So far I’ve received a nice sampling of pregnancy aches and pains. I say ’sampling’ because many of these ailments have not been chronic and many are very fleeting. For instance: I’ve had one bloody nose. Common in pregnancy, my bloody nose lasted about 3 minutes while teaching preschool in the presence of a fellow teacher who is also pregnant. I think it was a sympathy bloody nose because the day prior she had regaled me with tales of her many pregnancy induced bloody noses–so massive, so surprising, and so very ,very bloody. My body responded, in kind, by giving me a single solitary bloody nose the next day.

I had one day of heartburn. I didn’t even recognize it as heartburn until about 11pm when I wondered what that weird burning in my chest cavity was. How strange. How odd. Oh wait! This must be what heartburn feels like…ow. So, I amped myself up for my new preggo heartburn only to never face it again.

I’ve had two emotional outbursts. The kind that are funny later in their audacity. The kind that are fueled strictly from the huge amount of hormones coursing through my body. The kind that my husband has repeated as really funny jokes to friends and family. I don’t mind this…in fact I’m kind of surprised I haven’t lived day in and day out as a crying hormonal mess. My temperament has always been peppered with mild hysterics, crying jags, and emotional instability so I fully planned for the waterworks to really kick in. The day after I learned I was pregnant I was listening to Pearl Jam’s remake of the song “Last Kiss” on the radio and I started bawling. “Oh boy, this is it,” I thought to myself while blubbering. “I’m in for an emotional ride.” But this hasn’t been the case. Instead it’s been more subtle…like stubbing my toe badly on the front door and it totally ruining my day. Sort of like a slow burn, a stewing, a simmering pot of emotion. It wasn’t until I found myself sobbing during prenatal yoga that I realized I was still sad over stubbing my toe earlier that day.

There have been other quirks that I’ve simply excused as pregnancy related; primarily the gnawing pain in my jaw. Prone to TMJ after over-wearing my headgear in 8th grade (I was really, really eager to get my braces off and overdid everything in an attempt to lessen my orthodontia), I hadn’t had any real jaw discomfort in almost 20 years. Suddenly I was rendered incapable of eating anything but soft foods for a few days. Yawning jags became painful and annoying as my jaw creaked and groaned under its obligation to open past a few centimeters. I’m visiting the dentist on Thursday for a regular cleaning (excited that I’ll be able to chirp, “No x-rays please, I’m pregnant!”), and I’m sure the dentist won’t have anything helpful to say. I can’t take any of the really great medication they recommend for jaw pain. I’m not a teeth grinder, so a night guard would be useless. It seems to be getting a little better lately, but the nuisance of chewing with pain is still there. I know that it is common for the joints to loosen up during pregnancy. Since I’m not giving birth through my mouth, I’m not sure why my jaw decided to slack off. I’m chalking it up to yet another ‘mystery of pregnancy.’