So, I have a friend who’s about 3 months pregnant. She’s been rather sick, puking, hacking, not eating a ton. Snacking on fruits and veg when she can keep them down, and the occasional pudding.
Her 3 month pregnant belly is HUGE. Like, popped right out. The rest of her is the same size which is sort of medium sized (about a size 8) so it doesn’t seem like an all over weight gain.
She’s going in for an ultrasound in 1 week so there will ultimately be an answer, but in the mean time - what does a huge, not-so-far-along pregnant belly mean?
FWIW her husband has suggested that there are 8 babies in there although she thinks it’s unlikely as there was no IVF for anything…
I doubt it means anything as every woman is different.
My cousin in law is smaller, and with her first child she didn’t pop until about 6 months. She is currently pregnant with her second and in her 4th month. She looks 6+ months and popped at about 3. Same woman, different pregnancy.
It just depends on her body and how she’s carrying the pregnancy.
I’m on the larger side and I was in maternity clothes within two weeks of peeing on a stick. The funny thing is, I really didn’t show or grow further in a way that was obviously noticeable or not hide-able for months. Enough immediately to need stretchy-band pants, but not enough that I couldn’t wear regular tops. Within a month of my due date, a medical professional said he didn’t realize I was pregnant. Then two weeks before my due date, I popped like a thermometer on a turkey. Like overnight. Only then did I have to start wearing exclusively maternity tops.
My mother was a comparable size to me before her fourth child and she was obviously pregnant by three months. My sister wasn’t that big when she was born and she was the only one in there.
It’s funny how we’re all so different, even differences in pregnancies by the same woman.
I didn’t really start to show until 20 weeks or so (still wearing pre-preg clothes til 17 weeks), while others are pretty obvious from 8 weeks. It all depends on your initial starting weight, the shape of your body, and how your uterus reacts. I’m sure there’s no need to worry about anything more than a single one!
Speaking of bellies, I came across this site when I was early pregnant, and paranoid about what pregnancy would do to my body. Kind of reassuring to see that bellies come in all shapes and sizes, regardless of what grows inside. Link may not be SFW as it shows, well, ladies’ bellies. http: // thebellyproject.wordpress.com/
It could also be polyhydramnious, which is excess amniotic fluid. I had it with my last pregnancy, and my tummy got unbelievably large, and it started early. By 6 months, I looked due any day, and by 8 months couldn’t walk any distances or fit behind the wheel of a car. It’s good that she’s getting an ultrasound- if that was your friend’s condition it would just need to be monitored, most likely. But it is another cause of early pop-edness.
Is this her second child? Generally women start to show a lot earlier after their first child because their uterus (and I’d imagine, all the skin and muscles associated with it) has already been stretched.
It could also be that she just looks huge in comparison to before. If you are used to having a flat stomach the difference seems readily apparent. I thought I was huge at 4 months until I got to 8 months and realized what huge really means! It could also be that she is carrying all in front, some women seem to get wider or thicker all around and some seem to just get that ‘basketball in my shirt’ look.
Speaking as a currently pregnant woman, I would urge you not to mention anything about excess amniotic fluid. That could cause a great deal of distress to a pregnant woman, especially if she looks online and sees all of the complications that could arise from it or the causes of it. There’s no need to cause unncessary anxiety in a pregnant woman - we have enough as it is!
::cough:: Perhaps I saw this friend in yoga poses online years ago? That friend looks to be a basketball carrier if I ever saw one. Which will be fun when your friend has men walking up from behind hooting and flirting and then see the beachball. She’ll never hear so many “sorry ma’ams.”
And tell your friend real gingery gingerale with sugar, like Blue Sky makes works miracles on the icky tummy.
Let us know what her doctor says after the sonogram!
This is so timely. We had two women in our store yesterday, one right after the other. One was due within the next week…wearing a regular t-shirt, and we could not tell she was pregnant at all. My boss even commented on that fact and asked her to open her coat! The next woman isn’t due until the middle of March, and she looked like she could pop at any second, and was straining the seams on the maternity top.
I looked huge at two months…it was all bloat! It disappeared at three months and then I didn’t actually show my pregnant belly until four months. I guess I was just hauling around a huge amount of gas in my belly that didn’t move for a month or so.
I had such bad morning sickness I lost 10% of my body weight in the first trimester (this is quite a big deal if you only weigh 45kg to begin with).
So- I didn’t have a bump until well into my 4th month, and then it was a BUMP.
By the end I was like a house- but all of it was bump, so I was back in my pre-pregnancy clothes within a month. Putting on all your pregnancy weight in one area has some benefits!
Big bump+sickness could well indicate twins.
My advice for the sickness:
If you like it, eat it. If that means ice lollies and Doritos or chocolate and bananas, it doesn’t matter. If you can stand the smell, texture and taste enough to want to eat it even when you feel sick- EAT IT. I survived on pineapple juice, pear flavoured ice lollies, mashed potatoes, chips (french fries) and vanilla ice-cream for weeks because it was all I could face eating- my baby is fine.
Don’t eat and drink at the same time, your stomach gets bloated and you’ll feel sicker.
If you can’t keep food or water down go to an ER- do not wait until you’re really sick from dehydration (like I did…oops).
Discover food that tastes ok on the way back up-ginger ale, imho, loses points because it tastes foul on the rebound.
Same here. Well, at three months I’m starting to look pregnant to myself, but a lot of the bloat went away, and now what I do have is actual uterus & stuff.
Major constipation could also be a factor, that can really make your belly pook out like a pregnant woman’s even if you’re not pregnant. And it’s really, really common.
Yes, please don’t say anything about anything that could be wrong with her! I agree, she’s likely already panicking about all the things she knows could go wrong, and adding another thing would just freak her out even more.
IF she has anything wrong, her doctors will be able to tell her, and there would be no point in her worrying about it before then, since there’s nothing she could do about it, anyway.