Being Pregnant
Pregnant Super Powers: The Nose
My husband is convinced that pregnant women are given the super sniffer in order to smell danger from a mile away and protect the baby.
Or to smell the milk if it’s gone bad from a room away and protect the baby.
One of those. Either way, it’s to protect the baby. That is why we have our super sniffer, according to him.
(Don’t worry, he also believes in UFOs.)
The nose is a powerful being on its own accord. Combine the hormones and craziness your body goes through when pregnant, and it’s as though the nose has a new identity, complete with cape. It’s magical and even envied by some.
When pregnant, you smell EVERYTHING. You even smell things that other people (non-pregnant people) won’t smell for another 4 and a half minutes.
It’s as though you can tell the future with your super sniffer.
Don’t go in that room! Someone on the couch hasn’t bathed recently.
Run and hide, kids! Dad is cooking pork chops tonight.
If needed, I can be found in the pantry… consuming the raspberry coffee cake that I can smell from the neighbor’s front yard.
It’s amazing, really, when you think about it. And… if you’re like me, the super sniffer sticks with you postpartum, too. Granted, it gets rusty in time. When you don’t have a baby in your uterus to protect from the dog’s rancid odor, the super sniffer takes a bit of time to wake up.
But rest assured, the super sniffer will not fail. Ever.
Even when you want it to, it will not fail. There will be days when you wish your super sniffer would take an extended vacation just so that you could eat the huevos racheros that you so love but currently smells so foul.
It is both a blessing and a curse, my friends. A blessing and a curse.
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6 Comments
Jenni Chiu commented on Sep 27 11 at 5:56 pmSo true. It was such a curse in my first trimester because everything smelled ten times stronger than it should and made me want to puke. Third trimester it rocked because I could find food before anyone else and it IT ALL.
Alicia commented on Sep 27 11 at 6:25 pmI had a super sniffer when I was pregnant, though it was at it’s strongest in the first trimester. My husband couldn’t make jalapeño poppers because it would smell like I had some stuffed into my nostrils! The worst was when we were at an airport, waiting for our luggage. I could smell the plane fuel so strongly, it made me wonder if there was a leak somewhere. Nobody else could smell a thing though, and my husband thought I was crazy. A drug sniffing dog walked by, and my heart went out to him! If it was that bad for me, a human, I can’t imagine how bad it was for him!
Dolores commented on Sep 27 11 at 6:59 pmI have always had a keen sense of smell, and pregnancy has pushed it into overdrive–Ughhhh=/
Dana commented on Sep 27 11 at 7:25 pmFor me, terrible smells were always 5,000 times more wretched, but I never experienced the delight of good smells made more delicious. Only stinking shit and rotting animal corpses that sent shivers down my arms. I don’t envy you this right now!
jessenia commented on Sep 28 11 at 7:01 pmI thought I was the only one with this super sniffer! So funny.
Rebecca commented on Oct 04 11 at 10:23 amI always wonder what the super-sniffer is like…I have anosmia (no sense of smell) due to a head injury ~5 years ago. So many pregnant friends have discussed their heightened sense of smell and I have no clue what that is like–I suspect it might be a minor blessing!
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