by Roberta Bienenfeld

Created on: January 08, 2008

SECRETS I WAS NEVER TOLD ABOUT BEING PREGNANT

The "Over 30" timer was rapidly approaching and I still wasn't pregnant. Every month it was the same thing, the big let down. I had been married for almost three years now and it wasn't for lack of trying. We had been to the doctor and nothing was wrong so I took my temperature, in the morning when I got up and the evenings before we went to bed. Some things weren't meant to be I guess.

Then I got sick. My stomach went crazy. I was scared that I had some incurable disease. I went from doctor to doctor and finally got to a gastric specialist. He found nothing. I drank bottles of water to determine if I had some sort of tumor. Luckily the ultrasound came up negative as well. I was at wits end.

In those days, back in the 80's, if take home pregnancy kits existed, they weren't so popular so I decided to visit the family doctor and get a test done there. I knew I wasn't pregnant because I had just had my period two weeks earlier but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

And then the results came in-positive. I was pregnant. Everyone was ecstatic. But I knew I was only at the very, very beginning. I had almost 9 more full months to go. The blood said pregnant but the truth was I was only a few days pregnant at best. I, with my great luck had gotten the symptoms of "morning sickness" when my baby was just conceived.

And that it when I learned all about THE SECRETS I WAS NEVER TOLD ABOUT BEING PREGNANT.

Morning Sickness. That's a good one. If you are lucky you will never know what it means. I of course wasn't so lucky. I had "all the time" sickness. I was sick in the morning when I got up-and that little soda cracker didn't help. I was sick in the middle of the day and I was sick in the evenings. I was sick all the time and the bathroom bowl became my best friend. I spent most of my time there. I couldn't go out to eat, in fact I barely ate at all but that didn't help too much.

Special Foods. All those TV shows and books tell you that you will get cravings for food. I mostly got cravings against food. Chicken could only be stomached in very tiny portions. Most other foods made me ill as well. Anything I had always liked-even tomatoes-were suddenly reasons to another visit to my friend the bathroom bowl. And as for pickles? Never got the craving for them at all.

Bathroom Breaks: I used to take a bus to work. I learned every potential restroom on the way there and back-and used most of them. I would walk one block to the bus stop and have

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