Being pregnant is painted as this magical, wonderful time in a woman’s life. She is so blessed to be able to experience the beginning of a new life inside of her.
And I don’t disagree. It is magical, and wonderful and special. But by golly it is not a bed of roses!
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There were some things that really surprised me about being pregnant, and while each of my 4 pregnancies have all been different, these are some things that have remained pretty constant with each of them.
Some of them are not nice, some of them are gross and some of them are just plain odd.
I presume most of these surprising side effects of pregnancy are related to either hormones or the extreme tiredness that occurs.
Things that Surprised me most about Being Pregnant
1. Pain
When you are planning on getting pregnant, you expect (usually) that labor will be painful, what you don’t really hear about is all the aches and pains that surround pregnancy.
During early pregnancy, your body goes on high alert to protect you and your growing baby. A part of this is that your pain receptors go all crazy.
Brushing your hair or plucking your eyebrows can send you yelping, and Lord help you if you decide to get a full wax!
I was surprised by the lingering backache, I had it for about the first 16 weeks. This is the same backache I get the night before my period usually starts.
I also really struggled with Symphsis Pubis Disorder (SPD) which is a shearing pain the the pelvis that feels a lot like being stabbed by knives.
This is not to be confused with sciatica pain that can also happen in pregnancy, but they have opposite treatment plans!
So if you are experiencing pain, please get it assessed by a physiotherapist before you try and treat it.
RELATED: My review of hypnobabies in reducing pain
2. Everything smells BAD
The first real symptom that I had that I was pregnant with my eldest is that the wine I was trying to drink smelled strongly of cigarettes to me. It was SO GROSS.
I did pass it around the table, and they all swore it smelled like wine, so I did a pregnancy test the next morning.
With baby number two my favorite body wash suddenly smelled of fly spray.
You experience a heightened sense smell while you are pregnant to protect you from eating bad food. If you want to know if the sour cream in the fridge has gone off, ask a pregnant lady to smell it.
Unfortunately, you may find that things like the smell of meat or fish is terribly of-putting. Adding onions or garlic at the beginning of cooking can help reduce this gag causing stench.
3. Hot hot baby
Being pregnant raises your core body temperature by about 3-5 degrees F (1-1.5C). This is caused by an increase in progesterone production, and it causes your metabolism to speed up.
What you don’t expect is all the sweat that comes with it and the complete intolerance for hot weather.
Try and keep yourself cool and well hydrated. Extreme heat combined with a low blood pressure (also caused by pregnancy hormones) is a recipe waiting for you to faint.
4. Hair growth
Pregnancy spurs on the production of human growth hormone. This make sense when you are actually trying to grow a human, of course.
It does have other side effects. You often hear of the lustrous pregnancy locks of hair, but what they don’t tell you is that hair EVERYWHERE grows faster.
They don’t talk about lustrous chin locks, or lustrous pregnancy toe hair. But they happen too. If you have a hairy tendency, sorry to say it, but pregnancy will probably make it worse.
If you are one of the one in four women with PCOS, the increase in insulin resistance during pregnancy (designed to make you put on spare baby weight to protect you from a famine) will also add to the increase facial hair growth that you might see.
RELATED: How to create the perfect birth plan
5. Hair loss
This isn’t so much during pregnancy, so much as it is after. My best friend and I refer to it as the 4 month moult. All that hair that grew so well on your head for the last 9 months of pregnancy all decides it needs to fall out. At once.
This is normal, it is to be expected and it is horrifying. My hair (it is fine and thin to start with!) fell out in literal handfuls for about 2 weeks.
And then it stopped and all started re-growing, giving you the wonderful fuzzy bits that don’t fit in a ponytail for months.
6. Stronger nails
This is one of the added benefits of all that growth hormone and extra nutrients running around – your nails will grow faster and stronger.
7. Hunger
Pregnant ladies be hungry. So much hungry. For the first trimester I struggled to force food in, but once the nausea passed the constant need to be fed started.
This is partly related to the increased insulin resistance that encourages your body to eat more than it needs and store it as protective fat to feed you and your baby in case of famine.
It is also caused by the increase in basal metabolism meaning that you need more food to feed you and your baby then you did previously.
While you are pregnant you should be consuming an extra 300-500 calories per day to help keep you and baby well fed, as well as build up your fat stores.
Focus on healthy, high protein foods, fresh vegetables and try and avoid refined foods, vegetable oils and sugars.
RELATED: How to eat well during pregnancy to avoid complications
8. Anger and grumpiness
I am not naturally a grumpy person, but when pregnancy hits it is not unusual to find yourself with a shorter fuse than usual.
Generally, this is caused by feeling unwell or uncomfortable, having a lot on your mind and probably sleeping less well than usual.
Be aware of your moods and how they are affecting others. Keep humble when you can, and apologize if you go off the deep end at someone.
Try and spend some time doing what you need to do to replenish yourself – time alone, nap time, out for a walk, having coffee with a friend.
Try and simplify your life and reduce as many stressors as you possibly can. Try our 30 days of creating calm free challenge.
9. Random Tears
How many times do you find yourself watching an ad sobbing at something…? Usually I am not a tearful person, but show me a soppy ad or TV show while I am pregnant and I am in tears.
I have no idea why this is a thing. I presume it is related to the crazy hormones running around.
10. Insomnia
Why oh why can the over tire pregnant lady not sleep?!
Pregnancy insomnia is a thing unfortunately. Do your best to nap during the day when you can.
If you find yourself laying awake at night, try and lie their calmly and let your mind wander to pleasant things. If you cannot get to sleep some of the tracks from hypnobabies can help calm your mind and let you drift off to sleep.
If it is discomfort or heartburn keeping you awake, you might benefit from sleeping up in a lazy-boy chair or propped up in bed with a lot of pillows.
