“That won’t happen to me”
Back in the day, I would hear about pregnancy symptoms and ailments and just think to myself “oh, that won’t happen to me.”
Now that these things are all actually happening… it’s actually kind of funny to think I could avoid it. Some of them aren’t too shabby (like my dry skin) and some are horrifying, like the claw marks that have magically appeared on my growing set of girls, despite my best efforts and stretch mark oil. Some are awesome, like hair, which is shinier and longer than it’s ever been. I’ve been wanting to grow it to Kardashian length forever, and my gluten-free bun in the oven has helped with my hair growth plateau.
Some of the pregnancy symptoms I’ve heard of scare the bejeezus out of me (if you’ve read “Belly Laughs” and are thinking of the blue twinkies, that would be correct. I’m going to continue to pray that it doesn’t happen), and here are some of the ones I thought I was going to escape:
1) Much larger feet.
My hands were quick to get on the swollen bandwagon –I attribute that to the copious amount of salt and vinegar chips I ate- and I haven’t been able to wear my wedding rings for a couple of months.
Remember the wedding we went to last weekend?
Those shoes are a size 40 at Aldo, which = size 10. I wear a size 7 1/2 –8. I went into the store and had to keep asking the sales associate for a larger size. It’s weird because just glancing down at my feet, they don’t look swollen (my ankles still look normal), but apparently they’ve grown quite a bit to accommodate the extra weight I’m carrying around.
2) The line down the stomach. It’s a sign of pregnancy that not all women get, but lucky me! I’ve got a nice line from my belly button down. The good thing is that it isn’t super dark or bothering me, but it’s there. Word on the street is that it will disappear shortly after delivery.
3) I crave junk food. And I like it.
I thought that I would manage to escape the junk food cravings, but first trimester when carbs and salt and vinegar chips were the only things that sounded good and didn’t leave me feeling sick, that’s what happened. I still eat way more fries off the husband’s plate than I usually would, and more chocolate. Baby likes chocolate 😉 I figure as long as I can stick to my healthy normal eats *most* of the time, all will be bueno.
4) That I would fall even more in love with my husband. People warned me about this, and I didn’t think it was possible, but it’s already happening in a fierce way. When I see him with our little daughter, it’s just going to get worse. I don’t even know if I can handle it 😉
I was thinking about all of the things I didn’t know I would have to go through before I was pregnant, namely the medical aspect of it. Lots of people poking and prodding you, stealing your blood, and a lot more to come before little Nuggette gets here. I’d already do it again in a heartbeat.
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My feet went up 1/2 size and stayed there, and my contact lens prescription nearly doubled and stayed there. Some women get cavities, but I didn’t. My mom told me she lost her arm hair, and I lost a lot of mine too. Pregnancy was also the first time I ever had heartburn, but chewing gum (without aspartame) helped with that! The thick hair often has a lot to do with your vitamins. I know women who didn’t want to stop taking theirs because they loved their “pregnant hair”!
The only pregnancy symptom i’m excited for is a bigger set of ‘girls’– I’d take the stretch marks too!! I’d love to finally be able to sport some cleavage at some point in my life.
Wouldn’t mind the good hair either 😉
Lucky for you, you also have the pregnancy ‘glow’, which I’m hoping will happen for me too when I’m preg 🙂
Reality check time – my bigger feet & linea nigra stuck around for about a year. Its been 15 months and I can wear my wedding band, but still not my engagement ring. I was anxious in the beginning for everything to return to normal right away (hips especially), but then realized it took 40 weeks to get whacked out of shape, so its totally normal to take that long to get back there.
You know, just in time to start thinking about nugget #2 🙂
hahah exactly. i’m already thinking about nugget #2! <– insane, but true
My friend totally warned me on the growing of the feet thing, so I’m fully prepared for it! I bought a pair of running shoes a half size bigger with the hope that my toes can squeeze into them in a few months. 🙂 Regardless of your shoe size or the marks everywhere-you’re still gorgeous girl! 😉
I love this post, made me smile 🙂 Also, you are one of the healthiest, seemingly most relaxed moms-to-be I have ever seen/heard of – you’re glowing!
For the longest time I thought that the line from my belly button down was an imprint from the seam in some of my pants. I just realized the other day that it’s actually there all the time. DUH!
i think it’s so weird you say your hair is thicker. my friend elizabeth had her hair thin dramatically, and she’s like, “yup, pregnancy makes your hair fall out”. she used to have crazy long hair, but had to rock bob’s during both her pregnancies.
Many women experience this AFTER pregnancy, too. The hair shedding and thinning. Most women actually have it happen…but none of the books tell you about this! But after you talk to your friends, moms, aunts, etc…they’re like yep, it happens. Massive hormonal shifts is likely the cause.
My hair fell out in CLUMPS post-delivery. I was not at all prepared! Luckily I have the thickest mane on the planet so it barely made a dent, but it was a little nervewracking at first!
I think it’s normal for your hair to go into ‘staying in’ mode during pregnancy and then shedding mode after it. I read it cycles that way all the time but you might notice it being more pronounced. I know my sister and I both got so tired of the shedding after pregnancy. I really don’t think it’s related to prenatal vitamins. Just hormones.
A friend of mine who is a hairstylist and a mom told me that the increased thickness in hair is due to the fact that your body has more blood in it (for the baby) and that the increased circulation and blood flow to your scalp can help your hair grow longer and thicker, but that after the baby is born, the hair is likely to fall out and the length will plateau.
I got the line during pregnancy too and it faded afterward 99% of the way. The only time I can ever even notice it anymore is random days of the month or depending on how pale/tan I am. So for me, it went away and you’d REALLY have to study my belly to find any traces of it and if it hadnt left…I wouldnt have cared. One of those, I am a Mom and proud OF IT things 🙂
I have size 12 feet to begin with. Yes, my own skis 🙂 So when my feet grew in pregnancy it was all about Ugg boots and Rainbow flips. I couldnt even begin to think about real shoes anymore. ha!
I had the line bad…mine is pretty much faded now except very light under my belly button. I thought it would never go away because it got o dark, but it did!
Not to negate “word on the street” but my linea nigra hung around for almost a year after giving birth. If you tan easily or have a dark complexion, it stays around longer. It faded a lot after about 3 months, but it took forever to go away.
I also kept weird food things from pregnancy like my new found love of pepperoni….on anything.
“word on the street” LOL That’s so funny. Sounds like it’s definitely changing your body (despite fingers crossed that it wouldn’t!) but that of course you have a great attitude about it as always! I’m WORRIED about the feet thing – eek – i’m already size 8 and 5’2″. I. am. screwed. lol
I already wear a 9.5 shoe I can’t imagine my feet getting any bigger!!! On the other hand, thanks for “keeping it real”. This is the side of pregnancy not a lot of people talk about.
Such a fun post! 🙂
My feet already swell when Mother Nature calls every month, if I ever get pregnant I’m pretty sure I’ll have 9 month blotation devices to use as feet. Ugh.
# 4, Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww. So sweet! I’m sure The Pilot is going to feel the same way watching you with his baby girl. The best thing a child can have is to be surrounded by the love of his parents, Lil Nuggette will be awash in it. Super awesome. You two are hands down the sweetest couple I don’t actually know.
Let me know if you want a few pairs of super hot size 10 shoes 🙂 I have quite a stash!
The “Blue Twinkie” chapter scarred me for life, along with the “Passing Stonhendge” chapter. I got this book as a gift right when I found out I was pregnan and couldn’t put it down but I remember DREADING if those things happened to me!
Don’t worry, Aldo shoes run small so your feet haven’t grown that much!! I’m an 8.5 SOMETIMES a 9 but at Aldo I am always at LEAST a size 40. They’re sizes are way off, I’ve actually had sales people there tell me to always go at least one size up.
<3
Kylee
I was just going to say the same thing, I have size 10s already and Aldo shoes are almost always too small for me. One lady even told me they didn’t have “enough room” to carry my size since I needed an 11 in some of the pairs I wanted to try on. Haha 🙂
this makes me sad – not for you – but for me, I feel so left out in the love realm. It’s pretty lonely to be a Dana.
Hey! So this is admittedly gross but I just learned that people do this and I thought you’d be interested since your food/health savvy – but did you know about placental eating?
hahah YES. and, i would never.
Come on this comment is uncalled for. Really?
That’s so funny … I said many of the same things! Oh that won’t be me…
I was totally unprepared to be SICK the first 20 weeks. ER trips multiple times for fluids sick. It didn’t help that my hubs was deployed for my first 15 weeks (we got preggo on R&R). I also wasn’t prepared for how tired I was in my 1st trimester and now in my final weeks of pregnancy. I really didn’t realize how much you could love someone you haven’t ‘met’ yet even though I feel like I already ‘know’ my daughter. I have the awesome, sexy line but have avoided swelling at this point (shoes and rings still fit fine at 36 weeks).
In the end it’s all worth it! I can’t wait to meet my baby girl! AND super excited to see yours 🙂
that is so crazy- it’s exactly what happened to a good friend of mine. she was in the hospital for the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and her hubby was gone :/ so excited that you get to meet your little girl SOON!
xoxo
Salt and Vinegar chips are amazing.. even better are the Blue Diamond Salt n Vinegar Almonds.. try them- you won’t regret it
Aww, it is so true! We always think things wont happen to us, don’t we!! I am glad that you love your husband more, many women stop focusing on their husbands entirely! Haha, and I am sure that you will be totally fine with the junk food, pregnancy is such a short time, may as well live it up a little, right? I mean, you are eating for two!
I think that “falling more in love with the husband” one (especially AFTER seeing them with the baby) is the reason many end up with a #2! 😉
40 is actually a size 9. I used to live in Europe.
I tracked down the ‘blue twinkies’ reference…… LOL! Sounds painful though….
I love the “that won’t happen to me” statements. As a mom, I love hearing them and then waiting for that person to actually get pregnant. 🙂
Linea nigra might be a good thing. I think I read that if you get that, you’re less likely to get facial melasma, or the ‘mask of pregnancy’.
Be prepared to be so overflowing with love when you first bring your baby home, you’ll be talking about having another immediately! I think the first 3-6 months is hard mentally, as an evolutionary thing. If it wasn’t, we might all just keep having babies our whole adult lives.
OH YEAH, i can SO relate to the ‘this will NOT happen to me’ mentality – big wake up call for me, but nonetheless, fun:) Like you said, would do it all over again – and i haven’t even given birth yet:=
So when I was pregnant my hair was the shiniest, prettiest, longest most gorgeous of my life. In July, right before my 30th I decided to chop it and donate it to locks of love. It grew so long and was so pretty. Now, of course, it won’t grow. I need to start taking prenatals but not even sure that will help.
I never thoguht my feet would grow. I never swelled either, until the last 2 weeks. Ella was a week late…and my the very end my feet and ankles were a little swollen. In your “show me your fit” I was wearing my mule sneakers because mine were really tight. I went to get fit for new running shoes and I went up a whole entire size!!! I can’t even believe it! I thought it was a myth. Nope.
I also didn’t gain much weight until the very end. I was wearing all my clothes (I wear workout stuff all the time isince it’s my job) and I sported leggings in the winter. But my hips grew at the very end too. Everything happened at the very end when I thought I was all good. Ella’s 4 months now and the first 3 months I was like OMG am I ever going back to normal…but you do. And especially staying active. Right now I am getting back into shape thinking about baby #2 but want to be almost as good of shape as before baby #1 so I bounce back. My husband is already telling me he’d like to see my pregnant again this time next year. I’m all “slow down, cowboy.” Ha
Oh..blue twinkies…eek.
80% of the things Jenny McCarthy prepared me for never happened though so don’t worry 😉
I love the posts about things that have changed since being pregnant! So interesting, thank you.
One thing that has bothered me as a fit person is I now puff after walking up stairs!
Also, I used to love flying and be a great traveller… just got back from a trip to watch my husband race in the Gold Coast and spewed on him on the flight. There were no sick bags and overwhelming nausea came just as everyone stood up to get their bags upon landing, I had nowhere to go except the newspaper on his lap! And he was so kind about it and looked after me… I can relate to your point number 4!
On the plus side, we find out the sex of our baby today at my 20-week ultrasound and all the puffing and nausea will be worth it 🙂 Hope your week is great!
Okay, I’ve gotta ask– what is blue twinkies?!
hahaha anyone else want to find a way to answer this one?