Pregnancy and birth can be wonderful joyous occasion, but there are things that people just don’t tell you before you grow that bump. Here are 10 things that no one tells you about pregnancy and being a new mom.
Morning Sickness isn’t specific to morning
It doesn’t matter if it’s 8 am or 8 pm, morning sickness can take over any time of the day. It’s also not exclusive to the first trimester, you could have “morning” sickness at any point in your pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Wendy, I experienced some morning sickness but it didn’t end in my first trimester, I actually felt like it got worse during the first two weeks of my second trimester. If this happens to you, don’t panic. When I was dealing with the morning sickness, there were a few things that I purchased to help me survive the porcelain toilet worship. I’ll spare you the long details here, go check out my posts on my first-trimester and second-trimester must haves
Related: First Trimester Must-Haves
Related: Second Trimester Must-Haves
Your gums might bleed a lot more
Pregnancy gingivitis is a real thing and a pain in the behind. No one likes when anything bleeds, it just another annoyance to deal with while you’re expecting but don’t worry, it’s completely normal.
You will be tired, no I mean shut your eyes at 6 pm and wake up at 6 am tired.
I can’t tell you how many times I got home from work and lay down for a bit and woke up in the morning. Some days I had all the energy in the world, other days it was a struggle to stay up. There will be days that you will probably go to bed when the sun is still shining, just think of it as re-living your younger days when you’d go to bed during daylight even if it was 7 pm…
You may not have any weird cravings
We all hear about those weird cravings. Hollywood movies are great at overexaggerating these moments, maybe you’ve even heard your girlfriend talk about them, but don’t expect them. Not every woman gets weird cravings. The only craving I ever really had was for olives, and it was only when I was actually hungry and never at 3 am. I never sent Chris off to the store in the wee hours of the morning, which he was kinda looking forward to, as weird as that sounds. If you have no weird cravings, it’s totally normal and nothing to worry about. Just keep on eating whatever you are eating.
Everyone and their mother will have advice
Whether it’s about breastfeeding vs formula feeding, cloth diapers or disposable ones, sleep training vs not, co-sleeping or nursery sleeping, EVERYONE will give you their opinion about whatever subject, even when you don’t ask for it. Some will even give you unwanted opinions on your baby’s name. Most people will give you their genuine advice because they honestly want to be helpful, others because they believe it’s their right or they know better. However you want to deal with that is up to you and your personality. I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, I would listen, thank them for their advice but at the end of the day Chris and I had the final say, and really that’s all that matters. However you and your partner choose to raise your little one or how you deal with your pregnancy and life is up to you and no one else.
Labour can take a while but it’s really not all bad
Labour with Wendy took a whole week, mind you, it wasn’t active labour so it wasn’t that bad. My water had to be manually broken and once the doctor did that, that’s when things really started to pick up. To be honest, once my contractions started to really pick up, I opted for the pain relief, mostly because Wendy was head down and facing the wrong way, so there was a lot of back pain and the stress of that was probably preventing my body from dilating properly. So right after getting the epidural, the pain drastically reduced, I actually slept for 6 hours and when I woke up, I was completely dilated and ready to start pushing. The pushing part was actually the hardest for me because of Wendy’s positioning. I pushed for 3 hours until two doctors agreed that Wendy was stuck and gave me the option of an episiotomy, using clamps, or vacuum to get Wendy out or a C-section, I opted for the episiotomy and she was born almost immediately after. Oh, the things we do for our kids. Anyways, long story short labour can take a while, but most of it isn’t what you see on tv or movies.
Leave your dignity at the door
From internal ultrasounds to cervix checks, to having 3-6 people checking your progress during labour, that really doesn’t leave much room for your dignity, so just leave it at the door and move on.
The recovery can hurt a lot more than labour especially if you had an episiotomy
If you didn’t tear, have an episiotomy, a c-section, you might be able to feel back to “normal” within a few days, maybe. If not, the recovery can really be painful. I found recovery to be much more painful than labour and the actual birth. Everything down there was sore, there were nights when it took me a good 5-10 minutes just to get up out of bed and breastfeed Wendy who was literally in our Halo Bassinet beside me. When it came to my recovery, I cannot say enough good things about Earth Mama Herbal Perineal Spray . I had received a bottle at my baby shower, and I initially thought ‘what the heck?’ but I get it now. This helped me so so much! It’s all natural and it has a cooling effect once you spray it that feels amazing, considering everything is sore, bruised, or healing from just giving birth to someone the size of a watermelon…Something else that I found useful for recovery was the cleansing bottle that I would fill with warm water and rinse away because toilet paper will feel like burning sandpaper those first few days, yes, even the triple ply stuff that bear uses on tv. I received mine from the hospital, but I’m not sure if every hospital gives one to you, just ask ahead of time when you go on your hospital tour.
Your hormones are going to be out of whack for the first few weeks after giving birth
All the crying. All the 3 am feels. All the questioning and wondering if you made the right choice. Trust me, it’s normal. You just gave birth to a little person who is having just as much of a difficult time adjusting to this new environment as you are. Your hormones are going to be trying to get back to normal in those first few weeks. Then there is the lack of sleep, maybe you’re breastfeeding your little one all day every day, or little one is having latch issues, you’re worried about your supply if he or she is eating enough, peeing enough, pooping enough. It is overwhelming, so listen carefully, IT IS NORMAL. YOU ARE DOING AMAZING. YOU ARE AN AMAZING MOM. Just about every single mom I’ve spoken to gets the case of the Baby Blues, every single one of them. There were nights where I cried more than Wendy. Nights where I thought about packing my bags and leaving. If you’re a How I Met Your Mother Fan, there was a scene where Lily talks about sometimes not wanting to be a mom. I’ve linked it below because it’s accurate sometimes, and it’s normal to feel that. I love my daughter, I love my family, but during those first few weeks, adjusting was hard, no matter how prepared I felt beforehand.
Hemorrhoids are the worst thing ever!
I don’t even think I need to explain this. Do yourself a favour and invest in some Tucks Medicated Cooling Pads, maybe even consider buying stock in them because you’ll need them and if you have the “privilege” of experiencing hemorrhoids after birth, realize they may come back at any time, so yeah, screw you hemorrhoids!
Related: Can We Talk About The Baby Blues
What were some things that surprised you about your pregnancy?
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