Hey, moms and pregnant dopers…to take my mind of things last night I watched a special on Discovery Channel about pregnancy.
And I’ve got to tell you, I thought I knew all about it, being a twenty eight year old college educated woman of childbearing age.
Turns out I was shocked! They said that in the seventh, eighth and ninth month your organs are all squashed up into your chest (or at least the ribcage), and that your heart enlarges and tips over and your intestines are all squeezed up…wild!
I just wanted to ask you…what in the world is that like? And how does it feel after giving birth? Do they quickly shift back or is it over time? Is it describable?
Jarbaby,
In a word—crowded! I just had my first child in May, and by the last few weeks I felt like my entire torso had turned into babyland—“Fetal Invasion–how to protect yourself…tonight at ten”
Your guts, like you said, are all squished up way higher than they should be so heartburn is an everyday thing. Your lungs are cramped so it can be hard to breath, especially when you’re sitting upright (like at a desk). Then there is the fact that you have 6-8 pounds of baby situated directly on top of your bladder. Ugh! I couldn’t sleep through the night without at least 2 bathroom breaks for the last four months.
And then, when it’s finally over—you still have all this empty space in your belly where baby used to be camped out. I’d say the whole downward gut-shift thing takes at least a day or so. I can’t even describe how it felt to reach down and feel my tummy and actually have my hand sink in :o
I, too, was amazed at all of the physical changes my body went through–I think the 9 months of discomfort and fatigue are the only thing that made pushing the little scrapper out seem like a PLEASANT idea!!
I wasn’t so squished because I’m 5’9" and have a bit more room than say…my friend who is 4’11" and was totally squished. Plus the kid was two weeks early and just 6.5lbs.
That said, my bra size went up from a 34 to a 36, meaning my ribcage expanded a bit. It’s stayed there too, even though I’m only 2lbs heavier now than I was when the little stick turned blue.
I never had heartburn and only had some problems breathing the last couple weeks. Even then it was only when I was lying down or sitting, standing I was fine. The bladder thing was awful but I’m convinced that it’s at least partly due to the massive quantities of water pregnant women are encouraged to drink.
I thought the whole downward gut-shift thing was rather sudden…like right when she uh, “exited”. It was like a big sloshing adjustment. Even after all of that my tummy was still doughy for a bit. I was 2 pant sizes bigger (than my original) after about a week, and back to my regular size after about 2 months.
Weird shit, childbirth.
If you want an honest take on things, I recommend The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine. She gives you the whole nitty gritty.
Every pregnancy is different! The two who have checked in so far have had but one; I’ve birthed three.
I don’t know that you actually feel the organs squishing and coming back to the proper place. Everything just feels really tight in the last few months and the main effects are shortness of breath and having to pee every 5 minutes. This prepares you for baby’s frequent night wakings!
I never had my hand disappear in my belly, post-partum, but like Sue I’m 5-9, so there’s more room for a baby in my body.
Some of the strange things do happen throughout pregnancy, are, for example, stretchy ligaments and bones to prepare your body for birth. My hip joints got really achey in my last pregnancy. I was plagued by leg cramps. I forget the reason preggers get these, but they’re a common symptom and I got them frequently. My husband even got them, in sympathy! They say some men get morning sickness, experience weight gain, etc., right along with their wives. Mine got leg cramps.
I rather liked having bazommbas during pregancy and nursing, but if you long-term nurse (like I did), that fringe benefit whittles away. At least it did for me. When i was nursing my son at 2, I looked basically like I do now (ie, flat), since he only nursed a couple times a day and I was making precisely the amount he was requesting. But you didn’t ask about nursing. LOL … I could talk about that til the cows come home. <rim shot>
With both of my pregnancies I had really awful heartburn. The heartburn was caused by everything being pushed up. I had to eat small meals and I drank lots of milk. I also took a couple of Tums every time I got through eating. I don’t really remember feeling any organs “fall back in place” after the births. I do remember my mom telling me that you have these things called “after pains” after having your 1st baby. Boy was she right. I didn’t have any pains after my first baby but after my second baby… Good Lord. It hurt worse than the hard labor!!
The weirdest thing I remember is feeling my uterus shrink after having my first baby. I was induced with pitocin with my first child and after she was born they cranked it up to help my uterus shrink faster and I could actually feel my uterus getting smaller. It was pretty funky! My stomach was all flabby and when I pushed on it it felt like I had a baseball behind my belly button. Very weird.
I did enjoy having bigger boobs though. I went from a 34B to a 34D!! Whoo Hoo! Damn I looked good too. Too bad they had to shrivel back to a 34B… I wanted to keep 'em.
I watched that same show. The whole Intimate Universe series is fascinating. I’ve seen 3 or 4 episodes.
I’m fairly tall, but my height is all in my legs, so I don’t have all that much room in my torso. I also have fairly good-sized babies, so I was pretty squished inside. I remember that inability to eat a normal sized meal. I discovered soymilk and frozen fruit smoothies during my last pregnancy and practically lived on them for the last few weeks.
My hips were permanently widened after my first pregnancy, but not enough for my second child’s unusually large head. I spent 4 days going in and out of labor and, with hindsight, I probably needed 4 days worth of ligament-softening hormones to make it possible for him to get through my pelvis. After he was born, I found myself moving very gingerly, as it truly felt as though my legs were just going to fall right out of my hip sockets. It was a week or so before I stopped feeling all wobbly.
well, sharing my insides with my 10 pound 12 ouches son involved some major shifting.
Wierder tho were:
I could feel him hiccup. Don’t know that’s technically accurate, but I could both feel it (like you’d feel some one next to you shaking with laughter for example), and watch my belly move in this rhythmic way.
By patting the top part of my ‘tummy’, I could feel the outline of his butt. Weird.
I was VERY squished with my two kids! I am short (5’3") so I didn’t have lots of room. Plus I didn’t carry “high” or “low”–I carried ALL OVER. I looked ready to deliver at seven months–both times. I loved feeling the baby move inside for sure, although that became a bit painful in the last few weeks because it seemed as though they could only arch their backs and rub their rears in one spot! My babies were large and had big heads so I had to have C-sections. My daughter was 8 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. and had a 14 1/2" head (one inch larger than the average baby), but my son was 12 lbs. 2 1/4 oz. and had a 15 1/4" head! The doctor reacted in shock when he opened me up for that one!
I, too, was fascinated by the soft feel of my stomach after the babies were born–I could actually mash inward! Also my ankles de-ballooned. I am large-busted already so I am happy to report that I didn’t get much bigger during pregnancy–I’d never have been able to keep my balance (I am a 44DD)!!
I loved being pregnant! True, by the last few weeks, I was more than ready to have them, but it was wonderful for the most part. It is truly a miracle–and I am happy to say that the miracle has repeated itself and we will add another bundle of joy to our family in March!!
I’m currently 8 months pregnant with my first, so I can’t speak about what happens after childbirth (I’m too busy panicking about what that will be like–my first childbirth class was last night and, of course, there was a video of a vaginal birth to watch), but as for things getting squished, hell yeah, it’s weird.
My bra size has gone from 38 to 44 (cup size hasn’t changed much) as I expand. I feel the baby pretty much all the time now, from little tiny kicks or punches to alien-wants-to-get-out-through-my-belly pushes. He’s also doing some shimmying, and some weird things I can’t even describe. Sometimes I have the urge to pee immediately after I just went. I’m only 5’2" so I don’t have a heck of a lot of room and I can tell that in the next 7 weeks, it’s going to get awfully crowded in there. I don’t know how the heck my organs fit in there now. I’m now having trouble bending over and rolling out of bed is a nightmare.
I haven’t slept flat in months. I’m propped up on several pillows. First it was the heartburn, then the inability to breathe. I may never lie flat again.
All in all, it’s been pretty fun. But I’ve never been so tired in my life. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that that’s to prepare me for waking up every two hours. I love experienced parents. They scare the hell out of me.
When I was pregnant, I was stunned by the amazing changes that happened all over my body. In fact, I told myself I should write them all down. Did I? No.
But a few oddball ones I remember:
Sense of smell changing
My own patterns of sweat, discharge, etc changing
Being clumsy as my joints loosened (dropping things, for example)
Being unable to concentrate on things
nipples getting bigger and darker
getting a dark vertical line on my belly
Once Cranky Jr was born, I’d look at him and think no way that thing lived inside of me. It’s just obscene, it can’t be the way nature meant for it to happen, with that huge thing crammed in me and my organs mushed every which way and my skin stretching out unbelievably. If I didn’t love him so much, I’d find it too damned creepy for words.
I have four kids (How can I be old enough to have a fifteen-year old? Eeeek!). My smallest weighed 8# 5 oz. Largest (sit down) weighed 11# 4 oz.
I always said that the act of delivering an 11 pound baby vaginally was God’s way of saying, “Have sex again and I’ll kill you.” :eek: So I waited 8 years before my third baby, and made sure I had a different husband.
It is definitely weird having a baby in there. I’m short and don’t have any room anyway, so I had to deal with heartburn and the sort of normal pregnancy things. I also had incredible pelvic pain, as after birthing my first two (my first was 9.5#) my ligaments are not what they used to be. It felt like I was walking around with a broken pelvic bone–I could feel the bones grinding. It was horrible.
After my last baby was born, I liked to kind of fold her up really small (easy to do with a newborn, because they are comfy when they’re curled up) and say, “Wow! I had THAT in me???” It’s pretty amazing. She weighed nearly 10#, so maybe “really small” is not the appropriate description.
Have to say I didn’t love being pregnant. But I sure loved being in the hospital–sleeping, eating, watching tv, holding my baby…now THAT was worthwhile.
With my first kid, I got weird pains as though my organs were being re-arranged inside me. I also had daily heartburn and almost constant hiccups (the few times I didn’t have the hiccups, the kid inside me did. Watching your stomach involuntarily flinch is kinda wild). After I had him, I didn’t feel anything shifting back to it’s normal position. I was just so happy to be able to take a deep breath and not have to pee every 6 minutes. With kid number two, I didn’t get any strange pains. Just the usual heartburn, abused bladder, shortness of breath stuff. (I was also lucky enough to have had zero morning sickness with either of them. Must have been the trade off for them having 14 1/2 and 15 inch heads respectively. Both average sized healthy kids, 7lb 6 oz, 20" and 7lbs 9oz, 19 1/2". Just big noggins on em.)
belladonna–thanks!! I am going straight for the C-section this time. I had a 38 hr labor the first time and a 14 hr labor the second. That is what I refer to as getting the sh** end of both sticks…the difficult side of each form of delivery. A hard (and I do mean HARD) labor followed by a surgical recovery. I figure this time at least I’ll be rested up for it! Plus, to tell the truth, trying and failing yet again would break my heart. I figure what’s the use in going through all that pain for nothing and this way I won’t have to!
Baby Maeve has big feet. Baby Maeve has monster truck, nitro fuel injected funny car sized feet.
Baby Maeve thought it was funny to jab said appendages up into mrs beagledave’s rib cage during the last couple of months of pregnancy.
beagledave suspects that mrs beagledave will be reminding Baby Maeve of this from the moment Baby Maeve understands complete sentences…until about she is 40.
Okay…I am about 4 weeks (I know, give or take a couple of weeks) from having baby Marlee - Tygr and my first child. I am tall, 5’11", so I have a little extra space in the torso for her. But I have one of the most active children ever, which elates my mother to no end since this child is taking after me. I moved constantly apparently. So, I have decided that baby Marlee is moving her furniture around. Yes her furniture. While I love feeling her move, sometimes, it just plain hurts, and then other times, I just hope a bathroom is near. With her head being near my bladder, I decided that my bladder is a pillow. I think my kidney and intestines must be her sofa. My gall bladder is apparently a punching bag for her kick boxing class she takes daily.
After my wreck the other day, I was quite tense, then felt a foot come flying out my side - I guess she missed the bag big time.
I go to the bathroom 5-6 times every night. I have a little heart burn, but not bad. I actually am unusual in that I can eat tons of tomato based foods without massive repercussions. Breathing is not too bad. Head congestion is my problem. Some choking at night for some reason. Leg cramps are horrible. My morning/anytime sickness lasted 5 months consistently and just occurs once in a while now.
And by all means the freakiest body change for me…(Tygr giggles)…My BELLYBUTTON! Where has it gone. I think baby Marlee doesn’t like this thing on her wall so she is trying to pound my belly button out my way with her butt. Belly buttons already freak me out…If she has her way, I will have an outie in a matter of days. I am seeing a daily progression here and it is really messing with me.
People ask what the movement feels like, but all I have is the above info on furniture movement. Anybody got any well worded descriptions here???
You know, after all these weird body changes, I just cannot wait for delivery and post partum changes.
[sub]By the way, realize that I am a very sarcastic person at times.[/sub]
Yeah, there’s heartburn, and having to pee every 15 minutes, and leg cramps, and swollen feet.
But there are also three things that are the absolutely coolest things in the whole wide world.
The absolutely #3 coolest thing in the whole wide world is looking at yourself in the mirror, naked and hugely pregnant, and realizing, “Hey, that’s a baby in there, an actual baby, like a new human being and everything!”
The absolutely #2 coolest thing in the whole wide world is feeling the arms and legs and butt inside there, moving around. After about Month 8, you can push and she pushes back.
And the absolutely #1 coolest thing in the world is:
After the baby’s born, and you’re in your official Room, and they bring her to you to breast-feed for the first time? When the nurse leaves, you lie down flat on the bed, pull down the covers, and lay Baby on your newly flat tummy, and fold up her little arms and legs so she’s in the exact same position she was in a few hours earlier, inside there.
My babies were large and had big heads so I had to have C-sections. My daughter was 8 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. and had a 14 1/2" head (one inch larger than the average baby), but my son was 12 lbs. 2 1/4 oz. and had a 15 1/4" head! The doctor reacted in shock when he opened me up for that one! 