What were your biggest pregnancy surprises and pet peeves?

I’m not milking anything here, yet I keep getting told I should be. It’s always the same cycle—either more questions follow or a long-winded explanation about how I might actually be able to milk something 🙂

Susan Martin4 said:I’m not milking anything here, yet I keep getting told I should be. It’s always the same cycle—either more questions follow or a long-winded explanation about how I might actually be able to milk something 🙂

No matter how you look at it—and I mean really scrutinize it from every possible angle—it just doesn't seem right. I guess there isn't any way to spin this one to make it work, though I suppose people will always try to find a silver lining if they squint hard enough. It’s just fundamentally flawed, I think.

It’s funny how that works, I guess—the moment you mention you aren't breastfeeding, it's like you've triggered some sort of collective parental instinct in everyone around you, and suddenly there's this sudden, overwhelming flood of unsolicited advice on exactly what steps you need to take to somehow "fix" the situation so you can succeed at it.
I guess if you mention that you’re breastfeeding, you should probably brace yourself for a certain kind of interrogation, because people seem to have a lot of thoughts on it. It feels like as soon as the words leave your mouth, everyone starts asking how much longer you plan on doing it, or—if the baby is already a bit older—you get that specific, slightly judgmental look followed by the inevitable, "Wait, you're *still* nursing?" It’s almost like there's this unwritten rulebook everyone follows about when it’s supposed to stop, and if you aren't following their timeline, they feel the need to weigh in, I suppose.😲

Well, I suppose you all just collectively lost your minds at once.☕

Ugh, seriously? More questions about my due date. Like, give me a break! 😢

So, we were out in downtown Chicago last night, just grabbing drinks, and the hostesses at the pub where we were sitting were basically interrogating us. Every single one of them. They wanted to know everything—my actual delivery date, if it’s a boy or girl, if we’ve even finished setting up the nursery... 🤷
I mean, I get it, they were probably just trying to be friendly, but still!

rowdyjackal12 said:Ugh, seriously? More questions about my due date. Like, give me a break! 😢

So, we were out in downtown Chicago last night, just grabbing drinks, and the hostesses at the pub where we were sitting were basically interrogating us. Every single one of them. They wanted to know everything—my actual delivery date, if it’s a boy or girl, if we’ve even finished setting up the nursery... 🤷
I mean, I get it, they were probably just trying to be friendly, but still!

😂Sorry, but maybe they were just checking if you had everything ready because they wanted to buy you a gift.

Then yesterday, three different people cornered me about my belly within a thirty-minute window. And not just a glance, either—they were actually poking at it.

I ended up telling one of them she should probably just make her own baby so she could pet her own stomach instead. 😈

Then my husband walks up and catches me mid-sentence, and I just snapped at him to let's just get out of there.

And don't even get me started on the questions: "Do you have any pregnancy cravings?" "No vomiting?" "Is the baby kicking?" "Is it sleeping right now?" Just... please, people, give me some space! 🙂

The staring is getting on my nerves now 🙂
Honestly, I’ve still got a month and a half to go and my bump is huge, but I know I’m not the only pregnant woman out there. Still, I feel like some kind of freak show when people just gawk at me 🙄
And then come the silly questions—"Can you do that?" "Are you okay?" "Is the baby moving?" Seriously, maybe I should just stay home and wait out the next six weeks until I give birth so I don't have to deal with everyone's curiosity ☕

What gets under my skin more than anything else is how, the second people find out I'm pregnant, they immediately hit me with this one question:
"So, when's the wedding?"
Because obviously, getting engaged is just the standard next step on the checklist right after seeing those two lines on a pregnancy test, right? Just common sense...
🙂

Elizabeth Baker4 said:What gets under my skin more than anything else is how, the second people find out I'm pregnant, they immediately hit me with this one question:
"So, when's the wedding?"
Because obviously, getting engaged is just the standard next step on the checklist right after seeing those two lines on a pregnancy test, right? Just common sense...
🙂

Hehehe, when I announced my engagement about a year and a half before the actual wedding, everyone assumed I was already pregnant—can you believe that? They basically expected me to hold off on the ceremony until the baby was six months old, which is just absurd. People can be so strange sometimes.

Someone else mentioned that people tend to get teary-eyed around them, but honestly, I’m constantly forgetting that it's just my belly making me cry; I'll spend ten minutes worrying that I have chocolate smeared on my face or that my mascara has run. But for now, I've mostly had positive experiences where people just smile. It's almost like seeing a pregnant woman genuinely brightens their day.😁

Elizabeth Baker4 said:What gets under my skin more than anything else is how, the second people find out I'm pregnant, they immediately hit me with this one question:
"So, when's the wedding?"
Because obviously, getting engaged is just the standard next step on the checklist right after seeing those two lines on a pregnancy test, right? Just common sense...
🙂

Well, you technically have to, don't you?
And you need to pick out godparents so they have an excuse to buy the kid big-ticket items, like a high-end stroller or a fancy car seat.
People kept badgering me about it for so long that I finally snapped. I told them if I heard one more word about a christening, I simply wouldn't bother having the baby baptized at all. Since then, the questions have stopped, and the baby still hasn't been baptized.☕

Nothing gets under my skin quite like those old wives' tales from grandmas—you know the ones. "Oh, you have such a big belly, you’re definitely having a huge baby!"
Poor little thing. You barely eat any fruit as it is, so why would your kid suddenly start craving vitamins when they grow up? :/
Just endless, mindless nonsense. Honestly.

I think my absolute favorite question was always, "Is there any sign of life?"

The sheer audacity of it all...

I honestly never knew how to react to that one. Everything else was manageable, but this? I mean, seriously, what were they thinking? Sure, people used to talk like that back in the day, but even the women saying it were old enough to know better—they understood perfectly well that the baby was alive. It’s just... goodness me...

Before I stumbled upon this thread, I hadn't even considered that someone could actually pose the question, "Is it coming back to life?"... yet somehow, that’s exactly what was directed at me today. 🙄 It was such an incredibly bizarre sensation, honestly—just a complete and utter "what on earth?" moment.

I’ve also started noticing this pattern with women who gained quite a bit of weight during their pregnancies and haven't quite managed to shed it even after eighteen months; they seem to stare intently at my midsection, constantly asking if I'm starting to show or if I've been eating more than usual. It feels as though they are just waiting for me to gain weight. Meanwhile, as if purely out of spite, I happen to be maintaining a pretty reasonable weight. 🙂 Granted, I’m only at 17 weeks and 4 days, but I suppose I’m not exactly force-feeding myself enough for two people. 😁

Rebecca Thomas27 said:Before I stumbled upon this thread, I hadn't even considered that someone could actually pose the question, "Is it coming back to life?"... yet somehow, that’s exactly what was directed at me today. 🙄 It was such an incredibly bizarre sensation, honestly—just a complete and utter "what on earth?" moment.

I’ve also started noticing this pattern with women who gained quite a bit of weight during their pregnancies and haven't quite managed to shed it even after eighteen months; they seem to stare intently at my midsection, constantly asking if I'm starting to show or if I've been eating more than usual. It feels as though they are just waiting for me to gain weight. Meanwhile, as if purely out of spite, I happen to be maintaining a pretty reasonable weight. 🙂 Granted, I’m only at 17 weeks and 4 days, but I suppose I’m not exactly force-feeding myself enough for two people. 😁

Good grief... I suppose I'm a bit more old-school when it comes to this stuff, and I haven't actually put on much weight; it all seems to have settled right in my stomach, about fifteen pounds over thirty-five weeks. But my girlfriends—none of whom have actually gone through childbirth—keep asking me how on earth I eat like that when I only have a bump, acting as if I should look like an elephant. It's so frustrating.

Rebecca Thomas27 said:Before I stumbled upon this thread, I hadn't even considered that someone could actually pose the question, "Is it coming back to life?"... yet somehow, that’s exactly what was directed at me today. 🙄 It was such an incredibly bizarre sensation, honestly—just a complete and utter "what on earth?" moment.

I’ve also started noticing this pattern with women who gained quite a bit of weight during their pregnancies and haven't quite managed to shed it even after eighteen months; they seem to stare intently at my midsection, constantly asking if I'm starting to show or if I've been eating more than usual. It feels as though they are just waiting for me to gain weight. Meanwhile, as if purely out of spite, I happen to be maintaining a pretty reasonable weight. 🙂 Granted, I’m only at 17 weeks and 4 days, but I suppose I’m not exactly force-feeding myself enough for two people. 😁

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that too. 😬 It feels like people are just dying to see you gain weight so you can join the "club." 🤣 Even at 33 weeks, I just have this little bump, and I've heard so many comments about it.
It's like you have to justify everything—that you're eating exactly what you need, or that it's much easier to move around when you aren't feeling heavy and bloated...

I'm feeling a bit bummed. We just finished a prenatal class at Mayo Clinic, and there were so many couples there, the room was packed. Every single woman looked so fit; nobody really stood out as being overweight. 😍

I got so annoyed today by a comment saying, "Now the dogs will just take a backseat!"
As if—obviously they were just temporary placeholders until the baby arrived, right? Now I'll just toss them out in the yard and hope they're happy if I bother to feed them once in a while. 🙄

Chris Kim16 said:I got so annoyed today by a comment saying, "Now the dogs will just take a backseat!"
As if—obviously they were just temporary placeholders until the baby arrived, right? Now I'll just toss them out in the yard and hope they're happy if I bother to feed them once in a while. 🙄

There are endless variations on this whole "animals vs. babies" debate, and they’re always so grating. It honestly feels a bit like asking someone who is planning for their second child what’s going to happen to their first one.

Laura Barnes42 said:There are endless variations on this whole "animals vs. babies" debate, and they’re always so grating. It honestly feels a bit like asking someone who is planning for their second child what’s going to happen to their first one.

Exactly! 👍There really is nothing more irritating than hearing, "Just wait until you have a kid; you won't even remember you had cats." 🙄Look, we aren't all programmed the same way. My cats have been my constant companions for seven years now... so I usually just shut that down by saying, "We already have two kids; this would be our third." ☕And let's be honest, real parents don't draw distinctions between their children.😁

Adam Flores3 said:Exactly! 👍There really is nothing more irritating than hearing, "Just wait until you have a kid; you won't even remember you had cats." 🙄Look, we aren't all programmed the same way. My cats have been my constant companions for seven years now... so I usually just shut that down by saying, "We already have two kids; this would be our third." ☕And let's be honest, real parents don't draw distinctions between their children.😁

It would be a different story if someone who actually lived with pets while raising a baby said that—speaking from experience, you know?—but otherwise...
I actually call my pets "kids" when I'm addressing the whole group at once. And they respond perfectly well! ☕

Honestly, the comments are what drive me absolutely insane... I’ve got a four-and-a-half-year-old girl, and ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've lost count of how many times I've heard stuff like, "Oh, maybe you'll finally get lucky and have a boy this time!" or "It's definitely going to be a son, so Dad will finally be happy." And then, when I actually say—completely sincerely and excitedly, because why wouldn't I?—that I'm hoping for another little girl, people just hit me with those patronizing vibes like, "Oh well, I guess that's fine too," or even worse, "Well, looks like you'll have to try for a third one to get what you want."
\\>\\>What is actually wrong with people?? Like, is there something going on in their heads that I'm just totally missing?! 🤷

Jonathan Wright4 said:Honestly, the comments are what drive me absolutely insane... I’ve got a four-and-a-half-year-old girl, and ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've lost count of how many times I've heard stuff like, "Oh, maybe you'll finally get lucky and have a boy this time!" or "It's definitely going to be a son, so Dad will finally be happy." And then, when I actually say—completely sincerely and excitedly, because why wouldn't I?—that I'm hoping for another little girl, people just hit me with those patronizing vibes like, "Oh well, I guess that's fine too," or even worse, "Well, looks like you'll have to try for a third one to get what you want."
\\>\\>What is actually wrong with people?? Like, is there something going on in their heads that I'm just totally missing?! 🤷

Now we're getting "congratulations" because we might have a pair. We already have a girl and we're waiting on a boy. Apparently, the universe is only in balance if we have one of each, right? :P
Honestly, I don't care. Whether it's our first or our second, the gender doesn't matter; we just wanted two kids. It's honestly ridiculous how obsessed people are with whether we'll have a matching set.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about all this drama, and I really don't get why everyone is freaking out over these spikes. It’s just nonsense. The only thing that actually matters to me in this world is having a healthy, happy kid.