to ask what you found to be the hardest part about pregnancy?

[SoreFeet1983]

I have had a really rough pregnancy this time around. I've had awful sickness and nausea, I'm tired, I'm trying to look after a toddler at the same time, and I can't even have a glass of wine to take the edge off. I'm exhausted. Now finally 37 weeks.

But for me, this all pales into insignificance in comparison to restless fucking leg syndrome 😡😡 Every time I try to lie down and relax I just can't get comfortable. It's driving me up the wall and really getting me down actually.

Apart from the obvious, what did you find to be the hardest parts of pregnancy?

The weight gain
Being babied by everyone around me - my dad has started opening doors for me. I love you dad but I can open a fucking door
The constant feeling of fullness
Not being able to enjoy a glass of wine

The weight gain. I feel so heavy and it's horrible lugging all this weight around. And it's hot, so I'm wearing maxi dresses, but my thighs constantly rub together. And all I want to do to fix it is eat tub after tub of Ben and Jerry's.

Heartburn, haemorrhoids (), constant needing a wee throughout, and side sleeping. And I loved being pregnant overall! It's a slog, too.

See this thread should be printed off and posted in high school toilets

The constant "do you know what you are having?" yes a baby.

The constant anxiety and worry for me. I'm quite an anxious person anyway and couldn't stop worrying something would go wrong the entire time. I ended up being induced for reduced movement 3 days after my due date and was worried throughout about movement.

Other parts I found hard were the morning sickness I had quite severely from weeks 6-16 and found it hard to sleep due to hip pain from week 20 or so.

After an absolutely horrendous birth it's safe to say my boy will be an only child!

See this thread should be printed off and posted in high school toilets

Restless legs!! By far the worst symptom of all for me

Anxiety following previous losses.

I didn't enjoy it at all for the constant worry. Miscarriage alters you're thought process forever, unfortunately

Other than that I had a relatively textbook, easy pregnancy.

With both, not being able to sleep on my stomach. Also late pregnancy movements, as magical as they are they just felt uncomfortable after 30 weeks. Breathlessness I also found really hard.
With just my second it was nausea. I was never actually sick but I couldn't eat. Even when people were telling me how bad it was for the baby I could not, no matter how hard I tried, put any food to mouth. I lost so much weight and my body had had gone into starvation mode. That lasted until 22 weeks.

The unrelenting nausea and vomiting (still going strong at 24weeks). The heartburn. The exhaustion but inability to sleep. And worst is the pain in back and pelvis!
But only 12 weeks left

SPD. I was signed off work for a few weeks because every step was torture and there was no way I could commute like that.

An amazing physio got me back on my feet and I was so grateful that he helped me enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.

DS is now 16 months and I'm still not fully recovered yet.

The relentless vomiting, 24/7 up to 30 times a day for the whole 9 months and being in and out of hospital for fluids and anti sickness meds. Horrific! Never ever again.

I decided to take some over the counter iron tablets because I was very tired but it unexpectedly helped my restless fucking legs syndrome!

After two miscarriages, the fear of losing another baby was absolutely overwhelming - especially in the first 20 weeks. I worried about the slightest twinge and found it impossible not to worry. When my bump got bigger and the baby started to move that did help to make me feel reassured, but then towards the end I worried more and more about stillbirth - not helped by the fact that my son was 2 weeks overdue and I eventually had to be induced. Looking back, I had a really good pregnancy - apart from the early crippling tiredness I had no sickness and felt remarkably well physically - it's just a shame I couldn't enjoy it more. Good luck with the last few weeks, OP xx

Sickness and nausea, and the way everything smelled so strongly.
SPD from 26 weeks - crutches, crawling up and down stairs, hardly able to leave the house.
Heartburn.
Carpal tunnel.
Being unable to sleep, partly from discomfort and partly because I needed a wee every ten minutes.
Elbows and feet in my ribs.
Constant anxiety.

Having pneumonia.

I caught it when I was 16 weeks with DD2, just after the nausea had faded. Had to spend 2 weeks in bed at my ILS so they could look after DD1. Five visits to the GP, three lots of antibiotics, a chest x-ray, an overnight stay in hospital to make sure my poor strained ribs weren't a blood clot. Then dragging myself back to work full time, which meant starting the day at 7am when DD1 got up, going to work at 2pm and getting in at, ooh midnight ish? Boss totally unsympathetic while I was coughing my lungs up. I coughed from 16 weeks until DD2 was 6 weeks old. I felt guilty every time I coughed that she was being squeezed/startled. Poor DD1 spent a LOT of time watching films and CBeebies.

It totally ruined an otherwise straightforward pregnancy. Well that and the SPD.

Hormones, SPD, sciatica, not been able to breathe

Months of utter exhaustion exacerbated by not being able to face putting anything on my mouth. Very sensitive gag reaction. I longed to be sick for a temporary relief, but just felt constantly on the edge of being sick.

That was replaced by undiagnosed SPD. I ended up stuck on the house unless I was chauffeured in the last weeks as I couldn't squeeze into the driver's seat anymore, or walk to the end of the cul de sac to get anywhere.

The final insult was carpal tunnel syndrome. My legs were already pretty useless, so clumsy, numb hands on top felt like the final insult. I'd wake up with pins and needles hourly, have to shake it out then heave my humungous SPD ridden body onto the other side. It was bliss to get a newborn who indulged me with an extravagant 2 hours sleep at a time

The finale was tough births and slow recoveries.

I'm not sure how I managed to muster myself to do it a second time. It was actually better. I was at home with DS1 so got more rest and managed to be less exhausted, and grazed cutting out the cycle of feeling too sick to eat and sick from hunger. I also knew more about SPD and managed that better. Keeping mobile on crutches made a big difference, and I think that helped reduce the water retention and keep the carpal tunnel at bay.

The DCs were well worth it though!

I'm 9 weeks pg here with my first. So far it's been:

1. Dizziness and blacking out every time I go from a sitting to a standing position
2. Feeling shattered as soon as I wake up, making it really hard to concentrate on work
3. Finding it impossible to meal plan because I don't fancy hardly any foods, yet at the same time I'm constantly ravenous.

I haven't been sick (yet) thank god.

The most difficult thing about my pregnancy? The 10 years that followed it.

Exhaustion and insomnia. I was up from 4am most mornings from early on and struggled to get comfy to sleep through 30weeks onwards. How I functioned during my pregnancy I don't know?

My first and third pregnancies were really easy and I loved being pregnant.

My second pregnancy was awful, sickness right up until the day he was born, I felt awful the whole time, I was absolutely huge, awful heartburn, high blood pressure and so on.

Piles and SPD. Both had me crying in the doctor's office more than once.