Anyone expecting? I want to hear pregnancy stories, symptoms, etc!!!

[vetgirl00us]

Just want to hear anyone's stories. About getting pregnant, being pregnant, struggling with infertility, miscarriages, etc. If it involves babies, tell me!!!

Then later I will tell you why

 

[Katy]

Here you go....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=244625

 

[vetgirl00us]

Oops! Guess I should have done a search! Oh well, if anyone wants to post on here,,,it can be a new thread if that's okay.

 

[AKsmama]

OK, I don't know whether to post on this thread or not. . . but I will anyway! My eldest is 7 and my youngest is 5. Before we started trying the first time, I read Toni Weschler's Taking Charge Of your Fertility and bought a basal thermometer and charted. I got pregnant in 2 months. Lucky, I know. I knew enough about my cycle and charting to test at 12 days past ovulation and it was positive. Had her vaginally, but she broke my tailbone on the way out and I had a third degree episiotomy with torn extension. Couple that with awful "baby blues," normal new mom exhaustion, breastfeeding around the clock, learning how to take care of a baby. . . well, I remained convinced for a while that I would never want another baby. Didn't hold true and I was 5 weeks pregnant with my second child on my eldest's 2nd birthday. When my docs (different obs this time) learned I had the sort of delivery I did with a 6 lb baby the first time, they scheduled me for a c-section. It went very smoothly and my recovery was much less stressful that time. Maybe it had to do with my knowing how to take care of and breastfeed a baby- I am sure that helped. But even though I had had major abdominal surgery, I was glad I didn't have another vaginally. I am no pain wimp, but a stitched up girly part along with a broken bone down there is absolutely awful. So for me, my c-section was great. I did have full-blown post-partum depression with my second, though. Not the kind where I wanted to hurt my kids, but I wanted to run away. I thought I was a terrible mother and that everyone would be better off without me. It was an awful time, made worse by the fact that my husband had to work in Turkey for a month, three weeks after our second was born. He came home to a blubbering, tortured mess of a wife. I got on meds and it got better, but it was rough for a while. Thank goodness for my parents, they really helped me out while he was gone.

Oh yeah, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about a year before I got pregnant the first time, so I went through both pregnancies on insulin injections and checking blood sugars multiple times a day. I took good care of myself and had good doctors, so even though I was considered high risk, everything went fine as far as that goes. I tend to be like

when normally non-diabetic women act like it's the end of the world when they develop gestational diabetes. Oh, you have to watch your diet and prick your fingers, and maybe even possibly give yourself an injection, boo-hoo!! Stop being a freak, learn what you have to do, and do it. I live with it every day and don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me, so grow up. Injecting yourself is not a big deal.

As far as symptoms- with my first, I had fatigue in the beginning (like I would fall asleep on the couch after work, sitting up & mouth hanging open, with my supper plate in my lap), sore breasts, more peeing, cramping (supposedly it's the uterus stretching), and a touch of nausea. As long as I kept something in my stomach it wasn't bad and was pretty much gone by 10 weeks. I did have terrible smell aversions. My husband would fry bacon and that would send me running for the bathroom. Ugh. I had some cravings in the very beginning (Taco Bell was one until I was about 6 weeks, weird) and during the entire pregnancy, when I said I was hungry, you'd better well provide me with food RIGHT NOW! With my second it was pretty much the same except no sore breasts (they'd been through this before, so they didn't freak out this time) and I got food aversions as well. Pork was my big one the 2nd time. I still don't eat much pork to this day.

I guess that's a very brief overview of mine. You'll find most women are only too happy to share this kind of info

I know I sound like one of those women who only tell you the "horror stories," and that's not how I mean it at all. Pregnancy is a wondrous time, whether you hate it or love it. I personally adored being pregnant, especially once I started showing. Feeling the movement inside you is indescribable (particularly when they step right on your bladder or kick you in the ribs!) and seeing the movement on your belly, when the baby gets big and strong enough, is the coolest thing in the world. Nothing can prepare you for childbirth- no amount of anecdotes or reading- and nobody can tell you what it feels like to be a parent (whether you have biological children or adopt, doesn't matter). It is an experience that is unique to each person and you can't prepare. It is the most rewarding, funniest, scariest, frustrating job you can have!

 

[vetgirl00us]

Wow! thanks for the story!!! Are you a really tiny person? I have never heard of the broken tail bone thing- on top of a "normal" labor pain getting a broke bone AND a heck of an episiotomy!!!! It's true, children are miracles and I never realized that until I decided I wanted kids and began trying in 2006. No baby yet..... You just kinda think that fertility, when you want it, is part of being a woman. I wasted all that money on birth control all those years lol. I have the same book you mentioned plus a whole library of infertility books, etc. I had one miscarriage in 2007 but they thought it was an ectopic anyway. Booo. You have really been thru a lot to have your kids and I'm glad you hung in there because I'm sure you realize they are miracles too!

 

[michickenwrangler]

Believeitornot, I knew I was pregnant about a week and a half in, even before I was due, let alone "late." I had noticed that my heartrate was elevated and I was getting winded easier, more rapid breathing.

DH also told me he was infertile. Well, a week's vacation in Florida fixed THAT. Come to find out later that when he was with his exwife, they did the fertility test/clinic thing. He said she stopped by to get the results, came home and said, "It's you." A few days later she left him and filed for divorce. Personally, I think she may have lied to him.

I used to have cravings for cherries really bad for some odd reason. Also, anything with tomatoes in it would churn my stomach even though I ordinarily love salsa and tomato sauce and all that.

When I finally did go into labor, 2 weeks early, the contractions were very "insistent" feeling as opposed to the earlier ones women get in late pregnancy. I had "back labor" really bad as my daughter was born with her face up rather than with it tucked down, so her head was literally grating on my spine.

My younger brother played football for a Big 10 university and I was due Oct. 5th. My parents decided the Indiana game would be their last until I went into labor. So they got up at 3 am to drive down to Bloomington to see my bro play. They had just gotten to the stadium when DH called them via cell phone to let them know I was in labor. They requested to speak to me. So, I spent a good portion of my labor with DH holding the phone to my ear while my parents hollered into it, "WHaddaya mean you're in labor! You aren't supposed to give birth for 2 weeks! Are you SURE you're in labor? We're in Indiana! We're gonna miss the birth!" Well, bro's team was down by 14 points at half-time. And rumor has it that somehow word got into the locker room that Gordon's sister was having her baby. His team came back and won that day.

Now, DD was born at 7pm and weighed 7 lbs. Exactly 7 days later at 7pm, DH shot a 7-point buck in his slippers and shorts. The buck was down at the end of the pond and he went outside for a cigarette. DH came back in, grabbed his Magyar recurve bow and strung it up and stalked the deer with the cigarette still hanging out of his mouth. He got the deer in the lung and it staggered into the woods before before dying. Well, I had no idea this was going on and after nursing my daughter I realized hubby was missing. I shouted out the windows and checked the garage. I finally called the neighbor to see if he could track down DH for me. "Looking for Wayne? He's right here. He's up to his arms in blood right now. Can he call you back?" At least I had found him ... and dinner for the next week

 

[vetgirl00us]

LOL! That's a good one!!!! Have you played any number 7's on the lotto?

 

[Blue Skys]

edited

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

I think you have have an exposure to catch that whole "pregnancy" thing, so I'm in the clear.

 

[PineappleMama]

Getting preggers wasn't too hard for us (fertile families what can I say)...

Did have a miscarriage before DS was born, consider it a good thing though it hurt physically and emotionally at the time. The one I lost AFTER DS though... that one, who I dubbed Orin, still haunts me. I picture a blue eyed boy with dark curly hair... it's something no mom (not necessarily no woman) can every completely forget.

Even though I knew we didn't 'need' aka could afford more kids after DD was born it was still very hard on me to deal with the sterilization that I had done. Didn't think I'd feel that way, quite sure I wouldn't actually, but it was and has continued to be a weird thing. I catch myself even now, if I'm a couple days late, starting to hope... isn't that odd... especially when I know I'm fixed and that our finances can't support another? Animal instinct over-riding human logic yet again I suppose.

Being preggers... poor DH... with our son we had Taco Bell for lunch and Pancho's (mexican BUFFET) for dinner... he couldn't even LOOK at a burrito for a couple years. No surprise our son's fav food is Mexican, particularly bean burritos. Though, that was always a fav of mine too. I had some pretty icky morning sickness with DS... though actually tossing only happened once or twice, the constant nausea was very tough. Did have one charlie horse while pregnant... boy did that HURT. But all that's pretty routine, and passed with time. They induced me two days after his due date... 8 hours and I went from a "1" to a "2" and his oxygen levels started dropping (no surprise since they popped my water at the very beginning rather than waiting for nature to take its course) so he ended up being an emergency C-section. We had decided (even drew up ballots for friends and family) on Michael Christopher... but then while I was strapped to the table, drugged out of my gourd DH says "What about Michael Alexander"? and thus Alex was born. Note to Dad's... unless you've a strong stomach do NOT peek around the curtain... DH turned pale as a ghost and said "I didn't know people were so PINK inside"...

Now with DD... diagnosed with previa... HUGE drama with my mama... no cravings. I did send DH to the store for black olives once, but that was just because I always like them on my salads. Not as much morning sickness as DS, but DD decided to plant her head on my sciatic nerve for the last month. OMFG you want to talk PAIN... and NOTHING you can do. Man I was miserable! Planned C-section, all according to plan. Though VERY weird swelling from hip to toe when I was allowed to stand. Docs blew it off as nothing, but I had to borrow my FIL's sweats and they were skin tight... only slippers would fit on my fat feet. That lasted a good few days after leaving the hospital... very very weird, but other than really weird stretch marks there was no bad effects. Her name was easy to choose... she's named after both her uncles (also an Irish fable) and then Gabriella... DS is Michael... flaming sword... defender/protector... and Gabriel is the Trumpeter... or tattle tale... boy did we call that one. Kinda like naming a bull Tornado.

OHH one more weirdness... with DS... when they cauterized the surgery room smelled like BBQ... being preggers (and starved since I wasn't allowed to eat after midnight) my stomach growled... and then heaved when the brain caught on to WHAT the smell was. But with DD, when they pulled her out the room was flooded with the smell of cookies... or something... vanilla and cinnamon... it was pretty darn weird.

So, that prolly WAY more info than you ever meant to get... but that's our story.