Severe Congestion While: Pregnant

I tried everything. The humidifier ran nonstop, turning our bedroom into a swampy cloud. I went through two boxes of saline spray in four days. Neti pot? I did it three times a day, leaning over the sink, tilting my head, praying for the warm salt water to carve a tunnel through the wreckage. It helped for maybe ten glorious minutes. Then the swelling returned, worse than before, as if offended by my attempts to circumvent it.

And for the first time in three months, that was a beautiful thing. severe congestion while pregnant

After delivery. I still had twelve weeks to go. Twelve weeks of feeling like I was breathing through a coffee stirrer. I tried everything

I used it once. Just once. Then I went back to the humidifier, the neti pot, the saline spray, the six pillows, and the desperate hope that this baby had a very good reason for turning my nose into a decorative ornament. Neti pot

It started with a tickle. Just a little something at the back of my throat on a Tuesday morning. I was 28 weeks pregnant with my first, already waddling, already exhausted, and already sleeping in two-hour chunks because my bladder had become a tiny, tyrannical alarm clock.