Any links on pregnancy?

Well...when you put it so...uh...scientifically...

I've been pregnant a handful of times and delivered a couple of children. I imagine many AWers are in this boat. I'm sure many of us can help you from a sociological perspective. What specifically are you asking?

OK. As for how it feels as the baby grows, I think it's something that catches you unawares. When you feel the baby moving at first, you don't realize that the feather-like flutters in your stomach are movements. Those imperceptible flutters turn into frisbee tosses later on.

I suppose a baby growing inside of you is similar (IMHO) to other things changing physiologically. You don't feel your nails or your hair grow, but you see it. OK...that's over simplifying...but.... a baby's growth inside the womb just kinda happens. Yeah, it's feet, ass, head pokes its way under our ribs and it's damned uncomfortable.

I hope someone chimes in on the multiple births issue.

I'm not saying asking questions isn't great (it is) but if you're pretty new to the subject and are looking for a lot of information, I would borrow or buy a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It's kinda the pregnancy bible. You'll most likely pick up a lot of perspective as well as the kind of insider details you're probably looking for.

Morning sickness is, I believe, a response to hormonal changes. You can get light morning sickness when you first start taking birth control, as well.

Morning sickness is usually due to the hormones - you get flooded with them in the very beginning and it usually goes away by the 2nd trimester (some women are sick the entire time, some are nauseous 24/7 but never throw up - it varies. Some lucky women are never sick at all.) From what I've heard, the first pregnancy's the worst and that was the case with me.

Morning sickness vs stomach upset? I'd say if it happens more than 2 or 3 days in a row, it's not an upset stomach.

No, it doesn't hurt as the baby grows, but it does sometimes when the baby kicks, or shifts position. My son pressed on my sciatic nerve in certain positions and my back and leg would kill! Also, as the baby grows (this is from my experience, only - again, a lot of the "facts" tend to differ from woman to woman) I found I just wasn't hungry, and when I laid on my back, I couldn't breathe. That was in the 8th and 9th months mostly. You do tend to have to pee a lot.

From my experience...

YES! It hurts when the womb expands. That's contractions. If you had a cramp in your leg after overdoing it at soccer or running or something and you fell over on the floor because your leg was in such pain with the cramp, that might be an example. For a woman in labor, the cramp takes a bit of time. It takes a life of its own. It sort or crescendoes and decrescendoes. It starts light and peaks painfully.

As for morning sickness.... it felt to me like just a bit of nauseousness. (Many other women will answer this differently...so pick and choose what you want for your character.) Certain foods made me sick to my stomach (like being hungover) and those food triggers varried with each kid.

I ran from the room with my first child at a fish fry: fried catfish.

Oh...I also couldn't take my prenatal vitamin in the morning. It made me feel ill. I took it at night after dinner.

ETA: Ooops! Misread "womb expands" question.

No. You don't feel it as the baby grows. My answer refers to contractions before delivery.

Olive oil and garlic were smells that made me sick. And I'm all over the olive oil and garlic when I cooked. It was rough for a while. And I had low grade nausea all damn day long until the fourth month when it just poof, went away.

You can also have ligament pains, and leg cramps (at night). And heartburn, oh the heartburn...
But yes, there really is so much to say on the topic, a book would be a great start.

Oh, yeah, don't forget round ligament pain! also, after being pregnant a few times, my hips would "pop" at the end of pregnancy. In the last trimester, hormones are secreted that make joints and ligaments "looser".

Never had morning sickness, all of my complications were in the middle/towards the end of pregnancy.

Symptoms of early pregnancy can include (but don't necessarily afflict all women)
loss of menstruation
morning sickness
breast tenderness
fatigue
mood swings
changes in appetite (hungry all the time, or not hungry at all)
having to go to the bathroom a lot

Been pregnant 11 times with 8 live births.

I'm with mommyjo2, I had no symptoms during the first trimester but from the middle on.

Swelling of hands, feet, and ankless.
Heartburn...horrible I can't breathe heartburn.
Aversion to smells... I didn't have that with my first pregnancy, but I'm pregnant now, and certain smells send me running...I tried to buy chicken the other day but couldn't get near the meat counter b/c I could smell it.
Moodiness, crying, extreme highs and lows.
Vivid strange dreams.

With my second pregnancy I'm having ligament pain in my belly area, which my doctor says usually comes if pregnancies are close together b/c the ligaments that "hold up the uterus" are stretched and abused from the first go 'round.

Hope that helps.

Morning sickness, oh yes.

I had a serious aversion to the smell of cooked meat, too.

Anemia can also be a common side effect, and they test for that. They also make you take a gestational diabetes test in the second trimester...the most gawdawful orange syrup that made me want to vomit. So sickly sweet and sludgy!

Swelling of the feet and ankles is common, but too much is bad, might be a sign of pre-eclampsia.

There's more, but unfortunately, my computer ate it and I don't want to retype it. Best advice is above, definitely get a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. Lots of information on symptoms and fetal development in there.

I know this is an old post... but just curious why no one mentioned the horrible back pain and pressure on the colon as you get bigger?

There's not so much 'womb' pain, but in teh beginning, the uterus sits in one place and puts pressure on weird stuff like the bladder, etc. after a few months, the location shifts and other stuff is getting pressure, like pressure pushing UP as the baby grows and the fluid fills up more... more heartburn, and some pressure from the tendons that connect the uterus to the sides of the pelvic bone. Feels like a sharp pain in your side, but it's the tendons.

Then towards the end, you have to pee EVEN MORE, and when the baby kicks, sometimes it kicks a certain organ (like your colon UGH) and you get random pains from the kicks. Breathing becomes harder as the baby takes up some of the space of the lungs... as the weight in front grows, the pressure on your back to compensate that weight can lead to sciatic nerve problems and you get shooting pains down the butt and sides of your legs. Also, your skin ITCHES like crazy because of the stretching, and if you're unlucky enough, you wake up to find a big purple stretch mark where the skin stretched too fast.

The last couple of weeks is when the baby "drops"... this is when the head is called "engaged". In other words, the baby has turned and its head is now stuck in the area where it is 'supposed' to come out of your pelvic bone. Again, more colon pressure, but you can breathe now cause it's not as high up. Your back is killing you, and you want to walk around holding your belly cause it feels like it's going to fall off. You lean backwards to compensate for the 'front weight' and your back gets worse. You pee every half hour no matter how much you drink because now the baby is literally LAYING on top of your bladder. Every now and then you get a good kidney punch/kick depending on which way the baby is facing.

Does any of this help? LOL

oops. Forgot to mention EXTREME horniness in teh 2nd trimester because of the hormone levels... at least in quite a few women I know.

SeisKink said:

On the process of being pregnant, the scientific details of the human body forming inside the womb and scientific details on conception and the process of childbirth. Thanks much, I know little about this subject yet my project is largely about it >_<

Click to expand...

One word for you: google.

Find a pregnancy and parenting site. ivillage.com pregnancy and parenting is one. It has a calender that gives what to expect month by month as to symptoms, how the baby is growing etc... For real life experience audit one or more of the expecting club message boards where they all commiserate and compare and contrast symptoms. You'll get a sense of the variety of experience and the emotional and physical common denominators.

I wrote a ton of stuff on pregnancy for a client of mine. I've had 5 kids, so feel free to PM me anytime you'd like.

Here's a link to the articles-they're not the best in the world because he wanted them for SEO, but I have all nine months in there and more

www.familyresource.com/contributors/julie-fletcher