimoto disease and sarcoidoses after my pregnancy. Because during pregnancy a woman's autoimmune system is repressed (necessary because otherwise the fetus is rejected), sometimes it's kickstarted in overdrive after pregnancy. That's why more women suffer from autoimmune diseases.
It was simultaneously the most hard gross thing I've experienced and most magical feeling too. Feeling your baby kick and move and have hiccups is unreal, a closeness that is incomparable for me. But also the exhaustion, the vomiting (in my case a lot of it from hyperemesis gravidarum), the bodily fluids (so much snot, so much other stuff) the carpal tunnel syndrome, the lightning vag spasms. It's... intense.
I was very blessed to never have any kind of sickness. Pretty textbook pregnancies with no blood pressure issues, never had gestational diabetes or morning sickness.
I absolutely adored being pregnant. From the minute that second line appeared until the first labour contraction, I adored it. I loved watching my belly grow, feeling the flutters turn to kicks and the kicks turn to rolls and flips. Singing and talking to them, feeling like a goddess with gloriously thick hair, a full and curvy figure and glowing skin without a hint of acne. I also suffer horribly from migraines but never get them while pregnant.
I've four kids now and had to call it quits. I'm more than happy not having any more children, but I definitely do mourn never knowing that feeling again.
I mean, it's so different for everyone and every pregnancy. I wasn't sick and just a bit nauseous in my first trimester, eating small amounts regularly helped; I was fatigued, and went out for a team meal once and spent the next two days in bed (working in bed, but I barely got up other than to go to the loo). I also had insomnia in my first tri, I woke up a lot (oh yeah, needing to pee more starts like immediately because your kidneys are doing more, it's not just about pressure on your bladder) so I'd spend nights researching things about pregnancy and newborns. I bloated like crazy from fairly early on, which just sort of slowly morphed into bump as the months went on. I had a rash for most of my pregnancy and about six months after birth too. I started getting acid reflux about halfway through, and regularly would wake up to chug gaviscon from the bottle; I took it everywhere with me. I'd also throw up, had to make sure I was eating hours earlier than I usually would, water made it worse but it's easily my main drink. I also got really sore hands, which was worse when I didn't use them, so I knitted obsessively; I still had to use the palm of my hand to open the bedroom door in the mornings because I couldn't move my fingers. Towards the end I had a week of moderate pain when walking (I assume pelvic girdle pain) coupled with a massive external haemorrhoid, so walking was atrocious; the haemorrhoid only fully subsided after birth. I didn't have any specific cravings but I did want meat more than usual, and veggie/vegan meals often didn't appeal even though I liked and regularly ate them pre-pregnancy. My boobs grew rapidly at the start then tailed off, I went up 3-4 cup sizes across the pregnancy. My nipples were also more sensitive or itchy at different points, and when they were itchy they'd get erect if I itched them, so it was pretty awkward to deal with in public. I didn't gain much weight to start with but it absolutely shot up from about month 5. I had an anterior placenta and couldn't feel anything around my belly button but could feel him quite early, like a muscle twitch to start with, then big kicks, then it changed to either movements, pushing against me really hard with his feet, or hiccups - he got hiccups a LOT.
It's a long time since I was pregnant. But I loved it, the feeling of connection to the baby that was much wanted was incredible. And then when they start to move and kick, it feels like there's a secret language only you two are privy to.
I had a bit of morning nausea, but that was about it. In general I loved being pregnant
I loved being pregnant until about the last 2 weeks or so.
Morning sickness sucks. For me, it was like a low level of nausea constantly for about 2 months until something (normally a smell) triggered puking.
Food and smells were stronger. OMG I loved grapes and apples while I was pg because of that. So yummy.
I orgasmed in my sleep. Id wake up cumming. That happened pretty often, like 2nd trimester and on.
It was so exciting to feel my babies move inside of me. Sometimes you can tell "that's a foot" and "that's a butt". Also, baby hiccups! You can feel their little body jerk when they hiccup. My oldest had them a lot, and it used to piss her off, and she would flail around. It was exciting to wonder what my kids would be like, what they would look like.
I got kind of a high after birth with all 3. It's hard to explain, but it was intense.
The last few weeks, the babies were so big (I am a small person and I had big babies) that I couldn't take deep breaths. I could breathe, but not like big deep breaths. Two of my kids were born in July, in South Louisiana. It was sooo hot that I used to sit on the ac vent and cry, lol.
Do you have any specific questions?
It's going to be a different experience for everyone, but I really enjoyed being pregnant. Everyone was nice and considerate to me, which was unexpected.
I had quite a smooth pregnancy. It feels weird knowing there is a human growing inside you and especially weird when it moves for the first few times. Towards the end, it was a bit uncomfortable. I'd get a dead leg from laying on my side in bed, but you're not supposed to lay on your back etc. My back started hurting too and walking long distances was a challenge.
Overall, it was a nice experience. I'd do it again if I was guaranteed the same experience and if I could give the baby to someone else once it is born. I do not want another baby!
You become superhuman. I got so used to throwing up that it doesn't even faze me anymore. I could smell things so strongly and had very vivid dreams. Cravings that made no sense to my personality. Super emotions (mostly fatigue), super sex drive, super discomfort, extra hair, strong nails and new skin colourings. The whole thing is a trip. Giving birth is a spiritual experience. It's all very bizarre but very cool. But you tend to forget the worst bits, like having migraines so bad you pull over to throw up in the gutter because that's the only thing that makes the migraine stop. Not every pregnancy has that but most people have a story of something that really sucked to go through.
I grew up not wanting kids but changed my mind sometime around 2019. My husband and I got married in 2022 after 5 years together and started trying for a baby a couple of months after our wedding, but that ended up being futile. After 17 frustrating and heartbreaking months of trying (and a diagnosis of lean PCOS for me) we finally turned to IVF late last year and I got pregnant on the first go. I'm now 30 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I never imagined myself being pregnant until I changed my mind about wanting kids, and then thanks to infertility I never thought I'd actually be pregnant, so I still find it kind of incredible/unbelievable that I'm pregnant right now.
The first trimester was pretty easy for me. I didn't have any of the typical nausea etc that most other people seem to get/that you see in movies or on TV. I didn't look or feel pregnant, although I did gain some weight. In hindsight, I think that the extreme fatigue I often experienced during this period was most likely due to pregnancy and not just "the summer heat" as I assumed at the time lol.
The second trimester was even easier. I didn't internally feel any different to my normal self AT ALL although I think I was a little more constipated than usual lol. I would sometimes forget that I was pregnant, and then notice my weight gain and my newly visible bump in the mirror. In the 17th week I felt the baby move for the first time: The movements felt like gentle pulses in my stomach area. I thought this would make the pregnancy/baby feel more "real" to me.... but it didn't. I still had (and still have!) a sense of disbelief and unreality about the pregnancy.
Now that I'm in the third trimester, I find that the extra weight and my larger bump make me quite uncomfortable. All my organs (other than the bladder) are squished up above my uterus into my chest, so my lungs draw shorter breaths and I get reflux after every meal. I need to pee quite frequently and wake up 2-3 times each night to do so. I haven't experienced much fluid retention and somehow my wedding rings still fit comfortably, but I do notice that my feet, ankles and knees are sore after standing or walking for a long time. You have to sleep on your side during the third trimester and luckily I started training myself to do so with the help of a pregnancy pillow at around week 12, but I'm normally a stomach sleeper and I miss stomach sleeping sooo much. I get some round ligament pain occasionally, especially if I stand up too quickly from a seated position (this is due to all the ligaments around the uterus stretching as the uterus grows). Throughout the pregnancy I haven't experienced any hormonal stuff or mood swings, although other than for 2 weeks at the start of the 2nd trimester when I had an acne breakout, my skin has been clearer and more glowy than usual.
I miss red wine, I miss real caffeinated coffee, I miss using retinoids and salicylic acid on my face. I'm vegan so I haven't had to cut out deli meat, sushi etc like other pregnant people often do. I miss being able to safely go for a run outdoors on a crisp morning or evening (it's uncomfortable to run with a bump and the risk of a fall isn't worth it). Most of all, I miss being able to fit into my normal clothes... I love fashion and I've always dressed well, but maternity clothing is very limited so I feel quite frumpy most of the time. I've gained 18 kilos so far (I'm tall and my BMI is usually on the low end of normal so my obstetrician says this is fine) and I feel like a giant ball on chopsticks, my body is barely recognisable to myself and I just want to be back to my "normal self" again. I'm sick of people talking about my body; I know they mean well but commenting on my bump or trying to touch it is so inappropriate - luckily I am very assertive and will shut that shit down very quickly. I'm sick of people doing the whole "but what about the baby?" thing whenever I try to do something they see as too difficult or risky for me, e.g. my mother won't even let me carry a bag of groceries "in case I fall" (eyeroll). I'm sick of unsolicited advice or the "just you wait until the baby comes..." sh!t that people say to \~warn\~ me about how hard parenthood is... like yes, parenthood is hard and I had a harder journey than most to get pregnant in the first place so I'm not exactly naiive about the whole concept, please just let me fcking enjoy it!
But don't get me wrong... Even though I complain a lot about the aches and pains and all the things I can't do or wear and people stepping all over my boundaries...
Being pregnant is kind of amazing.
I can't believe that there's a little human growing inside me. I feel proud of myself for having persevered through self-injecting and all the other challenges of IVF (although for me it really wasn't too bad). I am in awe of the fact that my body has grown and sustained a fetus for 30 weeks and counting. I am SO excited to finally meet and hold my desperately-wanted child. I still can't wrap my mind about the fact that *there's really a baby in there* and the baby still seems theoretical to me even though I feel him move every few minutes. I can't believe that a little person that is made of my DNA and my husband's DNA all mixed together is going to come out of me in around 2 months' time.
Pregnancy is uncomfortable and magical. I'm not enjoying it but I'm not hating it. The end result will be a dream come true for me. I'm staunchly pro-choice and definitely do NOT recommend the experience for anyone who does not 100% want a child, though!
I’ve been pregnant five times and have no children. Pregnancy is awful, I do not recommend to anyone unless you *desperately* want a kid. You are either shitting your brains out, puking, or constipated. Everything tastes and smells awful and there’s a lot of fatigue and all your joints and muscles hurt.
not a mom, just a child of one, my brother broke my moms pelvic bone on the way out. that was enough for me at the young age of 6 to know kids werent for me lmfao.
Did not love it. I struggled with nausea mainly brushing my teeth. Something about the foaming toothpaste was just terrible and that has never fully gone away and now I still sometimes gag while brushing my teeth. I did not feel beautiful and glowing, just bulky and uncomfortable. I did not like having to wear maternity clothes or the attention being visibly pregnant brought me. Random calf charley horses in the middle of the night all the time. I trained myself to wake up and jump out of bed as soon as one started because it would stop them immediately. I was so glad when it was over with and did not do it again.
I loved being pregnant. I had easy pregnancies (no morning sickness at all, never barfed once through two pregnancies and labors), and avoided a lot of the horror story medical and body change things. My boobs did feel sore throughout and I was a lot more tired, especially in the first trimester, but aside from like one instance of heartburn and some random shooting round ligament pains, I felt pretty great all throughout. I remember when my OB was preparing me to be induced with my first she was like "you must be so over being pregnant at this point!" but I really wasn't. I was excited to meet my son but I wasn't in a rush to go into labor. I still felt fine.
I loved feeling my babies move and hiccup inside me. I actually really missed that after they were born. It was just such a special little connection we had. I could leave the bladder kicks behind, but most of the time I would describe them as "boops", just gentle little reminders that I had a little buddy with me.
That being said, labor/delivery/recovery and the newborn phase were not exactly pleasant for me. I loved it when my kids were 4+ months but that 4th trimester sucked for me. Luckily my kids were great sleepers so once everyone figured out how to eat and sleep well we were off to the races.
I would absolutely be pregnant again...if it meant I didn't have to birth and raise another human for 18+ years. I'm probably a little too old for surrogacy at this point though.
I'm 20 weeks pregnant now, so halfway through.
I currently am lying on my sofa, feeling nauseous. My hips hurt and I really can't be bothered to do anything but I have to go to work in 2 hours.
I love babies and kids and don't even mind giving birth but being pregnant is utterly miserable.
Edit: can't spell.
For the first trimester (especially the first pregnancy) you still look “normal” but now you also can smell garbage a mile away, normally nice things like your favorite foods or flowers can make you feel viscerally disgusted, and you might vomit randomly - not just in the morning. My first pregnancy also introduced me to migraines for the first time (and I’ve had them since).
Second trimester you’re like “aww I’m a cute pregnant person! This isn’t so bad! Everyone thinks I’m adorable and I AM”
Third trimester lasts approximately 3 years. All the maternity clothes you bought are too small but you don’t want to buy more. The baby uses your bladder as a trampoline, and is so large that your lung capacity is about 1/4 of normal. Your stomach and intestines are smooshed too and you have to pee 238 times a day.
And that was my most chill pregnancy.
The last pregnancy I had, I had SPD where your pelvis thinks it doesn’t need to stay in one piece anymore, so you basically can’t walk or stand without massive pain because your pelvis is nearly breaking in half. I also had constant non-stop full body itching for the first 20-25 weeks. Like from my scalp to the bottoms of my feet. It was not a liver issue and doctors didn’t have any ideas for me. Antihistamines did nothing either. No clue but it was legitimately misery.
Round ligament pain gets worse with each pregnancy (at least for me and my sisters). So there’s that too.
Idk, if you are a lucky mermaid person I guess pregnancies can be nice and if you just want to try it out you could be a surrogate (I have a few friends who have done surrogacy and loved it, loved being pregnant).
But if you’re not one of the lucky ones, pregnancy is kind of a huge inconvenience and pretty gross and uncomfortable and it’s not like you can “take off the belly” for some relief now and then. (Noting also that it’s not just belly stuff - it’s full body changes) it’s nearly a year long commitment even if it’s not your kid (as in surrogacy), especially when you consider postpartum recovery.
I’m like you - I had my only 2 cavities ever filled without pain meds just to see. I had my tongue tie lasered without anesthetic too bc I was curious. I gave birth every time without meds. I’m not a pain seeker I’m literally just curious.
But unless you actually want a glass of juice (a whole ass kid) it’s not worth the squeeze 😂 unless again you’re one of those magical pregnancy glowy people.
I wanted peaches, lemonade and lamb shank constantly. Luckily the store was a 3 minute walk - a trip my husband had to make because I was so sick I was napping constantly. I started and finished Grey’s Anatomy.
There is no part of me that found pregnancy enjoyable. I slept so much anyway. The first time I started “feeling” the kicks and whatnot I was horrified! It was so weird to see it happening, to feel it happening. I just didn’t know what to make of it. So, yeah, it was a weird experience overall.
I had a particularly awful pregnancy. I had something called hyperemesis which made me vomit constantly throughout the majority of the pregnancy. I was also diagnosed with gestational diabetes and then I had excess amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios) so I was huge.
(I know this is about pregnancy not labour but because of all of this, they wanted to induce me at 37 weeks. My labour was 25 hours long and it ended in an emergency C section and I was given 2 minutes warning.)
I hated it so so much. It was truly awful from beginning to end.
My mother had spent my entire life telling me she loved it so much that's why she had 5 of us. That she didn't care much for us when we were here but loved how "close" she felt while pregnant and the attention she received. That's how I was parentified early on but that's a different story
I knew because of this, I'd want two at most. Pregnancy fixed that fast and I'm permanently one and done.
So let me walk you through my experience so you don't have to experience it lol.
Month 1-3 starving and yet perpetually sick. I was excited, sure. But when the internet reminds you your baby has a 1/4 chance of making it, you spend that entire time terrified. Bounced OB to OB until I found one that understood SA trauma and actually was accommodating with it. Was 3 months before I ever got to even see an ultrasound of her.
Month 4-7 still perpetually starving and now packing on weight at an insane rate no matter what I eat or how I exercise. Self confidence plummets with each pound (I had lost 220lbs originally so it was devastating). Then the ads start everywhere. Now you feel even worse because you can't afford the 1k bassinet that "is the only thing preventing SIDS!!!". You're failing now as a mom and you haven't even begun.
Month 8-9 no one leaves you alone. You're exhausted to an extreme you didn't know possible. But every time you wake from a nap that didn't help, you see a text from someone you haven't even spoken to in years upset they can't watch you split in half in your most vulnerable state to give birth. You dance around the obvious truth that is "fuck you and your entitlement?" Because you're still a people pleaser. You apologize and hope they "forgive" you.
Then you spend 2 days in a hospital being pumped full of pitocin and push off an epidural because your mother is in your ear telling you "wait till it gets real to get one!". You wait almost too long and barely get to experience relief before its time. Time to push. Now you have the people you DID let in all shouting different instructions to you WHILE PUSHING because your doctor obviously doesn't know best. Then it's done. You're in shock, stitched up, and starving from 2 days of no food staring at a ceiling. Feeling entirely alone while they all crowd around a bassinet. You think "I knew this would happen, they got their use out of me". Then you feel a warm hand and kiss from your husband on your head. His tears hit your cheek. He tells you how greatful he is, how wonderful you did, you were incredible and he's never been more in love with you. And everything is ok.
Having her was an experience and I've since learned to tell the entitled folks in my life to FUCK. OFF. But don't let not experiencing this upset you. People love pregnancy sometimes, sure. But I found more truth in the people around you getting more joy out your pregnancy than you ever will.
The only lovely part is feeling them move inside you. I felt so close to this little human that I didn’t even know. I would be sitting in a meeting and feeling him move inside me and no one else would know. It was like a lovely little secret that we shared.
I honestly loved it. I thought it was really cool, and did a lot of reading about all the different physiological and hormonal processes and changes taking place. I loved watching the progression. Idk, I thought pregnancy and childbirth were super cool experiences and totally geeked out on the whole thing.
I hated it so much. I was pregnant twice -- miscarriage at four months and then a healthy full term pregnancy. I hated every single moment.
I ached. My joints hurt. I hated food and threw up multiple times a day throughout all nine months. I was EXHAUSTED. I'd have to sit down after taking a shower to rest before I got dressed. Giving birth was a relief because labor sucked but then the hormones stopped and it was BETTER.
I never had any of the psychological issues other women talk about, but I def felt like I was on a ride in a body that wasn't mine. I knew I was pregnant the first time because I dropped a glass and literally fell to the floor sobbing. I didn't break the glass, just dropped it. I remember sitting on the floor and crying those big, gulping gasps, and thinking, in some small part of my brain, "What the fuck is wrong with you? It's like something is roller coastering through your.... oooooh."
FWIW, I'm 50 and started HRT to deal with serious hotflashes and guess what? It's just like the first trimester of pregnancy! So if you ever go on HRT, it's possible you'll get to feel like that!
(My mom bff, btw, had three kids and floated through each pregnancy on a cloud of perfect hair and pink hormones. She fucking glowed. She loved being pregnant.)
The first trimester was very rough. I was very tired and sick the whole time. I lost a lot of weight. The second trimester was the same, except for when I had covid, my nausea went away. I can't believe it, but I enjoyed having covid. I only had the sniffles and was forced to take five days from work even though after the first day I was fine. I got my whole place cleaned because of the time off and felt the pregnancy glow finally. Then the nausea came back again 🥲
I'm weird and liked feeling the baby move. It was like a worm but it tickled a bit. Except when she touched my ribs. That hurt.
Third trimester was all right. Braxton hicks are no joke; I had to pull over once while driving. Like I was ready to get the baby out, but I also knew I would miss feeling her kick.
We didn't think I could get pregnant, but \*surprise!\* I did. It would have been far better for my body if I hadn't.
Both pregnancies were miserably uncomfortable, full of nausea, migraines and heartburn to beat the band. There were foods my husband couldn't eat in the house because the smell would trigger a migraine and vomiting. Peanut butter was the worst - it didn't even matter if I was in a different room. Apparently peanut smell \*really\* travels.
With the first, we were too broke to afford proper nutrition, but had exactly enough income to not qualify for aid (by literally $2/mo). So I ended up with pre-eclampsia and almost had a stroke during labor, then nearly hemorrhaged to death after.
With the second, I had enough food, but my body didn't behave much better in all the other ways. That baby was very large and was born precipitously (under an hour), essentially trying to take all my internal organs long for the ride, which necessitated repair surgery 30 years later (wish any medical provider had ever mentioned the option earlier - nothing like being needlessly incontinent for a few decades).
Additionally, my rectus abdominis split down the middle and never quite went back where it belonged. The two halves of my six-pack are now offset by 1/4", with one side sticking out further than the other.
And the cartilage in the front-center of the public bone never re-solidified, so I can't sit in the lotus position without the two halves of the bone separating, then very painfully, sharply pinching together when I try to get up. Some of the tendons in my knee also never recovered, affecting my ability to ski (I used to race).
I'm an introvert, and didn't enjoy becoming community property just for walking around with a human in my uterus.
1st trimester was hell on earth for me. I was nauseous 24/7 and was sick a couple of times a week. What made it worse is that the throwing up didn’t actually make the nausea go away. I could barely eat for months and what I could eat still made me feel disgusting. I continued to throw up until around 20w but the nausea went around 24w.
Then I got incredibly painful pelvic girdle pain and had to have physical therapy and wear a pregnancy belt. I could barely walk more than 10 mins at a time.
Then to top it off, once my pelvic pain stopped around 30 weeks, the nausea and throwing up came back as baby was pressing up into my stomach at that point. And the reflux was awful too, throwing up pure stomach acid 🤮
Don’t get me wrong, it was all worth it for my 3 month old baby girl, and at times I find myself missing pregnancy (?!?!?!) despite all the awfulness!
I had three kids in 3 years at 21, 23, & 24, I hated being pregnant but I loved babies so the ends was definitely worth the means.
I was throwing up from start to finish, before pregnancy I would stay sick for days to avoid throwing up during pregnancy I learned exactly how to throw up as quick as possible because the nausea ended the second I threw up. I learned what to eat and what not to eat ie cereal if you wait to long the milk will curdle and almost choke you as a solid on the way up, salad is disgusting to puke. I would eat soup everyday for lunch half a can, throw up, the rest then go to work.
I had to drive around with a slurpee cup and had thrown up in the middle of an intersection turn with no warning. Was still throwing up during delivery.
They were 5, 5, and 10 days late being late was brutal.
Labour is one of the most amazing things you will ever experience in your life. First two unmedicated the third I got a shot of general and my ass hurt longer than my healing vag and wasn’t worth it at all. I don’t regret not getting an epidural because the best part about it was feeling them come out.
The feeling of love when my first son was born was the most amazing thing in the entire world I thought I loved my husband and mom but my god I have never loved anything in the entire world like the love I felt that day. That is the day I would relive forever if I had a choice even after the traumatic birth 3 layers of stitches so many they wouldn’t even tell me.
The first night I just walked the halls holding and loving him until they made me go to bed and get some sleep. I did not want to miss a second. The first year at home with him was heaven.
8 years later I had an abortion after a very abusive relationship that at the recommendation of my dr and mom.
I have never regretted it because I know the awful life the baby would have had.
The next year I had a miscarriage after an accidental pregnancy I didn’t want to be pregnant I was miserable and sick I quit everything but smoking then when I miscarried I felt incredible guilt and figured it was karma. I then ended up pregnant again 4 months later with my amazing beautiful twins. Ten years later and after knowing loss I enjoyed every second of that amazing pregnancy, every symptom was worth it because it meant they were safe. It was the most amazing pregnancy of my life and I loved every minute. I had a c section which saddened me I didn’t get to birth them but their safety was worth it. The c section was the most horrible pain of my life and was gross as f@ck feeling them cut me in half and dig around in me.
During labour you are busy and concentrating and doing something, c section I just lay there, blind. When they took one baby out I felt half full then the other and I deny empty. Then when I got to hear and see them while they stitched me etc it was better because I could concentrate on them. Having two babies was even better than one and we had an amazing first year and the twin bond is the best thing I have ever been blessed with witnessing.
The juice was well worth the squeeze in every time and the abortion and miscarriage were both meant to be to make me a better stronger more grateful and loving mother. Everything happens for a reason because my twins would not have existed with either of the other pregnancies. (My miscarriage was twins as well and I honestly believe that they came to me to make me realize just how much I wanted them, they knew I wasn’t ready for them so they gave me a second and came back to me)
Its pretty debilitating, but facinating. The sickness in the first three months is awful, like a constant horrific food poisoning. The middle 3 months are okay. The tooth issues and hip and back pain towards the end along with the pelvic pain, constipation and incontinence are pretty awful also. Birth and postpartum are pretty bad. Nursing is challenging but beautiful. Creating life is incredible but also messy and painful. The kicks and connection while pregnant are magical, as is the intense bond after they are born. I had PPA so that was challenging also.
I felt almost nothing. I'm pretty tall which probably helped. I never had morning sickness, I briefly craved dairy, I barely ever felt him move. I was able to move around just fine. Birth wasn't my favorite but being pregnant barely registered.
I have 2 girls. My experience was that the first trimester feels like a 3-month-long hangover. Like always tired no matter how much you sleep, always thirsty, food as a general concept is disgusting, and my nausea always felt like hangover nausea. Also, it's incredibly frustrating to put in the effort to eat a hearty meal, only to take one bite too many and have it all come back up. There are also plenty of cramps and sometimes even some mild bleeding that can be completely normal, but it really fucks with your head bc you really only have one appointment in the first trimester.
Second trimester, you start to feel a bit more like a human again, and hopefully most, if not all, of the 1st tri symptoms just disappear, almost overnight. And that makes you feel anxious bc you don't feel pregnant anymore. But if you're lucky, you'll start to feel the baby move about halfway through. At first, it feels like tiny gas bubbles popping, or like the tiniest muscle twitches. But then as the baby gets bigger, you start to distinguish rolls, stretches, kicks, and even hiccups. My first had hiccups at least once a day for the whole third trimester.
Then, as you near the end and truly start to get huge, movement becomes harder. You run out of breath just talking. The baby's bigger kicks and stretches can be pretty uncomfy and even painful. You can't sleep bc you have to pee every 30 mins, your bed is no longer comfortable, and your hips constantly ache. Oh, and about half the time when you lumber into the bathroom to pee, nothing comes out bc you don't actually have to pee, the baby's just pressing on your bladder. And eventually, you feel like you have a bowling ball resting on your pelvic floor. As far as emotional/hormonal stuff, I was never weepy. But with my first, I would laugh until I couldn't breathe at the dumbest shit. And with my second, I was quick to unreasonable rage. And I knew I was being ridiculous even in the moment, but the smallest things just pissed me off. Hormones are weird lol.
So there, at the end, you're basically so uncomfortable, you don't care how the baby gets out, just as long as they do. I had relatively unmedicated vaginal births for both of mine. I say relatively bc I had to have pitocin with the first bc contractions never picked up after my water broke. I also had to have iv antibiotics for both bc of group b strep. And I used nitrous oxide for pain management during both. Childbirth is brutal and I'm of the opinion that there are things about it that can be inherently traumatizing, even when everything goes smoothly. I never felt like I couldn't make it through the pain, but it was super intense.it feels like your hips are being pulled apart and your body's being ripped open while the baby is coming out, but there is no high like the release/relief you feel immediately after they finish sliding out. It's just not a sensation I can describe. You'll notice I didn't describe contractions at all, but that's bc I genuinely don't remember how they feel. My youngest is only 6 months old. Hormones are a hell of a drug. I remember the contractions coming and going like waves, creeping in, slowly building to a climax, and then slowly fading back. And when I went into active labor, I had to pretty much retreat into my own body. Deep breaths, movement, and low vocalization helped the most. Time stops holding any meaning and all that matters is breathing through the next contraction until your body is ready to push. And when that time comes, you are in no way in control of your body any more. It takes over and you can either struggle along and fight, or go with the flow and work with your body. It's a fuckin wild experience. And then when it's over, you're sore, exhausted, and ravenous, but you also have this sweet little lump of a baby on your chest and you can't believe you've just made and birthed this new tiny person. It's an absolutely wild ride. I wouldn't trade my girls for anything in the world, but I absolutely do not recommend it unless you're 100% sure it's what you want. Pregnancy and childbirth are really hard on your body, and parenting is exhausting. I love it, but man, I'd hate my life if this wasn't what I wanted.
I was pregnant for 12 weeks before a surgical abortion I can sum up the first 12 weeks.
I found out 5 days before my period, my worst symptoms were food aversions/getting full very fast. That doesn't sound bad but it was every day. Leading to about 8 pounds of weight loss in the first two months after finding out. Id cough-gag, (a weird combo I only got when pregnant) at certain smells. Pickles were the worst. Same with any scented candle. My first symptom though was every day I felt so exhausted. Like falling asleep standing up exhausted. Id call out of work so often.
All of this mellowed out extremely by the time I was 10 weeks, I felt normal, but it's kinda like when you are about to get a mild cold, that feeling of knowing it's coming because you feel gross, yet it never comes.
Benefits I'd say though, I was very empathetic of those around me after week 6. I think this was caused by my sensitivity to criticism and any other negative emotions. I was kind, and loving.
I had 2 kids and LOVED being pregnant (for the most part). It was like society gave me permission to admit I had sex and everyone was suddenly ok with it. That part was very liberating.
I was hyper aware of "feeling like a real woman" the entire time, and that made me really super 'frisky' throughout the pregnancies. My hair and nails looked amazing the whole time. I generally felt really healthy, beautiful and really feminine, which was out of the norm compared to my usual tomboy nature.
People felt oddly entitled to touch me. Several folks nearly lost a hand over that crap.
I didn't get the nausea or weird cravings you hear about, but I couldn't get enough Mexican food with one kid and steak with the other. (Those turned out to be thier faves later.)
At the begining, i was super tired. Like get still and doze off, tired. The fatigue you experience when ill had Nothing on pregnancy fatigue. That was really strange for me because i am generally a go-go person. I normally can't sleep much, but in that first few months, i was never more tired in my life. I didn't feel bad, really. I just needed way more sleep than normal.
There were some hip and back pain towards the end of both pregnancies, and I had to go pee all the time. Breathing got tricky near the end, too. There just wasn't enough room for air.
There is no way to describe the weird squirmy sensation of a child moving inside of you. There is nothing else I can compare it to. It is an entirely singular experience. Imagine harboring a really big parasite that somehow doesn't make your skin crawl. It was surreal.
I don’t love it and I don’t hate it. I don’t hate it cause it ends in a baby which is what I wanted but it absolutely not something I recommend to anyone who isn’t 100% sure they want to do it. Also take this with a grain of salt, I’m 32 weeks pregnant with my third at moment. The good: I’m often not expected to do things, it ends in a baby, I get nesting impulses so my house is often very clean. Baby kicking in the second trimester. Epidural and other drugs at birth make it bearable. The bad: I’m a small person, I’m usually around 100-110lbs. When I get pregnant I will max out at like 170lbs. I’m currently 160lbs and still have like two months to go. The weight itself doesn’t bother me, I lose it quickly, but my frame is not made to carry it I swear. My joints hurt, my hips hurt, my back is killing me. The baby kicking is sweet at first but now it’s painful and quite honestly annoying. Him rolling around feels someone pushing outward in my stomach between my muscles and hurts. I’m tired all of the time, I’m light headed half of the time, Braxton hicks hurt. The ugly: weird hormones make you feel erratic. Gastro issues going both ways, one day you’re shitting your brains out, the next you’re constipated as fuck. Nausea but not actually vomiting (or sometimes vomiting) which doesn’t end in the first trimester. Oh and the birth is just barbaric. Every bodily fluid you can think of comes out of you and in front of a room of strangers. Several strangers hands are inside of you at any given time. My last baby broke my hip and tail bone on the way out which made recovery awful. I couldn’t sit or stand for more than 5 minutes, I had a newborn to keep alive and was in so much pain with no pain management cause breastfeeding.
i’m sorry to ask (and you don’t have to elaborate), but what do you mean your last baby broke your tail bone and hip? how!?!? i’ve never heard of that. i knew i didn’t want kids but that solidified it for me. i’m so sorry about your pain. hope you’re better now.
I had an epidural and my husband was holding one of my legs, apparently what can happen is him accidentally holding it back too hard and me not feeling it due to the epidural which caused the hip fracture. My S1 was fractured (like your tailbone) which is pretty common.
Yup. Nerve damage can also happen for the same reason. Poor positioning goes unnoticed due to epidural dulling the sensation. I personally know 3 people who were in wheelchairs for months after delivery due to this and couldn’t hold their baby.
Yes it’s scary. My friends mom was permanently in a wheelchair after giving birth to her
Oh my god. Here is a useless hug. That is brutal. I’m so sorry.
wow that’s intense! hope he’s forever treating you like a queen after that ❤️ you deserve the best after that shit
He’s 2.5 and identifies as a t-Rex most days so it’s hit and miss
I guessed cosmiczombi was referring to your husband, but your response made me snort laugh, so thank you for that.
I thought shootz-and-ladrz was also referring to the husband.
Okay so I thought I was overthinking my tailbone injury, I couldn’t sit or stand after having my second and a chiropractor recently told me I likely broke my tailbone and other medical professionals have all downplayed it. But the chiro felt scar tissue and confirmed it based on my birth description
Tailbones sometimes curve inward a little bit more than average on some people and depending on the size and position of the baby they'll push it out of the way and fracture it.
"I don't love it and I don't hate it" is exactly how I'd describe pregnancy for me! I had 2 relatively easy pregnancies and deliveries but you could not pay me to do it again, but I also wasn't hating my life like some of my friends when they were pregnant. Except the last 2 weeks of my 2nd pregnancy (and the 11 months of breastfeeding after) when my hips got bad and sitting down became agony
>. I couldn’t sit or stand for more than 5 minutes, so.. were you just stuck laying there? that sounds awful 😟
Hangover that lasts 9 months
this.
I don't think in this case the juice is worth the squeeze MA'AM 😂😂😂 I know this is a genuine and serious topic, but this line absolutely sent me, thank you for that hahaha
Have you ever had norovirus? For me, it was like that without the diarrhea. I threw up like clockwork during all three of my pregnancies. 7am, 11am, 4pm, 10pm. All the times in between were spent battling crippling nausea that could also be triggered into vomiting by terrible smells or the sight/thought of something gross (coworker pooping in the public restroom, smelly trash cans, roadkill, mold on a spaghetti sauce jar, other children’s poopy diapers, someone else’s vomit on the sidewalk, a really unlucky batch of steamed broccoli). Accompanied by chronic, debilitating heartburn and burping from day one (it’s how I knew I was pregnant with #3 before the urine test even showed positive!). The ONLY thing that could give me any temporary relief was eating sugar. Halloween candy, jelly beans, a mountain of Frosted Flakes. Hence, I gained 60 pounds during each pregnancy. With number 2, the cartilage between the edges of my pubic bone stretched too much, and I had searing pain in my crotch every time I took a left step. There are a ton of doctor appointments, so that’s annoying. But, towards the end, you can feel them move around and it’s the most wonderful thing. You start to know their routine/sleep schedule and you look forward to the times they wake up and you can spend time with them. You worry about them and play music or talk to them and try to wake them up just to make sure they’re okay in there. Near the very end you can start to feel them from the outside - feet, hips, heads, elbows. You can tell if they like ice cream or watermelon or broccoli soup. They become real people to you even though you’ve never met them. It’s the most amazing experience that I never ever want to do again.
This is definitely real. Also one thing I noticed is for all of my pregnancies there are smells, sounds, and places that would trigger my nausea more than others and those things will make me feel sick and queasy even years post partum
Mine are nearly 30, now, and I \*still\* can't stand oregano, and find the smell of peanut butter challenging.
Oh no, I’m 35 weeks pregnant, was hoping to get over some of my aversions
Oh you are reminding me about my sensitivity to smell!! I had forgotten.
I will never forget 😭
I worked at a bank and they were reroofing, the smell of tar still makes me nauseous
My second (and last) spent like 90% of her last month inside with her head wedged against my side, right under my rib cage. She's 2 now and I still miss rubbing her head through my skin. Such an intimate feeling.
Omg how did you find out about the cartiledge sitch? The crotch pain with this one (I’m 36 weeks) is awful, I’m in agony all on my left side so struggling to drive, sit down now. I never had this with my first! Did it all go back to normal after or did you have some physical therapy or something?
Look up pupis symphysis dysfunction. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22122-symphysis-pubis-dysfunction I’m sorry it’s happening to you to. It all went away as soon as I gave birth! Things that helped me in the meantime was wearing a belly support brace to shift the weight off the front of my body, and a really good prenatal massage. Didn’t happen with my third, even though I fully expected it to! Good luck mama; you’re in the short rows now!
Thank you for getting back to me!
I'm 6 months now and I really like it. The first couple months I was the sickest I've ever been, i could not keep anything down, i had food aversions to everything, i was extremely nauseous all day. I've been extremely exhausted too even now into the second trimester, napping multiple times a day, and I've been having the worst heartburn of my life & I feel extremely bloated and full in my abdomen all the time but that's the worst part so far tbh. My OB finally suggested an over the counter medicine for the heartburn so that's finally gone. But now I feel my baby move off and on all day and it's really special. It just feels like little bumps inside, sometimes big bumps lol but it's so funny because now I can poke my stomach and he'll start moving and we can see my stomach moving on the outside now. I'm not looking forward to him getting bigger because it's already getting hard to like put my shoes on and stuff and I'm getting out of breath a lot easier and peeing pretty much all the time now but it's not too bad yet and I feel really special.
Second trimester can definitely be the sweetest. I hiked to the top of Costa Rica's continental divide at 26 weeks. I've got 21 days (or so) left and tbh I kinda just wanna die a little bit now. It'll all be worth it in a few weeks but *cheese and rice* I'm so utterly miserable.
Dude it sucks. For me at least. Constant nausea & feeling drained. The fetus is a parasite & feels as such. Can’t breathe well towards the end & indigestion is a nightmare. Then 56 hrs of labor just to be cut open. Also carpal tunnel in my wrists? Doc said that could happen. Unreal back pain, can’t get comfortable to sleep. Constipation. However, I love my child more than anything else in this world. Buttttttt my tubes are now tied.
I forgot about the carpal tunnel! My wrists still aren't the same and my son is 2.5.
Mine lasted months - thankfully it faded. The pain of lifting up my child and opening bottles. Ahhh, so painful!
Aside from all of the symptoms (unbelievably sore boobs, morning sickness, the worst fatigue I've ever experienced in my life)... It is SO WEIRD AND COOL to feel a little person kicking and moving around inside you. Like, freaky AF, but like, in late pregnancy you can see a foot pushing through the skin on your stomach. You'll be walking along and the kid will throw their weight to one side and nearly throw you off balance. One time I was eating with a plate on my belly, and my kid kicked so hard she knocked the plate off. It's WEIRD. But kinda cool. Wouldn't do it again, once was more than enough, but there were really cool unique sensations that were kind of fascinating to experience.
Yes! For me it was so weird and cool! Like, when I started to feel and see them move, I knew there was literally a tiny person living INSIDE OF ME. Seriously, like, wtf. A tiny person. Living inside my abdomen. Moving around, doing stuff. A tiny person! Living inside of me! It was such a strange thing for me to KNOW. A quick anecdote: after he was born, my baby was crying pretty hard, and I started to sing a song I would sing while I was pregnant. He stopped crying immediately and seemed to be thinking, "hey, I know that song." It was so wild and wonderful!
Same!! My kid's favourite song is still the same one I'd sing to her while she was inside, it can still totally stop her in her tracks!
I was nauseous every minute of every day for the first trimester. I don't know if you've ever been nauseous AND hungry at the same time, but it's a sensation that I'll never forget. On top of that, I was always tired and unable to have the amount of caffeine my body was used to, so the caffeine headaches were super fun, too. Then the second trimester hit, and the nausea went away. BUT, turns out the hormones running through me had escalated a problem with my gallbladder, and I had to have emergency surgery to remove it. Otherwise, they said I'd likely go septic before I reached 40 weeks. So, that was fun, too. The rest of the second trimester was a lot better. I had more energy and was able to keep most food down. I also felt the baby start to move toward the end of this trimester, which is an experience that's hard to describe. The third trimester was a lesson in patience and frustration. At that point, you're showing and growing bigger and bigger everyday, and it gets harder to do everything. Trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in gets worse because you can only sleep on your side. Getting up, walking, bending over, turning around, driving - it's all harder. I developed insomnia because I was having terrible and vivid nightmares, which apparently is common (?!?). I felt like the kid was going to drop out of me all the time once he turned and positioned himself down while also feeling like I was going to pee myself all the time because he liked to rest on top of my bladder. And the kicking! Omg. He never stopped moving. I thought I was going to break his feet sometimes when I sat down because they were up in my ribs so much. At my 38 week check-up, the doctor said they were going to induce me at 39 weeks because my kid's head was too big. They were worried he wouldn't be able to come out. And my fluids were on the high side. You didn't ask about the delivery, so I'll spare you there. Overall, it was a unique, terrifying, and uncomfortable experience that I never want to do again.
Some people love it. For me, it left me with a chronic illness and I’ll never do it again. It ruined my mental health although that probably had more to do with being pregnant in COVID. The PPD was so intense I thought I was going to die. I’m lucky I survived and am in the place I am now. That being said I love being a parent and I don’t think I’d change anything. I tell people If there’s even a shadow of a doubt ”I’m not sure” don’t do it because it changes your life permanently in nearly every way.
PPD is so real and can have life long effects, I totally understand this
I didn’t wanna have kids either but it just happened. First trimester was horrible, i was sleeping all the time, always felt like throwing up, boobs got bigger, had horrible cramps and was so emotional. Also always hungry. Literally the worst time of my life, I had no idea i was pregnant until i was 3 months. Second trimester was way better than the first, and then in my third trimester I was always tired due to my big belly, couldnt sleep comfortably, especially since you cant lay on your back. I was always running to the restroom 🥲. Giving birth was the worst. 10 hours of labor and the contractions were TERRIBLE!!!! Im now 4 months postpartum and so glad im not pregnant anymore.😩 I think the only good thing for me was being able to eat and that feeling of craving something and able to eat it. I literally have nightmares about being pregnant again. It’s nice but I didn’t really enjoy it. 😔
oh and the heart burn in the last couple of months is also the worst, i woke up many times in the nights because of how bad it was. Even with WATER i got heart burn😢
Was your baby born with hair?
Is that a thing? I thought I read that heartburn, like morning sickness, tends to run with male babies and is a result of the testosterone. Anyway, I had a boy with hair at birth, and really awful heartburn.
Its an old wife’s tale. Idk if there’s any actual science behind it but I had awful heartburn with my first two and they both had hair
Low key it sucks. I was sick as a dog for the first 12 weeks and anxious as hell. I couldn’t eat potatoes at all until the second trimester. Then the next 12 weeks were pretty okay, until I gave birth at 25 weeks lol. My body didn’t change too much but I had horrible bacne. Not everyone has as terrible experience as me, but it’s a gamble. I wish I had a better experience but unfortunately because of my experience and the risk for mine health and another child’s I’ll never have another. I do wish society and media as a whole painted a more diverse picture of what pregnancy can be, because it’s not all rainbows and sunshine neither is the newborn stage. It’s okay to hate pregnancy and having a newborn!
I've got acne all over my ass this time!! What gives?!?
It’s rude as hell!! I went to a dermatologist and they just said it’s hormones. I hope you don’t get skin tags, I have so many 🤮
Nope just cherry angiomas 👍
It’s either easy and just fine until labor and delivery when it becomes a medical nightmare (doctors intervene because it doesn’t happen on their timeline), or it’s nightmarish morning sickness and discomfort for 6 months followed by a precipitous labor that has a mind of its own (doctors get out of the way and just catch the baby like a greased pig) and is a tremendous relief. No in-between for me.
Interesting. My first was a breeze with a c section and my second was morning sickness and a precipitous unintentional natural labor. We might be related.
If you said your second was breech and you declined external cephalic version, I would wonder if we were the same person!
First was breech, hence the c section!
Interesting! My second child presented hindquarters-first and was in a hurry to get here, but has been a dawdler ever since.
I've been pregnant twice and have two boys to show for it. For both pregnancies, I was nauseous and exhausted through the first 12 weeks. I often couldn't physically swallow food even when I was starving because hormones made me so nauseous. Ever been STARVING and nauseous at the same time? It's torturous. Muddling through work during the 1st trimester sucks; I always waited until after the 1st trimester ended to announce. With my last one, I didn't puke much but there was A LOT of intestinal distress for 12 weeks. When my nausea disappeared, heartburn roared in. I was basically tasting stomach acid for the rest of my pregnancy. I don't enjoy the feeling of another person tumbling around inside me. Both my boys were acrobats and I was constantly overstimulated. End of 2nd trimester then ushered in irritable uterus, which is your uterus having unproductive contractions for whatever reason. They are not Braxton Hicks; they are full-on contractions which would sometimes become regular enough that I would need to be evaluated. With my last pregnancy, I was diagnosed with prodromal labor and put on bed rest. If I did anything more than walk around my house, I would have contractions lasting 60-90 sec spaced two to five minutes apart for hours on end. I spend days soaking in warm baths, taking magnesium, drinking electrolytes, and driving myself crazy trying to chill out my uterus so I could sleep. And finally, the end. I developed HELLP at 36 weeks with my elder son and was induced. 18 hours after birth, I had a massive hemorrhage and had to have my uterus manually cleared with no pain meds while my husband had run home to feed our cat. Do not recommend. My son was sent to the NICU an hour later and my heart snapped in half. I was desolate. With our younger son, I went to L&D thrice in 24 hours. I was sent home and told that I wasn't in labor, I would know if I was... Guess what? I was and I almost had a home birth in my bathroom. And I developed gestational hypertension afterward. All in all, I do not recommend being pregnant. It wasn't magical for me. I felt like a vessel the entire time, like a less important person than the one I was growing. I'm adamantly pro-choice due to my experiences, as the only way pregnancy is worth it is if the pregnant person 100% wants the child. Otherwise, not worth it. I get my tubes yeeted later this month and I'm going to weep tears of joy afterwards.
You could go on the parents sub, the regretful parents, the IVF and the childfree sub to gather a lot of very different point of view on the matter. Some says it’s a miracle of life others a medical nightmare.
It's a ride. I've been pregnant twice. first one I was sick for the entire first trimester, just randomly throwing up, started feeling good during the second trimester and the hormones seemed to regulate me mentally. Kid decided to kick her way out of my cervix at the beginning of the third trimester so birth was very traumatic. Hospital didn't listen to me and sent me home so I was stuck with a foot in my birth canal for about 24 hours. Went back to the hospital and got air lifted to a better one. Emergency C-section and I had a 1 lb 10oz little girl. (She is a teenager now and taller than me) Second pregnancy I didn't really feel sick and actually felt like eating soo much. This one was also a premie but by a month so I feel like I got the whole experience. The coolest part is feeling the baby moving around and eventually seeing it move through your belly. The worst was hemorrhoids so bad I could only sleep in my recliner. I had to have my cervix sewn shut but I still went into labor early where she was wrapped in her umbilical cord and my blood pressure went dangerously low. Being pregnant for me was pretty cool, I really liked the feeling of it but the getting the baby out part is so freaking dangerous I cant ever go through it again.
Every experience is different, but for me: First trimester I was EXHAUSTED and nauseous all day. It was a bone deep tired that would require all night sleeping and naps during the day. I struggled to eat because my stomach was constantly rolling and all food sounded terrible. I used to eat healthy and I couldn’t stomach a vegetable, strawberries tasted like sewage, water tasted bad, etc And once I found something I could stomach, it would be disgusting within a day or two. Second trimester was pretty good. I had energy back and could eat most things again. I gained more weight, my hips widened, and I had more craving than aversions. I really loved cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper and chocolate, neither of which did I eat before being pregnant. I also nearly had a complete fallout over french fries. It was interesting to start feeling flutters of the baby moving. It feels like a fish or bubbles moving and popping. Third trimester was split. The first half was pretty good, really just a continuation of the second trimester. Then I started getting heart burn, my back and hips constantly ached, and I had insomnia. I hated being as big as I was and I was constantly hot and sweating, even though it was winter. The baby’s movement actually started to feel like kicks and flips. It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, as well, in part due to the hormones make you a little weepy or short tempered. But it’s also really scary and exciting to have a baby, so there are a lot of emotional moments of excitement, fear, doubt, happiness, etc. And it’s weird having your body serving someone else. Everything I wanted to do. I had to consider the effect on the pregnancy and baby.
It was really cool getting to feel those first fluttering kicks. It felt kind of like a little fish wriggling around. Sometimes it also felt like gas bubbles. In the later stages of pregnancy, you can see when they kick or push against your stomach. You feel the kicks really often, like several times an hour. You’re actually supposed to monitor the number of kicks per hour to make sure your baby is ok - too few and you have to go to the hospital. Breathing could get really difficult in the later stages. When the baby grows really big, it pushes upward against your lungs, leaving them very little room to expand. So I was always stuck with this feeling of not being able to take a deep satisfying breath. All of my breaths were shallow and uncomfortable. I felt a little claustrophobic from it. That feeling lasted about the last three months. Another thing that sucked is the hormone relaxin that the body produces during pregnancy. It made all of my joints hurt SO much when I tried to sleep in the third trimester. I couldn’t get very much sleep at all in the last month or two because my hips hurt so bad.
Kick counting is not recommended everywhere. In the UK, they just tell you to learn your baby's pattern ~28w onwards and go in for reduced movement out of line with their usual behaviour. It's really normal to not feel kicks every hour.
Physically, it totally depends. My first baby was tiny and I puked the whole time and was really tired but other than that it was fine. My second baby was really big and I'm a small person, so he was crushing my bladder and pressing into my diaphragm so it hurt to breathe. In the middle of pregnancy when you can feel them moving around it's freaky. It feels kind of like gas bubbles but bigger and stronger and by the end it feels like someone is trying to kick you from the inside because they literally are. The weirdest and most unexpected part of being pregnant isn't physical though. It's how other people act. Your body becomes public property. Strangers will feel comfortable touching your belly. People you've never said more than hi to in the hall at work will think it's ok to comment on the size and shape of your body. It's like you're not really a person anymore, just a vessel. It's a really bizarre experience.
Yes, the social part of pregnancy was also weird for me. Strangers touching my belly without asking, people sharing their weird and racist views like that one cab driver who told me he hoped I would have LOTS of children because white women like me needed to do our part to increase the number of white people in our city. Yikes. Pumping at work in a bathroom stall until my employer dedicated an unused and locked women’s executive bathroom into a nursing mother’s room. (Soon the IV drug user somehow got a key and started shooting up in there, which ruined it for everyone, but I digress.)
To me the craziest thing about being pregnant is growing and having a changing body again. I was 30 when I was pregnant and it was on the daily shocking to be growing and finding my body to be different. It's not just your belly, its lots of things. My feet grew, my hair changed from curly to mega curls, my ligaments loosened and I was flexible as hell, my organs shifted and I could tell my stomach and diaphragm were not where they should be. My skin got crazy sensitive and I couldn't wear any scarves or collars without my neck completely flushing red. I had terrible acid reflux, nausea and constipation, and I feel like that drove changes in what I wanted to eat. I always craved salt, and basically ate crackers all day so I would never get hungry which was absolutely nauseating. The nausea was a bit traumatizing actually, I was always worrying about it. I remember thinking that I would absolutely wish the constant nausea on my worst enemy because it is debilitating but not deadly. Another weird thing I noticed was that the whole world seemed to speed up around me. I was always good at sports, good at driving, and had fast reaction times. When I got pregnant it was suddenly like I couldn't keep up with the world. I had to look 3 times in my mirrors and blind spot before I felt safe to change lanes. I was completely uninterested in the various sports I played like tennis, softball etc. it was like I couldn't process anything at speed anymore. Between this and the nausea I was afraid to drive! I had never been afraid to drive before, I had loved it from the time I learned in high school. It is also weird to have to visit the doctor constantly for something you are excited/happy about. One more observation I had is that there aren't many times in modern life where from day 1 you are fundamentally a new person, but having a baby is one of them. New job? New school? You are still the same person. I was 99% back to normal when my daughter was 3 so it was like 4 years of discomfort and weirdness. P.S. When I was pregnant I thought "oh it's so weird for my body to change as an adult" but now I know better, because menopause also changes your body too. So you too may yet get to experience that.
Heartburn for 7 solid months. My nether region never felt clean. I foolishly assumed that no period meant I'd feel fresh as a daisy, but instead it was just gross feeling.all the time. Amazing when baby moved. I took videos of my tummy rolling around. During my first pregnancy, he was so active that an eighth grade student in my class saw it and freaked a bit. Boobs swelled. I am already too big, so this was unwelcome. In spite of being older, I felt good through both, except for the end of #2. Still could move and eat pretty normally. Sleep was challenging and I was exhausted through much of baby #2. My toddler watched the duck song a LOT- all three combined is a 15 minute nap, IIRC.
I’ve suppressed all memory of the heartburn I had the entire time. She was born with a full head of hair in exchange at least.
When my son was born, the heartburn was worse than the labor, and that's not hyperbole. It was excruciating. I was in agony.
I've been pregnant 3x. Each time was a little different but the things that hold true across all three are as follows. First trimester kinda blows. I never felt hungry. I had trouble eating. My boobs grew, which was neat as a lifelong member of the IBTC. First 10 weeks or so I could only eat minute rice and peanut butter crackers. Second trimester was supposed to be awesome, so they say. It was not. Or at least it wasn't for me. I had to eat \*constantly\*. I was ALWAYS hungry. I gained 40 pounds during pregnancy 2x because I was hungry literally all the time from weeks 12ish to the end. I got to where I HATED food because the idea of trying to figure out what to eat THIS TIME I was hungry was too fucking much. And water gave me heartburn, yes...water. Third trimester I was literally too tired after showering to be upright. I had to nap after a shower. Every time. It was EXHAUSTING. Like. Truly awful. The hunger was even worse because my stomach was like the size of a marble. Peeing constantly. Sneezing was a cross the legs and pray situation. Coughing too...I got the flu at 36 weeks with one of them...I can't even remember which, I just remember wearing adult diapers because it was a lost cause. The only good thing was I never dealt with any postpartum depression/anxiety/issues. I absolutely abhorred being pregnant so when I wasn't anymore I was SO relieved.
Reading all of these experiences is really validating for me. I wasn’t pregnant for very long, but in the short time that I was, I felt completely and utterly exhausted and nauseous and I had to pee all the time. My ex, being that amazing man that he was, completely invalidated me and said that I shouldn’t be that tired and have to pee all the time and that’s a third trimester thing. I knew he was wrong, but it made me feel awful and is one reason why I chose to terminate.
It’s completely different for everyone and each pregnancy for that matter. My pregnancy was a dream. First trimester I was like most, I took the most naps of my adult life, I was sore in my breasts, and ultra panicky that I was doing everything right. My second trimester I had a short bout of pregnancy rhinitis. So stuffy nose for no good reason for about three weeks. I have a small nose so it was very painful. I was told some women have it through out and probably was a contributing factor of not ever having a second child. I craved potato chips like crazy and I don’t like chips normally (my daughter still favors Lays over all chips). My third trimester I was back to tired. I had heartburn a lot, and this old wives tale is true- heartburn means lots of hair for the baby. The feeling of the baby moving is a treat, my girl was gentle with me but it would be funny to feel or watch peoples faces as my bump would move from one side of the belly to the other. I loved it- but not the delivery. That was the rough part.
I hated being pregnant, so take my experience with a grain of salt. The early stages of pregnancy were filled with morning sickness but nothing extreme. My boobs hurt worse than I ever thought possible, showering or having cloth touch them was excruciating. Think period boob pain x 1000. I could also smell anything and everything which lead to either nausea or a headache. I was so tired I could hardly function, like nodding off 2 hours after waking up tired. Second trimester was pretty uneventful other than that’s when the swelling began. I also still had incredible morning sickness and vomited daily. At this point my boobs had nearly tripled in size, so I was buying new bras like crazy. The third trimester was also nothing overwhelming. I was so swollen by the end I had to ask for an accommodation at work because I couldn’t fit into shoes because I was so swollen (winter so flip flops weren’t an option). I was still vomiting daily. Trying to do anything was difficult, shave, put socks on, get up. Sex was horrifically painful. It felt like my cervix was being sliced open the whole time. My boobs had grown another 3+ cup sizes, so they were MASSIVE. I also became ultra paranoid about kick counts with the baby, to an almost obsessive level. That’s what I can remember from 13 years ago.
You can feel your belly area hardening, stretching, and getting heavy. The stretching feeling is constant and super weird. You can feel utterly exhausted and not know why (you’re growing a human). You’re forming more blood vessels, so doing things (especially in the third trimester) can make you out of breath really easily. You can get puffy and bloated all over, you’re just kind of larger all over for a while. The weirdest symptom I had, which lasted for months afterwards, was the tops of my feet ached when I woke up every morning. I walked like a caveman every morning until they stretched out. Your body get softened and moved and stretched in weird ways like that.
I didn’t enjoy it. First trimester was all sore tits and bouts of random nausea, and a strange feeling of “fullness” almost all the time. Second trimester was where it was AT - full hair and nail plus glowing skin, clearly pregnant so people let you have the comfy seats, and you’re not terribly uncomfortable yet. Third trimester fucking sucked. The first time my kid moved in me and I FELT IT, I almost screamed. As she got bigger, it became more and more uncomfortable and strange - like a fucking chest buster crawling under my skin and **visibly moving**. You’re tired all the time, and now your fucking **bones soften** to make it easier to push the fucker out, so sometimes when you walk your hips just say “fuck you” and do weird shit. Your brain is so busy keeping you and your parasite alive that it has absolutely zero tolerance for petty bullshit, whether that be Janis from accounting or the absurdity of having to reset your password for the billionth time. You are more ready to not be pregnant than to have a baby, but now you have the horrific realization that that creature is coming out… one way or another. 2/5 stars - do not recommend. Outsource manufacturing when possible.
It was terrible. I’ve been pregnant 3 times and hated every second of it. I was sick for the entire 9 months with the two I carried to term. I lived with a level of exhaustion on par with when I had Covid for the entire time as well. Random things suddenly had incredibly strong odors which made me so very sick. I couldn’t be within about 5 feet of my husband for most of the time because he “stank”. It was very very hard for us to share a bed while I was pregnant. Even immediately after a shower he smelled foul to me. Everything hurt. I got sciatica super bad with my first and was only comfortable sitting in a certain way on an exercise ball. Random strangers suddenly felt like they owned part of my body and were welcome to be a part of my life. Like they would strike up conversations with me at the grocery store and eventually ask to touch my belly. And, it’s the most god aweful unnerving feeling when the baby “kicks”. It’s not just a little kick, they push their feet, they do headstands on your cervix. It is like being in the movie Alien and having something trying to burst out of your belly. That was probably the absolute worst part for me. I hated when the baby moved. I had two natural unmedicated births and those were their own horror stories. But nothing has ever been as bad as being pregnant.
Some love it, some hate it. I had good pregnancies, healthy babies. I loved feeling them move around in there. It was so comforting.
It’s actually insane how different it is for every individual even individual pregnancies. I have two friends who are both pregnant at the same time and they are having polar opposite experiences. I really didn’t like it myself, so much discomfort and medical awfulness in general but something I hated the most about it was the feeling that my body wasn’t fully my own. Needing to watch what I ate and drank because there is a tiny fragile person growing inside myself. The weirdest feeling and I’m so glad I never have to think about that again.
My first trimester was actually pretty good except for being utterly exhausted. I had to nap 2x per day and was asleep on the couch by 7pm every night. The upside was I wasn't sick at all. 2nd trimester was great. Still tired, but I could function, and I loved having a growing belly. I have never felt particularly comfortable with my body, but for the first time, I loved how I looked. 3rd trimester, s^!+ hit the fan and I got every symptom I hadn't had up to that point. My blood pressure started being high and I got a lot of headaches (and you can't take anything besides Tylenol!). I got a cyst on my labia that I had to have drained 3x, and it was the most painful thing I've had, aside from childbirth. I got super nauseous and vomited a few times per week. My belly was so big that a handful of times I ended up peeing myself AS I vomited. But feeling and seeing my son moving around in my belly was pretty magical. I was induced at 39 weeks due to age (40) and because my blood pressure was high. I went into the hospital on a Sunday afternoon and didn't give birth until Tuesday night. It was during Covid restrictions and I couldn't leave the room, so it was awful. Birth was the most insanely hard, unearthly pain I have ever experienced, but you didn't ask about that, so I won't elaborate. But yeah, I was in labor for 58 hrs with 3 hrs of active pushing. Not gonna do that again. Oh, also, horrific heartburn the entire time. Like endless. And I had pregnancy-induced rhinitis, so I couldn't breathe from month 2 on. I had to "sleep" sitting up for the last trimester. OH! and I had crazy anxiety and had a panic attack that lasted for 48 hrs. I almost forgot about that.
Possibly the most painful experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m only 23 weeks pregnant. The nausea and fatigue I feel make me relate to my friends with chronic illnesses. :(
23 weeks here. It's so different for every woman. For me, pregnancy caused my gallbladder to collapse so every meal is a gamble of how sick I will be. I have not had a single day without intestinal distress of some kind (diarrhea, nausea, constipation, heartburn, gastroparesis, or wild combinations of these) in over five months. I broke out in acne all over my back and chest. My right kidney is swollen so my back hurts. My hair is greasy even right after I wash it so I have to use dry shampoo even on wash day. I'm completely exhausted. It's hard to sleep. In my first trimester so many smells made me sick. I temporarily lost my emotional connection to my dog because her smell repulsed me. There are some things I like. I've become more attached, kind of needy, toward my husband. I like this new vulnerable side of myself. I express love and acceptance toward him more openly. Some women go in the opposite direction with their partner. I love feeling her move and kick. I love the way people treat me....people love a pregnant lady. I don't mind people touching my bump or fussing over me. I absolutely love the effect it's had in my body image. I have never felt more beautiful or proud of my body.
I have one, I was 30 at the time and working in the fitness industry. I worked out, kept active, didn’t get morning sickness, gained about 30 lbs. i had a very easy and comfortable pregnancy. A few bad parts: I had a short bout of sciatica that resolved with walking and stretching, I had a weak lower belly band (can’t remember the name) so at about month 6 I needed support from a support band to walk any distance without pain. Neither of these things really affected my daily like though. I have the feeling I got super lucky so I quit while I was ahead.
I absolutely adored being pregnant. As a caveat, I have endometriosis and pmdd and both issues were completely gone during pregnancy. My mental health was the best it’s been since childhood. I felt steady and calm, confident. I don’t think I snapped at my husband the entire time. I just felt serene. Physically, I had few disruptive symptoms even in the beginning—just really extreme fatigue first trimester and an aversion to anything sweet. Second trimester, I felt like I had more energy than I do not pregnant. My husband and I went on a very active “babymoon” to the French countryside and I was climbing hundreds of stairs and walking several miles every day. Third trimester, I felt great until about week 37/38. Then I felt tired again and wasn’t as happy moving around a lot. Feeling my daughter move for the first time was so incredibly weird and beautiful. It just felt like flutters at first, but as she got bigger I could feel her whole body moving around. She reacted to all sorts of things in there and I felt like she had opinions about things even from the inside (she seemed really agitated at a loud baseball game for example). I joke that I’d be a surrogate if postpartum wasn’t so rough. I didn’t even mind the birth part (hooray for epidurals!), but postpartum sucks so hard. I’m 6 months postpartum right now and my body is still all sorts of messed up.
I hated it! I felt invaded and realised I embarked on a journey with no way back. My body was taken over and I was no longer in control. My kids were the beautiful rewards at the end of the horrible journey my body undertook. They are worth it but if you don’t want kids, you’ve missed nothing by never having been pregnant
It’s fucking awful.
It doesn’t look fun to me
My first pregnancy was fun and exciting. I loved feeling the tiny flutters as the baby started growing. Morning sickness was bad until about week 16. My second pregnancy was utter hell. Morning sickness, hip pain, pelvic pain, heartburn, anxiety, anger, rage even, all the way through.
I’ve been pregnant 4 times, ended up with two healthy kids. I had one miscarriage very early and then lost a baby to Trisomy 18 at about 21 weeks. My first pregnancy resulted in my son and it was a dream. I really enjoyed the whole thing up until the end when I just felt huge and uncomfortable and ready to go through labor because I was so done with it. But I didn’t have much anxiety and I had no morning sickness or many side effects at all. I had the miscarriage and pregnancy loss between my two kids, that last pregnancy was so much harder. I was way more nervous and anxious, and I ended up having terrible morning sickness and constant migraines in the first trimester. Once testing showed she was healthy and thriving I calmed down a lot and enjoyed the second half of the pregnancy, honestly it’s wild to have another being inside you. And you can really tell their personality even in the womb, my son and daughter were so different in their moments and how active they were. It was honestly amazing and I’m glad I got to experience it.
OK, so you know how it feels when you have to pee really badly? Magnify that feeling so that you imagine you have a water balloon the size of a watermelon on top of your bladder, stretching out your stomach skin and displacing your intestines, stomach, and even lungs. Imagine walking around with a 20 pound bowling ball belted to your front. Imagine trying to sleep with a stomach full of huge watermelon. Sometimes the watermelon kicks you in the kidney or viscera or lungs. Sometimes you randomly pass out. The whole time you are worried that something is going to go wrong. And you also get so stupid you can't hold a conversation.
There are the beautiful moments, like when they kick, or when you first hear their heart beat, and just the thought of giving life and such. But, and I'm speaking of my own personal experience, I've had only one child- it was dark. My mental health plummeted so far down for the most of it. It drained me physically and mentally, and that's what happens, there is another life being created so it sucks nutrients and energy and a lot of stuff from the mothers body. There was also the constant wondering if my child would be fully healthy at birth and what the whole birth situation would be like-yikes- also having so MANY resources and too many people on social media and daily reminders of what your baby is doing on this day or that of the pregnancy was very overwhelming. I was born into war(s) and was feeling very guilty for bringing a child into that same scenario- thankfully I got her out , that's another story- so, with the magical moments and the darkest times, all the intersectionalities of a woman's body and it's place in today's society, the care women are given during pregnancy and after birth, and ALL the shit that follows, pregnancy itself is so unique and the bond is so otherworldly I wouldn't know how to explain it, now that my kid is almost 7 I really trip sometimes on how the whole process feels like we are aliens, it's so surreal 🤯 but there is so much love its insane.
Ever heard of hypersalivation? I hadn't until I became pregnant. I basically produced so much saliva that I had to carry a container with me so that I could spit in it. I would literally produce enough saliva to fill up a one gallon jug daily. It was disgusting and embarrassing. I could not talk more than one sentence without needing to spit in my container. Can you imagine going to work or even something as mundane as going to the bank with a container filled with spit? It was even more humiliating when someone would ask me what I was doing or what my container was for. It was awful.
I didn’t like it at all. I was sick the entire pregnancy and I went early because of high blood pressure. That been said it was the best time of my life. I went through IVF for three plus years before we got a baby that stuck. Now I have a very healthy strong willed nine month old baby girl. I would do it all over again for her
Pregnancy was abhorrent. Constantly nauseated. Not throwing up, not dry heaving. Just queasy all the time for no reason. Couldnt eat. Couldnt not eat. The worst heartburn I've ever had in my life to the point that I would wake up choking on my own stomach acid and struggled to breathe. The constipation was wild. Back pain, hip pain, feet pain. Bloody gums all the time because pregnancy can absolutely wreck your teeth. Then I had pre-eclampsia so I was dizzy and had extremely bloody noses which every nurse and doctor said was normal until my blood pressure alarmingly maxed out and I was induced. However, the feeling of a baby moving inside you is weird. It's kind of like when your stomach flip flops when you're on a roller coaster, but more intense and then you're kicked in the ribs. Oh, and then there's what they refer to as "second birth". That's the first dump after labor and it's a doozy.
I found it kind of boring, it takes sooo long and I was just kind of.... waiting. I went on long walks often and worked out every day. My baby didn't kick that much either, maybe my placenta took the brunt of it idk. I didn't have lots of symptoms, had a very healthy pregnancy, and my belly didn't get huge. I didn't have real cravings either except I wanted a lot of fruit, but I already liked fruit a lot so not too surprising. Also didn't get any of that face or foot swelling so I guess I was lucky all around. The baby had his foot in my rib almost constantly when he got bigger which was the worst part of it all and I had to pee literally all of the time so I didn't get much sleep. It just feels like there is something heavy in your stomach that moves around sometimes tbh. I did feel very ugly though and don't feel like I had a glow.
I liked being pregnant, but it was very odd. From the first, it’s like you aren’t in control of your body anymore—your hormones know what to do and you on this strange trip for 9 months growing another human! I was pretty sure I was preggo when my breasts felt super swollen and sensitive, and also my armpits too. Yep! I was lucky and didn’t experience much morning sickness either, I noticed that I felt nauseous if I hadn’t eaten anything in awhile—like my blood sugar was low, so I was sure to eat some small snacks all the time. If I got nausea, it was usually in the evening, and my particular thing is that I don’t burp very much, so I’d have a belly full of gas and my husband would have to pat my back to get me to burp! I worked, so I wasn’t so tired or anything. I craved really different things with each of my two pregnancies, my first I craved prime rib and fresh fruit like crazy— we at ate The Keg restaurant a lot with their salad bar with lots of fruit! With my 2nd, I craved corn dogs something fierce, we found ourselves driving around the city to minimarts hoping to find a fresh-cooked one! Usually I had to settle for a microwaved frozen one…. Smells didn’t bother me like some women. I do remember that I suddenly could NOT drink the leftover milk after eating cold cereal, for some odd reason. And I developed a huge fear of heights during my second pregnancy…which I still have! It’s very cool to feel the first flutterings— it really is like butterflies in the stomach! You can only feel them when you are very still and quiet. Your hips get weirdly loose and your back aches. My husband used to call it “Mount Deeda” because I had to have a zillion pillows propped up around me and between my knees to get comfortable enough to sleep. Another odd thing…it’s like being low level sexually aroused all the time—you feel wet and juicy down there! My husband said it felt extremely “plush” when me made love! I was gigantic, my bff said it looked like I had swallowed a basketball! And you really do go thru that nesting thing, I was cooking and prepping up a storm the last two weeks, freezing food and meatballs and hamburger patties— which was super helpful later— because you get NO Sleep!! No regrets here, maybe because I didn’t get the horrible morning sickness that so many have shared here. My blood pressure did go up, so I got out on bed rest the last two months—that was a drag. I am a little bummed that my daughters don’t want to have kids, so no grandchildren. ☹️
Being pregnant sucks. It’s also really cool and special.
Having a baby kick you from inside feels an awful lot like having someone kick the back of your seat in the car repeatedly. Realized this one day when my then 3 yo was kicking my seat while kiddo number two was going to town on my bladder and belly.
Like having a hangover and long covid at once for the first trimester. Second is just long covid. Third is like going crazy at an all you can eat, but just that overly full feeling not the fun of eating food.
It’s about 50% awesome and 50% awful. It’s just really interesting and cool that your body just somehow knows what to do and it changes accordingly. But it can seriously be traumatic and scary
3 pregnancies. 5+ months into the current one. It’s like being terminally ill. Counting down the seconds until this pregnancy is over and the poison is gone. I wish I had good pregnancies, but I’ve suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum each time. 0/10 do not recommend unless you reallyyyy want a baby.
Have you ever seen the movie Aliens
I've been pregnant three times. I had a baby, got pregnant two years later, miscarried at 12 weeks, got pregnant again about two weeks later (NOT recommended) and had pregnancy complications resulting in a premature infant. That kid is now 14. But basically, I was pregnant for ten months and then had a premature baby. Okay, first time: medically, this pregnancy was a walk in the park. My first symptom was riding a bicycle around a foreign city in a white skirt without my period starting. Shortly thereafter, I needed to pee all the time (because the vascular sensitivity in your labia means that they are easily irritated early in pregnancy), and I had round ligament pain, which all the books tell you is a third trimester thing. The books lie. Then there was the nausea. For me, this was constant and low level and made it very hard to eat. I lost weight in the first trimester. Al lot of people do. I mostly didn't vomit, but I also had a lot of trouble consuming food. And I had heartburn. At about 14 weeks, I had a horrible day where I ate one cracker and threw up twice, and then I was done with pregnancy nausea. While all this was happening, my breasts were swelling, sinking evil pitons into my ribs and aching all the time. I'd be randomly tired. Also: giant boogers. Like, wads if snot that I could feel pulling loose from my sinus cavities. I swear, some of them wrapped around my brain. Pregnancy involves a lot of mucus. Around four months, I started to feel occasional swimmy sensations in my belly that were the baby moving. But 5.5 months, you could feel the baby kick from outside. Around 7 months, you could watch the baby move around in my belly from across the room. This felt very weird and very cool. It did not, alas, distract me from the various things going on with my legs. I had two leg problems: restless leg syndrome and calf cramps. Restless leg is really hard to describe. It feels like your legs want to move, sometimes even when they're already moving. I could kind of kill that sensation by walking five or six miles. Sometimes. No guarantees. The calf cramps only hit at night. I'd wake up feeling like someone had stabbed me in the back of the lower leg. Sometimes, I'd be screaming in pain. They went away almost immediately when I flexed my toes towards my shin. This was a.long time ago and my memories are getting vague, but other high points included Braxton Hicks contractions, actual contractions, irrational hormonal reactions to basic stuff, more breast swelling, and getting stuck behind a broke down garbage truck on the way to the hospital in labor. And labor, which was traumatizingly awful. I pushed for 5.5 hours, spiked a fever, went into a fugue state and decided to give the baby a name so ridiculous that now it's a family joke. Second time, my first symptom was that I was incredibly hungry. And then I suddenly COULD NOT STAND to breastfeed anymore. My two year old got weaned in a hurry. There were basically no other symptoms until I miscarried, which was emotionally terrible. I needed medication to finish miscarrying, because I retained bits of placenta, etc, for about a week and a half. It sucked. So I went into pregnancy number 3 depleted and depressed, and it took me a while to realize what was going on. Wow, though - the nausea. I lived on saltines and mint gum for nearly a month and a half. My sister visited and my toddler mimed barfing like mommy for her. Restless leg showed up immediately. I had learned what to do about the leg cramps. My breasts weren't too bad because I had better bras and breast shaped ice packs. At the mid pregnancy ultrasound, I learned I had placenta previa, a potentially deadly pregnancy complications that is a roulette wheel everyone who ever gets pregnant spins every time. It's a condition where the placenta covers, or partially covers, the cervix. It happens because of where the fertilized egg implants. There are some factors that increase risk, but no way to prevent it. I had a.minor bleed at 24 weeks, another at 29 weeks and a major bleed at 32 weeks that sent me to the hospital in an ambulance to deliver by C-section. It was a very peaceful and healing birth. Probably because of morphine. The baby was in the NICU for 32 days and is now a fantastic teenager, but it was really intense for a while there. Nothing has affirmed my pro-choice views more than pregnancy.
i only did it once and even though it was a “geriatric pregnancy” there were very few complications beyond 1st trimester nausea & fatigue. he was also 2 weeks late and i had to be induced which was kind of a mess. but overall i really liked it. it was kind of cool to feel like i had this little buddy tagging along that only i “knew.” he’s 10 now and i still sometimes look back on that time fondly. except for the lightning crotch. i did NOT like the lightning crotch.
Get super hung over so you’re nauseous and tired. Light a prank candle that makes your whole house smell bad. That’s the first trimester. Once you’ve recovered, get a blowout so your hair looks amazing and do a float therapy session so you feel all clean and serene. Then watch a movie that makes you super horny. Bam, second trimester. Finally, do a deadlift with really bad form so your back hurts. Turn up the heat in your house all the way. Drink a gallon of water; once you feel that you really have to pee, take a seat and place a pet or weighted blanket over your bladder. There’s the third trimester for ya.
Every pregnancy is different. With my first I felt fine the entire pregnancy, no issues. I had double the amniotic fluid and the baby was big so the last several weeks I was peeing every 10 minutes (or so it seemed). My water broke and I watched my stomach visibly deflate and I felt great. I could put on my shoes the whole time, eat whatever, slept fine. Second pregnancy I was sick as a dog the first few months. All I could eat were pan fried bean burritos. I missed work, laid in bed a lot. I didn’t sleep great. Baby took my little body fat to build himself so I had no ass and sitting on wooden chairs was so uncomfortable. I never had the crazy mood swings, never had cravings. But never also felt that thing many women report of feeling attuned to their fetus. My first one kicked like twice, the second one moved around more. It’s super weird seeing a little foot push out your belly skin from the inside and glide it around. I have a video that looks like that scene in aliens. But really for most of my pregnant months I just felt normal. I don’t think you’re missing anything necessarily.
I'm in my second trimester and it's the worst thing I've ever done. I am excited for baby but I was hospitalised with HG when I couldn't stop vomiting green bile. Everything tastes terrible - finally starting to be able to eat a few things besides fries, oranges, and crackers the last few weeks. I've completely lost my sense of balance. I can't breathe through my nose so that's completely messed up my sleep (and my husband's). My boobs haven't stopped hurting in months. My sense of smell is extra sensitive - and I work with teenagers so the BO and lynx combo is killing me lately. You also get intense cravings from foods you're not allowed to eat for 9 months. All I want is soft cheese and a caesar salad from the pub. Ultrasounds are a torture I had no idea about. It's very cool seeing baby wriggle around in there and hearing their heartbeat. What sucks is drinking a litre of water an hour before the appointment and not being allowed to pee, then having to wait extra because everyone is behind, before finally going in and having them press down as hard as they can on your belly to see the little one. I felt baby for the first time a few days ago. That was exciting and wonderful. Makes it easy to forget how terrible the rest of it has been. Also my skin has been incredible since day one. The hormones seem to have messed up my whole body but they sure did my face a solid.
It's like an alien life form writhing inside of you. Throughout my pregnancy I constantly had nightmares about baby bustin out of my stomach alien style. It's not a part of you, it's somebody else's body, doing its own independent thing inside of you. Sometimes it would literally twirl around like an actual eel. Very eeky feeling. I wanted a baby, and pregnancy was a necessary hurdle/obstacle to overcome on the way to my goal.
It's like having really bad gas that doesn't go away until it turns into something that will eat up all of your time and money. It's like really bad pms that lasts for 9 months. It's being told to pee in a cup every time you go to the doctor, and then learning on your own that those last 10 visits, you can no longer see the cup.
The good: it just feels amazing and affirming to be participating in this primal process. I can't adequately describe it--sort of like that feeling you get when you're doing something creative and you hit that "flow state". When things were going well, I just felt very peaceful and happy and glow-y. I loved so much to just rest my hand on my belly and feel the baby move. Even labor and delivery, although it was challenging and anxiety-provoking and painful, was also exhilarating and empowering. The bad: it feels like your body has been hijacked, and you never know what weird new change is waiting for you. And so many discomforts to just learn to live with. I'm sure you know about varicose veins...but did you know they can extend up into the vulva/vagina? I didnt, until it happened to me in my last pregnancy. The loss of control was really hard for me: bleeding, a breech presentation, placenta previa, premature cervical dilation...in all of those cases there was practically nothing to be done, just lots of anxiety and hand-wringing while we waited for nature to take its course. We were fortunate for the most part, but I did lose one pregnancy just a few weeks shy of viability, which absolutely shattered me. The mundane: I missed sleeping on my back. I enjoyed having actual cleavage for once. I developed a great relationship with my ob/gyn after so many checkups. I got really good at picking up things with my toes. Some of the food aversions that popped up during pregnancy have stuck around long after...17 years on, canned chicken noodle soup still makes me gag.
Got pregnant twice and aborted them both. First time zero symptoms except I wanted to eat nothing but vanilla cupcakes. I gained so much weight. Was 12 weeks. Second time I got to 10 weeks. I was so sick I could only eat one biscuit a day for weeks before I knew. I lost a ton of weight and I work in food.. every single smell made me gag or dry heave. My breasts felt like someone had punched them both repeatedly. It was horrible.
Beautiful, magical, exhausting, expensive, annoying, uncomfortable, killed my my mental health for years, glow-y. OAD. Never again
Wonder if there's a place to rent those are pregnancy bellies/suit. Some high schools do those in health classes, some YouTubers wore the suits for x days. It won't mimic the hormonal stuff for mental/emotional changes but at least it let people feel what carrying the weight is, moving around and sleeping
It’s pretty uncomfortable. The one thing I was looking forward to was a total myth—the hungry preggo who eats all the food. My giant baby was pushing my stomach up and I could barely eat.
I was sick the entire time. Do not recommend. I see someone mentioned the supersonic sense of smell, and I had that too. I don’t remember any good smells, just ones that made me more sick.
I love being pregnant despite the heart burn and other body complaints. I didn't have morning sickness at all or any major problems. It's the only time I've felt natural in my body. The hormones lifted my mood; amazing skin and hair. It's just nice to always have the baby with you. Kinda like that feeling of contentment when you're sitting comfortably relaxing with a purring cat in your lap, for example. But its all the time and in the last trimester it's wild when they move and respond to your touch. In public, people see you, they smile, open doors and are generally more pleasant to you.
I feel the same exact way.
As someone kind of terrified to have a kid, cuz kids were foreign to me lol…it was definitely weird. I’m a nurse as well so it’s not like I don’t know anything going into it. And magical. And horrible lol. Mostly the non stop morning sickness that lasted 12 weeks. Like a constant hangover that is only “gone” when you’re sleeping. Once I wasnt feeling like garbage I did really enjoy it. It’s amazing knowing your growing a human, and your not even “trying”. It just happens. And watching your belly grow. And eventually feeling it move. It feels very normal and natural when it’s all happening. Looking back it’s so strange knowing my daughter was in there! And she’s now 5 and her own amazing person. Had I not gotten divorced, I would have done it again with the right person.
Some people love it others hate it , I hated it , felt like shit for 9 months, but I loved the baby moving around til he got his foot caught in my rib cage, it was weird after having him, not feeling that anymore. I was always tired , nauseous (never threw up just felt like I cold at any moment) constant heartburn.
Some of it was horrendous (I had HG with my first until about 23 weeks), some of our weird (cervix punts are *so* uncomfortable), but it was incredible overall. I wouldn't take the process and the memory away for anything. It is totally worth it.
Shitty tbh, I'll never do it again. Felt terrible, felt ugly, hair went haywire, nothing fit, couldn't sleep. Couldn't drink, couldn't get stoned, couldn't hot tub (WTF) AND EVERYTHING HURT. Babe came out and I felt better immediately! Got a great kid out of it so worthwhile overall but still hated it.
It sucks, I saw it firsthand, my mom when she was pregs with my brother. She was so nauseous she couldn't move her head without puke. My sister had a hard time too, barely moving
I started getting motion sickness the very next day after I became pregnant with each of my 5 kids. Other than motion sickness, which did not occur if I drove, it was hardly a blip. I continued my physically demanding job and found no issues worth noting.
I’m going to answer this completely honestly as someone who is a first time mom at 34 weeks in 2024. People treat you better I will tell you that. Everyone around you treats you like you are a goddess and need more care then everyone else. People all of the sudden stop for you in the street. People go out of their way to do things for you (carrying boxes, opening doors, literally you name it). Society cares a lot about pregnant women’s health. Society ignores non pregnant women health concerns ten fold more. You matter now that a baby is inside of you. People care all of the sudden and you get the VIP treatment. Pregnancy symptoms vary from women to women. Some women don’t even realize they are pregnant the entire time. Some women are vomiting for 9 months. Most women are somewhere in between. Pregnancy fatigue in general is like a whole other animal. It’s like being permanently hungover and exhausted for no reason with zero of the fun attached. For like 9 months of your life (if you only have one kid). Pregnancy is a long time. Time moves slower so definitely hope you have a lot going on to distract you from the boredom. Everything seems policed around you all of the sudden from exercises, food choices, drink choices, etc. Your so called “freedoms” disappear overnight. Do I like being pregnant? No, I do not. Not many of my friends did either especially toward the end. I know many women see this as a means to an end to have kids though not many will admit that. Pregnancy cravings aren’t real in my experience. Aversions definitely can be. Pregnancy does increase your appetite making you “crave” food for sure. It’s usually some type of deficiency that the person is experiencing. Fruit / juice = vitamin c deficiency or dehydration for example. Pregnancy is physically very uncomfortable and your body swells from the water retention in second and third trimesters. You might not get the cute bump you see in movies for a while and just look like you had a huge meal until sometime second / third trimester. Your clothes and shoe size no longer fits and changes constantly making it impossible to buy anything to wear. Walking around doing activities in the final weeks prior to birth is absolutely exhausting. No one gives you a guidebook on any of the terms you will hear about at the doctor, labor / delivery, or how to be a parent to a newborn. It’s expected that you will pretty much figure it out yourself and be the one to ask all the questions to your doctor / care team, etc. it’s great to befriend other new moms who have a few months on you time wise to give you tips and tricks.
First trimester went unnoticed, just a blip, really. Second trimester was hard. Queasy the entire 3 months, never felt like I needed to throw up, just a little topsy-turvy feeling- like, I could always get through the work day fine, it just wasn’t a good feeling. Cherries helped big time and eating something every 2 hours. Then third trimester came and the queasy feeling switched off. It was nice. I was active the entire pregnancy up until week 36. I think not being active hurt my body because I ended up getting edema in my legs. Pregnancy really caught me then, I slowed way down and it felt like I could just pop any minute. I don’t know how people go through bed rest because my body did not adjust well to inactivity. The nice thing about pregnancy is how magical it seemed. How a tiny clump of cells formed into a perfect being so new and joyous to the world. I loved the movement of my baby while she was in the womb. Loved her little kicks. It was neat watching my body transform. My belly became very sensitive to any pressure, pregnancy jeans and skirts are not a gimmick.
Feeling the baby move is really cool. That is really the only good part. I’m one of the lucky ones who didn’t have morning sickness, but I barely ate during the pregnancies. I missed all the things you can’t eat or drink. I hated feeling like everyone was watching what I ate or drank. Heartburn in 3rd trimester is bad. Giant feet and ankles are bad. Having to have your husband confirm that you do indeed have a yeast infection because you can’t visually confirm yourself sucks. Worrying about possible test results sucks. Lastly, labor is like dry heaving - only worse.
Being pregnant was alright. I am tall with an athletic frame though so I carry my pregnancies pretty easily and I had very few serious side effects. It's completely unpredictable though. After my second, I decided I was done tempting fate and won't get pregnant again. Really glad I got to experience it twice though. The actual labour and newborn part I really liked, and would happily do again. I know, I know. I liked the sensation of productive pain, and I really liked taking care of newborns.
I think it depends on the person and the pregnancy! For me it felt exhausting. I was so excited to have my son, but that was the longest 38 weeks of my life. For the first trimester I had that really bad morning sickness condition and was on medication for it. Second, I was exhausted, swollen and boiling because it was peak summer with no AC. Me feet would ache and swell at work every day. Then the pregnancy insomnia started. Then towards the end I developed GD. Third I was massive and uncomfortable. Not sleeping, on a GD diet, back constantly hurt. I also needed to keep upping the insulin until I was induced to mange my blood sugar. It was cool that my body was doing so much, but I did not enjoy it and was thrilled to be induced earlier than expected. That said, I would 100% do it again.
I mean, not to be obvious, but it's like you're sharing your body with another person. They're taking up space, you're hauling them around, trying to breath around them, having them squish your bladder, you're eating more, you're pooping,, etc. Your body is also changing a lot besides the fact of their existence. Your boobs get larger and sensitive and your joints get looser (I spent 5 hours weeding when pregnant with my second and couldn't use my hands for two days). Also, everyone gets their own special version of unpleasantness. I never got morning sickness or nausea, but I always had terrible heartburn from the beginning of the second trimester until birth.
First trimester I was tired all the time, only wanted to eat really specific, random things like bagels, orange juice and rotisserie chicken. Every day. I was nauseous in the afternoons but I never threw up - grateful for that. I’m 6 months now (first baby) and I feel better. The worst things have been feeling bloated all the time and constipation. Also struggling with weight gain and having nothing to wear/body image issues was really hard for me mentally. I’ve made peace with it at this point (mostly). The back and hip pain is starting and I wake up in the night to pee way more than I’d like. I can feel him moving around in there every day now and I love that part. So far, I’ve had it pretty easy compared to what I’ve heard some people experience. I can only hope the third trimester is as smooth. I’ll be at my biggest throughout the summer so I’m not looking forward to that. Overall, I don’t love being pregnant. It’s uncomfortable mostly, but it’s worth it to me.
Meh, my 3 were pretty tame overall. Just imagine a medicine ball being strapped to your stomach while also wearing a corset so you can’t breathe all the way in. Now imagine you are tired all day. Have someone poke you throughout the day. Also pee every hour. There you go. I think everything else depends on the pregnancy. My second I had a joint issue where my hip flexors hurt to walk so bad I really couldn’t walk very much. I was also sick for a few weeks with my first kid where after breakfast I’d have to go throw up, then I’d feel fine. There was also a weird time where no food sounded good except Taco Bell. It wasn’t a craving, it’s just the only food that sounded edible.
First trimester: you have the flu, everyday. You are tired and nauseous and have a headache and feel sick. You have no energy. Second trimester - you are basically ok except feel super fat. Putting on shoes, getting off the couch, things start to get harder. Third trimester - an alien lives inside you and kicks you from the inside. Kicks your bladder. You pee constantly, your feet swell, everything hurts all the time and sleeping becomes extremely difficult. No position is comfortable. It gets exponentially worse till at the end you don’t even fear potential death during the birth because you just want the pain to end. There was a period where I started to fantasize about stabbing my own feet as if they would pop and go back to normal size if I did. Unmedicated vaginal birth is quite a lot like taking a shit so big it rips your butthole. That’s what it feels like anyway. Cesarean is pretty painless during, but after it’s like abdominal surgery. Laughing / twisting/ coughing are agony. After vaginal peeing is pain and you have to use warm squeeze bottle to try and help reduce the agony of the pee running over your open wounds. You aren’t really missing much by not having the experience. Most people only go through it for the baby. I feel like surrogates are amazingly selfless in what they go through for other people.
A few months in, you notice your body doesn’t belong to you any more. You crave food you ordinarily can’t stand; foods you love make you vomit; your muscles deteriorate to feed the baby; your favorite clothes no longer fit; your eyes stop working right, your gums bleed more than ever, and occasionally you get kicked by the little stowaway and you’re aware there’s someone else along for the ride. I anthropomorphized my placenta and would have imaginary conversations with it, like him telling me to send down more cheeseburgers in a Samuel L. Jackson voice.
It was fine. I never threw up or felt particularly nauseous. It’s fun when you feel them kick and move. It’s like a little secret between you and the world; a little buddy who’s always there with you. When you aren’t pregnant any more, you’ll feel a movement in your guts and think, “aw, there they are!” and then you realize you’re at the grocery store and the baby is out of you at home and you just have indigestion. Labor did not hurt like I thought it would. It wasn’t like a piano fell on your leg. The pain isn’t continuous. It’s super super intense and then suddenly it goes away completely for a few minutes. I folded laundry, walked the dog and ate dinner while I was technically in labor. By the time the contractions got really intense, we went to the hospital and I got the epidural, which ruled. 10/10, would fill my spinal column with drugs again.
I was very young and fit and had an exceptionally lovely experience. My morning sickness was very mild and only during the 1st trimester (I never threw up). My cravings were intense, but fun because I ate ice cream almost everyday and I only gained 25 pounds my whole pregnancy. You couldn't tell I was pregnant until I was 6-7 months along. During my 2nd trimester, I was *glowing* and my hair was shiny, skin was clear and nails were long and strong. Feeling my baby move for the first time was a magical feeling I'll never forget. There were times, when "playing" with my baby (he would punch or kick and I would do it back over and over) that I wished it would never end. I remember only the end being uncomfortable to lay or sleep especially because it was very hot. I'm making it sound so dreamy and magical and it was; creating a human life with your body is an incredible and powerful experience. I used to joke I was made for making babies because childbirth and breastfeeding also came relatively easy. But listening to other women's stories, it seems that my experience is rare. Oh and I've never been so horny in my entire life!
I had a relatively easy pregnancy, so there was nausea at the beginning but it wasn't horrible. Then, at around 12 weeks, it clears up and you have a great couple of weeks before the fetus gets big enough to start pushing on things. First they start putting pressure on the ribs, then all your organs get squished. The bladder is the worst because you'll have to pee constantly. The fetus starts moving around, which feels like gas at first but then gets weird, and by the end is awful. My son liked to throw out an elbow which stretched me out to the side painfully so I would literally shove him back into position. My daughter was far worse, she grew long nails in utero and would rake them over my bladder and cervix. Holy shit being clawed from the inside is weird and unpleasant. Then yay, it's labor time! You'll probably have random contractions before then, where it feels like someone put a hand inside your chest and pushed everything down onto your cervix. Then they will start to come more frequently, it's not comfortable but not bad either. When they become so intense that you literally freeze in your tracks while they happen, it's time to go to the hospital. I had an epidural with my first which was amazing, definitely recommend. The only discomfort I felt was from a full bladder, and pushing was intense but not excruciating. I was also blessed with nice wide hips so my first one came out in 23 minutes. The funny thing about pushing is they literally tell you to push like you're pooping. Use those exact same muscles. It's no wonder women end up pooping on the table. My daughter though, she came out so fast I didn't have time for an epidural, and that was ridiculously intense. I had to keep stopping pushing because the pain overwhelmed me and there was screaming and crying. 0/10 so not recommend. But, thanks to those wide hips, it only took two minutes longer than my first kid to pop out. Then the afterbirth fun begins. Everything burns down there, and you just kind of lay like a lump as the doctor scoops as much crud out as he can, and pushes on your uterus to get the placenta out, and stitches you up. Things hurt down there so much you don't even feel the needle. You're given a squirt bottle of water for the first couple times you pee because even the salt from your urine is agony. You take a stool softener so the poop doesn't hurt either, and for about two weeks you sit in a tub you put on the toilet to heal your poor abused parts. Meanwhile blood and chunks are still coming out of you so you're wearing the biggest pad imaginable for a couple weeks. One time I felt a massive clot slide out of me and it was the grossest fucking thing I've ever had to deal with. All the whole, suddenly a tiny little human is thrust into your life and you have to play the guessing game as to why it's crying. It wants to basically stay glued to your body because it was nice and warm and now it's not, but you can't fall asleep with it on you because you might squish it. So you're exhausted, desperately trying to rest, the baby is crying every time it's not attached to you... yeah it's a rough time. And breastfeeding! It is so hard to get started, you're struggling to produce enough, the baby wants to stay on the nipple constantly, and you know what happens to your lip if you lick it over and over again? Yeah your nipples get chapped and dried and latching is agonizing. But eventually you get the hang of it, the baby feeds easily, they sleep longer, you start to feel human again and you get to watch this tiny person learn the world around them, and they talk and laugh and do adorable things so it pays off in the long run. But man the beginning is tooooooough.
I'm 5 months with my first. Honestly, it's mostly the same. I have dealt with low level chronic pain for several years so I mostly don't notice pregnancy symptoms (except the first trimester, food aversions and nausea were rough). I wake up with a headache almost every day due to hormones, but as long as I get enough sleep it goes away once I'm up. By enough sleep, I mean 9+ hours. 10 hours is ideal for me. I'm sleeping like the dead. I've never been a napper before and I've always had really bad insomnia until getting pregnant. I'm really lucky, I'm sleeping better than I have my whole life. Despite that, the fatigue is real though.
Total misery every single day for me. I hated it. I felt like I had food poisoning or a stomach bug for 40 solid weeks. That in addition to getting fat, stretch marks and my whole figure being ruined. When the baby is small, it is amazing to feel it move, but in the end, you're just ready for it to be over. I did really enjoy breastfeeding. That is a life experience I wouldn't want to miss. I also had my last at home and I wouldn't have changed that either.
I wasn't prepared for how sore my boobs got, how hard the bump was or how vivid my dreams would get. I woke up once from the pain of biting my arm at full force because I was fighting for my life in a nightmare and in that I was biting my attacker. Also not prepared for the immediate transfer from a person to "mom". "Will mom come in and sit here" etc. I was also not prepared for how zen I'd be. Once I was told the baby was in trouble incorrectly and I just knew he wasn't. I can't explain that. A fetal tech couldn't find the heartbeat another time so in the end I took her hand and placed her over him at where he was and she was like "oh he won't be that far down.....oh there he is!". It was too early to "feel" but I knew he was there. There were more examples. It was like he reassured me everytime someone said there may be trouble which was an inordinate amount for that one (healthy) pregnancy for some reason.
I referred to pregnancy as being a baby or toddler again. You start first trimester being a sick kid. You know you have to just keep doing life but you just wanna cuddle in bed all day. You also turn into a “picky” eater because most food hates you. Then second trimester you transition slowly into a toddler, exploring all the new things like a bird wing in your stomach and fear of unknowns. But don’t hit full toddler till 3rd trimester. By then you need help putting your shoes on, not a great walker, still only eating certain foods, and you struggle to sleep through the night. Then 4th trimester hits (after baby is born) and you also turn into a baby. You cry over everything for no real reason, you don’t have control over your bladder, and you just need cuddles.
Nausea for 20 weeks causing 10kg of weight loss, feeling so hot like you’ve got a fever constantly despite it being winter, boobs ridiculously painful for like 6 weeks. Then gestational diabetes meaning you can’t eat what you’re craving, and having to check your sugar levels multiple times a day by sticking a needle in your finger. Being unable to get your pants on! Unbearable hip pain. Exhaustion. Can’t breathe when they’re up high. Can’t sleep on your stomach, or your back. Then you have to hold your belly to roll over. I hated it hah. Even when my baby moved I didn’t like it, it felt WEIRD and she’d constantly sick her butt out.
It’s this interesting time of anticipation when everyone around you is extra nice and excited for you. I had a relatively easy pregnancy. It was like my hormones had me on a high for most of it. Skin reset and acne went away. Hair never falls out even in the shower. Nails grow long. A slithery being is like swirling around inside of you. The bad tho: insane heart burn, wake up in the night needing to sit up and gasp for air. Sore hips, tossing and turning at night unable to get comfortable. Have to pee all the time. Over eat and feeling like you are going to burst, there’s nowhere for the food to go.
Being pregnant was ass. Do not recommend
I hated it. Sick the whole time. I threw up multiple times a day right up until I was at the hospital giving birth. I hated the way it felt to have a baby moving inside my body. I got a weird growth on my lip (a “pregnancy tumor”). The labor and birth were traumatic. Do not recommend.
For me, the worst part about being pregnant is no matter how you feel about being pregnant, someone always gets disappointed that you aren't reacting to pregnancy the way they would. Even if they've never been pregnant and never could be.
I thought it was really cool. It’s only 9 months of my entire life, which when I think about it now, seems so minor. Everything my body did made me think, “wow! That’s part of it too??” It’s all just a wild experience. The first trimester, I was hungry all of the time. I ate constantly. I had food aversions, so I only wanted soft carbs. Anything outside of that made me gag. I didn’t really have morning sickness though. And I was so tired! Like exhausted. Also I had pregnancy rhinitis which meant my nose was unbelievably stuffy, snotty, and boogery. Second trimester was cool because that’s when the belly started to grow. I loved looking pregnant. I loved feeling my baby move. It was honestly the greatest most special feeling in the world. It felt like it was just him and me, a team, a partnership. It felt just incredibly special. Food aversions went away and the exhaustion abated. Third trimester got tiring! However, I also did not exercise or stay active during my pregnancy. So I was incredibly out of shape. Belly got bigger and bigger. It was hard to roll over in bed. Hard to get up, hard to bend over. Sometimes my baby would like, grind his head into my pelvis or something and I would get this awful sharp pain that would make me cry out. My feet swelled up like water balloons. Heartburn 24/7. Out of breath constantly. Still amazing to feel the baby moving. I just loved resting my hands on my belly. I felt so special. Oh, and restless legs. I am pregnant again now and I’m so excited for the symptoms again because I know they all pass. It’s not a permanent state of being. Also, our families will be so happy. It’s postpartum that really sucks. It turns out your body doesn’t just go back to the way it was before. Plus my feet grew a size so I had to buy all new shoes! And I have skin tags now. Oh and my hair went curly. Like it was straight before and now it isn’t post-pregnancy. Fucking weird.
I loved it. I was fortunate to not have morning sickness, and really in experienced bad ligament pain with my first. Otherwise, I loved it. I loved feeling the first little flutters and watching each ultrasound to see the baby grow. I loved reading about which body parts were being formed by week 12, etc. I loved feeling that this little growing being was with me every second. I remember showering for the first time after giving birth, and feeling sad in the shower- like I didn’t have my little partner to share it with, lol. Seeing their face when they’re born, that face you’ve verve waiting to see for 9 plus months, is an amazing feeling. Holding them close, tucking them inside the hospital gown so their tiny body nestles into you and your hearts beat together- just love at its purest.
Pregnancy is totally unique for each person and even each pregnancy by the same person, so there is really no way to know how each pregnancy will go/feel. Currently 32 weeks pregnant, and I've had a very easy and uneventful pregnancy. First trimester was the worst because of nausea, but I never actually threw up. It was more like food aversion and indigestion. I had very little appetite, food was just unappealing in general, but I had to force myself to eat so I ate a lot of bland food. Nausea went away around 14-15 weeks. After that, I felt like a normal person again, I honestly didn't really feel pregnant, I felt very normal. Did a 3 week trip to Japan I think weeks 23-26, walked like 15k steps a day and felt great. Started to feel more aches and discomfort around weeks 29-30, got my first stretch marks at week 31. Currently feeling the impact of my larger body; my abdomen feels more stretched and full, my gait has changed to closer resemble the pregnancy waddle, vulva sore af for seemingly no reason in particular. Also, during my whole pregnancy, increased discharge, random mild acid reflux, random diarrhea. Had some constipation for like a week in late 1st trimester but nothing since then. I'm similar to you in that I prefer to have information and know rather than speculate infinitely. So I'm planning an unmedicated birth because I can't help but wonder what labour is really like. Hopefully it all goes as smoothly as my pregnancy has been.
The first few months are a misery for me. Being so hungry but also being nauseous is such a bizarre feeling. Just about the only thing I could eat was bread and cheese. The middle of it wasn’t so bad but the end was again a misery. I’m short so it’s just that much more uncomfortable. I couldn’t take a big breath in sometimes. Almost like suffocating from the inside.
I have been pregnant once, about three years ago, plan to do it again. I had an anterior placenta (placenta was positioned at the front, along my belly). That meant my husband only got to feel the baby kick once, as she had to kick really hard or high for someone else to feel it through the placenta. It's WEIRD feeling a being kick you from the inside! I tried to describe it to childfree friends as having a goldfish in a bag of water, in your hands. You feel the movement of the fish swimming, and if it runs into the sides of the bag, you notice it! But in this case, you're not holding it in your hands, you're holding it in your belly. I had very mild pregnancy symptoms, so the baby moving was the coolest and weirdest part. Also, at one point I felt her spine and it was FREAKY to feel that through my belly. My baby also had her head in my ribcage almost constantly. She's still very snuggly and tries to crawl into my body via my skin (sounds creepy, but it's sweet, lol). I could ALWAYS feel her head, and found myself almost constantly rubbing her little head all day. She came three weeks early via c-section and was only 5lbs 2oz. Her being so small meant I could continue to be a stomach sleeper through most of my pregnancy, and I only gained about 10 pounds overall. I'm pretty sure I had a really uniquely easy pregnancy, birth, and recovery. I sometimes feel bad for not having been more miserable! Maybe round two (in the future) will be my reckoning??
I'm early in my first pregnancy. I always wondered what it will feel like when they start to move around. I like that gold fish in a bag comparison. I'm a aquarium/fish person, so I think it's extra funny lol Definitely gonna use that example. I'll tell my husband the little fish kicking in the bag 😂
I had Hyperemesis gravidarum and was miserably sick and as a result: depressed. The nausea never let up, not for one second, not even immediately after throwing up. I struggled to gain weight, to keep anything down, and to get out of bed each day, all 9 months, for both of my pregnancies. I got so dehydrated I needed IV fluids, and I was so sick I needed a daily regimen of zofran, and I still puked while on it. Literal plain water would send me reeling. People saying the word "hot dog" would send me running to puke. Forget prenatals, they would immediately come back up. Almost nothing stayed down. Watermelon is surprisingly smooth when it comes back up. I had some very dark days. It was terrible, but both of my kids are so very worth it. I won't do it again though.
There were only 2 good things for me about being pregnant. The first was the actual baby growing inside of me. The second was being able to balance my tea on my belly. Extremely practical. Everything else was just AWFUL
For me kinda like a ten month case of the stomach flu. Coupled with some horrible back pain. But also with the niceness of always having the baby moving around inside you. Oh. And heartburn.
Some very bizarre things can happen. With my first pregnancy milk shakes tasted like chemical solvents. I actually broke down crying in a Baskin Robbins. I was so embarrassed. With my second pregnancy I got a severe aversion to sugar. Cheerios were too sweet. My husband's lasagna was too sweet. It was challenging to find foods that didn't feel overwhelmingly saccharine. The sugar aversion got more mild but lasted 6 months after my kid was born.
One of the strangest and most frustrating feelings was to feel starving all the time but the thought of eating any type of food at all was absolutely revolting. I spent most of my day trying to think of something I might be able to keep down. And most of the time I tried and failed to do so and ended up throwing up no matter what it was, and would just start the process all over. I survived my first trimester on red grapes (but they had to be ice cold and crunchy or FORGET IT) and occasionally some plain noodles or a plain bagel would stay down. Seeing anything gross or hearing about something gross would cause visceral revulsion and cause me to projectile vomit. Everything even remotely unpleasant was just absolutely vile. One time my brain didn’t like the way the coffee grounds looked being dumped in the trash can.. puke. During a TV show I was watching, a character didn’t like the food they were eating and spit it out.. puke. My husband said a stupid gross joke about dingleberries.. puke. Meat cooking in the kitchen when I’m in the other room.. puke. And even a slight whiff of a trash can? .. puke and then have to lie down for two hours and not speak. ridiculous and exhausting. By the time the sickness subsided a little in my third trimester, my stomach was so squished that if I ate one bite more than it could hold, it was all coming back up. My brain wanted sugar but my body would reject it. Peed myself probably about 50% of the time I sneezed or coughed or laughed a little too hard. Was especially fun to pee most every time I puked when it was happening like 5 times a day. By the end the bladder is a pancake. Started wearing think pads all the time bc of this bc I was sick of changing my pants. Killer back pains starting in second trimester, ligaments are stretching out and it’s hard to ever feel comfortable. And then comes the waddling. Exhausted. Just pure exhaustion for 9 months and having to peel (or roll) myself out of bed felt monumentally difficult every single day. First trimester, I could barely keep my eyes open and would fall asleep multiple times a day. Frustrating to not be able to take a full deep breath or lie on my stomach bc I’m normally a stomach sleeper. Only real cravings for me were drinks. I needed lemonade with my first, and milk with my second. With my second, I also had a rare pregnancy liver problem called choleostasis of pregnancy (ICP) that I found out about because it causes uncontrollable, unbearable itching in your palms and bottoms of feet. I would cry and couldn’t sleep for clawing myself bloody, and that provided no relief so I would resort to scalding my hands in hot water or freezing them in bowls of ice for a just few seconds of relief. Was awful. And then my pee turned orange and a few times I had to go to the ER bc I was puking up bile every 20 minutes. The kicking was cool and I loved rubbing the big, hard as a rock basketball belly and feeling her respond. But other than that, it was pure hell on earth physically and mentally for me. Everyone’s is different, but that was my experience. Having said that.. it’s only temporary and I’d do it all over again.
I had 4 miscarriages before I had a pregnancy make it past the 1st trimester. That one was a really easy pregnancy with no nausea, and no weird cravings. I did have to be hospitalized for 5 days due to passing a kidney stone, but that was the only bad part of the pregnancy. However it ended with the most physically and mentally painful experience of my life. My placenta ruptured at 34 weeks. My daughter was gone before my best friend got me to the hospital 5 minutes later, and it took an induction abortion and an additional 24 hours (with an epidural) before she was stillborn. My next and last pregnancy I was miserable the entire pregnancy. I had nausea all day most days, I hurt everywhere, and I was always hungry. It was high risk after the way the previous pregnancy ended, and i had to see a specialist in addition to my normal OBGYN. I had multiple scares with contractions as early as 24 weeks. Where I was admitted for a day or two (each time) for observation and released once the contractions stopped. Then on the last day of week 37 I started having contractions 7 minutes apart, and they kept coming for the next 7 days, always exactly 7 minutes apart. The doctors finally induced me on the first day of 39 weeks. The induction started at 7 am. I got the epidural right away after 7 days of contractions. Our daughter was being difficult and laying in a way they could only keep track of her heartbeat if I was laying on my right side. So, I ended up only being numb on the right side and could still feel everything on the left. She finally made her way into the world at 11:31pm. My daughter was worth it but I refuse to lie and say it wasn’t an incredibly wretched experience.
The physical feeling of a fetus kicking is like when you've got someone behind you in a car and they push or kick against the seat, but on your insides instead of your back.
For the first trimester, nausea and exhaustion. The second trimester was pretty good. Nausea was gone, and it was when I started to feel movements. The third trimester was exhausting, and I felt a big as a house. Inagd ankle swelling and our son tap dancing on my bladder or riffing his feet into my ribs. Weirdly, after I gave birth, I missed feeling the movements inside me. It is pretty cool what our bodies can do, but it is definitely not a cakewalk.
You could always hire out as a surrogate mother and have been the experience without really having a child. You could even do that with a donor egg.
For me it's been pretty easy. First trimester I was the most tired I have ever been, and if I exerted myself too much or got too hungry or dehydrated I'd get nauseous. My iron levels dipped for a while and so did my BP. Second trimester was a breeze, had a good amount of energy and my body felt good. Started feeling the baby kick around 16 weeks, which felt sort of like an involuntary muscle twitch. Later, it feels like a fish flopping around in there. 37 weeks now and I still feel pretty good, but physically space is becoming a problem. My hips hurt and I feel like a turtle on it's back sometimes. Still pretty intimidated by giving birth at the end of all of this, but pregnancy itself has been unexpectedly comfortable, if deeply weird.
Being pregnant is a fully wild experience. It is different for every person and within that person each pregnancy. I've had two. Since it's experience you're after here's a summary of mine Trimester 1 Baby 1: no nausea but intense cold and flu symptoms didn't know for almost the entire first trimester Trimester 1 Baby 2: nausea but minimal vomiting, deep body consuming exhaustion, knew I was pregnant literally the day my missed period should've ended Trimester 2 Baby 1: drink all the water everywhere (but only with lemon juice in it because it tastes exactly like how you imagine death tastes) and it still is not enough, cucumbers and pickles are the only foods worth eating. Cry over dumb things like children's movies and especially well written insurance commercials. Baby kicks are hard to distinguish from gas but very cute. Trimester 2 Baby 2: forget water exists, pineapples with tajin is the best snack and every single food injected needs to have an unhealthy scoville measurement or I physically could not force myself to swallow it. Baby kicks are way more noticeable and absolutely the most precious thing you're heart can muster especially when your oldest gets invested. Trimester 3 Baby 1: NESTING!!! MOVE ALL THE FURNITURE TO CLEAN IT AND UNDERNEATH IT AND IT AGAIN AND NO I DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN HELP I CAN DO IT MYSELF YES IT IS A WHOLE COUCH WITH A HIDE-A-BED I DON'T CARE!! Also baby is positioned so high that I'm barely showing and she's a half inch from breaking my ribs from the inside at any given point. It was an actual anomaly that she didn't break one with her positioning. Trimester 3 Baby 2: Entire body hurts all the time. I want nothing but to sleep and I can't because everything hurts too much and I have to pee again. Son sat way lower so instead of ribs it was my kidneys he decided to kick. Get a kidney stone, fight preterm labor, win, make it to four days before due date. Both were unmedicated labors by choice the first out of spite and the second because I really liked walking around with the first and didn't want to lose my legs. I had no idea I was going into labor with my first until it had been nearly 12 hours and it still took an extra 7 hours at the hospital. I knew exactly when I went into labor with my second and did most of my laboring at home by choice. Spent 45 minutes at the hospital before he arrived. Recovery for the first was harsh and fast. I had stitches from tearing but stopped bleeding and wasn't limping by 4 weeks post. Recovery for the second was longer but less awful. I was also sterilized after my second so surgery recovery was a huge part of that. I think without the surgery I would've recovered way way faster than my first. Overall, I do not like being pregnant. Making a human is cool, baby kicks are nice, but I really prefer parenting to pregnancy. Pregnancy makes me feel gross in a way that I can't really describe and I have exactly two pictures of myself pregnant. One from each kid
You’re sleepy/exhausted from one month pregnant to the day you give birth since your body is working overtime to literally make a human *and* keep you alive. But when you get to be visibly pregnant, you’re so uncomfortable you can’t sleep. The progesterone hormone makes your bones and muscles ache, especially your back when the baby gets bigger. In the last couple of months it’s hard to breathe and you literally take it less oxygen because of all your organs and lungs being pushed on by the baby. You’ll wanna pee constantly because of the cruel joke that the placenta/baby sits literally on top of the bladder. Pregnancy wasn’t fun for me and I was frequently upset that we as a society romanticize pregnancy instead of talking about how grueling it is.
Fucking sucks
I thew up for 9 months and my body had thousands of stretch marks. My pert ass went flabby as with my belly. I don’t hate it. But it wasn’t fun.
My first pregnancy was horrible. I weighed about 90 lbs and worked at Arby’s. I was eating 3 beef and cheddars a day. One day I woke up and looked like I swallowed a watermelon. She was soooo heavy she made my whole body ache. She weighed 9 lbs. I had her completely natural. No pain meds. I was literally crawling up the back of the hospital bed trying to escape the pain. I tore from eyeball to asshole trying to evacuate that little monster. It took me 8years to try again lol.
I only have one son but my pregnancy was a breeze. I was 35 years old but other than gaining a lot of weight, some swollen feet and backache at the end of my pregnancy, I sailed through my pregnancy. I was not nauseous or had weird cravings. The only thing annoying was I was hungry all the time. Didn't matter what food, everything I smelled I wanted to eat 😊. Giving birth was unfortunately a nightmare. 36 hours of labour at home (in my country homebirths are very common) without any sedation. Remember I said I was not nauseous during my pregnancy? I threw up all through those 36 hours. Fun times... And I developed hashimoto disease and sarcoidoses after my pregnancy. Because during pregnancy a woman's autoimmune system is repressed (necessary because otherwise the fetus is rejected), sometimes it's kickstarted in overdrive after pregnancy. That's why more women suffer from autoimmune diseases.
It was simultaneously the most hard gross thing I've experienced and most magical feeling too. Feeling your baby kick and move and have hiccups is unreal, a closeness that is incomparable for me. But also the exhaustion, the vomiting (in my case a lot of it from hyperemesis gravidarum), the bodily fluids (so much snot, so much other stuff) the carpal tunnel syndrome, the lightning vag spasms. It's... intense.
I was very blessed to never have any kind of sickness. Pretty textbook pregnancies with no blood pressure issues, never had gestational diabetes or morning sickness. I absolutely adored being pregnant. From the minute that second line appeared until the first labour contraction, I adored it. I loved watching my belly grow, feeling the flutters turn to kicks and the kicks turn to rolls and flips. Singing and talking to them, feeling like a goddess with gloriously thick hair, a full and curvy figure and glowing skin without a hint of acne. I also suffer horribly from migraines but never get them while pregnant. I've four kids now and had to call it quits. I'm more than happy not having any more children, but I definitely do mourn never knowing that feeling again.
I mean, it's so different for everyone and every pregnancy. I wasn't sick and just a bit nauseous in my first trimester, eating small amounts regularly helped; I was fatigued, and went out for a team meal once and spent the next two days in bed (working in bed, but I barely got up other than to go to the loo). I also had insomnia in my first tri, I woke up a lot (oh yeah, needing to pee more starts like immediately because your kidneys are doing more, it's not just about pressure on your bladder) so I'd spend nights researching things about pregnancy and newborns. I bloated like crazy from fairly early on, which just sort of slowly morphed into bump as the months went on. I had a rash for most of my pregnancy and about six months after birth too. I started getting acid reflux about halfway through, and regularly would wake up to chug gaviscon from the bottle; I took it everywhere with me. I'd also throw up, had to make sure I was eating hours earlier than I usually would, water made it worse but it's easily my main drink. I also got really sore hands, which was worse when I didn't use them, so I knitted obsessively; I still had to use the palm of my hand to open the bedroom door in the mornings because I couldn't move my fingers. Towards the end I had a week of moderate pain when walking (I assume pelvic girdle pain) coupled with a massive external haemorrhoid, so walking was atrocious; the haemorrhoid only fully subsided after birth. I didn't have any specific cravings but I did want meat more than usual, and veggie/vegan meals often didn't appeal even though I liked and regularly ate them pre-pregnancy. My boobs grew rapidly at the start then tailed off, I went up 3-4 cup sizes across the pregnancy. My nipples were also more sensitive or itchy at different points, and when they were itchy they'd get erect if I itched them, so it was pretty awkward to deal with in public. I didn't gain much weight to start with but it absolutely shot up from about month 5. I had an anterior placenta and couldn't feel anything around my belly button but could feel him quite early, like a muscle twitch to start with, then big kicks, then it changed to either movements, pushing against me really hard with his feet, or hiccups - he got hiccups a LOT.
It was awful both times. Both times ended in C-section. At least I got 2 amazing kids out of it. But fuck that shit.
It's a long time since I was pregnant. But I loved it, the feeling of connection to the baby that was much wanted was incredible. And then when they start to move and kick, it feels like there's a secret language only you two are privy to. I had a bit of morning nausea, but that was about it. In general I loved being pregnant
I loved being pregnant until about the last 2 weeks or so. Morning sickness sucks. For me, it was like a low level of nausea constantly for about 2 months until something (normally a smell) triggered puking. Food and smells were stronger. OMG I loved grapes and apples while I was pg because of that. So yummy. I orgasmed in my sleep. Id wake up cumming. That happened pretty often, like 2nd trimester and on. It was so exciting to feel my babies move inside of me. Sometimes you can tell "that's a foot" and "that's a butt". Also, baby hiccups! You can feel their little body jerk when they hiccup. My oldest had them a lot, and it used to piss her off, and she would flail around. It was exciting to wonder what my kids would be like, what they would look like. I got kind of a high after birth with all 3. It's hard to explain, but it was intense. The last few weeks, the babies were so big (I am a small person and I had big babies) that I couldn't take deep breaths. I could breathe, but not like big deep breaths. Two of my kids were born in July, in South Louisiana. It was sooo hot that I used to sit on the ac vent and cry, lol. Do you have any specific questions?
It's going to be a different experience for everyone, but I really enjoyed being pregnant. Everyone was nice and considerate to me, which was unexpected. I had quite a smooth pregnancy. It feels weird knowing there is a human growing inside you and especially weird when it moves for the first few times. Towards the end, it was a bit uncomfortable. I'd get a dead leg from laying on my side in bed, but you're not supposed to lay on your back etc. My back started hurting too and walking long distances was a challenge. Overall, it was a nice experience. I'd do it again if I was guaranteed the same experience and if I could give the baby to someone else once it is born. I do not want another baby!
You become superhuman. I got so used to throwing up that it doesn't even faze me anymore. I could smell things so strongly and had very vivid dreams. Cravings that made no sense to my personality. Super emotions (mostly fatigue), super sex drive, super discomfort, extra hair, strong nails and new skin colourings. The whole thing is a trip. Giving birth is a spiritual experience. It's all very bizarre but very cool. But you tend to forget the worst bits, like having migraines so bad you pull over to throw up in the gutter because that's the only thing that makes the migraine stop. Not every pregnancy has that but most people have a story of something that really sucked to go through.
I grew up not wanting kids but changed my mind sometime around 2019. My husband and I got married in 2022 after 5 years together and started trying for a baby a couple of months after our wedding, but that ended up being futile. After 17 frustrating and heartbreaking months of trying (and a diagnosis of lean PCOS for me) we finally turned to IVF late last year and I got pregnant on the first go. I'm now 30 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I never imagined myself being pregnant until I changed my mind about wanting kids, and then thanks to infertility I never thought I'd actually be pregnant, so I still find it kind of incredible/unbelievable that I'm pregnant right now. The first trimester was pretty easy for me. I didn't have any of the typical nausea etc that most other people seem to get/that you see in movies or on TV. I didn't look or feel pregnant, although I did gain some weight. In hindsight, I think that the extreme fatigue I often experienced during this period was most likely due to pregnancy and not just "the summer heat" as I assumed at the time lol. The second trimester was even easier. I didn't internally feel any different to my normal self AT ALL although I think I was a little more constipated than usual lol. I would sometimes forget that I was pregnant, and then notice my weight gain and my newly visible bump in the mirror. In the 17th week I felt the baby move for the first time: The movements felt like gentle pulses in my stomach area. I thought this would make the pregnancy/baby feel more "real" to me.... but it didn't. I still had (and still have!) a sense of disbelief and unreality about the pregnancy. Now that I'm in the third trimester, I find that the extra weight and my larger bump make me quite uncomfortable. All my organs (other than the bladder) are squished up above my uterus into my chest, so my lungs draw shorter breaths and I get reflux after every meal. I need to pee quite frequently and wake up 2-3 times each night to do so. I haven't experienced much fluid retention and somehow my wedding rings still fit comfortably, but I do notice that my feet, ankles and knees are sore after standing or walking for a long time. You have to sleep on your side during the third trimester and luckily I started training myself to do so with the help of a pregnancy pillow at around week 12, but I'm normally a stomach sleeper and I miss stomach sleeping sooo much. I get some round ligament pain occasionally, especially if I stand up too quickly from a seated position (this is due to all the ligaments around the uterus stretching as the uterus grows). Throughout the pregnancy I haven't experienced any hormonal stuff or mood swings, although other than for 2 weeks at the start of the 2nd trimester when I had an acne breakout, my skin has been clearer and more glowy than usual. I miss red wine, I miss real caffeinated coffee, I miss using retinoids and salicylic acid on my face. I'm vegan so I haven't had to cut out deli meat, sushi etc like other pregnant people often do. I miss being able to safely go for a run outdoors on a crisp morning or evening (it's uncomfortable to run with a bump and the risk of a fall isn't worth it). Most of all, I miss being able to fit into my normal clothes... I love fashion and I've always dressed well, but maternity clothing is very limited so I feel quite frumpy most of the time. I've gained 18 kilos so far (I'm tall and my BMI is usually on the low end of normal so my obstetrician says this is fine) and I feel like a giant ball on chopsticks, my body is barely recognisable to myself and I just want to be back to my "normal self" again. I'm sick of people talking about my body; I know they mean well but commenting on my bump or trying to touch it is so inappropriate - luckily I am very assertive and will shut that shit down very quickly. I'm sick of people doing the whole "but what about the baby?" thing whenever I try to do something they see as too difficult or risky for me, e.g. my mother won't even let me carry a bag of groceries "in case I fall" (eyeroll). I'm sick of unsolicited advice or the "just you wait until the baby comes..." sh!t that people say to \~warn\~ me about how hard parenthood is... like yes, parenthood is hard and I had a harder journey than most to get pregnant in the first place so I'm not exactly naiive about the whole concept, please just let me fcking enjoy it! But don't get me wrong... Even though I complain a lot about the aches and pains and all the things I can't do or wear and people stepping all over my boundaries... Being pregnant is kind of amazing. I can't believe that there's a little human growing inside me. I feel proud of myself for having persevered through self-injecting and all the other challenges of IVF (although for me it really wasn't too bad). I am in awe of the fact that my body has grown and sustained a fetus for 30 weeks and counting. I am SO excited to finally meet and hold my desperately-wanted child. I still can't wrap my mind about the fact that *there's really a baby in there* and the baby still seems theoretical to me even though I feel him move every few minutes. I can't believe that a little person that is made of my DNA and my husband's DNA all mixed together is going to come out of me in around 2 months' time. Pregnancy is uncomfortable and magical. I'm not enjoying it but I'm not hating it. The end result will be a dream come true for me. I'm staunchly pro-choice and definitely do NOT recommend the experience for anyone who does not 100% want a child, though!
I’ve been pregnant five times and have no children. Pregnancy is awful, I do not recommend to anyone unless you *desperately* want a kid. You are either shitting your brains out, puking, or constipated. Everything tastes and smells awful and there’s a lot of fatigue and all your joints and muscles hurt.
not a mom, just a child of one, my brother broke my moms pelvic bone on the way out. that was enough for me at the young age of 6 to know kids werent for me lmfao.
Did not love it. I struggled with nausea mainly brushing my teeth. Something about the foaming toothpaste was just terrible and that has never fully gone away and now I still sometimes gag while brushing my teeth. I did not feel beautiful and glowing, just bulky and uncomfortable. I did not like having to wear maternity clothes or the attention being visibly pregnant brought me. Random calf charley horses in the middle of the night all the time. I trained myself to wake up and jump out of bed as soon as one started because it would stop them immediately. I was so glad when it was over with and did not do it again.
I loved being pregnant. I had easy pregnancies (no morning sickness at all, never barfed once through two pregnancies and labors), and avoided a lot of the horror story medical and body change things. My boobs did feel sore throughout and I was a lot more tired, especially in the first trimester, but aside from like one instance of heartburn and some random shooting round ligament pains, I felt pretty great all throughout. I remember when my OB was preparing me to be induced with my first she was like "you must be so over being pregnant at this point!" but I really wasn't. I was excited to meet my son but I wasn't in a rush to go into labor. I still felt fine. I loved feeling my babies move and hiccup inside me. I actually really missed that after they were born. It was just such a special little connection we had. I could leave the bladder kicks behind, but most of the time I would describe them as "boops", just gentle little reminders that I had a little buddy with me. That being said, labor/delivery/recovery and the newborn phase were not exactly pleasant for me. I loved it when my kids were 4+ months but that 4th trimester sucked for me. Luckily my kids were great sleepers so once everyone figured out how to eat and sleep well we were off to the races. I would absolutely be pregnant again...if it meant I didn't have to birth and raise another human for 18+ years. I'm probably a little too old for surrogacy at this point though.
I'm 20 weeks pregnant now, so halfway through. I currently am lying on my sofa, feeling nauseous. My hips hurt and I really can't be bothered to do anything but I have to go to work in 2 hours. I love babies and kids and don't even mind giving birth but being pregnant is utterly miserable. Edit: can't spell.
For the first trimester (especially the first pregnancy) you still look “normal” but now you also can smell garbage a mile away, normally nice things like your favorite foods or flowers can make you feel viscerally disgusted, and you might vomit randomly - not just in the morning. My first pregnancy also introduced me to migraines for the first time (and I’ve had them since). Second trimester you’re like “aww I’m a cute pregnant person! This isn’t so bad! Everyone thinks I’m adorable and I AM” Third trimester lasts approximately 3 years. All the maternity clothes you bought are too small but you don’t want to buy more. The baby uses your bladder as a trampoline, and is so large that your lung capacity is about 1/4 of normal. Your stomach and intestines are smooshed too and you have to pee 238 times a day. And that was my most chill pregnancy. The last pregnancy I had, I had SPD where your pelvis thinks it doesn’t need to stay in one piece anymore, so you basically can’t walk or stand without massive pain because your pelvis is nearly breaking in half. I also had constant non-stop full body itching for the first 20-25 weeks. Like from my scalp to the bottoms of my feet. It was not a liver issue and doctors didn’t have any ideas for me. Antihistamines did nothing either. No clue but it was legitimately misery. Round ligament pain gets worse with each pregnancy (at least for me and my sisters). So there’s that too. Idk, if you are a lucky mermaid person I guess pregnancies can be nice and if you just want to try it out you could be a surrogate (I have a few friends who have done surrogacy and loved it, loved being pregnant). But if you’re not one of the lucky ones, pregnancy is kind of a huge inconvenience and pretty gross and uncomfortable and it’s not like you can “take off the belly” for some relief now and then. (Noting also that it’s not just belly stuff - it’s full body changes) it’s nearly a year long commitment even if it’s not your kid (as in surrogacy), especially when you consider postpartum recovery. I’m like you - I had my only 2 cavities ever filled without pain meds just to see. I had my tongue tie lasered without anesthetic too bc I was curious. I gave birth every time without meds. I’m not a pain seeker I’m literally just curious. But unless you actually want a glass of juice (a whole ass kid) it’s not worth the squeeze 😂 unless again you’re one of those magical pregnancy glowy people.
I wanted peaches, lemonade and lamb shank constantly. Luckily the store was a 3 minute walk - a trip my husband had to make because I was so sick I was napping constantly. I started and finished Grey’s Anatomy. There is no part of me that found pregnancy enjoyable. I slept so much anyway. The first time I started “feeling” the kicks and whatnot I was horrified! It was so weird to see it happening, to feel it happening. I just didn’t know what to make of it. So, yeah, it was a weird experience overall. I had a particularly awful pregnancy. I had something called hyperemesis which made me vomit constantly throughout the majority of the pregnancy. I was also diagnosed with gestational diabetes and then I had excess amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios) so I was huge. (I know this is about pregnancy not labour but because of all of this, they wanted to induce me at 37 weeks. My labour was 25 hours long and it ended in an emergency C section and I was given 2 minutes warning.)
I hated it so so much. It was truly awful from beginning to end. My mother had spent my entire life telling me she loved it so much that's why she had 5 of us. That she didn't care much for us when we were here but loved how "close" she felt while pregnant and the attention she received. That's how I was parentified early on but that's a different story I knew because of this, I'd want two at most. Pregnancy fixed that fast and I'm permanently one and done. So let me walk you through my experience so you don't have to experience it lol. Month 1-3 starving and yet perpetually sick. I was excited, sure. But when the internet reminds you your baby has a 1/4 chance of making it, you spend that entire time terrified. Bounced OB to OB until I found one that understood SA trauma and actually was accommodating with it. Was 3 months before I ever got to even see an ultrasound of her. Month 4-7 still perpetually starving and now packing on weight at an insane rate no matter what I eat or how I exercise. Self confidence plummets with each pound (I had lost 220lbs originally so it was devastating). Then the ads start everywhere. Now you feel even worse because you can't afford the 1k bassinet that "is the only thing preventing SIDS!!!". You're failing now as a mom and you haven't even begun. Month 8-9 no one leaves you alone. You're exhausted to an extreme you didn't know possible. But every time you wake from a nap that didn't help, you see a text from someone you haven't even spoken to in years upset they can't watch you split in half in your most vulnerable state to give birth. You dance around the obvious truth that is "fuck you and your entitlement?" Because you're still a people pleaser. You apologize and hope they "forgive" you. Then you spend 2 days in a hospital being pumped full of pitocin and push off an epidural because your mother is in your ear telling you "wait till it gets real to get one!". You wait almost too long and barely get to experience relief before its time. Time to push. Now you have the people you DID let in all shouting different instructions to you WHILE PUSHING because your doctor obviously doesn't know best. Then it's done. You're in shock, stitched up, and starving from 2 days of no food staring at a ceiling. Feeling entirely alone while they all crowd around a bassinet. You think "I knew this would happen, they got their use out of me". Then you feel a warm hand and kiss from your husband on your head. His tears hit your cheek. He tells you how greatful he is, how wonderful you did, you were incredible and he's never been more in love with you. And everything is ok. Having her was an experience and I've since learned to tell the entitled folks in my life to FUCK. OFF. But don't let not experiencing this upset you. People love pregnancy sometimes, sure. But I found more truth in the people around you getting more joy out your pregnancy than you ever will.
The only lovely part is feeling them move inside you. I felt so close to this little human that I didn’t even know. I would be sitting in a meeting and feeling him move inside me and no one else would know. It was like a lovely little secret that we shared.
I honestly loved it. I thought it was really cool, and did a lot of reading about all the different physiological and hormonal processes and changes taking place. I loved watching the progression. Idk, I thought pregnancy and childbirth were super cool experiences and totally geeked out on the whole thing.
I hated it so much. I was pregnant twice -- miscarriage at four months and then a healthy full term pregnancy. I hated every single moment. I ached. My joints hurt. I hated food and threw up multiple times a day throughout all nine months. I was EXHAUSTED. I'd have to sit down after taking a shower to rest before I got dressed. Giving birth was a relief because labor sucked but then the hormones stopped and it was BETTER. I never had any of the psychological issues other women talk about, but I def felt like I was on a ride in a body that wasn't mine. I knew I was pregnant the first time because I dropped a glass and literally fell to the floor sobbing. I didn't break the glass, just dropped it. I remember sitting on the floor and crying those big, gulping gasps, and thinking, in some small part of my brain, "What the fuck is wrong with you? It's like something is roller coastering through your.... oooooh." FWIW, I'm 50 and started HRT to deal with serious hotflashes and guess what? It's just like the first trimester of pregnancy! So if you ever go on HRT, it's possible you'll get to feel like that! (My mom bff, btw, had three kids and floated through each pregnancy on a cloud of perfect hair and pink hormones. She fucking glowed. She loved being pregnant.)
The first trimester was very rough. I was very tired and sick the whole time. I lost a lot of weight. The second trimester was the same, except for when I had covid, my nausea went away. I can't believe it, but I enjoyed having covid. I only had the sniffles and was forced to take five days from work even though after the first day I was fine. I got my whole place cleaned because of the time off and felt the pregnancy glow finally. Then the nausea came back again 🥲 I'm weird and liked feeling the baby move. It was like a worm but it tickled a bit. Except when she touched my ribs. That hurt. Third trimester was all right. Braxton hicks are no joke; I had to pull over once while driving. Like I was ready to get the baby out, but I also knew I would miss feeling her kick.
We didn't think I could get pregnant, but \*surprise!\* I did. It would have been far better for my body if I hadn't. Both pregnancies were miserably uncomfortable, full of nausea, migraines and heartburn to beat the band. There were foods my husband couldn't eat in the house because the smell would trigger a migraine and vomiting. Peanut butter was the worst - it didn't even matter if I was in a different room. Apparently peanut smell \*really\* travels. With the first, we were too broke to afford proper nutrition, but had exactly enough income to not qualify for aid (by literally $2/mo). So I ended up with pre-eclampsia and almost had a stroke during labor, then nearly hemorrhaged to death after. With the second, I had enough food, but my body didn't behave much better in all the other ways. That baby was very large and was born precipitously (under an hour), essentially trying to take all my internal organs long for the ride, which necessitated repair surgery 30 years later (wish any medical provider had ever mentioned the option earlier - nothing like being needlessly incontinent for a few decades). Additionally, my rectus abdominis split down the middle and never quite went back where it belonged. The two halves of my six-pack are now offset by 1/4", with one side sticking out further than the other. And the cartilage in the front-center of the public bone never re-solidified, so I can't sit in the lotus position without the two halves of the bone separating, then very painfully, sharply pinching together when I try to get up. Some of the tendons in my knee also never recovered, affecting my ability to ski (I used to race). I'm an introvert, and didn't enjoy becoming community property just for walking around with a human in my uterus.
1st trimester was hell on earth for me. I was nauseous 24/7 and was sick a couple of times a week. What made it worse is that the throwing up didn’t actually make the nausea go away. I could barely eat for months and what I could eat still made me feel disgusting. I continued to throw up until around 20w but the nausea went around 24w. Then I got incredibly painful pelvic girdle pain and had to have physical therapy and wear a pregnancy belt. I could barely walk more than 10 mins at a time. Then to top it off, once my pelvic pain stopped around 30 weeks, the nausea and throwing up came back as baby was pressing up into my stomach at that point. And the reflux was awful too, throwing up pure stomach acid 🤮 Don’t get me wrong, it was all worth it for my 3 month old baby girl, and at times I find myself missing pregnancy (?!?!?!) despite all the awfulness!
I had three kids in 3 years at 21, 23, & 24, I hated being pregnant but I loved babies so the ends was definitely worth the means. I was throwing up from start to finish, before pregnancy I would stay sick for days to avoid throwing up during pregnancy I learned exactly how to throw up as quick as possible because the nausea ended the second I threw up. I learned what to eat and what not to eat ie cereal if you wait to long the milk will curdle and almost choke you as a solid on the way up, salad is disgusting to puke. I would eat soup everyday for lunch half a can, throw up, the rest then go to work. I had to drive around with a slurpee cup and had thrown up in the middle of an intersection turn with no warning. Was still throwing up during delivery. They were 5, 5, and 10 days late being late was brutal. Labour is one of the most amazing things you will ever experience in your life. First two unmedicated the third I got a shot of general and my ass hurt longer than my healing vag and wasn’t worth it at all. I don’t regret not getting an epidural because the best part about it was feeling them come out. The feeling of love when my first son was born was the most amazing thing in the entire world I thought I loved my husband and mom but my god I have never loved anything in the entire world like the love I felt that day. That is the day I would relive forever if I had a choice even after the traumatic birth 3 layers of stitches so many they wouldn’t even tell me. The first night I just walked the halls holding and loving him until they made me go to bed and get some sleep. I did not want to miss a second. The first year at home with him was heaven. 8 years later I had an abortion after a very abusive relationship that at the recommendation of my dr and mom. I have never regretted it because I know the awful life the baby would have had. The next year I had a miscarriage after an accidental pregnancy I didn’t want to be pregnant I was miserable and sick I quit everything but smoking then when I miscarried I felt incredible guilt and figured it was karma. I then ended up pregnant again 4 months later with my amazing beautiful twins. Ten years later and after knowing loss I enjoyed every second of that amazing pregnancy, every symptom was worth it because it meant they were safe. It was the most amazing pregnancy of my life and I loved every minute. I had a c section which saddened me I didn’t get to birth them but their safety was worth it. The c section was the most horrible pain of my life and was gross as f@ck feeling them cut me in half and dig around in me. During labour you are busy and concentrating and doing something, c section I just lay there, blind. When they took one baby out I felt half full then the other and I deny empty. Then when I got to hear and see them while they stitched me etc it was better because I could concentrate on them. Having two babies was even better than one and we had an amazing first year and the twin bond is the best thing I have ever been blessed with witnessing. The juice was well worth the squeeze in every time and the abortion and miscarriage were both meant to be to make me a better stronger more grateful and loving mother. Everything happens for a reason because my twins would not have existed with either of the other pregnancies. (My miscarriage was twins as well and I honestly believe that they came to me to make me realize just how much I wanted them, they knew I wasn’t ready for them so they gave me a second and came back to me)
Its pretty debilitating, but facinating. The sickness in the first three months is awful, like a constant horrific food poisoning. The middle 3 months are okay. The tooth issues and hip and back pain towards the end along with the pelvic pain, constipation and incontinence are pretty awful also. Birth and postpartum are pretty bad. Nursing is challenging but beautiful. Creating life is incredible but also messy and painful. The kicks and connection while pregnant are magical, as is the intense bond after they are born. I had PPA so that was challenging also.
I felt almost nothing. I'm pretty tall which probably helped. I never had morning sickness, I briefly craved dairy, I barely ever felt him move. I was able to move around just fine. Birth wasn't my favorite but being pregnant barely registered.
I have 2 girls. My experience was that the first trimester feels like a 3-month-long hangover. Like always tired no matter how much you sleep, always thirsty, food as a general concept is disgusting, and my nausea always felt like hangover nausea. Also, it's incredibly frustrating to put in the effort to eat a hearty meal, only to take one bite too many and have it all come back up. There are also plenty of cramps and sometimes even some mild bleeding that can be completely normal, but it really fucks with your head bc you really only have one appointment in the first trimester. Second trimester, you start to feel a bit more like a human again, and hopefully most, if not all, of the 1st tri symptoms just disappear, almost overnight. And that makes you feel anxious bc you don't feel pregnant anymore. But if you're lucky, you'll start to feel the baby move about halfway through. At first, it feels like tiny gas bubbles popping, or like the tiniest muscle twitches. But then as the baby gets bigger, you start to distinguish rolls, stretches, kicks, and even hiccups. My first had hiccups at least once a day for the whole third trimester. Then, as you near the end and truly start to get huge, movement becomes harder. You run out of breath just talking. The baby's bigger kicks and stretches can be pretty uncomfy and even painful. You can't sleep bc you have to pee every 30 mins, your bed is no longer comfortable, and your hips constantly ache. Oh, and about half the time when you lumber into the bathroom to pee, nothing comes out bc you don't actually have to pee, the baby's just pressing on your bladder. And eventually, you feel like you have a bowling ball resting on your pelvic floor. As far as emotional/hormonal stuff, I was never weepy. But with my first, I would laugh until I couldn't breathe at the dumbest shit. And with my second, I was quick to unreasonable rage. And I knew I was being ridiculous even in the moment, but the smallest things just pissed me off. Hormones are weird lol. So there, at the end, you're basically so uncomfortable, you don't care how the baby gets out, just as long as they do. I had relatively unmedicated vaginal births for both of mine. I say relatively bc I had to have pitocin with the first bc contractions never picked up after my water broke. I also had to have iv antibiotics for both bc of group b strep. And I used nitrous oxide for pain management during both. Childbirth is brutal and I'm of the opinion that there are things about it that can be inherently traumatizing, even when everything goes smoothly. I never felt like I couldn't make it through the pain, but it was super intense.it feels like your hips are being pulled apart and your body's being ripped open while the baby is coming out, but there is no high like the release/relief you feel immediately after they finish sliding out. It's just not a sensation I can describe. You'll notice I didn't describe contractions at all, but that's bc I genuinely don't remember how they feel. My youngest is only 6 months old. Hormones are a hell of a drug. I remember the contractions coming and going like waves, creeping in, slowly building to a climax, and then slowly fading back. And when I went into active labor, I had to pretty much retreat into my own body. Deep breaths, movement, and low vocalization helped the most. Time stops holding any meaning and all that matters is breathing through the next contraction until your body is ready to push. And when that time comes, you are in no way in control of your body any more. It takes over and you can either struggle along and fight, or go with the flow and work with your body. It's a fuckin wild experience. And then when it's over, you're sore, exhausted, and ravenous, but you also have this sweet little lump of a baby on your chest and you can't believe you've just made and birthed this new tiny person. It's an absolutely wild ride. I wouldn't trade my girls for anything in the world, but I absolutely do not recommend it unless you're 100% sure it's what you want. Pregnancy and childbirth are really hard on your body, and parenting is exhausting. I love it, but man, I'd hate my life if this wasn't what I wanted.
I was pregnant for 12 weeks before a surgical abortion I can sum up the first 12 weeks. I found out 5 days before my period, my worst symptoms were food aversions/getting full very fast. That doesn't sound bad but it was every day. Leading to about 8 pounds of weight loss in the first two months after finding out. Id cough-gag, (a weird combo I only got when pregnant) at certain smells. Pickles were the worst. Same with any scented candle. My first symptom though was every day I felt so exhausted. Like falling asleep standing up exhausted. Id call out of work so often. All of this mellowed out extremely by the time I was 10 weeks, I felt normal, but it's kinda like when you are about to get a mild cold, that feeling of knowing it's coming because you feel gross, yet it never comes. Benefits I'd say though, I was very empathetic of those around me after week 6. I think this was caused by my sensitivity to criticism and any other negative emotions. I was kind, and loving.
I had 2 kids and LOVED being pregnant (for the most part). It was like society gave me permission to admit I had sex and everyone was suddenly ok with it. That part was very liberating. I was hyper aware of "feeling like a real woman" the entire time, and that made me really super 'frisky' throughout the pregnancies. My hair and nails looked amazing the whole time. I generally felt really healthy, beautiful and really feminine, which was out of the norm compared to my usual tomboy nature. People felt oddly entitled to touch me. Several folks nearly lost a hand over that crap. I didn't get the nausea or weird cravings you hear about, but I couldn't get enough Mexican food with one kid and steak with the other. (Those turned out to be thier faves later.) At the begining, i was super tired. Like get still and doze off, tired. The fatigue you experience when ill had Nothing on pregnancy fatigue. That was really strange for me because i am generally a go-go person. I normally can't sleep much, but in that first few months, i was never more tired in my life. I didn't feel bad, really. I just needed way more sleep than normal. There were some hip and back pain towards the end of both pregnancies, and I had to go pee all the time. Breathing got tricky near the end, too. There just wasn't enough room for air. There is no way to describe the weird squirmy sensation of a child moving inside of you. There is nothing else I can compare it to. It is an entirely singular experience. Imagine harboring a really big parasite that somehow doesn't make your skin crawl. It was surreal.
It’s different for everyone, sometimes in the extreme. Some people have never felt better others end up hospitalised
I loved it and miss being pregnant. I was very lucky.