Are you pregnant? Check out the 18 pregnancy symptoms below to see if you have been experiencing any of them.
1. Nausea or morning sickness: Morning sickness is term to describe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. This occurs in approximately 50% to 95% of all pregnant women as early as the first week of pregnancy. Morning sickness probably got it's name due to the fact that most of the nauseating symptoms start in the morning right after you get out of bed when your blood sugar levels are low. However, it may happen at any time of the day.
2. Headaches: If you have never experienced regular headaches before pregnancy, be prepared for some throbbing pain in your head and neck during pregnancy. Changes in your body's hormonal patterns is the primary cause of headaches during pregnancy. Other conditions like lack of sleep, poor posture, stress, dehydration and low blood sugar levels may also worsen of cause headaches.
3. Dizziness and fainting spells: Due to the lowered blood pressure in your body during pregnancy, blood flow to the brain may cause dizziness and fainting spells in serious cases.
4. Mood swings: With your hormones raging, it is common for women to feel moody during their pregnancy. All women have to go through a period of adjustment to settle into their new roles as a pregnant women and that takes time.
5. Fatigue: If you feel tired and experience some or all of the symptoms mentioned in this article, you have a good chance of being pregnant. Hormonal changes are usually the main cause of fatigue followed by the additional weight you have to carry around.
6. Food cravings: Craving for food that you normally would not eat could be a sign that you are pregnant. Normally, women report cravings for salty and sweet food during pregnancy while others report a uncommon desire for spicy or starchy food.
7. Weight gain and bloating: The combination of your baby's growth and your increased food intake will cause you to put on weight and your clothes to fit tighter than usual. An inexplicable increase in size of your stomach is also a definitive sign that you may be pregnant.
8. Heartburn: Hormones created during pregnancy may relax the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which opens the valve to allow stomach acids to flow up into the esophagus causing a burning sensation.
9. Lower back pain: As your baby grows in size, the additional weight pulls your spine to the front of your body and causes you to experience some back pain from time to time.
10. Constipation: Hormonal changes during pregnancy slows down the movement of food through your digestive system which results in constipation. This could be a sign of pregnancy if you do not experience constipation frequently.
11. Constant urination: Your growing baby in the uterus puts a lot of pressure on your bladder and you may find yourself visiting the toilet more frequently than usual.
12. High Basal Body Temperature (BBT): If your BTT stays in the high temperature range for 18 days or more, you have a good chance of being pregnant.
13. Cramping: As the uterus grows and stretches, it is normal to feel cramps that feel similar to menstrual cramps.
14. Spotting: Slight bleeding occurs when the fertilized egg begins to implant itself into the uterus any time from 3 to 6 days after fertilization. This usually happens outside of a normal menstruation cycle so it should not be confused with a normal period.
15. Darkening of the areolas: Your areolas could darken and increase in diameter during pregnancy. This is caused by your body's preparation for your breasts to produce milk.
16. Tender or swollen breasts: A lot of women experience sore, swollen, tingly or tender breasts during pregnancy due to the increasing hormones that are used to prepare a woman for breastfeeding. This feels like a amplified version of how your breast feels before your period.
17. Missed periods: If you have been sexually active and you missed a period, it is a good indication that are you are pregnant. A pregnancy test should be taken to confirm if the missed period is really caused by your pregnancy.
18. Positive pregnancy tests: Only a positive urine test or blood test can give you solid indication that you are pregnant. The problem is, they may not be fool proof. Remember to visit a doctor to conduct further tests to confirm the results.
It is important to remember that not all of the symptoms above can confirm a pregnancy. When you have a positive pregnancy test, visit a doctor to get more tests done to confirm your pregnancy. That's the only way to find out if you are truly pregnant.
Showing posts with label Women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women. Show all posts
Women and Love, and The Bachelor
The other night I saw an episode of the reality TV show The Bachelor . I think it's the first time the series has been aired in South Africa. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's about a bachelor and a group of single women desperate to get married. They stay in a gorgeous house for a week, and He Visits. He can go on single or group dates, and if he likes a woman he gives her a rose which protects her from being eliminated that round. At the end of the week, the women he hasn't dated get a chance to prove they're perfect for him, at a soiree. But he already has decided he doesn't like them, so they just humiliate themselves.
After that there's the mandatory ceremony where Somebody Goes Home. The women get all dressed up and stand together, hopeful, vulnerable, terrified. Mr. Gallant and Charming stands next to a podium with a bunch of roses on it. He gives roses to the women he likes, one by tormenting one. His best choice is first of course, so that woman is in seventh heaven. The shock and pain on the other women's faces is heart-rending.
Of course this ceremony was full of nightmarish dramatic pause which made the emotional torture and humiliation even worse. Eventually He got to his last choice. The woman he chose was so relieved and grateful she groveled. It was nauseating to watch, but the vulnerability it showed was touching and so sad.
“The participants on The Bachelor were intelligent, interesting women. That's what puzzled me.”
Then there were a couple left, and with a glum face, he said sorry, gals, it breaks my heart but you don't make the cut. One of the women was so beautiful, within and without, and she had given up her job as a teacher to be on the show. She walked away very sore, but also very thoughtful, and I knew she'd be okay, she'd learned something very important about herself. I get goose bumps thinking about it.
The mind boggles at what this show represents, how it illustrates that some women still don't realize their value, and still believe it only has any substance if a man chooses them. They don't even seem to be aware that they have choice. Certainly not the ones on the show, anyway, but I know this to be true of many women.
On the episode I watched there were 12 or 13 women, of varying ages; all of them attractive. A couple were pretty ditzy, but many had wonderful personalities. Some had children or careers, dreams for their lives and what they wanted to achieve. They were intelligent, interesting women. That's what puzzled me. As for Mr. Bachelor, he was a nice-enough looking man, in great shape, with a small child he "loved more than anything" - the veracity of which was slightly cast into doubt when, on camera, he asked his son "who loves you more than anybody?" and his son actually didn't know the answer!
Then Daddy said, with a sad, tragic look on his face that kiddo had to go away for a week because Daddy had this important thing to do. He was going to choose a new Mommy! Right, this wasn't about a big ego trip harem fantasy at all, it was for the kid. Kiddo didn't really understand that either. Poor little sod.
It was amazing and sad - to watch these women, a lot of whom really had something going for them, be so desperate for attention from a man who had less personality than most of them, who they didn't know, and who made no effort to please them. The ones who weren't chosen went through hell. It was hard to watch, to see their real pain, and how they believe their fulfillment is dependent on the whether a man chooses them or not. Worse that if he doesn't, it's because there's something wrong with them. Even if he's a jerk, which Mr. Handsome and Charming rather was. He wasn't an out and out scoundrel, but it didn't ever occur to him that his merits might be in question. And he took the ones he liked the best out on spectacular dates which he took kudos for even though they had been thought up and paid for of course by the show. He played romance with them, drew them in, kissed them, and tossed them out. And they let him.
We all want love. We're all vulnerable and hate rejection. But being a willing participant in a meat market? Every one of these beautiful women were desperate to please him. Only one of them said "I don't like this". His response? She was too needy! It was like something out of Jane Austen. Both Greg and another friend of mine, Heather, commented on how disgusting these reality shows are because the basic premise is how much participants are willing to humiliate themselves for a prize. I agree, it is disgusting, and I get angry and cringe at the humiliation. The tormenting reminds me of people being thrown to the lions in Roman times.
But more than anything, I think they're a very pertinent comment on our society. We can slam those women for being such idiots, but idiots they are not. Perhaps more than anything, they're honest. My heart goes out to them, because they have much to learn about their own value, and I think that learning process is going to be painful. But at least they're engaging in it. Did you ever see the film Miss Congeniality? Sandra Bullock was interviewed about it and said she had been so scornful of women who enter beauty pageants until she met them.
I feel the same way about these women. They touched me. The reason I'll keep on watching is to see if any of them realize they don't have to put themselves through this to find happiness. I think the winners will be the ones who are sent home. They get to keep their lives and build on them authentically and have the chance to find love that's real and is a two-way street. I hope for them that they do.
After that there's the mandatory ceremony where Somebody Goes Home. The women get all dressed up and stand together, hopeful, vulnerable, terrified. Mr. Gallant and Charming stands next to a podium with a bunch of roses on it. He gives roses to the women he likes, one by tormenting one. His best choice is first of course, so that woman is in seventh heaven. The shock and pain on the other women's faces is heart-rending.
Of course this ceremony was full of nightmarish dramatic pause which made the emotional torture and humiliation even worse. Eventually He got to his last choice. The woman he chose was so relieved and grateful she groveled. It was nauseating to watch, but the vulnerability it showed was touching and so sad.
“The participants on The Bachelor were intelligent, interesting women. That's what puzzled me.”
Then there were a couple left, and with a glum face, he said sorry, gals, it breaks my heart but you don't make the cut. One of the women was so beautiful, within and without, and she had given up her job as a teacher to be on the show. She walked away very sore, but also very thoughtful, and I knew she'd be okay, she'd learned something very important about herself. I get goose bumps thinking about it.
The mind boggles at what this show represents, how it illustrates that some women still don't realize their value, and still believe it only has any substance if a man chooses them. They don't even seem to be aware that they have choice. Certainly not the ones on the show, anyway, but I know this to be true of many women.
On the episode I watched there were 12 or 13 women, of varying ages; all of them attractive. A couple were pretty ditzy, but many had wonderful personalities. Some had children or careers, dreams for their lives and what they wanted to achieve. They were intelligent, interesting women. That's what puzzled me. As for Mr. Bachelor, he was a nice-enough looking man, in great shape, with a small child he "loved more than anything" - the veracity of which was slightly cast into doubt when, on camera, he asked his son "who loves you more than anybody?" and his son actually didn't know the answer!
Then Daddy said, with a sad, tragic look on his face that kiddo had to go away for a week because Daddy had this important thing to do. He was going to choose a new Mommy! Right, this wasn't about a big ego trip harem fantasy at all, it was for the kid. Kiddo didn't really understand that either. Poor little sod.
It was amazing and sad - to watch these women, a lot of whom really had something going for them, be so desperate for attention from a man who had less personality than most of them, who they didn't know, and who made no effort to please them. The ones who weren't chosen went through hell. It was hard to watch, to see their real pain, and how they believe their fulfillment is dependent on the whether a man chooses them or not. Worse that if he doesn't, it's because there's something wrong with them. Even if he's a jerk, which Mr. Handsome and Charming rather was. He wasn't an out and out scoundrel, but it didn't ever occur to him that his merits might be in question. And he took the ones he liked the best out on spectacular dates which he took kudos for even though they had been thought up and paid for of course by the show. He played romance with them, drew them in, kissed them, and tossed them out. And they let him.
We all want love. We're all vulnerable and hate rejection. But being a willing participant in a meat market? Every one of these beautiful women were desperate to please him. Only one of them said "I don't like this". His response? She was too needy! It was like something out of Jane Austen. Both Greg and another friend of mine, Heather, commented on how disgusting these reality shows are because the basic premise is how much participants are willing to humiliate themselves for a prize. I agree, it is disgusting, and I get angry and cringe at the humiliation. The tormenting reminds me of people being thrown to the lions in Roman times.
But more than anything, I think they're a very pertinent comment on our society. We can slam those women for being such idiots, but idiots they are not. Perhaps more than anything, they're honest. My heart goes out to them, because they have much to learn about their own value, and I think that learning process is going to be painful. But at least they're engaging in it. Did you ever see the film Miss Congeniality? Sandra Bullock was interviewed about it and said she had been so scornful of women who enter beauty pageants until she met them.
I feel the same way about these women. They touched me. The reason I'll keep on watching is to see if any of them realize they don't have to put themselves through this to find happiness. I think the winners will be the ones who are sent home. They get to keep their lives and build on them authentically and have the chance to find love that's real and is a two-way street. I hope for them that they do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)