On Saturday, I had the weirdest pregnancy symptom so far: excessive salivation. This only sounds funny in the first 2 minutes of the experience. After that, I started choking on the stuff.
The most annoying thing was that an online search suggested that I eat boiled eggs and radishes to stop the salivation. That was just bizarre, given that right before it started I had eaten 2 boiled eggs and 4 radishes.
Since then, it kind of got semi-tolerable.
So all those idiots who keep saying that “pregnancy is not a disability, it’s a perfectly normal state ” can come closer. I feel another bout of salivation coming on and I need a spittoon. Of course, it’s not a disability, but unless you give birth every year, there is nothing normal about this state. I’ve been breaking out like I never had in my life, not even in adolescence, how normal is that? And itching all over, for months, is that normal?
Clarissa's Blog 
A species of Galapagos island lizard has managed to evolve to eat seaweed by purging the excess salt water through its nostrils. Maybe this is happening to you?
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I have a feeling people are trying to make me throw up even though I resolved not to. 🙂 🙂
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Challenge accepted!
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“excessive salivation …I’ve been breaking out like I never had in my life, not even in adolescence, how normal is that? And itching all over, for months, is that normal?”
– Yes , yes and yes… Totally normal. Drooling is a side effect of all those hormones. So is breaking out and itching…I bet your mom did not tell you about these and many other things , did she ? Pregnancy is a a beautiful thing .
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My mother says she never had any of these and they must be abnormal. The Internet says all these symptoms are normal, though. I have no idea what people did before the Internet.
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I found that my boobs itched throughout pregnancy. Someone told me it was because they were getting bigger and the skin was expanding, which made it itch. They did get bigger — lots bigger. Then, they went back to normal after I breast fed my kid. The second pregnancy I had different symptoms, but not the itching.
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Oh God, this was the very first symptom! And the itching was extremely heavy. I had to buy Lanolin because the suffering was intense.
I never knew this symptom existed, so I didn’t recognize it. N. recognized it and knew even before I did the pregnancy tests.
If they get any bigger, I will never be able to buy a bra again. There is really no place for them to go. 🙂 🙂
It is good to know I’m not weird.
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Being a large woman, I have the hookup for big bras. Lane Bryant has specialty sizes for large cups, and they are usually good bras. If you don’t mind shopping for them online, they have all sorts of bizarre sizes.
Not sure if you plan to breastfeed, but thought I’d mention — I used nursing bras for my oldest kid, but for the youngest kid, I just used regular bras and just popped my boob out of the cup. It really makes no difference. The nursing bras are more comfortable, and usually stretchy to accommodate shrinking and expanding, but they can be expensive and they can also wear out fast from being so elastic. Anyway – women survived millions of years without nursing bras, so it’s not that big of a deal.
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Never heard of this brand but I just looked it up and it looks very attractive. Thank you for the suggestion!
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My boobs were bigger than my head during both pregnancies, and during nursing. I hated looking at myself in the mirror.
I think that when people say that pregnancy is a beautiful thing, they mean the idea of it, not the physiology. I don’t know how heartburn, or farting every three minutes can be beautiful.
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The only beautiful thing about it so far is that the libido goes through the roof (disproving all of the beliefs of the evo psych folks in the process). The rest, however, is. . . not so great.
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Clarissa , your mom probably has this typical amnesia syndrome , by which all women are affected immediately after giving birth . They remember absolutely nothing bad about pregnancy and labor . This is how women are able to go through several pregnancies during their lifetime… Some call it ” Halo Effect ” , some say it’s ” Post- Traumatic Stress disorder ” , I say – it is a nature’s way to trick women into multiple childbirth .
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“Clarissa , your mom probably has this typical amnesia syndrome , by which all women are affected immediately after giving birth . They remember absolutely nothing bad about pregnancy and labor”
Seriously, they remember nothing bad about the pregnancy and labor? This is not true of all women, not by a long shot.
In regards to the labor alone, for many women memory of the pain fades with time (though it isn’t amnesia). For others, they recall quite clearly what they went through. And it isn’t the pain alone – it’s the whole experience. A woman could have been in a lot of pain during labor for instance, but if she was in a supportive environment, the newborn emerged healthy, and there weren’t complications during the birth, then these factors mitigate memory of the labor pain.
And in regards to pregnancy, many women remember what their pregnancies were like and could tell you in detail, the good and the bad. It’s just that some women have a much easier time of it than others. Symptoms vary a lot.
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“Seriously, they remember nothing bad about the pregnancy and labor? ”
– My mother used to persecute my sister and me with stories about the horrors of labor. Now we both have screaming fits whenever we just hear the word “labor.” But she didn’t have the same symptoms of pregnancy as I do. With my sister, she had heart-burn, but that was it.
You are right, everybody’s body is different. Besides, I only associate most of these symptoms with pregnancy because I have the Internet. I would have missed many of them without my pregnancy apps. 🙂
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As there are so many different symptoms it’s impossible to say pregnant women will experience XYZ as some do, some don’t. Mothers don’t tell their daughters about the ‘joys’ of pregnancy because by the time they get round to it it’s usually too late as their daughter has just told her she is pregnant.
I didn’t like being pregnant as I had terrible constipation both times.
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“I didn’t like being pregnant as I had terrible constipation both times.”
– Yes, there is nothing particularly enjoyable about the whole thing.
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This is one of the biggest reasons why I don’t want kids of my own. I think pregnancy is too scary. To have weird things happen to your body over a course of nine months sounds like hell.
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hkatz:
“Seriously, they remember nothing bad about the pregnancy and labor? This is not true of all women, not by a long shot.”
Seriously , my post was a joke. I thought it was obvious . Next time I am putting a smiley face there…:))
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