A Post for the Strong Hearted Ladies

Before I start this post, I just want to say THANK YOU to all of my readers for your kind words over the past couple weeks.  I'm so excited to be sharing this journey with you and it's so nice to hear the excitement from you! 

Onto today's post...

WARNING:  This post is going to contain some very real, not so pleasant symptoms that women may face during pregnancy.  I am in no way a doctor, but these symptoms have just been ones that I've experienced and discussed with my doctor.  If you are not into gross details, this is not a post you'll want to read - so feel free to click the little "x" box in the corner and come back tomorrow for a less gross topic :)










Okay, if you are still reading, I am not going into these details because it's fun, but I think I was unprepared for some of these things and I would've liked someone to tell me ahead of time so I knew not to be freaked out when I experienced some of them.

I'll start with one of the ones I consider the most gross.  I went to the bathroom one day and realized that something was going on down there, in my lady parts.  I quickly ran to my bedside to grab my pregnancy book to look up the symptom.  Sure enough, it was listed as a common symptom and that the majority of women have it at some point for their pregnancy.  I'm talking about discharge ladies, and it's not pretty.  In fact, Jenny McCarthy goes into great detail about her experience (that I'll spare you), but it certainly gave me some relief to know I was not alone.  And to know the purpose helps me understand better why it's happening: to protect everything from infection to keep the baby safe. 

Increased bloodflow throughout your body.  Your body is doing a lot of work and because of it, your blood supply increases.  As a result, this means I am especially sensitive to feeling my pulse.  If I lay down on the couch on my left side, I can count my pulse without doing anything.  It's a bit annoying when I'm trying to go to sleep and will typically have to rearrange until I find a position where I'm not feeling it as much.  I can also put my hands on my belly sometimes and feel it strong there - and can even see my belly moving with my pulse. So weird.

Extra saliva in your mouth.  I think this only lasts until your body gets used to the hormones - normally around the 2nd trimester this one gets back to normal.  But it leads to me slurring my words together occasionally, and if I'm talking really quickly and haven't swallowed recently, I will likely need to suck it all in to prevent myself from drooling.  And for awhile there, I was slurring my words a lot - and Ian found it funny, would repeat the way I'd said it, and then laugh hysterically.  For some reason, this was one of the things that would ignite those pregnancy hormones and I would bark at him like he had said something truly horrible.  He now knows to be a little more sensitive to this issue - but occasionally can't fight the urge to laugh. 

Super duper dry skin.  Especially on my scalp.  And even on my nipples!  EEK!  It's gross, so I'm just trying to use lotion often, and have been moisturizing my scalp with olive oil before I take a shower - it's the only thing that seems to be helping.

Nose/sinus congestion.  I feel like I'm constantly stuffed up.  It just make sure I blow my nose every night before I go to bed so I can breathe easily at night.

Nose bleeds.  Weird since I have so much congestion!  It must be from all that dryness going on.  A little vaseline or neosporin inside the nose can help this.

Gas.  Coming from all ends.  I'm normally more of a burp girl - but I've turned into a burping AND farting girl.  And sometimes, the farts are uncontrollable - I'll have very little warning and then wham, there's nothing I can do about it.  Ian normally laughs hysterically.  Unless it's a SBV one (silent but violent) - which is more often than I'd ever like to admit.  In fact, I was out in public recently and accidentally let one slip - out loud.  I just made some noise with the cardboard box I was holding at the time and pretended like it wasn't me.  Thank God it was not a SBV one.

I think that wraps it up for now.  Although I may readdress this topic when I'm further along if I find that there are more things that pop up I didn't know about.  If you've made it this far without gagging, or thought to yourself I'm never getting pregnant, I hope you'll be back tomorrow and continue reading about our journey.  I promise it's not all bad!