to think most people don't feel like this during pregnancy?

[Hangeron]

I feel as though I am basically just unwell for the entire 9 months.

I get nauseas, headaches that last for days, very achey neck, back and shoulders, and just generally feel lethargic, weak and very down in the dumps the whole time. I also suffer from insomnia when pregnant which exacerbates the other problems.

I also put on lots of weight but I think it's mainly water retention as I lose it quite quickly after the birth.

I am 38 and halfway through my 4th pregnancy. My other children are 6, 4 and 2. They are a lively bunch but generally well behaved! I am their full time carer so I know this means I am not getting much rest, but even when I do get a rest I still feel slightly depressed.

Is it normal to feel like this? All my pregnancies have been similar to this but this one seems even harder. My mood and attitude are less positive, and I really just want to hide away in my bedroom for the next 5 months!

How do the rest of you feel during pregnancy? Has anyone had an experience where they feel pretty much the same as when not pregnant?

I would love to just feel better than this - the days are so difficult to get through at the moment and I am only halfway.

Those are all quite typical pregnancy symptoms, sounds like you are quite unlucky to get all of them the whole way through though.

First pregnancy I felt rough (nausea) for the first 4 months, then basically normal for about 3 months, then massive and achey for the last two months. Second pregnancy I didn't really suffer with nausea but was tired and had back pain through most of it.

I've not felt down really but just the idea of small age gaps like yours make me feel quite depressed

I have 6 DC and I loathe pregnancy. My first was ok ish but every one since has been horrible in a low level way, not bad enough to be deemed a problem pregnancy (apart from SPD) but enough to really bring me down.

As for hiding away, I can relate to that. I just wanted to hibernate until I started labour!

I used to get very down too, not depressed just...... I felt terribly sad, its hard to explain. It felt like homesickness, or desperately missing something but I didnt know what it was.

It lifted as soon as I had given birth.

I do feel for you, I wish I had some advice but I just gritted my teeth and counted the days until it was over.

I've had bad nausea for the first 16wk with the x2girls/ horrific reflux with the boy until 20wk (could barely sip a drink) then with all 3 developed pre eclampsia at 26wks exactly and quickly deteriorated.

Respond well to labetolol but feel lousy, nausea, headaches, liver pains, fits with all 3 until induced early at 37wks.

The only good thing is the pregnancies are so bad that being normal health with a newborn feels amazingly good/ energetic and so grateful don't notice the tiredness/ adjustment just relived it is over!!

Oh sounds horrible op. You must be knackered though anyway with 3 already, even the best if kids are hard work.

Hope you feel better soon. Be nice to yourself. It's tough.

Yup. The reason I stopped at 3dc is because I never, ever wanted to spend another 9 months feeling so goddam ill.

I've only done it once but it was like a 9 month hangover. Even the bit in the middle where you're supposed to feel amazing, I just felt a bit less pukey.

I've never understood these people who say they love being pg. I'd honestly rather do labour & birth once a month for 9 months than be pregnant.

Although I'd like a second. What is wrong with me?!

I wonder what the stats are for depression during pregnancy or pregnancy triggering depression?

I've often said: if I didn't know I was pregnant I'd honestly have thought I was dying.

I have a friend that felt awful with her first, but got to 20 weeks before realising she was expecting her second and apparently feels amazing!

I felt like shit both times. Constant nausea and/or vomiting from 5 weeks until baby handed to be by midwife. Insomnia. Constant colds and low level aches.

This is one reason we are done at 2 DC.

I too hated being pregnant but have got through it 4 times. The only way i can describe it is that my body didnt feel like my own and emotionally i was not at all myself. I dont think i was depressed really.

After having the baby each time it was like a weight off me.... Like i was myself again.

I didnt even like feeling baby move! Despite all this i have 4 boys i adore and had no problems bonding.

This too will pass?

yep me too. It's grim.

like a 9 month really heavy hangover jn the background combined with HYPEREMISIS, random debilitating pains, five day headaches, insomnia and feeling teary.

Hate it.

I want three but don't know if I can do this again :-(

Well I loved being pg in my 20s, blooming and capable of anything, but at 39 was just knackered, exhausted from start to finish. By then I had teenagers and basically crawled home from work and into bed for a rest most days, can't imaging what it would have been like lookafter small children as well. Yup, sorry, I guess nature made us to start childbearing by 17 and have finished by 30, and unless you are a superfit athlete or vv lucky or vv cossetted being pg in yr late 30s feels like you've been run over and need to lie down and cry for 9 months.

I'm 35 weeks now, and I felt like utter shit for the first 24 weeks. exhausted, nauseous, emotional, you name it!

didn't get the 2nd trimester bloom I was promised, but the past 11 weeks I have felt better despite no sleep and feeling like a small whale.

can't wait to finish work tomorrow and hopefully try and enjoy the last few weeks.

I always feel guilty that I've not 'enjoyed' pregnancy, but it's been pretty shite to be honest

It's so reassuring to hear I'm not the only one who feels like this! Almost makes me feel a bit better. Everyone I know in RL seems to cope so well with pregnancy that I was beginning to wonder why I can't seem to get through it without feeling so negative.

Your poor thing OP

It is really tough especially when you have little ones to look after already. How is your DH/DP? Does he help?

Are you feeling down because the kids have been ill lately or maybe you feel overwhelmed?

Pregnancy 1 - 9 months of being sick plus ligament pains

Pregnancy 2 - am 36 weeks. Still being sick plus heartburn, insomnia, exhaustion, ligament pain, mild SPD...

Highly unlikely we'll go for the 3 we'd initially planned as I just can't do it again.

I'm only 9+3 and feel like death warmed up. Counting a good day if I haven't had an embarrassing public puke anywhere. The thought of this going on for another 7 months is really not attractive.

My great gran had THIRTEEN. I know she wouldn't have had a huge amount of choice about it but that's an early 20th century version of being an ultra marathon runner.

OP....9 mths of PMT was what I felt like. Sick, sick, sick for nearly the whole time. Aches, pains and ante-natal depression. Nose bleeds and SPD. Tiredness and insomnia...Although I loved being pregnant, it was Very, very hard. I had 3 and it got worse each time. I'm pretty envious of women who sail through it all....but get really angry with women who sail through it and think other women who have a harder time are making it up!!!

I'm twelve weeks into my 2nd pregnancy and I feel like utter shit! I don't suffer particularly from sickness, but constant low level nausea, physical exhaustion, aches and pains, headaches etc

I am suddenly remembering that in my last pregnancy (6 years ago) I didn't feel like myself emotionally the whole way through, and I'm back in that feeling now. Horrible!

Meant to add that everyone I know in RL also sails through pregnancy so I totally get how alone you feel. I even had a Dr tell me that MS stops at the end of the first trimester, as though I was lying about being sick 5 times a day

Oh me too. Dc1 in retrospect was quite easy "normal" morning sickness and aches and pains but I still hated it and was incredibly anxious.

I'm 35 weeks with dc2. Have vomited daily since 6w and still going strong. Numerous urine infections iand most recently found group b strep which I've found stressful. I'm bigger this time and everything aches especially my back. Baby is so low is painful and is pressing against the top of my cervix apparently! Need a wee constantly and can't sleep. Also just got out of 3 day stay in hospital suspected blood clot which turned out to be asthma. Which I didn't even know I have!

Can't wait to meet this lovely baby but just so fed up with feeling ill.

You sound like you're doing great with 3 dcs already.

Ps. No one I know enjoyed being pregnant!

This thread is brilliantly vindicating. All those people who spout that 'you're pregnant, not ill' nonsense - actually, pregnancy makes people pretty ill!

I hated being pregnant, really hated it. I felt ill for 7 months. I hated it so much that I am not having anymore.

I know one person who loved it but she had a teeny bump, didnt get MS, didnt have to buy maternity clothes, just opened the buttons on her size 8 jeans and has a spotless, picture perfect home.

I would hate her fucking guts if it werent for the fact that she is so nice :o

I have had two very easy pregnancies. Felt a bit sick and tired for the first 12 weeks and a bit tired for the last 4 weeks but pretty great other than That. Occassionally would look down, spot the bump and just for a second think "what the hell is that!" as I'd forgotten.

On the other hand I've had two PPHs. It's swings and roundabouts.