What were your biggest pregnancy surprises and pet peeves?

Jesse Evans85 said:I heard some "well-meaning" advice today that honestly left me speechless: "Don't wash your hands after giving birth!" My immediate reaction was 😕, because if you're forty-five days postpartum, you're basically walking on eggshells trying to recover, so you have to be careful. I wouldn't even let my daughter wash her hair for forty-five days! Me: 😲 wtf???

Some people just need to 🙂

And now that poor woman spent forty-five days walking around with greasy, gross hair 👎

My dear ladies, since I have only a tiny bit of "peaceful" time left before everything goes completely sideways—because my commanding officer just informed me that we’ll be on full combat footing starting December 29th—I have made a definitive executive decision. From this moment forward, nothing is permitted to rattle my nerves, irritate my sensibilities, or catch me off guard. To all the various calamities and little evils that might attempt to disrupt my composure, I am simply presenting them with this: 👍

Michael Barrett11 said:Some people just need to 🙂

And now that poor woman spent forty-five days walking around with greasy, gross hair 👎

And clearly with dirty hands too, since you aren't even allowed to get your hands wet!🤣 It remains a total mystery how she could have touched a baby with hands like that.

Jesse Evans85 said:And clearly with dirty hands too, since you aren't even allowed to get your hands wet!🤣 It remains a total mystery how she could have touched a baby with hands like that.

And how on earth did she bathe the baby??
Maybe wearing rubber gloves??

Jesse Evans85 said:I heard some "well-meaning" advice today that honestly left me speechless: "Don't wash your hands after giving birth!" My immediate reaction was 😕, because if you're forty-five days postpartum, you're basically walking on eggshells trying to recover, so you have to be careful. I wouldn't even let my daughter wash her hair for forty-five days! Me: 😲 wtf???

I have heard all sorts of nonsense in my time, but I truly believe this might be one of the absolute wildest 😕
honestly—it is just unbelievable how much pure idiocy people spout as if it were gospel 🙂

To be honest, I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated lately by some comments from a woman I work with. Most of the time, we get along just fine—she’s actually quite fun and we're usually on the exact same page—but the second the topic shifts to kids or babies, she becomes this incredibly depressing, pessimistic person. It’s constant... she just keeps going on about how terrible everything is, how much you have to worry, and all those other gloomy scenarios.

I’ve been getting so annoyed lately by how people react to me being 27 weeks pregnant. It feels like if I’m expecting, everyone assumes I must be sick instead.

Then there’s my mother-in-law. She goes around telling anyone who will listen about how she has to come over and help me clean, even though she’s never actually lifted a finger. When the family was over for dinner last Sunday, she didn't even move her own plate. Yet, she keeps talking about how much she helps me because "I just can't manage on my own."
She stopped by today and started complaining about how certain people are, and I told her straight up that it irritates me when people claim they're helping when they don't lift a finger. Her response? That people can be absolute trash. And I told her, "Well, I do everything myself—cooking, cleaning, laundry—and I'm doing just fine." Poor thing didn't realize I was talking about her. It really rubbed me the wrong way.

Looking back at these last 36 weeks, there’s really only one thing that’s driven me absolutely insane:

- When we announced the pregnancy, all I heard was: "Oh my god, why wait so little time? It's going to be such a nightmare, you'll be exhausted..." blah blah blah... Even complete strangers on the street would start making comments once they noticed my bump.
Yeah, okay, the gap is small (16 months), but it was our choice. Why is that anyone else's business?!

- And then the question: "Is the baby alive yet?" That just makes me 🙂
Especially when a friend of mine—who literally just gave birth herself a few months ago—had the nerve to ask me that. 😱
Like, hello? The baby has been alive since the beginning, not just since I started feeling the kicks!!!

I honestly lost it when we told my husband’s aunt that I was pregnant—her immediate reaction was just, "Oh, you guys are getting ahead of yourselves, aren't you?" Like, seriously? We're married, we already have one kid at home... as if we’re just out here playing games or something. 🙂

So, I finally broke the news to my poor grandma that I’m pregnant, and honestly? She looked absolutely devastated. Apparently, her other granddaughter hasn't managed to knock anyone up yet, so my news just felt like a personal failure to her. 😢 It completely killed the vibe for me. I wasn't about to deal with that kind of negativity, so I basically told my dad he could handle telling the rest of the family. I mean, I’m happy for myself—obviously—but I am not going to sit here and suppress my own joy just because she can't handle it. Especially since that same girl was acting all stoked for me five minutes before this turned sour! 🙂

Kyle Lee6 said:I honestly lost it when we told my husband’s aunt that I was pregnant—her immediate reaction was just, "Oh, you guys are getting ahead of yourselves, aren't you?" Like, seriously? We're married, we already have one kid at home... as if we’re just out here playing games or something. 🙂

The same thing happened to me! People act like having a third kid in six years is such a shocker, like we didn't plan it out. 😕
Well, maybe we did! My husband and I aren't exactly toddlers ourselves!

Plus, everyone acts so surprised that we're going to be a family of five, like that hasn't been the norm for ages. 👎

Lately, I feel like my baby has completely fried my brain. I’m barely functioning. I forget things constantly, so I started writing everything down just to stay sane. Then, I actually forget that I wrote 🤣
It’s definitely not helping me get through my classes at 😁

I honestly don't get it...
At first, I had at least ten different people telling me, "Oh, it's definitely going to be a boy, don't listen to those other predictions."
And then there were all those comments about whether it’s a girl... ugh, "it's a girl." Give me a break. As long as the baby is healthy, that's what matters.
But they say it with this tone, like being healthy is just some consolation prize because it wasn't a boy?!😠

And you know what really gets under my skin right now? Everyone constantly badgering us about the name, acting like we're being shady because we haven't decided yet.
People actually get offended when we won't give them an answer, like we're somehow hiding something from them.
As if having a name solves everything... why do people think they have a right to know? It's not like it's a state secret, but we'll pick a name when we're ready, and we'll tell people when we feel like it.

It’s honestly a bit draining that I’m the only one—aside from my mom—who actually loves the name I picked out for my baby girl (we’re just waiting on the final paperwork now, since the doctor was a little hesitant)
I settled on Dea Maria; Maria is going to be her middle name to honor my mom, but apparently, nobody can get past that first name
But if you ask me, it’s just 😍

Honestly, though, I don't really care what anyone thinks. At the end of the day, she's my kid

...honestly, it drives me absolutely nuts too... people and their obsession with guessing if it's a boy or a girl before they even know. Like, when I first told everyone I was pregnant, all they did was claim I was having a boy, even though you couldn't even tell I was showing yet... I mean, let's be real, I've got a bit of a tummy regardless, so I look like I'm already five months along just by existing. Anyway, 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 was basically running the whole show and acting like the expert on everything, but oh my god, my little baby decided to show off at just 12 weeks! She spread her legs wide and practically rested her hand right there like her uncle watching a football game on TV 😂 so I was able to shut everyone up pretty fast. We're at 24 weeks now and we've had it confirmed four different times that it's a girl... mostly because I dealt with this totally clueless, uneducated gynecologist who missed so much stuff that now every single time I go in for an appointment, I'm terrified to ask about the gender because I'm so worried they'll say "it's a girl... a girl..." only for it to turn out to be a little guy 🤣

Everyone kept insisting it was going to be a girl, like, absolutely, 100% a girl!
My husband is actually the third child in his family, but he's the only boy. His two older sisters were the first ones to tell us. And then there was this one friend—pregnant with her boyfriend—who was the loudest about being "sure" it was a girl! Honestly, who knows, maybe she thought having a boy held some kind of special status or something...😕
Anyway, we get to the ultrasound, and lo and ding, it’s a boy! And get this: she was actually at the same appointment right before delivery when we were there too. She made this hilariously sour face, and I just sat there thinking, "I don't get it..." It really doesn't matter to me, though...
It's funny how much people love acting like they have some kind of crystal ball, isn't it? They think they're so smart...
And yeah, a bunch of them even tried to claim the doctors messed up. They were like, "Maybe they saw the umbilical cord instead?" Give me a break, people. Seriously, what is wrong with you?!?

And by the way, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between an umbilical cord and... well, everything else. No confusion there...

The usual interrogation: "How much longer?", "When's the due date?", "How are you feeling?" But the heavy hitters are always: "Is it a boy or a girl?" and "What are you naming it?" 🙄 Then there’s the incredibly tactless one: "How much weight have you put on?" 😠

And don't even get me started on the mountain of paperwork. 🙄🙄🙄 First, dealing with medical complications meant jumping through endless hoops: seeing an OBGYN, then my primary care doctor, then navigating the bureaucracy at the Social Security Administration just to handle monthly disability claims. I had to hand-deliver everything to the local agency office. To make matters worse, I lost my job during this period, which triggered another bureaucratic nightmare: deregistering from my employer, re-registering, dealing with the IRS, and bouncing back and forth between the SSA and the unemployment office just to qualify for maternity leave. Now that the medical issues are resolved and I'm moving toward maternity benefits, it's the same cycle: registering, deregistering, the SSA, and finally filing with the state labor department.
Once the baby actually arrives, the gauntlet continues with a massive amount of red tape just to register the newborn and shuffle enough paperwork to the government offices to secure maternity pay and the baby equipment stipend.
It is honestly hard to believe how much they harass vulnerable pregnant women and new mothers. 😠 😠 😠

Advice 🙄...
Honestly, who cares about a crib? The kid will just be sleeping with you and your husband for the first year anyway! ☕...
What car seat? You basically just carry a newborn in a swaddle... 😲
Now you’ll probably have to get rid of the dog. It’s common knowledge that dogs get jealous and go after small children. I heard a story from a friend of a friend of a neighbor—some lady's acquaintance had that exact issue. Her dog ate her baby... or maybe the dog will just get jealous and toss the kid around like a football. 🤣 🤣 🤣 ... I don't even know whether to laugh or cry at this point. 🤷
And how on earth are you getting to the top floor without an elevator? I guess you'll just have to carry them up in pieces...

At first, they were practically suffocating me with questions about the cat—how we’d manage with both a kitten and a newborn, whether we’d end up getting rid of her 😠
I shut that conversation down immediately, and now they don't dare bother me with it again.

wanderinghawk said:Advice 🙄...
Honestly, who cares about a crib? The kid will just be sleeping with you and your husband for the first year anyway! ☕...
What car seat? You basically just carry a newborn in a swaddle... 😲
Now you’ll probably have to get rid of the dog. It’s common knowledge that dogs get jealous and go after small children. I heard a story from a friend of a friend of a neighbor—some lady's acquaintance had that exact issue. Her dog ate her baby... or maybe the dog will just get jealous and toss the kid around like a football. 🤣 🤣 🤣 ... I don't even know whether to laugh or cry at this point. 🤷
And how on earth are you getting to the top floor without an elevator? I guess you'll just have to carry them up in pieces...

I don't even know where to start with this one. Just... wow. Honestly, I’m sitting here staring at my screen trying to process how we even got to this point. It’s frustrating, it's exhausting, and frankly, it feels like a total joke. I shouldn't be surprised, though. I really shouldn't. I should have seen this coming from a mile away, but here I am, still acting shocked like a complete amateur. It's pathetic, really. But yeah. That's where we're at. Total mess. 😂

I don’t even know what the hell people are talking about anymore. I am constantly seeing these comments popping up everywhere. Like, seriously? As a kid, you’re carried in a swaddle, you're held in someone's arms, or you're just tucked into your hair while being moved from the stroller... you just put the baby down. It's not that deep.
The absolute worst part? It’s when I hear it from those old ladies gossiping at the local corner store. 🙄