Preggy Meggy Symptoms

When you read your pregnancy books there are literally hundreds of symptoms you might exhibit throughout your 9 months, and you don't really know which ones will hit or miss. As I'm about to enter my 9th month, I thought I would compile a list of all that I have experienced:

Nausea
Starting at about 7 weeks, still going on now with vomiting about once a week. I still take my anti-nausea medication daily or every 2 days. I'm pretty used to it by now and can kind of tell when I'm going to have a bad morning and need to take it easy. It's not the most fun thing in the world, but it's a small price to pay to grow a person.

Stretch marks
Yep. Everyone immediately asks if I've been using the special lotions like that would magically stop them from happening. Trust me, it does not. I bought expensive special lotion online and though it moisturizes very well, I still got stretch marks. I'll survive - I hear they fade after birth and Jeremy has to love me anyway since they're from carrying his child.

Heartburn
I've really only had heartburn a couple times in my life before, and I wasn't exactly sure what I was feeling. If you've never had heartburn and you get it like I've had it while pregnant, you will know it is heartburn. There is literally no other way to describe it! It wakes me from sleep, it makes me nauseous, it's a pretty gross feeling. I had a prescription for Nexium earlier on, which helped some, but I have found over-the-counter Pepcid works like magic. Immediately once I start chewing a tablet, the heartburn goes away and stays away for about 24 hours. It's a miracle tablet!

Swelling
I thought I had really escaped this one for a while (maybe you don't think I have - but I did!). But I started to notice more and more my rings were getting tight. And sometimes my shoes felt tight. Sure enough, I now have sausage fingers and toes. Dare I say, even cankles sometimes? On a good day I can squeeze my wedding band on, but usually I have to go ringless or I get too worried my rings will get stuck on and we'll have to cut them off or something. On the weekends I can get away with wearing sandals, but for work I have 2 pairs of flats which luckily happen to be on the wider side so my feet fit comfortably. Today I'm wearing a different pair of flats and they are very snug!

Back Pain
I would imagine all pregnant women have back pain...you know, from that 5 pound baby you're carrying all in front! But at the beginning of my second trimester it was awful. I think I was sitting in my chair at work weird or something, but by the end of the day all I could do was lay down on a heating pad and take some Tylenol. Luckily that's gone away. I still have some back pain, but it's pretty much just pain all over right now.

Constipation
In the interest of full disclosure...yes.

Round Ligament Pain
This is a weird one and I didn't have it for a long time, but I'd read about it a lot. It's a muscle-type pain that starts in your groin and shoots up both sides of your belly. And one day I just felt it and knew that's what it was. I feel it most when I get up out of bed and or get up from my desk and walk around. Mostly it's a dull ache, but sometimes I get random shooting pains when I walk. It's all manageable - like I said, at this point I'm just all uncomfortable in general.

Runny Nose
Something about being pregnant also creates excess mucus in your nose, so you feel like you have a runny nose all the time. Not something I really experienced until I got a really bad cold, and though I'm over it now, I still feel like I always have a runny nose. And unfortunately it caused a side effect - snoring! Poor Jeremy. I can hear myself doing it sometimes and I really don't mean to, but it's like I just have junk stuck in my throat while I sleep and it makes me snore.

The "Mask of Pregnancy"
Also known officially as chloasma or melasma. It's one of those weird ones you read about but figured it wouldn't happen to you. No way I was going to look like a raccoon! Well when we went camping a few weeks ago, I went without makeup the whole weekend, and Jeremy kept pointing out a dirty spot on my cheek. It doesn't wash off, it's not dirt. It's not horrible and I think makeup covers it up mostly. It's just one of those funny things!

Bloody Nose
I can't tell you how many mornings I have been getting sick over the toilet with a bleeding nose at the same time. It's awesome.

Itchy Skin
I don't know if it's dry winter skin or itchy pregnancy skin, but I am itchy a lot. I have a great lotion that helps a lot - Vaseline Sheer Infusion Stratys-3 (it really lasts all day).

These are not complaints at all, just observations. Every single symptom is totally worth it!