20+ Weird Pregnancy Symptoms No One Tells You About

Weird pregnancy symptoms – from early pregnancy right up to the third trimester.

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Pregnancy is such a wonderful time, they said.

It’s a beautiful blessing, they said.

Uh huh… so why do I feel like my midsection has been replaced by a bowling ball and it’s only the first trimester?!

Why is my nose constantly bleeding?

And why, oh why, can’t I stop crying about everything?

Pregnancy is a crazy time – your body goes through such a seismic shift in hormones that you find yourself with all kinds of strange weird pregnancy symptoms that you’ve never heard of before. Some are completely and totally unexpected and illogical. Guess it’s just biology.

My first pregnancy I didn’t experience too many ‘weird’ symptoms – just the usual suspects (that you might already know about.) But, with my second pregnancy, hoo boy. Weird symptoms are everywhere, even from early on. I’ve had nosebleeds, stuffy nose, sleep issues, food aversions, burping (so much burping) and a trigger happy gag reflex… Some things I NEVER would’ve expected in a million years were a pregnancy symptom.

Here are some more of the weird and wonderful pregnancy symptoms you might have, that no one ever talks about…

Weird Pregnancy Symptoms Your Doctor Forgot to Mention

1) I feel heavy and huge (and I’m only in the first trimester!)

Some lucky moms start feeling huge early on. Even as early as the first trimester. This is most likely due to bloating and/or constipation (yay, common pregnancy symptoms!).

“I feel like I’ve swallowed a bowling ball and I’m only 12 weeks along with my first baby! I thought I wouldn’t feel this huge until later…” Samantha

“I’m finding it hard to bend over… and I’m only at 16 weeks…” Danny

2) Vivid Nightmares

Nightmares are no fun. Unfortunately for some moms, pregnancy hormones and stresses send them into overdrive.

“I keep having nightmares about miscarriage… hanging out to reach the second trimester so I can feel safer :(” Lois

3) Eating for Two? I’m Hungry Enough To!

We’re used to the idea that pregnant women are ‘eating for two’… even though it’s totally false and the total number of calories we need to eat only increases by around 340 calories in the second trimester and 450 calories in the third. *shrug*

That hunger tho!

You might get hit with the hungries in the first trimester, or after the nausea passes and you reach the second trimester…

“The ravenous hunger took me by complete surprise… unfortunately, if I ATE according to my hunger, five minutes later I would feel so overstuffed and full I never wanted to eat again.” Kate

“The hunger and nausea were hard to deal with. I’d wake up starving (and feeling nauseous because of it), then I’d eat and feel so full (and feel nauseous because of it), then a couple of hours later I’d flip from overfull to starving (plus nauseous) in a flat second… So glad I left that behind in the first trimester!” Cathy

4) Why is there Drool on my Pillow?

Oh this is such a fun pregnancy symptom! Not!

Pregnancy hormones can increase the amount of saliva you produce… leading to embarrassing puddles of drool on your pillow. Eww. Gross. I’m hating this symptom right now!

5) Where Did These Giant Nipples Come From?!

During pregnancy, your body goes through a lot of changes and one of those is that your breasts start to prepare for breastfeeding. Seems weird though, right? That to feed a tiny newborn baby your nipples have decided to become enormous.

“When my baby was born, his mouth was so tiny it looked like there was no way I’d be able to feed him with my new super-sized nipples… but it worked out somehow…” Cate

6) Pregnancy Hormones Can Be Awful

From crying over Superbowl ads to flying into a rage because someone ate the last Easter egg… (and it was actually you)… pregnancy can cause some crazy mood swings.

Perhaps you’ll just have all-the-crying pregnancy symptoms… but even that is hard! Happy tears, sad tears, fear tears, sentimental ad tears, cartoon character being a hero tears… it’s a tough break!

“Best thing about pregnancy: no PMS! Unfortunately, prego hormones are just as bad, if not worse! Sorry guys…” Tara

7) It Can Be Overwhelming (even if your individual symptoms aren’t too bad)

The laundry list of pregnancy symptoms don’t sound TOO bad when you take each one separately… but when you start stacking them, it’s enough to make anyone snap.

Between the:

nausea
food aversions
heartburn
exhaustion
constipation
swelling
acne
weight gain
soreness
lack of sex drive
insomnia
mood swings
headaches
vivid, crazy nightmares
pregnancy brain

plus having to adult and deal with doctor’s appointments and tests (some which have results with heavy implications)… we all need a bit of a break!

“I distinctly remember the meltdown I had mid second trimester because I was in constant pain from PRPGP, had heartburn, was stressed about an anomaly on the anatomy scan that could have massive implications, had stress at work, was exhausted, couldn’t sleep… I couldn’t even cry because I couldn’t breathe when I did…” Cath

8) I never used to have hair there…

Chalk this one up to those whacky pregnancy hormones too. While some moms are lucky enough that pregnancy hormones slow down their hair growth other moms, not so much.

“Since getting pregnant, I’ve noticed that I’ve started to get a snail trail… which I’ve NEVER had before. :(” Andrea

9) I Can’t Stop Burping!

Some pregnancy symptoms are just so weird. Burping? Really?! Where does that come from?

Let’s just blame hormones again…

“From the beginning of the first trimester, I just cannot stop burping. Luckily, now that I’m in the second trimester I don’t feel like I’m risking losing my lunch when it happens anymore!” Cath

10) Ouch, my sneeze hurt

Once you’re pregnant, sneezing and coughing can hurt… even from quite early on. This is probably because all your muscles and tendons are getting ready to stretch under the influence of relaxin and sneezing and coughing are so explosive they can pull a muscle easily! That sounds reasonable, right?

“I had the worst pain after sneezing the other day, felt like I’d given myself a stitch…” Peta

11) Nosebleeds are common

Even if you’ve never had a nosebleed, they can show up at random in pregnancy. Reason? Increased blood flow and potentially increased blood pressure plus those pesky hormones again might make it easier for the thin blood vessels in your nose to burst. Plus, if you’ve got a stuffy nose (another common pregnancy symptom no one talks about) and you’re trying to clear it, you may irritate your nose that way.

“I’ve never had a nosebleed in my life which was why I kinda panicked when I woke up one morning and there was a pool of blood on my pillow… it was never that bad again, but almost every day I’d have at least a little blood on a tissue when blowing my nose.” Louise

12) I can suddenly drink dairy… even though I usually have a problem

One of the weirdest of the weird pregnancy symptoms are the effects it can have on allergies and food intolerances. Some moms who can’t usually tolerate dairy find that they are suddenly able to during pregnancy. Hormones again? Maybe. Pregnancy is a massive change for your body to go through.

More troublesome though is those who suddenly develop an allergy during pregnancy.

“My tongue and mouth started tingling after sharing an ice cream with my 3-yo. I shrugged it off as maybe the cold was affecting me, but when it happened again with a chocolate and then again with some random chewing gum… I got worried. Turns out I’ve become mildly allergic to a certain food additive and I’m carrying antihistamine tablets with me wherever I go just in case.” Cath

13) Gag Reflex Just Got Way Extra

Morning sickness can be pretty rough, but it’s kinda expected, right? What you might not expect is that the weirdest things can become powerful nausea triggers.

Some moms find they trigger on:

brushing their teeth
trying to use mouthwash
trying to swallow prenatals

That’s tough – especially if you’re also vomiting.

“All I wanted to do was clean my teeth and rinse the bile taste out of my mouth… but it triggered more vomiting. I couldn’t even take prenatals (unless they were gummies) to make sure baby was getting something even though I couldn’t keep anything down.” Brie

14) The Dreaded Sneezepee

Pelvic floor issues like sneezing while peeing are relatively common in pregnancy. Your pelvic floor does get quite a workout holding baby up and occasionally resisting the flow when baby decides to use your bladder as a punching bag! Fun times.

This is way more common in second or more babies… it’s a good idea to get checked out and perhaps see a women’s health physio to get some strengthening exercises you can use to minimise the problem.

“I literally wet my pants today. Baby suddenly pushed really hard against my bladder and I was powerless to stop the flow. Luckily I was at home…” Fiona

15) Hemorrhoids suck

Being pregnant makes you more likely to get hemorrhoids. Most likely because of everyone’s favorite pregnancy symptom, constipation.

Heads up, you might also find you have hemorrhoids to deal with postpartum because of the pushing during labor.

16) I was so looking forward to feeling baby move… now it’s making me feel ill

The thing I look forward to the most in pregnancy is ‘quickening’, when you start to feel the baby move. It’s like a bit of reassurance that yes, you are actually pregnant and yes, the baby is ok in there. But, for some moms, the feeling is hard to get used to, psychologically or it can make them feel a bit ill.

Once baby starts getting larger, their movements can even hurt. Especially if they decide they like to kick your ribs or punch the same spot repeatedly.

“I really hate the feeling of baby moving inside, it makes me feel sea sick…” Selena

17) I feel like I’ve been kicked in the groin

This may be the beginning of SPD – where the ligaments connecting the two halves of your pelvis start to relax allowing excessive movement that causes irritation and inflammation. Or it could be a result of pressure from baby resting hard on your cervix/pelvic floor. I recommend checking with your doctor.

18) I can’t sleep

You might expect that not being able to sleep is more of a late pregnancy thing – you know, when you’re actually huge, sore and need to pee all the time.

Guess again!

Even from the start of pregnancy, you could experience poor sleep because of:

insomnia
feeling uncomfortable (from bloating, constipation, heartburn, sore hips or pelvis…)
hunger
nausea
gas pains that are so bad they wake you up

“The first trimester was the worst: I was so bone tired, yet as soon as I lay down to nap or at night my brain would snap right awake…” Rachel

“My gas pains have been so bad at night they wake me up… worst reason to wake up ever!” Elizabeth

19) Feeling thirsty

Some moms start feeling really thirsty… to the point where they drink too much water and then feel sick.

If this symptom is affecting you, talk to your doctor. Sometimes excessive thirst can be a sign of diabetes so it’s a good idea to get checked out as gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) is quite common.