THE PREGNANCY SHOCKERS NOBODY WARNS YOU ABOUT

Pregnancy is one of those lovely journeys in life, that whilst everyone can sympathise with, nobody truly gets it because - every path is different. Even your own body can react completely different with each pregnancy it carries, just comparing Noah and Patrick for me, they were absolute worlds apart. There was so much I experienced first time around that I never saw again, and yet there was tonnes that with P I'd never expected. Pregnancy is a minefield and it doesn't matter how many antenatal classes you attend, baby books you read or times you hit google - something will surprise you. I wanted to share with you the things I found nobody spoke about, I touched on my postpartum hair loss just last week and it seems I wasn't alone in my horror as my hair started to fall out in clumps, it happens to everyone. So this week, I'm doing more of the same.




Toilet dramas will happen.
Some days during pregnancy I could be sat on the toilet for hours, frightened to strain to hard in case I ended up in take a break magazine as the girl who gave birth on the toilet. Nothing would happen. I'd eaten all the stuff, believe me, every last bit, and so I knew what should be going on, you know, down there... but still, nothing. It was frustrating, uncomfortable, but totally normal. Switch to the next week and I'd be the other end of the scale, swearing that this must be a sign of baby being on the way as all the books told me clearing out can happen just before labour. They were wrong, clearing out actually happens pretty darn regularly, it's usually followed by a bout of constipation - ahhh pregnancy really is glorious.

Fanny daggers.
Yes, the pain isn't always in the rear. Nobody, I repeat NOBODY, told me about lightening crotch, or as I prefer to call it - fanny daggers. The latter name is much more apt as that's exactly what it feels like, a sharp bolt of pain through your nether regions, it can happen in Tescos, it could happen in the car, in bed, absolutely anywhere, I think the element of surprise is the worst part, nobody wants to be doubled over on the fruit and veg aisle do they?

Aversions.
When pregnant with Patrick I suffered with the most horrendous hg, it ruined most of my pregnancy for me. I was aware the sickness would happen, and sickness sometimes felt like a relief but nobody warned me just how bad aversions could be. Cheese was my worst and at the height of my hg if somebody even said the C word, I would throw up, the thought was enough to send me dashing for the bathroom. My aversions were completely out of control to the point that if Noah even smelt of outdoors, it would set me off. I'd be scared to enter the kitchen for fear of smelling something I couldn't handle. Aversions were by a long mile, worse than sickness for me and yet again, nobody had mentioned this could happen.

Get your flight socks on the ready
The only time I'd heard of varicose veins were when you were told to stretch your legs on long haul flights to avoid them. I was naive, I assumed that because I was 21 I didn't have to worry about them. Wrong, again. I spent my evenings googling varicose vein treatment when I noticed the blue knotty lines on the inside of my calve, it was mortifying but alas when I turned to the trusty web, it turned out that I wasn't alone and in fact, so many others out there suffered too. Thankfully, during the postpartum period they disappeared like magic.

I'm sure there are still things even now after two boys, that I've not experienced and the truth is, you could go through 300 pregnancies and be in the dark still about so much. Leave below one thing that shocked you about pregnancy!

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