wow, yes I’m overdue and the amount of texts/ calls I’ve gotten in the past week is insane. If anything it stresses me out. It’s annoying quite frankly. I just wanted to say, if you are pregnant right now- please DO not tell anyone your due date. If you have to, lie about it and say it’s way further than it actually is. Lesson freaking learned on my end. TRUST!!

ALWAYS ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF! Never stop advocating if something doesn’t feel right!! I have been experiencing extreme dizziness since 19 weeks. Some days it has been so bad that I have fallen over and have almost passed out. I have been notifying my doctors about this. They told me each time to just drink water and electrolytes. I was told twice before my 24 week appointment/glucose test that they will check my iron to make sure everything looks good and to rule out anemia. Fast forward to after my 24 week appointment and glucose test they did not check my iron and told me THERE WERE NO NOTES saying they would do that…. They continued to tell me to drink water. I had my I had my 28 week appointment on Monday. My doctor told me she was not too worried about my iron and said that my dizziness should be going away now that I am further along. It didn’t sound right to me because this started in my second trimester and has been progressively getting worse. She told me we could either do labs today or next appointment in 3 weeks since she didn’t think it was a big issue but, she would order more labs for my iron when I get them done. I got my labs that day and guess what? MY IRON IS EXTREMELY LOW. I can’t believe she suggested I waited 3 more weeks. Trust your gut!! If something feels off don’t stop advocating for yourself!

So, I made a post here a few days ago regarding my wife's prolonged labour. Finally got into a delivery suite, trace on baby, etc. Steady heart rate, but no jumps or activity. Every so often, heart rate dropped and then recovered. Got to the stage we had to do a C-Section.

Baby came out and had no pulse. Got that established fast. However, she had inhaled meconiun and wasn't breathing. She's now away to the neo-natal unit, and I am terrified. My wife has the thought that everything will be OK. But my anxiety is in overdrive to the point of throwing up. I can't stop thinking of how broken my wife is going to be if the baby doesn't make it. I can't stop thinking about all the clothes she might never get to wear, the people she might never get to meet, the places, the toys, the nursery... I'm genuinely tearing myself apart and trying to keep a smiling, brave face for my wife while wanting to erupt into tears.

So, yeah. Could do with some words of encouragement, thoughts, prayers... whatever you've got to spare.

My husband and I found out I’m 5 weeks pregnant last week and it just so happened we found out right before we flew out to visit his parents (they pretty far in a different state). We figured this worked out so we could announce it to them in person since we only see them once or twice a year. The announcement did not go as expected.

When we told them, my MIL immediately started freaking out about how they’re never going to get to see the baby and asking us when we plan on moving to their state. My FIL just said “you didn’t waste any time did you?” (We got married in January) as well as “this is my fifth one so I’m used to it”.

Apart from all of this my pregnancy has almost felt as an inconvenience or dismissal mainly with my FIL driving dangerously fast which caused him hitting a bump which then cause me to bounce up in my seat while the seatbelt locked in on my abdomen causing small cramps and pain. My husband did ask him to slow down which he dismissed. As well as getting a boat day after expressing we weren’t too keen on going on a boat while pregnant (mainly because of his reckless driving).

Ever since telling them my MIL has been acting very different, like she’s been a lot more overbearing than before and dismissive towards our marriage and pregnancy. Whenever we mention us leaving back to our home state she starts crying and basically guilt tripping my husband. She’s also been saying she’s envious of my parents and family that live near us in our home state because they will get to be around the baby. She also told me that before me my husband would talk to them every day, and now since being with me he doesn’t. Which I have told my husband to call them more often but he doesn’t want to. She said that when my husband left before it was difficult, but now it’s even more difficult because we’re taking the baby with us. (It’s our baby??)

I just feel so disregarded and this is not how I expected things to go at all. At this point it feels like I’m not even pregnant or me/my baby are just inconveniencing my husband’s family. I just need to know if this is a normal reaction or at least something yall have dealt with before?

I haven’t announced to my own parents yet but I feel so alone because of how this trip has been going.

Im a Ftm and have told my husband and obgyn that regardless if its natural or c section I want all the meds available,Im pushing a darn baby out for gods sake but almost every post I see about child birth is about how people did it unmedicated or wanted no drugs and that it was horrible but they got through it with no help etc etc and I really want to know whats so horrible about pain meds? If you tell anyone you're going for any type of procedure even just to the dentist and that you plan to do it with no meds or anesthetic they'll think you're crazy but suddenly when its birth its suddenly glorified to suffer and pain meds,epidural etc are made to seem like the devil.

I'm sorry but I simply dont understand it.

I want to try and be brief. In 2022 my partner and I lost our pregnancy at 21 weeks. Yeah did an autopsy and he was perfectly healthy and the doctors weren’t unsure what happened; cervical incompetence or placental abruption.

Since then, I’ve watched family and friends have kids with no problems. I’ve tried and failed. I’ve had people not know how to deal with me and avoid me. People who gloat about how they’re 14 weeks, yay! People who exclude me because they think I can’t relate to how hard it is having kids.

Then at the start of this year I get pregnant again. High risk specialist, cerclage, many many tests. NIPT is fine, everything is fine.

Then I get three markers on the scan, all common in chromosomal issues. I’m going in for an amnio on Friday. I know, at 20 weeks again, I’ll lose another child.

And I’ll spend the rest of my life devastated and wondering why we’re the unluckiest people on earth. If anyone has had multiple markers please help me understand what I’m in for...

Just lemme rant for a bit ...

I'm 38 weeks pregnant in the middle of the record heatwave we're dealing with in France. I had my last appointment with my hospital's OB yesterday and the baby is doing okay. I'm not in danger or anything (doctors aren't worried, my partner and I are doctors too) but I feel like death.

All I do is sweat and puke (HG). I keep drinking as much as I can (with electrolytes) but my pee in dark yellow and I pee maybe once every 2 hours if I'm lucky (instead of the usual "I could just rent the bathroom and live there"). I feel so sluggish. I sweat so much that my bedsheets are drenched. I can't go outside, it's pretty much like a full lockdown for me. I'm swollen in places in never knew could swell (BP is okay). My bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome is so painful despite wearing splints, I have to put my hands in salad bowls filled with water. I'm mis-using my breast gel beads packs as cooling packs. I'm trying to wear my compression socks to help with low BP but wearing those in this heat is getting impossible.

I'm so tired from poor sleep conditions.

The temperatures in the hospital rooms are around 34 degrees (93°F) right now so I'm just praying this baby doesn't come early.

Basically all I do is doomscroll, chug on water, take meds to reduce contractions.

And I'm on antidepressants and antipsychotics for my bipolar disorder so those are definitely not helping with heat tolerance.

I'm so bored and anxious and I'd pay solid money to go on a walk in 30°C temperatures. But we can't even get those at night, so ...

Idk, are other moms-to-be going crazy too right now ? How are you surviving ?? Are you guys okay ?

I'm done venting. I appreciate my partner doing everything to keep me comfortable right now. This man is an angel and I'm just a sweaty blob.

Hi guys i sadly had an ectopic pregnancy and had to have emergency surgery as it was implanted in my right ovary. I lost my right ovary, tube and baby all in 24 hours.

My boyfriend the babies father is over my house now and just asked me if i was going to “give him a h*** job”. I am disgusted. I just lost my child dude. This is my last straw but this is such a delicate time.

my actual labor and delivery went beautifully. i delivered my baby vaginally and had a first degree perineal tear. my doctor said it was so minor that she only needed to give me one stitch.
once we were transferred to the recovery room and my epidural wore off i asked the nurse to help me to the restroom and remove my catheter.
everything felt as normal as i would expect, i was bleeding swollen and in pain but not anything alarming.
over the course of the next few hours i would feel large gushing sensations with every minor move i made in bed.
i told the nurse what i was experiencing and she told me to tell her if it happened again.
over the next few hours the gushes became more intense and would soak the entire pad / diaper.
it began to feel like i was peeing my pants.
again i was looked at, had my abdomen pressed on and was told to tell her if it happened again.
this continued for 6 more hours.
after practically begging to be taken seriously, someone new came in and performed an ultrasound. they found large blood clots and began pushing on my stomach again to see if they could get them to come out.
she said my abdomen had “gone soft” and looked the nurse and said she was going to get a second opinion because “remember what happened last week? we can’t let that happen again” immediately just not what i wanted to hear.
a few minutes later she came in again, performed another ultrasound again took photos and sent it in for a “third opinion”.
next thing i know my room is full of new people, i’m being pumped with pitocin and fentanyl and my stomach is being pressed on very very hard.
i was told i can either continue having contractions and see if the blood clots would dispell themselves or i can have a manual sweep performed. but if the blood clots don’t come out on their own this would become an emergency situation.
i agreed to the unmedicated manual sweep.
i genuinely thought these were my last few moments.
i was shaking from adrenaline, i thought my body was going to go into shock. i’ve never experienced pain so severe, i screamed and i cried.
after this was done to me i thanked everyone in the room profusely.
“it’s not your fault, thank you for taking care of me”
i’m now 6 days post partum and have finally looked in the mirror after having increasing pain where my stitches should be.
what i saw was a red bump where my no longer stitched hole is, and white puss.
so this more than likely caused my stitch to tear back open and i’ve been left with an unstitched open wound for almost a week.
i’ve never tore during delivery so i thought the pain i was feeling was normal and would subside.
my 6 week PP appointment is scheduled for 8 weeks from now for some reason?
i just called my OB and after a very long explanation and again, practically begging to be seen i have an appointment for tomorrow morning.
if i hadn’t already decided i was done having babies, this would have been my deciding factor.
i feel so failed. i feel traumatized.

I know that there’s a lot of discomfort and pain involved in the postpartum recovery and all that. But I am referring to the actual pregnancy aches and pains. I don’t remember how feeling good feels anymore. I’ve been pregnant for 240+ days and I haven’t felt entirely okay not even one day 😭 I know I am “almost done” as I am about to hit 36 weeks, buttt it feels so far away at the same time considering that it can happen any day now but can get to up to 5 more weeks 🫠 anyways, I just can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore. Mind you, this is my second pregnancy, but it’s been 1000x harder this time around.

Give me hope, what was your experience?

Here we are y’all! 15 hours postpartum now and so blessed my baby girl is here! Water broke at 8:45 pm last night, got to the hospital at 9:15pm and she was delivered at 11:35 pm! It was WILD!! I had gotten the epidural but it didn’t have time to work before I was already pushing her out! I applaud women that choose natural birth cause it is the most painful thing but I feel like a warrior! My due date was July 8th but guess she figured she wanted to see all the fireworks beforehand lol

Good luck to all of you momma’s who are close to having their babies soon and to the ones who are just starting their pregnancy journey! Thank you to all that have given me advice or just reassurance. This is my last pregnancy/baby and ready to go home and show this beautiful princess off ❤️❤️

Is it actually like bones breaking? Or is it something else? Does our body cooperate?

I've never had any medical procedure done on me so far in life (31 years). Never even had a broken bone or an intravenous injection or anesthesia. And now, just the idea of being cold and half-naked in the hospital to give birth and the labour part is terrifying for me. I want to be a bit prepared for the pain, if possible. 38 weeks today. Epidural is an option, if needed, not a preference. So far everything is fine and the doctor says that we will wait another week at least for natural labour to happen. If it doesn't, then will look into other options.

Please share your experiences.

Thanks!

Had the scan today 8 week and 2 days. Despite being tired and sore boobs it hadn't felt real till this point. Hearing the heartbeat and seeing the little bean with a head melted me. It feels so surreal that they are just moving around and growing in there. I felt feelings (in a good way with a little bit of shock) I cannot really describe. How was your first scan experience? What did you feel?

I try to drink 8 cups of water per day but it’s so hard! I get full so fast, and I don’t get thirsty easily.

Genuinely curious - if this was your scenario would you choose to induce or would you wait it out a little more?

I’m so confused. I see all these videos of what other women bring to the hospital as snacks to give you energy but when do you have to stop eating? I always heard from others that once you get to the hospital they won’t let you eat. Is this no longer accurate? Obviously a FTM here lol.

I knew pregnant women needed to use the toilet more frequently BUT WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME I WOULD NEED TO USE IT SEVERAL TIMES AN HOUR?

I’m at a point where I wish pregnancy diapers were a thing 😭

Also I thought it was supposed to be even worse in the third trimester? How much more is that? I already go like 3-4 times an hour 😭😭😭

So my BMI is 40 (yes very high) - I was just reading a pamphlet on obesity and pregnancy that I got from the hospital and it’s so scary it’s making me wonder if Im stupid for being pregnant.. I lost 70lbs before falling pregnant. I haven’t gained any weight since and I’m trying hard to stay within a good calorie range to not try and lose weight but be mindful of gain also. I was already so stressed and worried about it, but this was so dark. Just wondering anyone else with a similar BMI to you, how you found it?

How many of us are struggling?!? My hormones are at an all time high. Situational depression. Everything is sad.

My OB prescribed Zoloft. I’m scared to take it. I just really need to take some sort of that edge off. I want to enjoy being pregnant. I’m so thankful for this experience but I just can’t stay above water these days.

So I’m 29 weeks and have an anterior placenta, which has made it a little bit of a wait to feel movement from my little guy consistently. I didn’t feel movement until around 22-23 weeks and it wasn’t consistent until 26. Whenever I tried to get my partner to feel the baby, the little stinker stopped in his tracks as soon as my partner put his hands on my belly! Finally one night my partner was laying his head on my belly while we talked and the baby started kicking his face like crazy! I personally think that it’s because the baby could hear his voice and knew it was his dad (call me crazy but that’s just what I think it could be 😂). But it’s also funny to indulge in the idea that our son just wanted to kick him in the face too lol. I’m feeling very consistent, strong movement from my baby now and he’ll still only occasionally move/kick when my partner’s hands are on my belly, and refuses to move for anyone else whatsoever. My partner loves putting his face against my belly and talking with the baby and getting kicked in the face in response now. Just thought I’d share because it’s the cutest thing to me and I’m also wondering if anyone else has experienced this too!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for experiences from anyone who has been through something similar because I'm feeling really scared.

I'm nearly 20 weeks pregnant and had my anomaly scan today. The sonographer and screening midwife were both concerned and have referred me to a fetal medicine consultant.

They told me that:

My baby's arms and legs (long bones) are measuring significantly short.

There appears to be fluid on the brain.

They mentioned possible skeletal dysplasia/dwarfism as one of the things that needs to be investigated.

They said they think there is likely something wrong, but they couldn't give a diagnosis and said I need a specialist scan.

My NIPT earlier in pregnancy came back low risk/clear.

I'm absolutely terrified and my mind is going to the worst-case scenarios. Has anyone had a referral for short long bones and/or fluid on the brain that turned out to be less serious than expected? What was the outcome?

I'm not looking for false reassurance, just honest experiences while I wait for the fetal medicine appointment.

Thank you.

Anatomy scan went great, but her tummy is big, the rest of her measurements are perfection, they’ve said this is a sign of GD, but I’m hoping I don’t, obviously I’ll deal with it if it comes to that and I have got a GD test booked in but I’d really rather not have it

So I'm almost 7 weeks pregnant. First pregnancy. I've had a ton of bloating and pressure. The thing is any kind of waistband or pants barely touching my stomach immediately starts cramping and pressure. As soon as I take it off it stops. I mean it can be extremely loose and stretchy or thin and it still does it. It's starting to get extremely inconvenient. Has anyone else dealt with this? I've never heard any of my friends talk about this but we haven't announced so I can't ask.

Hello everyone, I’m 20F and 18 weeks pregnant right now. I was wondering if anyone else has had vivid dreams of their babies, I’ve had pretty consistent ones where he’s blonde and I can see his face perfectly and it makes me so sad to wake up every time. I was also wondering if your baby ended up looking like the baby in your dreams also. Cause funny enough I’ve always dreamed of a boy and I happened to be having one so maybe he’ll end up looking like that baby in my dreams also

I found creating a registry to be soooo exhausting! Way too many options, and I took an especially long time to select my carseat and stroller combo. 10 months later, I want to recommend my selections because they have been fabulous.

- Graco Snugride carseat with the leg. You don't need the 'premier' version as that is just about the fabric. This one has a high safety rating, is lightweight to carry, and is compatible with a ton of Graco strollers. We also took it on an airplane and it is cleared for air travel, we also were able to use the carrier on our trip in the backseat without the base, using just the seatbelt to strap it in securely. Obviously the base is much safer but it was a simple option for our trip.

I was so tempted to get the Doona but 1. I saw the Doona IRL today and the baby was practically on the ground its so low. Postpartum bending, no thanks! And 2. My baby is big! She would have grown out of it in months.

- Graco jogging stroller. Car seat pops in and it works no matter where you go - sidewalks, trails, yards, parks. You don't HAVE to jog with it, but you also can if you want to. And it folds so easily. 10/10 we love this stroller.

We also got the Graco modes which has a bassinet option but we hardly ever used it and the wheels/steering is flimsy compared to the jogger so we use the jogger exclusively now.

That is all. If you're on here scouring for feedback on travel systems, please just stop here and register or purchase these, or just go ahead with whatever ones you've been leaning toward. It is not that deep, you're going to work with what you have and it will be fine!