What has surprised you the most being pregnant and/or having a baby

[Anonymous]

Biggest Surprises:

- Heartburn
- I would actually have a lot of energy my entire pregnancy
- The amount of times people ask to see your stomach
- How much my husband advocates for me (either with doctors visits, constantly reassuring me, etc.). My husband is such a kind soul but I have been blown away.

But MOST OF ALL


How amazing working / SAHM's are. Seriously ya'll are incredible. They just let you go home with this tiny human and you figure it out? Let alone, you somehow manage to work or spend all day caring, teaching this little nugget? I never really appreciated or took time just how amazing parents are and how much effort, sacrifice, time, and everything else goes into raising a child.

[Anonymous]

I had tons of trapped gas with my first. I couldn't believe how much it hurt.

Welcome to the mommy club! You are going to do great.

[Anonymous]

How selfish and catty my MIL is. I used to think she was a kind, warm, generous woman. I now realize she is an insecure, cruel woman. You learn a lot by how people treat you after you've carried a human in you for 9 months and then birthed that human. You learn a lot about who really cares about you.

[Anonymous]

NOBODY warned me about the post partum night sweats. I had preeclampsia and a long induction and so was swollen like a tick with water weight.

For weeks I was waking at midnight soaked in sweat and had to take a shower and change my pajamas. Slept with a beach towel on the sheets for absorption for weeks. Also, extreme dry skin after water weight disappeared. I was so scaly, flaky and itchy.

[Anonymous]

How often I would get sick after my baby started attending daycare. I did a ton of research on pregnancy, birth, and newborns, so I felt reasonably prepared for most things. I expected to take sick days for the baby, but somehow I never realized I would be sick as a dog all the time too. And it’s incredibly hard taking care of an infant while you feel like death! It has been a lot better this year with all the Covid precautions though.

[Anonymous]

The horrible contractions that. Reassessing causes at first

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How selfish and catty my MIL is. I used to think she was a kind, warm, generous woman. I now realize she is an insecure, cruel woman. You learn a lot by how people treat you after you've carried a human in you for 9 months and then birthed that human. You learn a lot about who really cares about you.

+1 of this. My MIL thinks her grandchild is her own baby and my thoughts, beliefs, concerns go out the window.

[Anonymous]

how bad my skin would be post baby. During pregnancy, no breakouts my skin was amazing. As soon as that nugget was out of my good lord. It's like my body decided ok let's go back to bad skin!

[Anonymous]

The relentlessness of being a parent....i knew but didn't appreciate that at least for the first several years its endless meeting someone elses needs that never stop no matter how much you need a break (of course you can get help! but assuming you don't have it in that moment, its just endless rallying for more on tougher days / nights)

How much you can just be delighted and charmed by your own little person

how stabby you can feel after hearing "hey mommy?" at a rate of 10x per minute at 6am

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had tons of trapped gas with my first. I couldn't believe how much it hurt.

Welcome to the mommy club! You are going to do great.

+1 million. I had never actually experienced gas pain before pregnancy - some discomfort, maybe? I remember crying on the floor convinced I was somehow losing the baby in an extremely painful manner at 11ish weeks, and the level of confusion (and embarrassment) when it turned out to be gas was off the charts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The horrible contractions that. Reassessing causes at first

That breastfeeding causes at first**

[Anonymous]

Air bubbles in my vagina PP. and my rounded butt, which stayed rounded throughout pregnancy thanks to exercise, was somehow flattened during labor.
Also how much I love spending time with my LO, even in the middle of the night. Through being tired I am so energized to feed and love on this little one. I thought it’d be more miserable

[Anonymous]

That I’d have a hard time bonding with my baby and it’s still not 100% there. That I would have no problem leaving my baby to return to work and find it perplexing that women would quit their job and lose their independence over a baby. But there must be something wrong with me since I’m clearly an outlier.

[Anonymous]

That newborn parenting lack of sleep is unlike any other kind of sleep deprivation.

I thought I was prepared. I have worked some super demanding jobs that involved all nighters or going days at a time with 4-5 hours of sleep. But what I wasn't prepared for was only sleeping an hour or so at a time in the beginning. That's a whole other level. Never getting into that deep sleep mode was just brutal. I remember being amazed that they just let you care for a baby in that state. I mean I didn't feel safe driving a car, much less caring for a helpless infant.

But on the positive side:

I have never really liked my body, but during pregnancy I absolutely loved my body. In a way, I felt like my body is meant to be pregnant. So that's what those wide hips and curves are for.

The love that I have for my baby is just absolutely fierce and consuming. I'd heard people talk about this, but couldn't really fathom how obsessed I'd be with her and how much protecting her and caring for her would consume my thoughts. Some cranky days she is hard to like, but I always love her like crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That newborn parenting lack of sleep is unlike any other kind of sleep deprivation.

I thought I was prepared. I have worked some super demanding jobs that involved all nighters or going days at a time with 4-5 hours of sleep. But what I wasn't prepared for was only sleeping an hour or so at a time in the beginning. That's a whole other level. Never getting into that deep sleep mode was just brutal. I remember being amazed that they just let you care for a baby in that state. I mean I didn't feel safe driving a car, much less caring for a helpless infant.

But on the positive side:

I have never really liked my body, but during pregnancy I absolutely loved my body. In a way, I felt like my body is meant to be pregnant. So that's what those wide hips and curves are for.

The love that I have for my baby is just absolutely fierce and consuming. I'd heard people talk about this, but couldn't really fathom how obsessed I'd be with her and how much protecting her and caring for her would consume my thoughts. Some cranky days she is hard to like, but I always love her like crazy.

I feel this so much. The crazy thing is how fast you forget about the sleep deprivation and then how fast it comes rushing back when your second, third, etc baby is born.