Odd Pregnancy Symptoms

When I got pregnant, I certainly wasn’t expecting pregnancy to be nine months of comfort and luxury.  I expected there to be a level of discomfort and even pain, but I thought I knew all there was to know about pregnancy symptoms: morning sickness, heartburn, back pain, swelling.  What I have since come to find out is that pregnancy hormones are unpredictable and their effects manifest in a variety of ways, including some that are just downright weird.  My husband has been referring to What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Google quite often over the past few months, but it seems like all my symptoms are within the broad range of “normal” for pregnancies (but honestly, what isn’t?).  Here are just a few of the unexpected pregnancy symptoms I’ve experienced in the past 32 weeks:

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1. Food allergies: As a woman who has never had food allergies in her life, it took me about a month to realize why I would randomly have a scratchy feeling in my throat and break into coughing fits.  There was nothing random about it, I finally realized that I had developed allergies to bananas, almonds, and strawberries during my pregnancy.  Apparently they will go away as soon as I give birth, but I haven’t been able to find any information about how this may affect the development of food allergies in the baby.

2. Worsening eyesight: I definitely don’t see as clearly as I did before I was pregnant, in fact the difference is quite drastic.  I can tell my contacts don’t fit my eyes as well as they did before (I wear hard contacts).  Just like food allergies, my eyesight should change back after the baby is born.  It’s certainly not worth it to go to the eye doctor or get new contacts for this short period of time (plus, I think they will continue to change for the remainder of the pregnancy anyway).

3. Runny nose: This started very early on in my pregnancy and still continues today.  Apparently, during pregnancy, your body increases mucus production to protect you from germs.  Makes sense, but I can’t recall noticing pregnant women with red, runny noses, even now that I’m looking for them. 

4. Leaky nipples: Well, actually, I expected this one.  What I didn’t expect is that it would begin around 16 weeks.  Every pregnancy book I’ve looked at doesn’t seem to mention leaky nipples until the eighth or ninth month.  Apparently, unlike the procrastinator I am, my breasts like to be prepared extra early.

5. Leg cramps: I guess these are a very common pregnancy symptom, and perhaps it’s just showing the naïve state I was in when I got pregnant, but I seriously had never heard that pregnant women get leg cramps.  I’ll be laying in bed and feel the need to stretch out – bad idea – once I stretch my leg straight and point my toes, that’s when it hits!  It’s excruciating pain, and no matter how hard I try, I cannot bend my foot back.  Thank goodness these only happen at night when I’m in bed because that means I have my husband right next to me and as soon as he hears my screams, he’s able to flex my foot and massage my calf until it goes away.  A couple of times my calf has actually been sore for three days after the cramp!  And what’s the worst about these leg cramps is that doctors don’t really agree what’s causing them so there isn’t really any definitive way to prevent them (although taking quinine, stretching and staying active supposedly help).

All that said, I’m still enjoying my pregnancy very much and, of course, the baby is worth each of these inconveniences and discomforts!  But I just thought I would share some of these symptoms so they don’t catch some unsuspecting mama-to-be unaware.  If these things happen to you, don’t worry they are normal.  Well, as “normal” as leaky nipples and sudden-onset food allergies can be.

On a more serious note, you should still discuss all your symptoms with your doctor or midwife, even if you think they are perfectly normal.  A young woman I graduated from high school with was experiencing the symptoms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma while pregnant, but just chalked them up to pregnancy symptoms.  After her little one was born very premature at 26 weeks, her doctors discovered the cancer when these symptoms didn’t go away.  (Thankfully, mama is in remission after a round of chemotherapy and baby is at home now and doing well!)