Things about pregnancy that no one tells you

[CBear6]

I'm starting to remember the weird things I noticed when pregnant with DS, mainly because they're happening again with this one, and at the time I wondered why no one ever mentions these things, not even the books (or at least the ones I read).

Things like:

• rolling over in bed becomes a test of strength, patience, and momentum. It's all about timing the pivot and the flop and using Whatever is in reach (sorry DH) for leverage
  

• your nipples get huge and change colour
  

• morning sickness isn't just in the morning, sometimes it's all day and all night too
  

• the random hormone-fuelled dreams
  

• the hair. It'll either stop growing and go all lank or it'll grow like weeds. And it's not just the hair on your head that's affected
  

• skin tags. For whatever reason they're common in pregnancy. I didn't know this until the doctor told me so when I got one on the end of my nipple, it turned black (the tag not the nipple)

[no1childminder]

oh yes, the restless legs. hated that!

so no-one else got the prickly pains down below?? arghh im a freak!! lol.

[lolajane2009]

shooting pains in vagina?

[MrsMoppet]

Swollen, achy vulva from about the 4th month until the moment the baby was out (oh, the relief!)
Incontinence
Horrendous leg cramps which woke me up screaming in pain in the middle of the night
Heartburn so bad I thought I'd pass out
Being kicked/punched in the ribs so hard that I shouted out in the middle of an important meeting .... on more than one occasion
As my bump grew, and my skin stretched, so did the moles on my abdomen, prompting a panicky rush to the GP convinced I had skin cancer (I didn't)

The achy vulva was definitely the worst though. I couldn't sit down for more than half an hour, but couldn't stand for long either. It THROBBED.

Oh, the glamour.

Worth it though

[no1childminder]

yes lolajane2009 very painful. apparently stretching pains doc told me.

[Dutchie77]

Throbbing vulva...I thought I was the only one. I had it when it was ovulating time. It drove me insane. And yeah, shooting pains there as well.

The worst for me is that I sometime have these really horrible moodswings. I become a complete b*tch towards DP. Poor man...... and afterwards I feel sooooo guilty and I cry my eyes out because of that, Hopeless!!

[Misty9]

crying for ABSOLUTELY no reason, the constant discharge, the near-impossible task of getting comfy in bed - and staying like that all night - and most annoyingly, that I'd go completely off chocolate :(

[magicmelons]

That my hips would actually crunch when i turn over in bed.

That sometimes i'd be asleep and the next i'd be screaming in pain due to leg cramp, WTF is that about.

That already ( 12 weeks) i am walking like John wayne.

That sometimes my dinner will reappear in my mouth when I bend down.

That my mouth would taste vile.

That i would have an insatiable appetite for sex in this pregnancy.

That my Dh would smell so bad to me, not this pregnancy but the first.

[SlightlyScrambled]

Yes I cried over anything. I saw a horse in a field, just grazing, minding its own business and I bawled my eyes out.

Could also not be critised for anything. DH tippytoed around me for the 9 months. He's started doing it again now and the moods haven't even started going bonkers yet.

The slack bladder. Having to get up in the middle of the night 5 times to wee. Preparing me for the sleep deprivation ahead, methinks.

[2cats2many]

The terrible insomnia

[BlackSwan]

OK, I haven't read the entire thread - but did anyone else experience a popping sound coming from the bump, later in pregnancy? I wasn't imagining it, DH heard it too.

Skin tags...tick...like the OP, right on the very end of my nipple. I thought it was sooooo painful. I was yet to experience breastfeeding!

[Tigerbomb]

Nobody has mentioned belly buttons - mine used to poke out so much (I am an "innie" that it would show through my clothes.

[squirrel007]

That I would be exhausted right from the start, my feet would go up a size, and that my hair would stop growing! And that the hunger comes on really quickly and is all-consuming, definitely not a feeling you can ignore.

Actually, I think these probably are mentioned in books, but I never thought they'd actually happen.

[Dynababy]

Blackswan so glad you said that, got popping sound for first time today (30+2) and freaking me out!!

[CBear6]

Yes! Like a clicking? Used to drive me bonkers.

[strawberrymewmew]

I haven't got to the stage of hearing popping yet but I'm pretty sure it's meant to be hiccups. :)

The random hair growth is my most hated. (I seem to have random little hairs popping up everywhere :( )

And just how bad the heartburn is.

[Mummyrev]

My feet also went up a size, bizarre. Evening sickness not morning. Pins and needles like I have never known, every damn night, in my arms and hands. Absolutely grim. But it was the only time in my life I have lost weight without trying.

[BlackSwan]

Not the baby's hiccups! I know what they feel like! I remember googling it at the time... don't think there's an acknowledged explanation for it.

[strawberrymewmew]

:O Mummyrev Did you lose weight whilst pregnant also? I keep losing weight even though I am eating more and my thyroid is apparently fine. Completely mind boggling!

[MsInterpret]

Argh, the leg cramps, yes! Had managed to forget about them til you reminded me moppet and melons.

Also the fact that by the end you are desperate, just desperate to wear some normal clothes.

[somedayillbesaturdaynite]

that u cant reach the bottom of the supermarket trolley!!

[Georgimama]

That if you get a severe cold (as I did when pg with DS and have right now with this one) you can't take anything that actually has any effect, so you end up with snot dripping down your throat when you try to go to bed which makes you cough so much you vomit and then at the same time, your weakened pelvic floor lets you down and you piss yourself.

Or that may just be me. But it's happened twice now.

[strawberrymewmew]

Also, just searched MN as was curious about the clicking. It's apparently air bubbles in the amniotic fluid popping. :)

Thread about it is here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/225826-baby-making-a-clicking-sound-what-is-it/AllOnOnePage

[Georgimama]

And when you stand up, sit down, bend over or just generally move any muscle towards the full range of movement, you will groan involuntarily like an old woman.

[sleepingsatellite]

the spitting....ugh

the most best mood i had ever been in, lasted the whole pregnancy, despite the spitting, hg and spd, i was calm and serene, wish it lasted..!

[memphis83]

the strong sense of smell I swear I could pick apart DH's breath after a night out, yes mmmm 3 pints of carling with an undertone of JD!!! Could also smell if anyone had smoked within 50 yards of him and demand the clothes were put outside!!
The veins on my boobs freaked me out!!
That baby kicks HURT I had to pull over on a luckily empty road as ds kicked me so hard I was bent over in pain!
I thought I was clever and brave shaving my bikini line without being able to see ir, oh the shame when I got home after birth and saw that rather that a neat line down the center I had shaved a sideburn!!! And although I had a cathether (sp?) in, over 30 stitches and was exhausted after a 44 hour labour I still sorted out the said sideburn!!!