What were your pregnancies like?

Horrible? Wonderful? What creepy things happened to your body? What things happened that were quite nice? What surprised you most? C'mon now.. share your stories with me! I want to know!

(I think!)

Are you sure you want the horror stories? Well it's part of being pregnant anyway...people will tell you their horror stories whether you ask or not...lol.

I have 2 boys and those 2 pregnancies were as different as night and day. Come to think of it my sons are as different as night as day as well.

Let's see....the first pregnancy was a nightmare as far as morning sickness was concerned. There was no "morning" to it...it was morning, noon, night..didn't matter. I never stopped barfing. I was even throwing up while I was in labor. :-/ And the really crappy thing is I gained a ton of weight. Threw up everything I ate yet gained weight...explain that one.

Then to top off the 9 months of misery I had a 27 1/2 hour labor. Good news is it was all worth it. I have a really wonderful son who I wouldn't trade for the world.

My second pregnancy was much different. I didn't have morning sickness much at all. Just a few times in the first 3 months and then it was over.

I lost weight throughout that entire pregnancy...I ended up weighing less the day after he was born than I did when I got pregnant. I just didn't feel like eating when I was pregnant. In fact all I wanted to do during that pregnancy was sleep.

My first son was like an acrobat in there...flipping and rolling all around. My second son was so inactive I had to poke him every now and then to make him move so I knew he was ok..lol.

I had to be induced because he was almost 3 weeks overdue. But the good thing about it was he was born after only 4 1/2 hours of labor. That was a walk in the park compared to the first one.

It really is the coolest feeling to feel them moving around. After I gave birth I missed the feeling of having them in there kicking around.

Anyway those are my pregnancy stories. There was some bad stuff but in the end it was all worth it just like yours will be.

Food tastes SO fab when you're pregnant, or at least it did for me both times. Never really had morning sickness, but with my second pregnancy I napped every minute I could. I walked a lot and ate very healthy both times, didn't gain over 25 lbs each time.. but got a huge varicose vein in an awkward spot with the second so was rather miserable towards the end of third trimester.  

I carried around a "feed bag" and ice water with me at all times - I never knew when my blood sugar would plunge and I'd get dizzy. I never developed gestational diabetes though thankfully.

Labor was fast but rather painful back labor - 4 hrs with first one, less than 2 with second. I thought I was going to have the second one in the hallway while they prepped the room.  

For me the afterbirth pains with the second child were worse than the labor itself... After the first child, they weren't bad... so wasn't expecting them to be stronger after second. Now I hear they are stronger after each successive childbirth.

Not trying to scare you with the above, wasn't bad all told... nursed both so lost weight easily...there is absolutely no feeling on earth as nice as feeling them move inside you. Well, maybe holding them after they're born, so tiny and cuddly... can't say no yet

I used to watch a show on tv every wk when I was pregnant with my first. After she was born, the first time I had a chance to watch that show again, she noticeably reacted to the music. Maybe it's just me thinking my child was brill, but I think she recognized it from hearing it for months in utero.

Kid no 1. had true morning sickness.  Got up, felt ok.  Eat.  Throw up once or twice.  By noon I felt not just ok but great!  Fairly uneventful pregnancy.  Didn't start gaining weight or showing until I was nearly in my last trimester.  Woke up one night feeling like I needed to take a massive shite. lol  After not being able to go a couple times, finally turned on the bathroom light and the toilet was full of blood.  Waited for my sister to get up (I was a single mom) and told her that this was it.  she freaked.  Went to the hospital.  After 22 hours of labor...out shot my daughter who will be 16 on the 30th this month.

Kid no. 2.  I had all day sickness for 3 months.   I craved milk a lot.  I ate tons of ice cream.  I gained tons of weight.  Gave birth in a German hospital as I was living in Berlin.  12 hours of labor and out shot my biggest baby who was over 8 lbs.  She was a fat little baby.  She's 9 now and skinny as a stick.  Go figure.

Kid no. 3: all day sickness again.  I found out I was pregnant on New Year's Day 1996.  I always tell the story that I knew I was pregnant when a few weeks after finding out I was watching Price Is Right and some lady won a car.  In usual fashion she was freaking out and jumping all over the place.  I wanted to laugh, cry and puke all at the same time.  lol

Pretty uneventful pregnancy.  She was actually my best pregnancy I thought.  I had chronic heartburn through my pregnancy with her.  She was nearly 2 weeks overdue and I was actually scheduled to be induced but fortunately she came on her own.  Another 12 hour labor, no drugs, no nothing, and out she came screaming her head off and would only shut up if I put a tit in her mouth.  She ended up being 100% breastfed and I think avoided some health problems because of it.  Kid no. 1 was bottle fed.  Kid no. 2 was breast and bottle fed.  

Anyway...had 2 miscarriages in my life.  One between no. 2 and no. 3 and the second one after no. 3.  Both times had very few symptoms and I miscarried early 8 weeks and 6 weeks respectively.  

These are nutshell versions.  Want more details, PM me.

Ok, never had a kid, but I have my own birth to tell you about (I WAS there, after all.)

I was 4 weeks late (as was my brother, go figure...)

I know kids suck their finger, but even in the womb I was sucking mine... the ring finger on my right hand (yep, the ring finger... I know... kinda odd.)  Regardless... it's time for my grand entrence, but I'm still sucking on my finger.  Mom is pushing and pushing, but the poor girl can't "stretch" far enough to accomodate both my hand and my head.  My little hand ends up poking a hole through her vagina (not the opening, the actually passage) and into her recutum (again, not the hole..)  They had to cut her from one hole to the other to pull me out.  

I can't believe she had another after me.  I also can't believe she doesn't hate me.  I'd hate me.

OK, let me say here that my experience was fairly unusual, because I....gasp...hated being pregnant.
Oh, it was fun for the first 4 months or so.  I got visibly pregnant pretty fast (I dare any 5 foot 2 woman who is shortwaisted not to start her outward expansion pretty quickly) and at first it was fun.  I had this cute little bump, I had a baby inside me, whee!
And those first little movements were so fun!  Little flutters that only I could feel, like my baby was talking only to me!  Yay!
Then we hit about 26 weeks, and those little flutters became something akin to having a pro football player inside me.  I would lie in bed and watch my belly literally bounce and shift from side to side.  It became fairly painful.
Then there was the smell.  I had a, uh, unusual odor for a few weeks in the, uh, nether regions.
And the gas.  Remember Miranda's pregnancy on SATC??  It was worse.  I finally stopped even trying to blame it on the dog, and wearily admitted to my dh that it was me.  And I would belch like a sailor, all the time.  I mean, very loud, very Booger-in-Revenge-of-the-Nerds, unladylike in the extreme.
And the heartburn, it was terrible, terrible, terrible.  The only thing that stopped it (other than Tums..I liked the "assorted berry" flavor, and had a huge bottle in my purse at all times) was meat.  I ate lots of meat.
I was hot all the time, and being hugely pregnant during a Florida summer did not help.
I gained 60 lbs and felt like a barge.
I had noooo sex drive.  There are so many bouncy little pregnant ladies that say that during their 2nd trimester, they were all sexy and enjoyed it more than ever.  Not so with me, at all.  
They say girls steal your looks and in my case it was true.  I refused to leave the house without full hair and make-up, because facially I had begun to resemble Robbie Coltrane.  (I actually find him very sexy, but I don't wanna look like him!)
I hated losing control of my body most of all, I hated not being able to do things I enjoyed (frankly, I wanted a beer and a cigarette, and was pretty mad I couldn't have them!)  I used to beg my hubby to drink in front of me so I could watch and live vicariously through him...he refused.  The jerk.
When I was 8 months, my bf gave me two sips of a wine cooler.  I almost collapsed in bliss.
I hated my ugly maternity clothes.  I hated wearing the same tennis shoes all the time.  I hated not being able to wear heels.
My skin was horrible.  I didn't glow, I shone.  I broke out.  I developed a touch of melasma (that darkened skin) right over my upper lip, so it looked like I had a moustache.
I couldn't do my toenails, it was very hard to, uh, reach, when I went to the bathroom, and I had to have my hubby do my basic grooming when it was time to get an internal at 36 weeks, because I couldn't see.
And the funny thing is, now I'm desperate to do it again, we can't wait!!!!  So I guess you do forget it all, and then too, it's hard with the first one to really realize it's only 10 months, it's not that long a time.  It felt like forever to me.

What a great topic, especially because my dd is the big 2 years old today!!!!!!!!!!  And she was worth every minute of it.
I'm hoping you have a much better experience than me, but nobody ever told me that they had hated being pregnant, so I felt very alone and like something was wrong with me...I guess that's why I put so much detail.  If there's anything you hate about being pregnant, believe me, I hated it first, and you're not alone!

I've actually had wuite a few women tell me they hated being pregnant, just as many as have told me they loved it - so I love hearing people's experiences good and bad, and hope mine is just a happy personal mix of them both. My SIL had the pregnancy from hell, and he little one is only 6 months old and she's already pregnant again and rarin to go, so I guess haveing the child around id a good amnesia trick. But thank you everyone for your honesty... I want more!

I've only met two women in my life who liked being pregnant. The rest have felt it was the price one pays for bouncing baby sprog.  Funnily enough, both those women are very, very thin and work hard on it so I wonder if it was because pregnancy is a license to eat what you like without guilt.

I put on 60 lbs with both my pregnancies. I have yet to see a woman bigger than me unless she had twins.  Thankfully, I have worked very hard to shed it all and more.  The stretchmark legacy is another matter....

On my last pregnancy, I went into labour VERY quickly, as you do.  By the time my other half had dropped our son off at the relatives, I was raring to go.  I heaved myself out to the car, thinking other half would be right behind with bag. I waited and strained and contracted and waited. He finally comes out with a rucksack.  I asked what the hell was taking him so long and he replied that he'd had to make himself a lunch :-/ This was at 7.30 at night after we'd just eaten dinner (or rather I cooked him one in the throes of labour!)  Words fail at how selfish I thought this was at that particular moment. Considering I was deep in labour and would be popping within minutes of getting to the hospital.

Sure enough, I thought i'd give birth in the car but got to the hospital and delivered 40 minutes later.  Sadly without any pain medication as I was fully dilated.  And other half celebrated birth by eating a banana and dropping the peel in the after birth. I thought the midwife was going to punch him for that.

The moral of the story is, don't expect perfect behaviour from the menfolk! And no, i've never forgiven him and still bring it up at opportune moments!

I've only met two women in my life who liked being pregnant. The rest have felt it was the price one pays for bouncing baby sprog.  Funnily enough, both those women are very, very thin and work hard on it so I wonder if it was because pregnancy is a license to eat what you like without guilt.

Make that 3.  I didn't mind being pregnant at all.  It was the delivery I didn't want to go through! lol  

I wouldn't say I LOVED being pregnant, but I did like it's various aspects and enjoyed them all...once I finished with the pukey phase of course.

I am not pregnant but one day I would love children.

But honestly, you people are scaring the CRAP out of me  

I am most afraid of delivering- that it will hurt like hell.

Nothing bad in the health dept. has ever happened to me (knock, knock.) Ive never had x-rays, stiches, broken any bones, been to a hospital... hell, i don't even have any cavities in my teeth. So being pregnant and having to visit a doctor often, get blood taken, being poked and prodded and then finally pushing a watermelon out of a lemon scares me to no end.

God bless you all, I give you credit!  

My birthing class recommended soaking in a tub of water as warm as you could stand it to help keep you relaxed during labor. I felt like a whale wallowing in a bath tub, but omg am I glad I did it. Didn't even get a chance to try this with the second as I had her less than 2 hrs after my water broke and labor started.

It's not the easist thing in the world, but I did mine with no drugs at all. I think what helped me was they were fast labors, and I had practiced my breathing exercises... hot water and knowing it can't last forever.

Not too bad thank you  
I had cravings for chips with loads of vinegar for my first and then for my second it was chocolate digestives. When I went for my prenatal checks at the local hospital it was like a cattle market. It was a very, and I mean very old hospital and you sat in the non air conditioned corridors waiting for your turn. The consultant for the day breezed in, chatted to the midwife, gave you a quick look and that was that.

The hospital, like magic, is now a Safeway so I always joke and said that I got my kids at the deli section.

I was induced for my first. I remember it was at 10:00am on a Monday. They started me, reassured me that it would be just a few hours. Okay, even then she showed her stubborness, she didn't appear until 1:20am on Tuesday morning, her actual due day.

My second, well my parents were visiting from New Jersey, I was cooking spaghetti for supper. M.A.S.H was on that night and the inconsiderate boy decided that he wanted to be born that night. And was at 11:00pm.

For the first I was the original milk cow. I had so much milk that I donated to the hospital. She was breastfed for 9 months, the second 18 months.

Would I do it again? No, thank you.

Wow, this brings back some memories. Some stories also made my tummy go funny. E-gad. I've had six normal pregnancies. Yep. Each one was bigger than the previous, except the 4th, she was tiny. I've counted my blessings, I had it so easy, I enjoyed being pregnant, no problems, no morning sickness, just a bit of heartburn, except the last month of each, when you can't breath or sleep properly and you're dying for it be overwith.

My labors were all short, 1.5-4 hours, and only had drugs for the first one because I was afraid it was going to get worse. I treasure the fond memories of bizarre hallucinations, lol. The worst part of delivery for me was the contractions themselves, they don't get worse, but stronger and closer together, one bad memory of being fully ready to deliver and being told not to push because we had to wait for the doctor to arrive. That was hell. I don't think one would get that here, because there's always someone qualified to attend the delivery.

I'd only do it again if I were guaranteed a full-time nanny in writing, because I am pretty much drained in the motherhood department. I'd be bordering on suicidal if I got pregnant again at this point. :-/ I was not pleased when I got pregnant with the last one, just 6 months after the previous one. I was worried my good luck would run out, that this would be the one that killed me during the birth, I was petrified when I went into labor, absolutely shaking for fear of dying. And on my birthday to boot! Maybe that was my birthday present, normal non-eventful delivery. Not the best way to spend a day, lol. At least here you can be released in 12 hours and not have to stay in those crappy wards. I always tried to do too much too soon, so remember to take it easy after, you'll start bleeding heavy again if you do too much.

For the most part, it was all good.

I was worried my good luck would run out, that this would be the one that killed me during the birth, I was petrified when I went into labor, absolutely shaking for fear of dying.

I had this too Leah.  My first two are really close together, and then there's a six year gap before we had our little one.  I was absolutly convinced that something was going to go horribly wrong-not with me, but I thought something was going to be really really wrong with the baby.  I said something to the midwife afterwards, and apparently this is very common in experienced mothers-the feeling that you've been lucky so far and it all can't last.  

I had a queazy pregnancy, all through from first signs to delivery. I actually lost weight the first 7 months, even including the baby. My labor lasted 23 hours before they finally had to rush me in to have an emergency C-section. But the minute Tyler was born, I wanted to have another.

A few things stand out, like how uncomfortable it was to sleep during the end of my pregnancy because my son was very active and I felt ill all the time. When I finally got to sleep, my then husband would kick me awake to proclaim I was snoring. Maybe yes, I don't deny, but I'd comment he snored too and he got angry that I was lying to him. Got my own back when I recorded him doing it. He said it was me recording myself in my sleep. Oh, right. D'oh. Never did get more than a couple hours' sleep at night. I was always completely exhausted.

Because Tyler was ready to be born, but stuck inside and going into stress, there was a chance he'd swallowed meconium (his own feces). They put him in isolation all hooked up to monitors and gave him IVs, trying to prevent pneumonia. He wasn't responding well. And because I wasn't nursing him right away, I wasn't producing milk, so this had to be induced by pumps. My roommate at the time had her child, all healthy and happy, nursing away. I held no animosity and was very happy for her, but I overheard her whispering to friends/family that she felt so sorry for me. When she checked out I tearfully asked that no one be put in the room with me anymore (I was to be there for 7 days). The nurses complied. Because my son wasn't reacting very well to their treatment, they decided that perhaps a little bit of mother's love may help and I got to hold him for the first time a couple of days later. Then some time after that I was able to nurse. He responded to me immediately and by the end of the time in the hospital I was like all the other mothers with their healthy, happy newborns.

Within the first couple of days I got out my husband planned a dinner party that I had to cook for.

He's not my husband anymore.  

One thing I want to mention about labor. How it feels. You see, when I went into labor, I didn't know that's what it was. Everyone kept telling me I'd know and that it was pain. For me it wasn't like that. And I think this is why I waited so long to go to the hospital. I've always had a rather high threshold of pain anyway, and the doctor kept telling me I could scream if I wanted to and I never felt I had to.

Anyway, labor for me was like menstral cramps. A tightening feeling deep inside, not a sharp pain, but a dull long-lasting throb that could be confused with the baby getting into an odd postion and turning around. Oops, guess that's what he did!