This week has been a pretty interesting week. I have been attending Lamaze classes with my thirty-six week pregnant wife this week, and it's been something of an eye opener. No matter how many TV sitcom births you watch, it does not prepare you (in the slightest possible manner) for the truth of what is involved with getting the increasing large baby out of your wife. All of this on top of finishing off my thesis and all the related fun there.
With all these thoughts and all this stress going through my mind, I wanted to do something a bit fun and simply entertaining today to help get through this pregnancy, coming as it does at a rather rough time in Sondra and my life. So, for all those would-be (or wanna-be) mothers out there, here are some of the less pleasant side effects of pregnancy to consider before making the leap. I won't even get into things like morning sickness and stretch marks; most people already know them, and we're looking at
3 Negative Side Effects of Pregnancy (That Nobody Mentions)
1. Heightened Sense of Smell – You might have heard that would-be mothers' senses are heightened, that they are able to hear, see, and yes, smell things more readily. This makes sense; they need to be able to react to anything that could affect their children or pregnancy, after all, and sharper senses make doing so that much easier. What could be wrong with that?
Keep that in mind the next time your husband/boyfriend/significant other breaks wind. What seems like a minor bad smell right now can, once your nose is functioning at heightened power, smell like ‘an animal has gone up there and died', to paraphrase my wife Sondra*. Unless you live with someone who has mastered the rare ability of never passing gas (at least, not while you're in the room), expect to have some pretty bad smelling experiences during your nine months of pregnancy.
2. Nesting – Here's something that tends to be overlooked about pregnancy: you are going to want to make your home spotless. If you are a pretty clean person already, and don't have a huge house, this might not be so bad. You double your fortnightly cleaning to weekly, increase your attention to the side areas and the little nooks, and you'll have a spotless home in no time.
If you have a much larger home, though, things can get tricky quick. If you have a four story house that you are taking care of, particularly one that is rather old and tends to build up dust at a phenomenal rate, and you'll find yourself going crazy trying to keep things tidy (and driving your husband/significant other crazy, as well).
3. Interrupted Sleep – There's a lot of reasons for this one. Perhaps the biggest one, and one that people tend not to mention, is that with a baby resting on your bladder, you're going to need to urinate more often. Unfortunately, unless you don't drink anything for several hours prior to going to bed (NOT recommended, whether you are pregnant or not), you will likely end up waking up at some point during the night to empty your bladder, at least if Sondra is any indication.
But even if you never have any bladder issues, there is another reason you are likely to wake up at least once a night for many nights during your third trimester: you have another person living inside you, one who has no sense of ‘morning' or ‘evening' or ‘the middle of the night'. Our little Laney has woken Sondra up several times in the past few weeks, whether by kicking, squirming, or simply shifting her position. Add in the increased difficulty in getting comfortable when there is that much more weight to handle, all located in your stomach, and a good night sleep is tricky to achieve at the end of your pregnancy.
Have I scared you away from having a baby? Well, that wasn't exactly my goal. I just wanted to share some of my recent experiences, and have a little fun while doing so. Having a baby is a wonderful experiences, bad side effects or no. In fact,
One of the greatest experiences you will ever have is feeling the first kick from your child.
Don't let the writing of one personal finance blogger scare you off. Have a great weekend, and for all of you with children, remember what a blessing they are.
*I told Sondra I was writing this article, and mentioned this particular quote, and in response, she gave me the “Stephen Colbert quizzical evil eyes” (her quote). Perhaps there is another side effect, of having a clever sense of humor heightened by pregnancy. Or perhaps that's just my beautiful wife Sondra. Either way, I love her, and our soon-to-arrive little baby.