Is 'pregnancy glow' a myth?

[Dogsmom]

This is my first pregnancy, I'm 11 weeks and feeling tired, sick, narky, spotty etc, I've read that the first trimester isn't pleasant and was hoping that I'd soon be feeling the 'pregnancy glow' I've heard about.

However after reading lots of posts on here and other forums it seems that women go on to have spd, sore abdomens, back pain in the 2nd tri and then in the 3rd tri feel huge, bloated, uncomfortable and are desperate for it all to be over.

Is there really a glow at any time during pregnancy? is there ever a time when women feel normal? or is it really an unpleasant 9 months?

In first pregnancy I was working long hours for boss from hell, felt tired and sick in first trimester, then fine for rest of it and actually quite glowy towards end (once I had stopped work). For second pregnancy I felt fabulous from 14 weeks - way, way better than I normally felt - great skin and hair, bags of energy, I LOVED being pregnant with DS2 right up to the end. I wasn't working and DS1 was an easy toddler and I'd just started to really enjoy motherhood. Wanted to do it all over again. Third time round I just felt old, fat and tired from 4 weeks to 40...

not for me, there isn't. People keep telling me I look well but they're just being kind - I look in the mirror and see crepey dry skin, tired eyes, podge under my chin where normally there wouldn't be.

I was nauseous for the first trimester, lost a few kg in weight, which have of course all gone back on now and then some (but that's what you'd expect)
Had a few weeks of nothing much to complain about, just tiredness and some acid reflux; and then the hip/pelvis pain started. And the reflux got worse.

Now at ~33w, I feel like a Lump. Baby is transverse/oblique lie and making my bump very tight and protruberant, unlike DS (didn't "glow" with him, either) and lots of alien-like movements of my belly, especially late in the evening. Sleep deprivation is starting to kick in because I get hip pain from lying down, and reflux if I lay flat (so now sleeping on a beanbag, which isn't good for my back but at least stops the acid flooding my oesophagus) - argh!
Have to have a nap most days or I get headache...

Can't wait for the baby to be out. Oh and did I mention the daily jabs of Clexane?

I wasn´t ill/tired/spotty at all.

Although I don´t remember "glowing" either.

(Unless feeling smug at being pregnant counts

I didn't have a glow.

Felt awful, panda eyes, terrible skin, shit nails. My sister did say I had lovely hair but it was falling out all the bloody time.

I had fantastic skin and fantastic hair (that fell out afterwards) with DD and felt great.

I am 28 weeks now and have great skin and hair again, but am absolutely knackered the whole time.

I am hoping this is to do with having a toddler to look after this time rather than my being ancient.

Cannot believe I have 11 more weeks to go still (booked in c section)

Unfortunately, I never glowed, but I know lots of people who did, and did their pregnancies beautifully :)

Even if you look good (and I suspect it's just people being nice) and have easy pregnancies you still feel shit. I'm on number 3, I've never had morning sickness, backache, SPD, high blood pressure, any swelling etc etc. Very boring healthy pregnancies, don't put on excess weight etc but I hate being pregnant, it is so exhausting, I want to sleep most of the time and yet I still need to work and look after children. DH gets home from work and I have to disappear to bed. I don't know if it's a factor of age though (aren't teenagers suppose to sail through pregnancy?) or if it was true when getting pregnant meant giving up work and lazing about at home with lots of help from the soon to be grandparents.

Aww Dogsmom I really feel for you. This is my 1st pregnancy too and I am now 18 weeks. From week 7 - week 13 I felt like hell, I was constantly nauseous, couldn't eat anything, I was tired all the time, couldn't even be bothered to shower and get dressed and I felt so down and a bit resentful which made me feel guilty because I want this baby so much.

But by 14/15 weeks I started to feel like myself again and people keep telling me how good I look now. My hair and nails are growing at a speed of knots and my skin is clearer than it has ever been. However I have developed dandruff and dry skin all over my body but i suppose slapping on the moisturiser all the time might help keep any stretch marks at bay.

Everyone's pregnancy is different so you might be lucky to hit the 12 week mark and then feel like a goddess. I was told all sorts of horror stories when I was feeling my worst so I stopped telling people how bad I was feeling so that I wouldn't be bombarded.

I wish you all the best and hope it eases for you soon :0)

Good question! My hair gets much thicker (looks like a bush to me - untamable) and my skin looks good for once. But I must say I never feel good, at any point - I'm always knackered, uncomfortable and a bit miserable. Currently 33 wks with DC2 and swearing never again....

I get thick hair too, then it all falls out. Dh is still currently moaning about it being in the plug hole after every shower. I would quite like it back!!

I think for most of us it's a myth. I didn't feel that bad early on, but as the pregnancy went on I had horrible dry hair and spots, felt knackered (though that may have been to do with being frantically busy at work), got SPD pretty early. I also never really had a bump: I just looked fat and shapeless. It was horrible, the whole thing.

I looked and felt like dogshit for both my pregnancies.

I was 'glowing' so much that by the end of pg's 5 and 6 my face was bright red. I looked like a lush. Swollen and bright red face, not a good look!

It's the luck of the draw, and it varies between pregnancies, IME

First pregnancy was brilliant. No sickness, lots of excitement and jolliness, worked up until two weeks after due date, incredible amounts of energy. Was fab

Second pregnancy was also really good but perhaps not quite so energetic and enthusiastic as the first. More tiredness, a lot of sicky feelings but no actual vomiting. Still worked up to two weeks before due date. Slightly swollen ankles. Slightly less energy. But still, y'know, pretty good. No problems or issues.

I had HG (i.e. was very very sick) for the first half of my pregnancy, but once that went I started to get lovely thick glossy hair, strong nails and beautiful youthful skin. I thought I looked amazing.

Sadly after 7.5 months I got hippo ankles from water retention and a face to match.

Dont want to jinx things but Im feeling pretty good at 30 weeks pregnant, have a few complaints but nothing major, people tell me that I am glowing or blooming. Enjoy being pregnant and this is my first.

Previous pregnancies: no sickness, hair/skin/nails great, lots of energy, worked up until my due date and fairly neat bumps so 'didn't look preg from behind'.

Now preg with twins and have had to get anti sickness meds from doc to keep any food or liquids down, am spotty, hairy, blotchy, swollen, greasy haired and fucking knackered!

Oh and sick to the back teeth of fibogel but still can't shit for love nor money!

I felt great in the 2nd trimester, better than usual, energised, relaxed and I think looked good too. So yes, it's real.

Didn't feel bad in the 3rd trimester, just got bigger. It took until three months after birth for the effects of he hormones to fade so that my hair started dropping out again, of course lots at once by then.

I also had hip pain but that's a bit beside the point, as part injury related, though part hormonal too. It was exacerbated by weiht bearing exercise and when I stopped that and just swam and walked short distances it diminished. Pre-natal Pilates was good too.

The feeling great started round 13 weeks or me. Felt very tired and a bit sick in the first trimester and everything smelt and tasted weird. All a little bit yuck.

No glow here at 37 weeks, nor has there been throughout. I am told I look great, but it's all smoke and mirrors, with me compensating for how utterly tragic I look wih an extra layer of slap. My hair is dry as a bone and, while I don't have spots for once in my life, I have lovely brown giraffe-like patches all over my face. There's no inner glow either, unless the constant hot lava bubbling up my oesophagus counts. I'm just bleeding miserable .... not that it shows or anything! My first pregnancy wasn't much better, apart from not being as shattered having to be a full time clown and general dogsbody to a 4 year old boy (who I love dearly or I most certainly would not be putting myself through this again).

I look bloody brilliant after the first 8 weeks. My hair is thick, my skin is lovely, even the hair on my legs stops growing.

I turn into a total loon though. Absolutely nuts.

A doctor once told me that women who get bad pmt often bloom in pregnancy. I get horrible pmt and I fear for my poor family when I hit menopause.

2nd trimester = best orgasms of my life. Definitely something to do with hormones and I wish they could bottle it.

Lots of people have told me I looked fab throughout pregnancy... I think I look better than I feel! Well it's variable... very tired some days and others still energetic. Wouldn't say anything is BETTER than pre-pregnancy though... perhaps my hair. Also yeah! the hair on my legs has all but stopped growing (and I'm very pale with very black hair so normally it's a pain). That's a bonus.

I'm 36 weeks and felt best in early third trimester. I showed late so I think I just looked a bit podgy in second trimester, didn't really have a proper bump till 25-26 weeks. Once I had the definite bump I looked much better.

This is my first baby though and most people seem to feel/look better with first babies!

I looked fabulous (if I say so meself).
Glowing skin and shiny, bouncy hair, a big but tidy bump and no back fat. However I felt like shit, smelled a bit like cooked chicken, was massively constipated and extremely farty.

Now, four months post partum I have a saggy tum, back fat (comfort eating), my hair is falling out and I have a lovely grey pallor from lack of iron and sleep.

I'm 17 weeks and am starting to feel vaguely human again although am still greasy and spotty. And I look fat rather than pregnant. Still, better than the previous weeks!