Things they don't tell you about being pregnant

And there's heaps. So perhaps this post isn't for the faint hearted, click away now!


You know how some people tell you they luuuurve being pregnant. In my head, I roll my eyes when I hear people commenting that now. I don't mean I hate it but, I am certainly not totally luuuurving it either.


Did you know:

• that morning sickness does not just happen in the mornings? It hits me around 10pm at evenings. I also find that I get nauseous when I am starting to get hungry.



• your sense of smell is heightened. Hence the reason why some pregnant women are so put off by certain smells. I start retching at the smell of raw onions and fish!



• Ultrasounds scan can be both external (over the belly) and internal. Thank god, I didn't have any complications and no need for the internal.



• I feel that I get extremely thirsty. At the beginning I was going through 2 huge 1L bottles of water a day. I am still thirsty, but I try not to drink too much, because going to the toilet every 1/2 hour is a pain.



• First movements of baby are felt as little bubbles popping inside your belly. Then, they become little buttefly wing flutters. And then much later on? KUNG FU high kicks!!



• Watch what you say. Because baby can hear you (from I think around 20 weeks or so)! That's why they can recognize Mommy's voice and even Daddy's.



• Excruciating leg cramps!!!



• Constipation



• You will feel extreme exhaustion at the drop of a hat during the first 3 months.



• Also, towards the end of it all, because your belly is huge, it is uncomfortable to be lying on your back. So you will have to sleep on your side, which means your shoulders and hips may get a little sore from being in that position all night. And god forbid, like me you have trouble turning from side to side during the night.



• You have a tendency to have the pregnancy brain. There was once I almost poured OJ into my bowl of fried rice, instead of the glass next to it. And I asked hubby along the lines of "what are those things at the fast food place that has the beef patties in it called?" and "what is that thing at that thing, do you know what that thing is?"



• Towards the end of your pregnancy, you will develop a nesting instinct. Organizing, cleaning and planning for the birth of baby by rearranging furniture, scrubbing out the kitchen, etc, at ungodly hours! Like I did before!
• You are more likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy. It is called gestational diabetes and usually goes away after birth. According to my obstetrician, sugars that u consume go mostly to baby. So you have to watch your sweet tooth!

..............ok you get a second chance. Here comes the gross bits. So seriously, click away now if you don't want to know! Don't say I didn't warn you.

• during vaginal delivery, if it looks like you are going to tear yourself down there really badly, the doctor or midwife may give you a little snip. YUP. You heard me right. U know the spot in between your vagina and ahem, your 'chocolate starfish'? They cut it. And the procedure is called Episiotomy. You will have to be sewed back up after. NOT looking forward to that happening.



• You really give birth twice. Baby comes out first. Then the placenta. It is a flat disc that sits usually around the top of the uterus, and is about 3cms thick or so. I think they are about the size of a large dinner plate. But over here, after baby is delivered, you do 'skin-to-skin' contact with baby (to up baby's immune system by colonizing their sterile skin with normal bacteria,etc). And probably because you are so mersmirized by your new baby, you hardly notice the delivery of your placenta.I think.



• You bleed for around 2-6 weeks after delivery. It is called lochia, and it is because your uterus is contracting back to its usual size (about the size of a pear). Did you know they sell maternity pads? I didn't!



• Your boobies can get rock hard when they fill up with too much milk. And according to the books, and from word of mouth from friends, they will hurt! It happens when baby is not feeding enough yet or you forget to express your milk.



• And the twins may leak too. So you may need to wear breast pads. Yes, I only realised that they exist just recently.



• Braxton hicks contractions (I explained this before in a previous post)



• Breathlessness because as baby grows, all your innards are pushed up and against your lungs.



• Rib pain because they expand to accomodate for the above reason.

Have I put you off having kids yet? LOL!!! But there are good bits to it all of course.

• You get really nice hair and nails. Some of my friends and I did anyway.



• You can eat all u want, put on weight and have the perfect excuse for it!



• You get to live like a queen for a while at least. People naturally want to help and are extra nice to you! Especially when you start to do the waddle.



• I was told that your waters (amniotic fluid) don't necessarily gush out and you go into excruciating labour pains right away.I was starting to worry that it is going to happen in public like on TV. It really depends on the position baby is lying. If he's upside down already, and his head and body are blocking most of the fluid it may then it may just only be a trickle. Releasing just the fluids around his head. And the rest of it comes out in a gush only after baby appears.

You learn so much about your body when you are pregnant! And there are heaps more that you probably never knew about a newborn baby too, but I shall leave that for next time.