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Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

Pregnancy

I can still smell everything in the universe.

19 replies

PoppettyPing · 31/07/2013 22:27

And it's driving me mental! I'm 34 weeks pregnant and still so sensitive to smells. Not quite as badly as in the beginning, but seriously, a garlic breath at 10 paces will send me into a rage. I've cleaned my toilet 3000 times and I swear I can still smell poo. and my BIL is staying with us for a few days and he smells like a homeless person
Anyone else having/ have had this issue in late pregnancy? Please tell me it goes away after baby's born... I'm tired of feeling like Divine in that John Waters' film Polyester!!

OP posts:

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moanymandy · 01/08/2013 11:55

I had this with ds1! I had it right until the end. my dh got very cross with me in the end as everything stank!

we walked into a shop when I must have been 37ish weeks and as soon as I walked in the door I declared (not too quietly) it stinks in here! That was the final straw for him and I got told off!

anklebitersmum · 01/08/2013 12:01

Biter4. Couldn't stand the smell of anything cooking and a glass of wine on the other side of the room positively had me gagging I was not popular during BBQ season

Luckily the gagging wore off post pregnancy although oddly I have retained the heightened sense of smell

Rollermum · 01/08/2013 12:02

Oh me too! Commuting in this heat is pretty rank - I want someone to invent a head bubble with clean air supply so I don't have to breathe in BO, bad breath, that lovely pickled alcohol smell and worst of all - Cornish pasties. Why do so many stations sell them?

ProudNeathGirl · 01/08/2013 12:02

I was the same all the way through. There was a woman in work who wore a perfume that used to make me feel sick - it smelled like smelly feet.
It wore off quite quickly after the birth though.

RobotHamster · 01/08/2013 12:03

It did go away a bit after DS1, but my sense of smell is much stronger generally now. Can't stand strong perfumes or aftershave. Now I'm pg again its ridiculous... I can smell EVERYTHING. I also have to brush my teeth about 30 times a day to get rid of horrible aftertastes.

My pets are not my friends atm

DameFanny · 01/08/2013 12:06

I read the title and thought "oh, I wonder what she makes of my new perfume"

K8Middleton · 01/08/2013 12:08

I still have heightened sense of smell and youngest is 9mo although not as bad as pregnancy. I used to be able to tell if someone had done a poo when they came back from the loo at work. Disgusting.

It will get better.

Rollermum · 01/08/2013 12:40

Wow K8Middleton - that is like the world's worst superpower

HumptyDumptyBumpty · 01/08/2013 17:02

Oh god yes - I have SUCH sensitivity to smells. DH smells like fish a bit. It's vile. Also yyy to the stale booze smell, which is LOATHSOME. I keep wanting to pass around very strong peppermints on my commute to work.

SupermansBigRedPants · 01/08/2013 18:05

I usually can't smell anything and its great, this pregnancy I can smell everything and it's disgusting - everything is too strong/minging/makes me sick :( I hope to god it hoes once madam is here I like not being able to smell although my sense of taste has alterted too so I fear it is permanent :(

38+3..

K8Middleton · 02/08/2013 09:12

rollermum I only ever used my powers for good.

I've just been reminded of that awful smell from the morning commute. It was sort of damp and steamy with an undernote of unwashed hair, morning breath and dusty old carpets. I used to fantasise about fumigating the platforms or making all the passengers go in a sheep dip before boarding.

AhoyAhoy · 02/08/2013 10:07

Haha, I can really empathise. I've always had a strong sense of smell, since before pg OH calls me Wolverine.
The first trimester was horrendous, I could smell the smell of people- not BO or perfume, but what must be their natural pheromones or something. Working in a secondary school this was difficult. Some kids smelt to me like rotting salad. Early on, I leaned over a girl to log her on to the computer and breathed in, I had to sit in the opposite corner of the room breathing deeply and sipping water to stop myself hurling!
Saw an improvement for a while but last week I could smell dog (we had a short haired visitor who was contained in one corner of the flat on a coupe of blankets). OH didn't say a word, picked up all the blankets the dog may have been near, and threw them into the outside bin! Think I'm starting to annoy him!

Caster8 · 02/08/2013 10:13

Like AhoyAhoy, I was worst at the begining.
Oh my word. Remember it well.

Opening the fridge involved opening it, and standing back from it for a couple of minutes to help make some of the mass variety of smells disappear.

Cooking husbands main meal [at that stage I could only stomach more or less dried foods only], involved going outside while it cooked. Especially the vegetables.

PoppettyPing · 02/08/2013 10:22

YY to the rotting salad people. And the knowing who's had a poo. Or that scalpy smell of unwashed hair...yeuuuggghh.

I'm reassured to hear it usually fades afterwards...I've heard horror stories of women left with permanent heightened smell. Strangely enough though, I've been really enjoying the smell of cigarette smoke and tar! Or petrol. C'est bizarre.

OP posts:

purpleaura · 02/08/2013 11:25

I am ten feet away from the nearest person and I can smell Palmolive soap (and it's not me!). It is like a superpower- surely there must be a way to reap the benefits from this skill?! :)

K8Middleton · 02/08/2013 11:40

Mine is definitely more heightened and was after birth of first child who is 4. I do have a very refined palate now. Maybe I should offer my services to a perfumer or producer of fine teas or chocolate?

purpleaura · 02/08/2013 11:43

Oooh nice idea K8- especially the chocolate tasting. Mmm!

MightilyOats · 02/08/2013 15:58

DP keeps coming back from the swimming baths reeking of a chemical mix of chlorine and shampoo, boak.. not good. Only ever offends me in pregnancy...

Xenadog · 03/08/2013 17:53

I'm nearly 21 weeks and the super smelling sense has come back after going at about week 15. I have a lovely little dog who repulsed me at the start and now she is smelly again. The thing is it's not a "dog smell" but something unique to her and makes me want to hurl.

OH seems to reek of garlic permanently (yuk!) and the smell of anyone's breath - even when they have just brushed their teeth - is enough to make me gag.

I can't walk down certain aisles in supermarkets or be near other people for long either. Barrel of laughs eh?

I think, like K8 we are an untapped reserve and should be used by Cadbury's or Thorntons!

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