What were your biggest pregnancy surprises and pet peeves?

Honestly, you should have just told her straight up that it’s not weird for *her* to be walking around with nothing but static in her head. I swear, I live for those moments when people try to stick their noses where they absolutely don't belong. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion, except it's just someone being nosy.

She actually told her own son he looked like an idiot and looked broke just because of some tracksuit he was wearing. Honestly, don't act surprised by any of this. :/

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I mean, honestly, it’s just common sense at this point... It's like the old saying about the apple and the tree, you know?

On a completely different note, I have to vent for a second because it’s driving me absolutely crazy—the way random strangers feel entitled to just reach out and touch my stomach the moment they realize I'm pregnant.

Jesse Johnson15, I’m just sitting here waiting 😁 Nobody has actually pulled this off yet, and honestly? It creeps me out. Not everyone makes my skin crawl when they touch me, but this... 😁

Man, that sounds like an absolute nightmare... honestly, that's the one thing I can't stand.

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I honestly find belly rubs so soothing.
It really gets under my skin when people start treating me like I’m some kind of invalid. They tell me not to vacuum, don't wipe down the windows, stay away from the floors, don't carry anything... if the pregnancy is going smoothly, why shouldn't I?
The whole thing is just maddening. It makes it feel as though my only purpose should be lying around and sleeping all day.

And I truly can't wrap my head around the people who try to lecture me about what life will be like after the baby arrives, while completely ignoring the fact that I have a four-year-old daughter sitting right here next to me!?!?!?!

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I honestly find belly rubs to be the absolute best.
What really gets under my skin, though, is when people start treating me like I’m some kind of invalid. They tell me, "Don't vacuum, don't clean the windows, stay off the floors, don't carry anything heavy..." all while I'm having a perfectly healthy, normal pregnancy.
It drives me absolutely crazy. It makes it feel like my only job is to just lie around and sleep all day.

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John Fisher7 said:I honestly find belly rubs to be the absolute best.
What really gets under my skin, though, is when people start treating me like I’m some kind of invalid. They tell me, "Don't vacuum, don't clean the windows, stay off the floors, don't carry anything heavy..." all while I'm having a perfectly healthy, normal pregnancy.
It drives me absolutely crazy. It makes it feel like my only job is to just lie around and sleep all day.

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I don't mind people touching my belly either. To be fair, I haven't had any total strangers just lunging at my stomach out of nowhere, but I honestly don't find it as bothersome as I originally thought I might.😁 And it doesn't happen constantly; most people around me are quite polite and usually ask first.

What really irritates me is when people insist on emphasizing how much labor hurts. It’s like, you have no idea what those intense struggles are actually like—oh boy, every single minute is pure agony, blah blah blah, poor you in your blissful ignorance.🙂

I’m certainly not expecting childbirth to be a walk in the park, and I am mentally preparing myself for everything. There's no turning back, and I don't see the point in dying of fear thinking I'll be in pain for days on end or that it will be some ultimate horror movie scenario. Not everyone is built the same way, pain thresholds vary, and no two births are identical. So many variables exist that I truly feel it isn't healthy for me to obsess over the absolute worst-case scenario. Yet, it feels like certain commenters are trying their hardest to make sure I do exactly that.🙂

So, yeah, I just don't get it, and it's incredibly frustrating.

I honestly don't understand why people feel the need to insist that labor is agonizing. It’s not as if anyone was born thinking it would be a walk in the park.
As you mentioned, everyone experiences it differently. I look at my two sisters-in-law—both of whom are built like twigs—and they had such effortless births that it makes me think it couldn't possibly get any easier. There really are no set rules here.

I find it quite fascinating when people try to lecture me on what it’s like when a newborn comes home—all that crying and the sleepless nights and everything else—completely failing to notice that my four-year-old daughter is sitting right next to me. :-)

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So, I’ve started noticing my stomach sticking out a bit more lately, which honestly feels like an open invitation for people to start poking at it...
And truth be told, I’ve never been much of a fan of being touched by people I'm not close with, let alone being touched around my midsection.
I really just don't want anyone doing that to me.

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Arthur Kim74 said:So, I’ve started noticing my stomach sticking out a bit more lately, which honestly feels like an open invitation for people to start poking at it...
And truth be told, I’ve never been much of a fan of being touched by people I'm not close with, let alone being touched around my midsection.
I really just don't want anyone doing that to me.

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I’ve never been much of a physical person, you know? I’ve always been pretty protective of my personal space, but it feels even more intense now. I actually live in Italy right now, and man, it is tough. People here just wave their hands around and poke at you like they've never seen a person before. 😬 They just reach out and grab at you like there's no tomorrow.

Even today, three different people reached out and poked my stomach—I recognize them from around the neighborhood, but I don't even know their names. My face was basically like:



On a different note, I honestly don't mind if people view me as being "disabled" or limited right now, because pregnancy is its own entirely different beast, and it’s great if someone still has the energy they used to have—because I definitely don't. I’m doing very little at home lately since I don't get back from work until seven in the evening, so I try to at least get some rest once I'm through the door.

Look, labor hurts. It hurts like hell. Seriously. If you look at all those other threads about pregnancy, it seems like every single woman is complaining about how horrific their labor was—but I disagree. Yeah, it hurts, but it’s a natural physiological pain. I get the feeling that some of those older women who go around scaring new moms about birth and everything that follows are just doing it to boost their own egos. Here’s my experience: right after I gave birth, I felt like I could handle anything in the world, provided they just let me sleep for a few hours. Once the little one started nursing, he actually began sleeping through the night by ten days old, and his weight gain was better than great. Honestly, my postpartum period felt like a long summer vacation. It isn't as terrible as people make it out to be. Truly. If it were as bad as the horror stories suggest, nobody would ever decide to have a second, third, or fourth child...

Blake, what you’re saying is honestly quite heartbreaking...🙂

I find it kind of funny when people go out of their way to do trivial little things for me, though I don't know, I just can't seem to get used to all that attention. But then again, on the flip side, I feel so incredibly frail when I realize I just can't do nearly as much as I used to... there are moments where my energy just completely vanishes, and I feel like I could just fall asleep right there against a tree...
A few days ago, I was walking along a trail that I used to run several times a day back in the day, and now, just managing to walk the whole thing feels like a win. To be honest, in the most blunt version of the story, my bladder was putting so much pressure on me that I had to find a place to pee right then and there. Since you're out on a trail and don't exactly have many options, the only spot I could duck away to was the patio of this closed-up local pub. I felt so humiliated and pathetic even having to write that part down...

Scott Morris3 said:My former hairstylist actually had the nerve to ask me if I didn't find it weird having something dead sitting inside my abdomen. 😢(
I mean, what am I even supposed to say to that?

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Tapatalk Isaac Keppo, man, you should've just clocked her right in the nose. Honestly, how can people be so clueless, insensitive, and just straight-up rude at the same time? It's wild...

Jesse Johnson15 said:I’ve never been much of a physical person, you know? I’ve always been pretty protective of my personal space, but it feels even more intense now. I actually live in Italy right now, and man, it is tough. People here just wave their hands around and poke at you like they've never seen a person before. 😬 They just reach out and grab at you like there's no tomorrow.

Even today, three different people reached out and poked my stomach—I recognize them from around the neighborhood, but I don't even know their names. My face was basically like:



On a different note, I honestly don't mind if people view me as being "disabled" or limited right now, because pregnancy is its own entirely different beast, and it’s great if someone still has the energy they used to have—because I definitely don't. I’m doing very little at home lately since I don't get back from work until seven in the evening, so I try to at least get some rest once I'm through the door.

Look, labor hurts. It hurts like hell. Seriously. If you look at all those other threads about pregnancy, it seems like every single woman is complaining about how horrific their labor was—but I disagree. Yeah, it hurts, but it’s a natural physiological pain. I get the feeling that some of those older women who go around scaring new moms about birth and everything that follows are just doing it to boost their own egos. Here’s my experience: right after I gave birth, I felt like I could handle anything in the world, provided they just let me sleep for a few hours. Once the little one started nursing, he actually began sleeping through the night by ten days old, and his weight gain was better than great. Honestly, my postpartum period felt like a long summer vacation. It isn't as terrible as people make it out to be. Truly. If it were as bad as the horror stories suggest, nobody would ever decide to have a second, third, or fourth child...

🙂
Exactly. I have a super low pain tolerance. I'm a total wimp when it comes to that stuff. Seriously awful.
I actually planned on having a C-section, but they ended up delivering me naturally without an epidural. That was a HUGE realization for me—either I don't go the C-section route, or I didn't mentally prepare myself for a natural birth.
But look at the irony—me, the biggest wimp of the decade, I actually made it through. It hurts. Like, it really hurts. But it doesn't hurt so much that you should be talking about it years later just to terrorize other pregnant women. If someone asks me if it hurts, I'd just say, "Yeah, but you'll get through it."

The other day I found a chat I had with my girls while I was waiting to be admitted to the delivery room. I was crying like such a baby, saying I couldn't do it, that I was going to die, how much it hurt...
Looking back, it doesn't seem that way. Honestly, the worst part was before they even got me into the room because I couldn't breathe properly or focus on the contractions. Once I started using breathing techniques to manage the contractions, everything became 50% easier.

It really irritates me when people say things like, "Just wait until you see what labor is like," or "Wait until you see what happens after you give birth." For God's sake, if I'm going to find out eventually, then shut up—I'll find out when it happens.

Slow, copperdrifter5, thank you both for this! To you and all the sensible women out there who don't go for those extreme grooming trends 🙂
I really try my best to just tune out those kinds of comments, but I have to admit, they can be quite frustrating sometimes! It’s just like those remarks from that last marina sentence.
Exactly, we'll see about that—so maybe just stop trying to lecture me until then. Honestly, I should probably build you a monument right now just because you survived such an incredibly painful labor, and somehow managed to stay sane while dealing with a little monster at home; none of those critics could even come close to what you've been through 🙄 🙂

I went in for blood work this morning, and a pregnant woman arrived to take her glucose test.
She walked up to the counter with this ice-cold attitude and just asked, "I'm pregnant, do I get priority?" The clerk froze, and the rest of the patients were just stunned.
I suppose I should give her credit, though—she’s certainly given me some inspiration for how to skip the line next time.😉

cosmicpanther71 said:I went in for blood work this morning, and a pregnant woman arrived to take her glucose test.
She walked up to the counter with this ice-cold attitude and just asked, "I'm pregnant, do I get priority?" The clerk froze, and the rest of the patients were just stunned.
I suppose I should give her credit, though—she’s certainly given me some inspiration for how to skip the line next time.😉

I grew up in Annapolis, so I still do everything there. All my doctors are based there. Even at the lab, they have a dedicated window specifically for pregnant women, people with disabilities, and small children. To me, that’s just how things should work. I honestly assumed it was the standard everywhere. It only makes sense to minimize the time a pregnant woman spends sitting near people who might be infectious.

cosmicpanther71 said:I went in for blood work this morning, and a pregnant woman arrived to take her glucose test.
She walked up to the counter with this ice-cold attitude and just asked, "I'm pregnant, do I get priority?" The clerk froze, and the rest of the patients were just stunned.
I suppose I should give her credit, though—she’s certainly given me some inspiration for how to skip the line next time.😉

Look, I do that kind of thing all the time. 🤷 If there’s an opportunity to jump ahead because I have an advantage, I’m taking it. Between dealing with nausea on an empty stomach and the fact that I really don't want to be breathing in everyone else's germs—especially since I can't take about 95% of standard medications—it's just practical. Plus, being able to skip the wait means I don't have to burn through my sick leave at work.

If the option is there, I'm going for it. 😳

silentnomad8 said:I grew up in Annapolis, so I still do everything there. All my doctors are based there. Even at the lab, they have a dedicated window specifically for pregnant women, people with disabilities, and small children. To me, that’s just how things should work. I honestly assumed it was the standard everywhere. It only makes sense to minimize the time a pregnant woman spends sitting near people who might be infectious.

Also, they start drawing blood from kids at age 8, which is when most other places wrap things up. Seems fine by me.

I got priority for both my blood work and my thyroid checks because I'm pregnant. And frankly, I'm not complaining.

I had a similar experience during my very first blood draw at the local clinic. To be honest, I felt a little self-conscious because my stomach was completely flat, but luckily, nobody even thought to comment on it or ask anything about it.

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