1. Due Date:  I thought there was no way I was ready to be a mom but when you hit the eighth month, you are so over being pregnant.  I just wanted my body back and to be able to move again.  I would often say during pregnancy, “I don’t care if I give birth to a dinosaur, just get this baby out!” So no matter how nervous or scared I felt to be a mom at 6 weeks, by 38 weeks I was ready for anything.
2. Weight Gain:  I always thought I could eat whatever I wanted during pregnancy and it didn’t matter. Not true!  My OB said it is actually only an extra 100 calories – which is equivalent to an apple.  That’s it!  I was looking forward to my free pass to eat chocolate cake and gummy bears every day, but little did I realize that it was all there waiting for me post delivery.
3. Opinions and Horror Stories:  Every person I ran into had an opinion to share. It was either about how huge I looked or the sex of my baby or they had horror stories to tell me about their sister’s daughter-in-law’s awful delivery – seriously?
4. Hormones:  They are for real.  Every day I would find some touchy, funny or sad thing to cry about.  If I didn’t find something, then I would inevitably cry myself to sleep at night.  I made the mistake of reading a sad book and I cried about the ending for more than a week.  If you haven’t seen Titanic or Love Story, don’t watch them during pregnancy.
5. Belly:  Your belly is no longer your own when you have a baby in it.  It is public property and everyone will touch it.
6. Nesting:  Around 34 weeks nesting kicks in.  With my last baby, we were living in my mom’s basement waiting to move into our new house and, at 34 weeks, I was obsessed with making a place for my baby to come home to, but there was no place.  She was going to sleep next to our bed in a bassinet.  I became obsessed with trying to find a place for her – and that is really hard when you don’t have your own house and all your belongings are packed into PODs.  Each day, I would move furniture, vacuum and dust the room, wash her clothes, go shopping.  I was so obsessed with creating a place for my baby to come home to knowing we would shortly be moving out.
7. 5 senses:  When I was pregnant, all my senses kicked in.  Food tasted better, I could smell women’s perfume from across a park, I could hear every single noise.  It’s all part of preparing for baby.  Your senses kick it up a notch and you become very aware of your surroundings. 
8. Itchy skin:  My first pregnancy was with twins, and I am short.  Toward the end of my pregnancy, my belly itched and the only remedy was soaking in an oatmeal bath.  The end of that pregnancy consisted of me staying in the bath for most of the day to relieve the constant itching of my belly.
9. Back Pain:  I had never experienced back pain before, but it was awful during pregnancy. After getting the okay from my OB, I got regular adjustments.  I immediately felt better and I couldn’t have made it through my pregnancies without the help. 
10. Sleep:  Sleep has never eluded me.  I was a great sleeper, until pregnancy.  I found things that help – body pillow, taking a bath before bed, sleepy time tea, sleeping with a catheter so I don’t have to get up to use the bathroom (just kidding maybe next time).
11. Maternity Clothes:  I was so excited to be pregnant, that I bought a whole new wardrobe of maternity clothes.  When they finally fit at 20 weeks, not only were they out of season, but I found a lot of them were overpriced and not flattering.  With subsequent pregnancies, I spent money on cute jeans and some pants, but overall a lot of the in-style tops can fit over a 40 week belly and they are more reasonably priced.

What are some things you wish you knew about pregnancy?