Your Pregnant Body – 20 Things They Don’t Tell You

The moment that you get those two pink lines, you are going to be jumping for joy in addition to feeling a lot of overwhelming emotions such as nervousness, fear, and plenty of anxiety. That is understandable especially if you are a first-time mom. While you are jumping ahead by thinking of buying all of the stuff that you will need for the baby such as diapers, bottles, cute onesies, and furniture for the nursery, you need to know first what to expect when it comes to the 20 changes that your body will be experiencing during pregnancy.  

The changes you will expect other than the commonly noted ones such as fatigue, nausea and having to go do #1 all of the time! Let’s go over those right now:

1. You Will Develop A Bloodhound Nose

You are going to be shocked at everything that you will be able to smell. You could be in the basement and smelling a light that burned out in the second level. That is because the hormones are working in overdrive and that means your sense of smell will be amplified. This can be difficult if you are dealing with nausea on top of it. You can always use Vicks vapor rub to use under your nose if it gets too overwhelming. 

2. Your Skin Will Itch

That is another lovely change your body will go through thanks to the extra estrogen in the body from the pregnancy. It will cause your skin to be extra sensitive while it is expanding. You will want to make sure that the soaps you use will not dry out your skin more which means you will want to use moisturizers and take some oatmeal baths. 

3. Skin Tags Will Show Up

In addition to the itchy skin, thanks to the hormones being in overdrive, you will also get skin tags. Those are those pieces of skin that hang and they can hang on any part of your body. After the pregnancy is over, it will disappear. Leave them the way they are and don’t try to remove them as tempting as it may be. 

4. Skin Pigmentation Will Change

The hormones that are going into overdrive will increase the number of melanin cells which will make your skin darker. You will find that some parts of your skin have gone darker such as the line between your naval area and lady bits. Your freckles will also be darker as well.

5. The Discharge In Your Lady Bits Will Change

You would have to expect that type of change to happen with pregnancy as well. You will find the discharge is like white colour and it is called leukorrhea. The extra estrogen makes this happen to provide extra protection so you don’t end up with nasty infections. 

6. You Will Be Blaming The Dog Often

The hormones that are part of pregnancy are progesterone and relaxin which can do a number to your digestive system. It is needed to sustain the growth of the baby. This means you will end up having plenty of gas and it will be not nice at all to the point that you will be blaming it on the dog all of the time. If you don’t have a dog, you will become creative. 

7. Bleeding Gums Can Happen

The progesterone will cause your blood vessels to become more sensitive especially in your mouth which means you will end up with bleeding gums. Don’t worry about it. Just be sure to take good care of your oral hygiene at this time especially if you do get sick which is highly likely. Be sure to keep rinsing. 

8. You Will Do Plenty Of #1 But Not Enough #2

You can thank progesterone again for this other pregnancy change. You are going to have a hard time being regular which means you are going to be constipated which will be quite uncomfortable. Be sure to keep the fibre intake up as much as possible. 

9. Wetting Your Pants Will Be Expected

Since you can’t do #2, you have an abundance of #1 taking over. This means you will tinkle when you are laughing, coughing or exerting energy in your pants. You can thank the hormones and the growing uterus for that. 

10. Your Feet Will Grow

Relaxin is a hormone that causes you to stretch and it will affect your feet as well. And this may be permanent which means you will not fit into your old size shoes again. 

11. Your Face Will Break Out

You will end up dealing with the same problem as you did when you were a teenager during pregnancy. You will break out in acne and it is again due to the hormonal changes happening in your body!

12. Sweating Will Happen

If all of these changes aren’t bad enough, you will end up breaking out in sweat more and that is because you are literally hot inside from your body working in overdrive!

13. Restless Leg Syndrome Will Be Experienced

The pregnancy hormones will cause your legs to jitter and this is not anything to worry about. It happens more during the evening and in the middle of the night. It is annoying but not concerning. 

14. Leg Cramps Won’t Be Fun

Thanks to those compressed blood vessels and the hormones, you will end up with painful leg cramps. You will want to make sure you get enough potassium in you to help reduce this annoying change!

15. Heartburn Is Not Going To Be Fun

In addition to pregnancy sickness, if you are unfortunate to have it, you will have heartburn as well thanks to the hormones. Especially progesterone. The growing uterus will be pushing everything up too which worsens this. 

16. Congestion Is No Fun

The hormones in overdrive will cause you to develop more mucus which means you will be more congested. Just keep extra tissues around to blow your nose!

17. Haemorrhoids Can Be Expected

This is another painful part of pregnancy. While you are dreaming about those adorable nerdy baby clothes your baby will be wearing, your bottom will hurt. You can thank the increased blood flow for causing these haemorrhoids during pregnancy. 

18. You Will Be Spitting More

The extra hormones also will cause extra saliva and if you are dealing with bad nausea, you will notice this unfortunate side effect even more. It is annoying so just keep tissues around to spit in if you must. 

19. Your Breasts Will Hurt More

The hormones that are working overtime in your body will cause those boobs to hurt even more than usual! That even means it will be more painful than what you have experienced during PMS! And that will also be the case later in the pregnancy when the milk starts to come in!

20. You Will Become Forgetful

Your brain will change as well due to hormones as well as due to excitement. So that means you will need to write everything down! Otherwise, you will miss important dates and appointments. That is where the term pregnancy brain comes from. 

These are the 20 pregnancy changes to expect! It will all be worth it when that bundle comes out!

*This is a collaborative guest post*