Pregnant... Now What?

[aunteater]

15dpo, 2 positive pee tests... and a heckuva lot of questions, most of which are probably not relevant to this forum, or have probably been addressed already, so here's the short list, and apologies for questions that have been covered before here

Comments

[cymrullewes]

3. You won't spend the next 8 months peeing. It's caused by the pressure of your uterus on your bladder. In a few more weeks it'll lift higher in your abdomen then in the last month or so of pregnancy your poor kid will be big enough to fill all of your abdominal cavity so will be pressing on your bladder and against your diaphragm making it difficult to breathe. (Course, your kid might be smaller than my girls were and therefore won't feel as cramped therefore the poor descriptor isn't warranted. :-)

Quick run down of my pregnancy experiences:
need to pee the first/last 3 to 4 weeks
tender/sore breasts for the first 6 weeks
tired for the first/last 2 months
incredibly thrilled when the feeling first movements around 20 weeks
not so thrilled when finally needed larger pants/skirts
swollen ankles in the last 4 weeks of 2nd pregnancy
counting fetal hiccups (eldest racked up 80 per minute for 3 minutes in church one Sunday)
finally being sick and tired of pregnancy about 1 week before delivery

Those are the only real changes I remember. My girls are 16 (in 2 wks), 10, 8.

Bras: Target has some really pretty nursing bras these days (no bras in my preferred style or size though, bah.) Decide now if you're going to nurse. If you are, buy a nursing bra in your current band size and one cup larger. Get used to figuring out the cup closure now so you can do it automatically and quickly. You might go up a band size in your last trimester and stay that band size.

If nursing, your cup size will grow quite a bit. I went from 34B to 36DDD. A 38DD will fit about the same as a 36DDD and be much easier to find.

Grease your belly each evening with cocoa butter or lanolin to prevent stretch marks. You'll feel that this isn't really worth it because during a first pregnancy you don't really expand quickly until near to the end and then it happens almost instantly.

Good luck. Be happy. Have someone's hand to hold. Start thinking about names and spelling now but don't tell anyone except who will be living with you and the kid.

[nightsinger]

A 38DD will fit about the same as a 36DDD and be much easier to find.

Oof. While it may fit similarly, it certainly won't be as supportive as one that is actually the right size, and that can lead to back pain. A little extra time spent hunting and a little extra money is worth it, imx.

YMMV, of course. But for me, I'm a 32G and have not yet gotten pregnant (let alone started nursing!), but a 34FF wouldn't be any easier to find... and if I tried to wear a, what, 38E/DDD or something which is able to be found in Target or whatever, I may as well go without a bra entirely for all the good it'd do me.

[aunteater]

I'm all about hunting down a bra in the right size, but if I'm going to keep on expanding... I don't like the thought of shelling out 60-80 bucks for a new bra every few weeks. yikes! You may be onto something with the going braless idea...

[nightsinger]

Yeah, I agree -- buying a new one every few weeks would suck. :/ Tbh, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Wear my current ones until I just can't anymore, then buy a new one two or three sizes up, maybe, and wear that until I can't or it falls apart, rinse and repeat? It's about all I can think of.

Braless is an option, if all else fails, though!

[aunteater]

"If nursing, your cup size will grow quite a bit. I went from 34B to 36DDD. A 38DD will fit about the same as a 36DDD and be much easier to find."

Oh, dear God please say it isn't true! I AM planning to nurse. I was a 30DD *before* getting pregnant, and have already gone up to a 30F, and those sizes are both near impossible to find!

[finding_helena]

I started as a 30E and was up to a 34G by early second trimester. Good news is I haven't gained any extra boob since then, so am still wearing all the same bras. Bad news is I haven't had the baby yet, so I don't know how that nursing thing will come out. I think everybody grows different amounts at different times. There's no way to predict really. Maybe the best way to predict how it might go for you is to ask your mom or sister. But if your mom can't remember because it was eons ago, and you don't have any sisters or they haven't had babies, then that's not so helpful.

[lady1297]

I went from a barely A cup to a D cup. Not everyone grows that big. It all depends on YOU.

If you are going to nurse, please, please, please seek out a local La Leche League and go to meetings. You'll get GREAT pregnancy info as well as breastfeeding information. And those ladies will be your front line of support once the baby comes. go to www.llli...

[aunteater]

also, thanks for the very thorough answer :)

[schneckerock]

um, I started peeing 5489574582406 times a day starting at the beginning of pregnancy. it's not caused by the weight of the uterus, it's caused by filtering out your own fluids and all the amniotic fluid for the baby as well. and probably partly the weight of the uterus, towards the end there. ;)

[aunteater]

I figured as much. I'm only at 4weeks 2days-- the kid is smaller than a grain of rice at this point, so I just don't see how bladder pressure could be causing that yet. My guess is that my kidneys are just working overtime.

[cymrullewes]

I tend to need to pee a bit more often the day or two days before my period starts so the weight/volume of a uterus makes sense to me.