What to Expect When You’re Pregnant: The Things They Don’t Tell You

You’re expecting. Congratulations!

Looking forward to your baby glow, picking things out for the nursery, buying baby clothes, putting together your registry, and the lovely bigger boobs everyone talks about. Those are all great things about pregnancy everyone tells you about.

But, what about all the other stuff – the yucky stuff? Let me shed some light on the dark side of pregnancy for you.

Here’s a list of the things they didn’t tell you to expect during pregnancy.

You will feel fat.
You’ll feel fat while your husband tells you you’re beautiful (because you are really beautiful as all pregnant women are). Just be prepared to get that “I’m fat” phase and remember to look in the mirror every day and remind yourself you’re beautiful because you’re having a baby.

Morning sickness isn’t just in the morning.
It can be morning, afternoon or night. Before, during or after a meal. Good luck keeping a meal down. Carry a plastic bag with you especially in the car for just in case. I bought a roll of those little baggies used to pick up doggie poop. Compact and fits in any purse/bag. Hopefully you won’t be as bad as me. I had it all 41 weeks with my first pregnancy. Your doctor might prescribe you a daily dissolveable pill if you’re not holding any food down or not gaining proper weight.

Heartburn.
As if morning sickness wasn’t enough, you’re going to feel terrible with heartburn. Could have it even not after meals. Hopefully, Tums or Maalox will do the trick for you. If not, be ready to ask your doctor for something stronger, but safe for baby.

Strangers will touch you.
I don’t know what it is about the pregnancy belly that makes everyone think it’s public property. Once your belly starts showing everyone want to touch it, especially strangers. They don’t care about your comfort circle or that they’re standing in front of you in the grocery check out line. People get tunnel vision and focus on that belly bump.

You might cry for no reason at any given time.
During pregnancy, you are an emotional mess. Because of this, you’ll cry at a lot of things for no apparent reason. You might be watching tv with hubs then you’ll cry because something happened on tv. Avoid watching movies like “marley and me”.

Constipation.
If you get constipation really bad, it could feel like the process of labor without meds. You feel like you need to go, but can’t. No matter what you do or how long you sit on the toilet it just doesn’t happen. It’s a terrible feeling. And if you’re unlikely like me if you push too hard you could break your tailbone! No really… you can read my story about that here. Make sure you’re sitting down because you’ll be laughing. If you’ve never experienced constipation, then prepare for it by asking your doctor if you can take a stool softener life colace.

Sorry to scare you, but I had to make sure you knew about these things so you can prepare for them. No one told me these things and I tell you I really didn’t get to enjoy pregnancy at all. Hopefully, you’ll be luckier than me. May be you’ll be like two of my friends who had perfect pregnancies and never saw the dark side. If so, I’ll be happy for you. In the meantime, I’m at least excited for you and once again congrats on your upcoming baby because despite the “ugly” side of pregnancy having a child is most definitely a miracle of life.