# I didn't know I was pregnant - on TLC



## olwen (Nov 1, 2009)

No I am not pregnant. I'm talking about this show on TLC. I'm like addicted to this show. When I first started watching it I wondered how any woman couldn't know they were pregnant but the more I watch this show the more I wonder if this happens to more women than one would think. I'm finding out about all the symptoms of pregnancy that we aren't taught about. I know I wasn't taught this stuff in school, like:

1) some women get a heightened sense of smell when pregnant. I knew some smells would make women nauseous but I didn't know about the heightened sense of smell.

2) it's not good to take hot baths or get in the sauna while pregnant cause it could raise a baby's core temperature.

3) some women don't have any symptoms what so ever while pregnant - no weight changes, no cravings, no heartburn, no morning sickness. Some of the women lost weight or only gained 15lbs. That fat women are likely to loose weight is something I know because of the knowledge the pregnant women here have shared, but it should be something all women should just know.

4) if the line reading on a birth control test is faint it doesn't mean you aren't pregnant, it means you should take the test again and/or go to a doctor and do a blood test.

You could be pregnant but test negative on a birth control test if you have been drinking a lot of water.

5) spotting gets mistaken for a regular menstrual cycle. I knew you could spot for the first trimester but not the entire pregnancy. Gaa.

6) every pregnancy is different - okay this one I knew but the shocking thing about this show is that quite often the women on the show have already had two or three kids and even after all that experience they still didn't know they were pregnant. Some women attributed the symptoms to the onset of menopause, but no they were pregnant.



there's other stuff I can't think of like the kinds of things that would make a pregnancy high risk or low risk, or even what really happens when menopause hits other than hot flashes - or even that menopause is something we are supposed to treat. But anyway, watching the show also makes me mad. It seems like this is stuff every woman should know and boo on whoever is responsible for keeping what should be common folk knowledge away from women for so long. 

Anyhow, I am utterly fascinated with this show and felt like sharing.


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## olwen (Nov 1, 2009)

Oh also, I'm now wondering if any women who have been pregnant had symptoms they didn't know they could have....


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## Jes (Nov 4, 2009)

If I recall correctly, a woman at Dims didn't know she was pregnant and said so in a post when she announced her pregnancy. She was fairly far along. I don't recall who it was, as I was very new here, and I also don't know if she's still posting. I don't know how her pregnancy went or how the baby is. 

I, too, find this program interesting. While some of the women have symptoms of something that I think they should've taken to the dr.'s office, many do not, and it's really interesting. In a lot of cases, the women have had such irregular periods that they don't think they can get pregnant. But, of course, having irregular periods can mask pregnancy very well, too!


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## rollhandler (Nov 5, 2009)

I am rather intrigued by this show and although I already knew much of what olwen offered as knowledge to share I have learned much as well. The only part that absolutely baffles me is when they mentioned in the show about the lack of any visible bump from the growth of a fetus at nearly full term when the woman was as thin as she appeared in interview. I realize that when a woman is fat she can possibly hide much prenatal growth but how would a fetus be positioned to not show on a slender framed woman is what I don't get. I have other questions pertaining to the show but I feel they are too graphic for me to present for answers in this forum. Does anyone know of a decent and free forum for medical questions?
Rollhandler


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## BubbleButtBabe (Nov 5, 2009)

I know you are trying to be this well informed guy and trying to see life from both sides...Seriously tho there are some subject you just really need to stay out of..

I am not angry that you are here asking these questions I am just wondering why you feel the need to keep coming to a more or less female only forum to ask such questions...I do not get it myself..There are tons of web pages out there that answer question such as your's..


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## rollhandler (Nov 5, 2009)

Which was why I asked for suggestions as to what a good one might be.

Rollhandler


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## Flutterby68 (Nov 5, 2009)

I was 270 lbs when I got pregnant with my last baby in 1993. I only gained 7 lbs with the pregnancy and did not look pregnant at all until I was nearly 8 months along. I just looked fat.

Granted, I KNEW I was pregnant because I was very in tune with my fertility... but if I hadn't known that the extreme sense of smell was normal for pregnancy, I sure wouldn't have considered it a symptom.

A friend of my mother's was a big woman. She was supposed to meet friends for lunch one day but had a doctor's appointment first. She'd been having a lot of heartburn and gallbladder attacks lately, and a lot of gas. She and her husband had no kids because it was thought she couldn't get pregnant. 

Well, she showed up at lunch STUNNED. She was not only pregnant, she was going to deliver in about 6 weeks. What she thought was gas was the baby moving. Heartburn is normal in pregnancy, and what she thought was gallbladder pain wasn't, it was her expanding uterus contracting on occasion. She was completely freaked out - and 40 years old.

So it can definitely happen....


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## Sugar (Nov 5, 2009)

rollhandler said:


> Which was why I asked for suggestions as to what a good one might be.
> 
> Rollhandler


 
At some point it'd be OK to widdle down these questions which clearly make people uncomfortable. Women for the most part do not want to discuss their junk with someone who may or may not use that information for sexual gratification. Please understand.

If you're curious about fat women and pregnancy, you may want to start a thread on the Health Forum here.

~~~~~~~~

As for the show...I really thought it was a joke because I saw it on The Soup. Then I saw an episode. It sorta scares me to think I could get pregnant and not know since I take medication that would do serious harm to any fetus. I guess it's a good thing my bf is 2000 miles away?


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## BubbleButtBabe (Nov 5, 2009)

I agree with Sugar. ...You can use ask.com...You could even go to webmd.com and look up answers to different questions..There are tons of sites that are from barely graphic to almost making you sick graphic,you just need to take the time to find them...


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## The Orange Mage (Nov 5, 2009)

Back on to the topic of the show...me and my girlfriend were mildly addicted to it for the first few weeks it was new.


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## Fallenangel2904 (Nov 5, 2009)

Haven't watched the show, but this reminds me of something going on with me personally right now. No- not pregnant lol, but my God sister is and she didn't know she was for the first 6 months. I found that crazy, how can you not know for 6 months- but I guess it does happen more then people think. Thing is though she's very petite and just a small girl, I could understand someone my size not knowing, but it boggles my mind how someone as small as her wouldn't know. Have to ask her about it more when I talk to her lol.


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## HottiMegan (Nov 7, 2009)

My husband hates that show but i find it interesting. I am so in tune with my body that i knew i was pregnant with Alex before i was even due for my period. Conception was only a week and a half along. So it's hard for me to imagine beeing that out of tune with your body to not know something's up. But i believe these stories all the same  
I do know that you don't always feel the baby depending on the placement of the placenta. One of the women on my pregnancy board i used didn't feel her baby because of her placenta.


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## olwen (Nov 7, 2009)

Maybe that's what it is partly about Megan....most of those women mistake pregnancy symptoms they do have for bubble gut, gas, eating something bad or stress, or the onset of menopause or if they've been told they can't have children then they don't think it's that. I can feel when I'm ovulating cause I get a sharp pain and my period usually follows about a week later, but I still have to wonder if I would know if only because there were women who had had several children before and still didn't know. That's what boggles my mind the most, but the fact that each pregnancy is different explains that. It really is interesting but also rather scary. Well it is to me anyway.


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## HottiMegan (Nov 9, 2009)

It is true about each pregnancy being different. Mine varied wildly from Max to Alex. I had "morning" sickness through the entire pregnancy with Max. I was sick as a dog, hated the entire experience. With Alex, lots of fatigue but no sickness. I hurt more with alex but he was also a bigger baby and i gained weight with him where i lost with Max. That's one reason i swore i was having a girl because they were so different. lol Alex is just pretty like a girl


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## Fat.n.sassy (Nov 9, 2009)

olwen said:


> Oh also, I'm now wondering if any women who have been pregnant had symptoms they didn't know they could have....



Weelllllll....when my son was just four months old I found out that I was pregnant with my daughter. (I was almost 3 month pregnant!) I didn't realize it because I was nursing him and didn't have my cycle back yet. Also, with both my boys I was SO sick! Extremely thankfully ~ not with her though.


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## olwen (Nov 10, 2009)

Wait, your cycle doesn't come back after you give birth? I had no idea....


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## HottiMegan (Nov 10, 2009)

yep it takes a lot longer if you're nursing. It took me about 4 months for both boys to get cycles back. (after failing at bfeeding) Nursing delays it even more. My sister in law got pregnant with twins thinking that she wasn't ovulating while nursing. (i found that really humerous since she's so well read on every subject)


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## olwen (Nov 10, 2009)

What...but if your cycle doesn't come back how can you still be ovulating????? You know, these are just questions that are maybe the sorts of questions that will always just mystify me...I suppose the important thing in all of this is that it's good for women to be connected to their bodies so they know when something's different.


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## BubbleButtBabe (Nov 11, 2009)

You will still ovulate but not have a cycle..It is one of the many wonders of the female body..

When I was 7 months pregnant with my son I could stand and suck my stomach in and you couldn't tell I was pregnant..I just looked a little chubby..He sat on my hips and I carried him there the whole 9 months..With my daughter I was already fat,so you really couldn't tell at all..Shocked my aunt when she got the birth announcement since my cousin had just spent time with me a few days before Misty was born and couldn't even tell!...lol

Most of the women that do not know they are pregnant have wonky cycles and it never dawns on them that they could be pregnant..They think it is just their bodies doing like it always has..

Some women do not gain weight at all when they are pregnant..So not unless the baby is big most do not get big full round stomachs..

Some have what my Dr use to call lazy babies and they wont move until they are about 7-8 months along..Then the women think that they just have a big gas pocket or something besides a baby..


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