Figuring It Out 101: What They Didn't Tell You About Pregnancy- Eyes

So, you're pregnant, or you're thinking about becoming a new mommy or you know someone who's pregnant. In order to educate yourself, you probably typed, "pregnancy symptoms" or something similar.

There are some symptoms that have made women question whether or not they were pregnant, achy breasts, heartburn (I couldn't complain of heartburn without being asked if I was pregnant), mood swings, and so much more.

Then there are the symptoms that you see in the movies. Symptoms like:

Pregnancy glow! When you see a new mother, what do you hear in movies or say in real life? "Girl, you're glowing!" That could be from happiness or sweat from your body temperature rising. It's usually meant as a compliment when someone tells you that you're glowing, but I was in the percent of women who perspired more than I would have liked, so I just would roll my eyes while thanking them.

Not my best pregnancy glow picture, but there is definitely a
baby in that belly (Look at that bad perm choice!).

Another thing that people associate with pregnancy- Cravings!!! Pickles and ice cream anyone? Ok, that was never me. I usually craved chocolate milk or jalapeno poppers.

Morning sickness- So not all women get that- lucky you! I had morning sickness all day until 4:00 PM during my whole first trimester and for a short time in my second trimester for all my prengnancies. Without my grandma's nurturing care, my oldest child, when I was pregnant with his sister, would have probably set the house on fire or something while my head was in the toilet.

So... What are some things that you don't really realize or understand until it's happening to you? I'm going to write a little mini-series about those horrors and, hopefully, it will be funny. This first one, however is about...

Astigmatism!

So, what is astigmatism? Astigmatism is when your eye isn't rounded the way it is supposed to be so when light enters your eyes, things can appear blurry or distorted. Let me highlight the symptoms that I have from the following list:

Symptoms

blurred or distorted vision at all distances
headaches
excessive squinting
eye strain
difficulty seeing at night

Along with telling me that I'm still near-sighted, my doctor told me that I had developed a slight astigmatism.He said that the likely cause of developing this astigmatism, at my age, was because of my pregnancies. Do you remember that pregnancy glow that I was talking about earlier? Women double their volume of blood during pregnancy or something like that. All of that extra blood actually changed my eye shape a little bit.

Don't worry, though, this doesn't happen to everyone. It probably happened to me because I already had eye sight problems.

I have the most problems with it at night and it's usually when I'm wearing my glasses and not my contacts. It's kind of like a game... Can I see the lines in the road? Is that really a bat flying at my head or is it a shadow? It keeps me on my toes.

My latest astigmatism figment of my imagination was when I was standing outside at my parent's house during their housewarming party. I was actually wearing my contacts at the time, but as I was talking with my brother-in-law (I think), I was startled and jumped because the power box on the pole that I was standing next too in my parent's yard, looked like a random man standing beside me and he hadn't been there before. I of course figured out what had happened at the time and had to endure the endless mocking from all who were there and saw my paranoid leap.

If you suspect that you might have astigmatism and haven't been to the eye doctor in a while, get your eyes checked out. Contacts are life savers and if you must drive, it's better to drive with contacts vs. glasses and avoid driving at night if you have a difficult time seeing.

Have your eyes changed since pregnancy? Do you see random things that aren't really there? Tell me your weird pregnancy stories!