Pregnancy Symptoms!

I’m writing this post at 25 weeks, so am actually looking back and reviewing all the symptoms I’ve had to date rather than gradually updating as each new symptom arises… which I will do if I get any more!

I’m writing a separate post for food aversions/cravings, so check that out too!

Symptoms I’ve experienced:

Week 6 – Mild period pain but no period. Apparently this is called implantation pain… who knew!

Week 6 – Tender boobs. This is the one that made me question it not being a period – some women have this as a period thing, but I never have so it was weird. Couldn’t sleep on my front! (Which I am now incredibly “used to”.)

Week 7-8 – Sore and bleeding gums. Every time I brushed my teeth my gums were bleeding and eating really irritated them too.

Week 7 – Nausea and vomiting. Nausea felt like motion sickness, constantly, all day. Vomiting began at around lunch time, and every few days.

Week 7-20ish – Vivid dreams! These were so much fun. I’d wake up feeling like I’d had a private viewing (or part in) a Hollywood blockbuster. Some were even things like zombie dreams, but they were never scary, just exhilarating! (Added in week 29 when reminiscing about the earlier weeks…)

Week 8-23 – Nausea and vomiting. I was put on medication for the nausea which took away the motion sickness feeling, but would still feel really nauseous any time I was hungry. I started to vomit every night between 9.30-11.30pm. Sometimes not a lot, sometimes my whole meal. Occasionally I would vomit during the day too, but mainly it was at night, sometimes I’d sit on the side of the bath just wretching for 5-10 minutes. Pretty rough time. It finally started to ease off in week 22 with not vomiting every day and by the time I hit week 24 I had stopped vomiting, so I’ve been vomit free since week 23!!! Nausea is still cropping up at bedtime – though I’ve found if I lie on my right hand side it goes away!

Week 9-15 – Exhaustion! I was napping every afternoon and struggling so much with attention span through lectures. Praise the Lord for Zoom!

Week 9-15 – Cramping. I sporadically got cramps so became very well acquainted with my hot water bottle. It was never severe, and seems it was just the old uterus stretching!

Week 15 onwards – Poor sleep. I started getting uncomfortable around week 16 when I could no longer sleep on my front. I am normally either a front or back sleeper and sleeping on my front is no longer comfortable, and apparently sleeping on your back is really not recommended because of the vena cava or something like that which is the main vein/artery (science, I dunno…) that supplies blood and oxygen to the baby. Lots of people say it’s fine to lay on your back and you’ll know when to move because you’ll feel uncomfortable. Up to around week 23 I was ok with it, but from then on it’s started to feel uncomfortable unless I am propped up, which isn’t practical at night. I started using a pregnancy pillow to help with hip pain, and now use it to support my growing bump too! I’m definitely aware of when I have to move in the night now because it takes quite a bit of effort. I also have to get up to pee at least once normally!

Week 16-21 – Headaches. I am a person who gets a lot of headaches anyway, so up to this point in pregnancy I had a few, but when I hit around week 16 I had a few weeks where I got a bad headache every couple of days. Thankfully my midwife had told me that as I get frequent headaches I’m able to treat them as I usually do was able to take pain killers for it. At my week 20 check up I was told it’s ok to use menthol forehead stuff too which the internet says no to generally so that was a huge relief too!

Week 22 onwards – Achiness. Oh the back ache. Oh the heaviness of my stomach. Oh that trust hot water bottle.

(Side note – I actually have been so grateful for this COVID-induced season of slowness in social activity and the ability to participate only online for things because I would not have been able to get out of the house much since November… Several lectures I ended up taking my laptop to the bathroom because I was feeling so nauseous. Couldn’t have handled that in person! Being able to turn off my camera and mute myself, or step away for a few minutes on social calls is so much better than missing out all together!)

Continual symptoms:

Constipation: Nobody talks about this one. The apps all have it there, but not one friend who has been pregnant has ever mentioned the constipation you experience in pregnancy… Apparently it’s all hormonal – your body slows everything else down because all your energy is spent making a child. I’ve learnt a heck of a lot about the human body in the last 6 months!

Indigestion/Heartburn: This one everyone does talk about – I had it pretty intense at the beginning and bought a massive pack of Tums (like Gaviscon for English readers…) that I started to go through pretty rapidly. Though around week 19 I vomited only Tums at one point and it stopped me taking them for a few weeks. Just this last week (week 25) I’ve been getting heartburn just before bed so the Tums have come back out!