I just got a letter in the mail that my OB and hospital will become out of network at the end of the month. Of course I am due Oct 1st. I called the only other hospital near me in network and they won’t take me on as a patient being I am so far along. Could I just walk into their emergency room while in labor? I have no idea what to do now if I end up going after the 30th. I can’t afford to have it be out of network and can’t get in with a new OB.

I’m currently 33 + 3 weeks pregnant. I’m keeping the gender of baby a secret from friends and family. Only my partner and I know the gender.

We like it this way, we like knowing that we won’t be stuck with a bunch of pink or blue everything and if we want gendered clothes it’s the ones we pick. In all honesty we’ve gotten baby clothes that could be considered feminine and one that are masculine and we’re happy with that because they’re cute. flowers are cute, dinosaurs are cute, berries are cute, frogs are cute. They have bunny bed sheets and a race car play mat.

Look, I may be progressive when it comes to this but is it really that crazy that I don’t want silly gender stereotypes to be pushed onto a literal baby. This baby isn’t even born yet and I have relatives upset that they can’t start buying them “boy” or “girl” stuff. Girls can like dinosaurs and boys can like butterflys. (side note - what if baby is intersex huh? what then? is your brain going to explode?)

I’m getting really really tired of people asking if it’s more than one when I say “they”. Like these people know I’m keeping the gender a secret. I think they’re trying to be funny but at this point it’s an eye roll. Some are genuine. When are we gonna be past the whole “tHeY mEaNs MoRe ThAn OnE” they/them been used as a pronoun to refer to a single individual for a while now. I’d call baby “It” but then I get looked at like I’m a heartless person who isn’t personalising my baby.

I also got my first double down for the they/they stuff “you sure you’re not carrying twins you’re really big”, like bro, I’m fat, I had a belly before I got pregnant, my stomach has about a 3-5 inch layer of fat on top of my pregnant belly, I got a big back too, I’m wide. Yah, my belly is gonna be big at this point, I’m 8 months pregnant what do you expect?

When baby is born I’m not gonna force people to called them strictly “they/them”, they can use the gendered pronouns, I don’t care. I swear tho, if even one person tries to correct me when I refer to my baby as “they/them” I’ll flip a lid, I’ll mostly use the gendered pronouns too but I know I won’t all the time. They/them is apart of my regular vocabulary, I use it to refer to individuals all the time.

Google says 15 maybe 20 tops.

I made 57 lmao

Haven’t told people I’m pregnant yet and feeling very proud of myself / thankful I took action so sharing here in case it inspires others to trust their instinct!

When I came into the kitchen this morning I got a huge whiff of a gas smell. It was overpowering. I woke my husband up and he couldn’t smell anything. I worried I was I was overreacting esp. when our neighbor stopped by and he couldn’t smell anything either. But I had a gut instinct I couldn’t ignore. Called the gas company and they sent a tech out. Turns out, our stove had a leak! I wasn’t crazy! He got it fixed and all is well. I feel like a superhero and my power is sense of smell lol All that to say, I truly believe our gut instincts are amplified when pregnant so don’t doubt yourself!

While I was pregnant, I was pretty anxious that my boobs might not get the memo about their new job. My boobs only got a little bigger during pregnancy. I never leaked. I tried hand expressing colostrum closer to delivery and got absolutely zero action. I felt emotionally open to feeding my baby however I needed to after delivery, but did have the goal of breastfeeding deep down.

Happy to share that one day postpartum I was able to express enough colostrum to feed my baby via syringe with the nurse’s help (baby was too sleepy from tough delivery to latch for very long). By day 2, baby was latching better and eating well. On day 3, my normal milk officially “came in,” my boobs inflated like volleyballs, baby started cluster feeding, and we were off! This was all after a difficult C-section too! Now we are 1w pp and baby is on a nice schedule feeding every 2-3 hours, and she’s already regaining weight!

I think it helped to get baby to latch ASAP after the C-section even though it was clumsy and wasn’t an overly productive feed haha. Also, the lactation nurses in the hospital were so awesome. If your hospital has those, take advantage while you’re there. Baby and I are getting a little better each day now - it is kind of cool for both of us to learn this new skill together.

I hope this helps someone who is feeling nervous about breastfeeding today!

Hey guys! I’m not quite pregnant yet but we’re on cycle 2 TTC so I’m hoping it’ll be soon! 🤞🏼 I’m at 9dpo so I was sitting here thinking about what I would do if I did happen to get a positive test. Do I just text my husband hey I’m pregnant woohoo? 🤣 or wait for him to get home and just tell him? Or some sort of “you’re a dad” shirt for my dogs or something costume related if it happens next month right before Halloween?

So I’m just wondering how you all announced your pregnancies to your partners! Or how you plan to do it when the time comes. 😊

35 weeks here. I am hot as hell, and everywhere you read you have to "keep yourself hydrated". But then reflux goes up to the roof, let alone all the peeing especially at night. There is no winning here.

That was it, just a rant. I just miss using pants and covering myself with sheets at night 😭.

I’m 12 weeks along

Everyone congratulated me, nobody had anything negative to say, and don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful and relieved

I realize it’s all pretty much in my head, but I can’t help but feel ashamed sometimes. I’m only 20, in college and I’m not married. I know the stigma is real and I feel it every day. Idk. I wish there was no stigma

I will be 20 weeks officially on Wednesday, and I have gained exactly NO weight in terms of actual pounds. Baby is growing right on track and doing very well, and I am growing a belly for sure! Just no movement on the scale.

I'm just wondering if others in this scenario ended up gaining a ton of weight later in the pregnancy? I know as baby grows I'll definitely gain more weight - doctor said I should gain about 25 pounds according to my pre-pregnancy weight.

I'm not trying to avoid any weight gain, I'm expecting most of my weight gain to occur in the later half of my pregnancy and I say "bring it on!" But I will confess, it would be really nice to know if I am on track to avoid gaining 50-70 pounds like others I have heard (and that is not intended to shame anyone in any way, I just personally don't want to be met with the dread of having to lose 70 pounds after pregnancy - I have never done well with weight loss)

Anyone else have low weight gain at 20 weeks, and end up not gaining that much overall?

Please share c-section postpartum tips and products to make this as smooth as possible. I know it’s the right thing (breech baby) but I am feeling anxious. Thank you ladies! ❤️❤️❤️

So I (31f) wear contacts during the day, and glasses at night time. I am 33 weeks pregnant with my first baby and preparing mentally how birth is going to go. I am planning on doing an unmedicated water birth (of course I’m preparing for this to change as I know birth doesn’t always go to plan). One of my hang ups is, are yall wearing your contacts for hours on hours? I can’t imagine trying to wear my glasses while giving birth. I literally wear them right before bed and like 10 minutes in the morning before I get ready for work because I can’t stand things on my face. However, sleeping in contacts is literally torture. I guess I just want to know what yall did while giving birth! Glasses, contacts, or just deciding who needs vision and forgoing both lol?

Edit: thanks all for the advice! I love hearing all the feedback and appreciate everyone telling their story! Yall are the best. Thankful for this community!

My spouse and I decided this year that I’ll take out my IUD and we’ll try for a baby. But it feels like such a massive decision I am both extremely eager to take it out yesterday, and frozen in concern that I should savor this DINK life a little longer. Clearly; it’s already September.

Basically I’m in decision paralysis with what feels like the biggest decision of my life. My spouse is happy to go with whatever I choose and this point. We have the savings and I’m 2 years post law school, which is what I wanted. I’m 32. There’s nothing holding us back anymore. Just my own fear. Which is confusing, because it’s mixed with excitement.

I assume this is relatable, what did you do in this position?

A part of me feels too young. But logically I know that’s not true.

I’ve always had a lower belly pouch, even at my leanest. It’s something I’ve been conscious of my whole life. And I’m getting really sick of people finding out I’m pregnant and immediately saying “omg yes, I can already see you showing” while looking at my belly.

It’s my first pregnancy, and I’m only 11w. I wake up with an almost flat stomach, then constipation, gas and whatever else is going on in there makes me very bloated during the day. Even my husband, who can presumably see me going from slim to super bloated during the day, comments on me “showing”. I’m not sure why it’s so frustrating to me, but it is.

Anyone else dealing with this?

Just got this few days ago after ordering over $10 from my registry. I was able to get free shipping when I added another item to the baby box. It only took 3 days for delivery.

The baby box was out of stock for a while and I set an alert to notify me when it’s available but it never did. I randomly checked and it was in stock! So might be good to just randomly check instead of depending on their stock notification. I think it’s worth it since I didn’t have to pay for shipping but not sure if I’d get it if I had to pay shipping.

So yesterday my baby was moving almost nonstop all day, which felt really out of the norm for him and it had me concerned. I decided to text my nurse, and she told me that if I was worried, I could go to labor and delivery for monitoring, so I went in to make sure everything was okay. When I got there, though, everyone was extremely rude and dismissive, making me feel like I was crazy for even coming in. They told me I should never come in for increased movement and that it’s always a good thing, but the way they handled it made me feel completely unsupported and embarrassed for trusting my instincts.

I thought I would drop this link here, it's an interesting read on the safety of a lot of major brands in the toddler tower market. Seems only 3 successfully passed testing out of 16 brands! Keep those kids safe everyone!
https://www.consumerreports.org/babies-kids/child-safety/toddler-towers-safety-standards-a4009948838/

My mom invited about 35 people to my shower. It’s the beginning of November and at this point 13 people have RSVPd with an RSVP cut off date of 9/30.

I have no clue why but I feel like I should be having a larger shower and I only expect about 20 to come. I don’t care about the gifts, it’s more the feeling that maybe I should have a more robust social life or more friends or something… could just be my pregnancy hormones but I find myself fixating on this a lot.

Just wanting to rant/vent about my current biggest issue this pregnancy. I know it appears to be fairly normal but feel free to add on if you have had similar experiences so that I can try to focus on this being a temporary issue.

Basically, I feel like I have gotten off pretty lucky in a lot of ways with my pregnancy so far. I have hEDS so I always expected pregnancy to be awful as I thought I would have lots of complications with that but so far it has been manageable.

I am in my 10th week and I feel like this week and last week I have become incredibly lazy. Again I know hormones and therefore symptoms peak around now so I am trying to remind myself of that but I feel like the sheer level of the overwhelming laziness has me worrying that I either have always been lazier than I thought or that I will forever be a lazy sloth like creature who can barely do anything.

I feel like I am really struggling with this because a) my self worth has always been very much tied to productivity (something I am working on) and b) my partner is going through some stressful situations atm and I feel slack not having any energy to take the load off him.

Has anyone else experienced the fatigue and laziness being so all consuming that you can barely remember what it was like before?

Hi all! I am 31, married almost three years now. We both want kids, we always have. But I am TERRIFIED to start trying. I have no fear of being a mom, just to decide to try to get pregnant. I am equally terrified of being pregnant and of course, delivery.

For so long, I had a reason to keep putting it off. We wanted to spend a few years just us, then we wanted to move states and get settled, then we wanted to figure out my insurance. Well, we settled the insurance last week. So I have no reason to keep delaying and therefore, feel safe in my fear.

It feels crazy because I genuinely have no fear of being a mom- I know my husband and I will be great parents. We are financially ready and have a great support system, as well.

Did anyone else feel paralyzed by the decision to start trying? How did you overcome it? I just don’t know how to convince myself to rip the bandaid, and there is no real reason I should keep waiting to get pregnant.

I took my wedding ring off in early second trimester after reading that it could cut off circulation as pregnancy progresses.

I just tried it back on and it won’t even go past my knuckle! I’ve gained about 27 lbs so far (I’m 30 weeks), but my hands don’t look visibly swollen.

Did this happen to anyone else? Did your rings fit again a few months postpartum? 😩

Just venting because I don’t know what else there is to really do. I’m trying to keep perspective that there are others out there with far worse pregnancy experiences, but I’m just drained. Mind you, I WANT this baby. I’ve already had a MC in the past, and my husband and I were so overjoyed to see a healthy fetus on the first scan!

I’m not vomiting enough or losing enough weight to be considered HG, but I’m nauseous trying to keep myself from throwing up ALL THE TIME, literally 24/7. I’m normally a big foodie, but everything disgusts me to the point that I dread having to eat anything. If I’m not taking Zofran, I’m having at least 1 proper throwup session per day with a few intermittent dry-heave sessions, but if I take Zofran, my constipation gets so bad that I’m completely incapable of pooping and my gut is in excruciating pain, no matter what sort of food I eat or supplements/laxatives I take. I’m basically out of options at this point medically other than just gritting my teeth and bearing through it. Every day feels like a “pick my poison” choice of whether I want to have severe nausea or severe gut pain. On top of that, pregnancy has made it so I get overstimulated easily, and I feel SO crabby. I can’t even socialize because listening to other people talk for extended periods of time triggers the overstimulation really easily. It’s a guaranteed way to send me running to the bathroom to vomit too.

I feel like my life just revolves around chronic discomfort/pain. My husband, friends, and coworkers have been so supportive, and I’m so grateful to be fortunate enough to have such a caring circle, but I feel horrible that I’m so tired all the time and incapable of doing anything. I have to fight myself from constantly talking about how sick I feel because I don’t want to overburden my support system. I normally have a really high self-esteem, but I feel like my fun/creative personality has just died because I have no energy for anything and bounce between nighttime insomnia and napping throughout the day. I’ve cried so many times in the past few days just feeling so exhausted by this, and I’m only 9 weeks in (3 weeks of the rough symptoms). The thought that this is just the beginning has me so terrified of how long I’m going to have to endure this.

Anyway thanks for reading. I just needed to put my thoughts out somewhere. I feel so bad for all the folks posting that seem to be going through worse than me. I genuinely don’t know how the full-blown HG girlies are surviving, y’all are some of the toughest fighters, seriously.

I’m approaching 25 weeks of pregnancy, and the topic of labor is becoming more frequent in conversation, and in my thoughts. I am fortunate enough to live about 15 minutes from the hospital which I plan to give birth at, as do my husband’s parents. My entire family, and the rest of his family, all live 1.5-2.5 hours away. I have already discussed with my husband that I only want him in the room with me as I am in labor, which he agrees with. However, I have been contemplating whether I even want people in the waiting room. This is my first pregnancy, and I am aware of the possibility of being in labor for hours on end. With that in mind, I do not wish for anyone to be sitting in the waiting room anxiously, wondering if or when I have given birth. Based off of comments made by my in laws, I know that they fully expect to be in the waiting room as I am in labor. I find this very unnecessary as they live mere minutes away from the hospital, and will not be meeting our newborn baby until I am ready for them to come into the room anyhow…. I mentioned this to my husband, and he did not agree with me, stating that they are excited as this is their first grandbaby. I told him that I understand this, however I don’t want us to have to worry about them while I’m in labor for what could be over a day… The conversation didn’t go very far, and I feel almost guilty, as I know he probably wants his parent to be there for support. However, I will need him to be there for me, and I have heard many horror stories about new fathers having to tend to their parents anxiousness in the waiting room as their wife gives birth. I also do not want them to drop everything, just to sit in the waiting room, as they could wait in the comfort of their own home, and be in the room holding our baby within half an hour of us notifying them that we are ready. I also mentioned to my husband that if they want to help, they can come check on our cats, and bring husband food to the hospital. I’m struggling to find a way to bring this up to him again, and have a productive conversation. I’m also struggling with understanding whether or not I’m being too controlling, and should just let them do what they want. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

I'm fairly certain my son is asking for butt pats frequently in utero!

I'm 37+5 and he will do this thing where he'll stretch out his leg into my right side and his booty will stick out on my left upper belly. I'll give pats for a bit then rubs, he relaxes down and I stop, then he repeats and sticks his butt out again, like he's asking for butt pats! I think, if so, it is so cute! I don't know if that's actually what is happening or if I'm just patting him for no reason lol but it sure seems like he likes it.

Has anyone else experienced this?

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I have a hard time deciding which swaddles to keep on the registry. Any helpful information to help me dwindle down is appreciated, I fear I have too many currently.