Pregnancy can be a time filled with happiness and excitement for many women. The body changes in wondrous ways, unlike any other time in a woman’s life.

I truly loved being pregnant, so much so that it was an absolutely huge factor in my wanting to become pregnant all over again. I couldn’t wait to feel my body change as my belly grew larger and larger. And feeling those first flutters of movement and eventual huge shifts and pokes as the baby worked on those muscles while still inside of me? It made me giddy each and every time.

To be fair, I had really relatively easy pregnancies. But even an easy pregnancy includes many adjustments and changes happening within the body in a really rather short period of time. I guess for me, the pains of pregnancy were so outweighed by the excitement and fun of it all that I look back on the experience as a whole with fondness.

That doesn’t mean I can’t tell you a few things that might be experienced as, well, rather unpleasant, or even rather painful, throughout this journey called pregnancy, though.

Obviously there’s the contractions of labor, as well as the warm-up ones called Braxton-Hicks. Then there’s leg cramps, headaches, joint looseness, pushing pains, and more...

And it’s hard to understand just how something feels unless you’ve actually been through it once -- or, like me, even twice -- before, so here are 15 ways you might try describing the aches and pains of pregnancy to your guy.

15 Heavy Load

Here’s one your guy may just understand, actually. See, whether we like to talk about it or not, everyone is familiar with this very specific sensation, indeed.

Animals that we are, we consume plants and proteins to get the fuel we need to to live, to function, to flourish. Our bodies absorb what nutrients they can, and then there is the waste, which must, of course, be expelled.

This is my way of oh-so-delicately saying that everybody poops.

And the other thing pretty much everyone goes through is getting somewhat backed up. So you might start there when describing the sensation of actually pushing the baby out to your special someone.

No, it’s certainly not out the butt, so it’s an entirely different feeling, indeed, but the work that has to be done, the need to bear down, and the necessity to sort of well, grunt it out with all your might? Those are sort of all the same.

14 Caught By Surprise

It’s like someone snuck up behind him, reached down, and pinched him (with sharp nails) right in the scrotum.

It’s not perfect, but it’s my best attempt at conveying what is a common sensation experienced during pregnancy as the body prepares for labor and delivery.

Stabbing pains in the vagina can be felt as sudden and sometimes startling sensations to all those sensitive nerves.

A pinch, I think, is about the right level if you’re going to try to convey to your guy just how it might feel. It’s not all that intense, but it’s certainly not something you could really ever ignore. It catches your attention, can be somewhat unpleasant, and you might wonder what exactly you’ve done to deserve it.

Perhaps it freaks you out at first, or perhaps you find it simply annoying. But there you have it. A sudden pinch to the teste satchel just may be a fitting sensation to use for comparison.

13 About To Pop

You’re in the backyard. It’s summertime! Neighborhood kids shriek with excitement and giggle with glee as they dash barefooted from behind a tree and chuck a brightly colored orb as hard as they can in your general direction. Meanwhile, you’re doing all that you possibly can to get the mouth of your own balloon stretched around the faucet so you can get going again and get some sweet, splashy revenge. The rubber of the balloon swells, stretches, expands until you think it can’t hold another drop -- and that’s when you take it off and tie it up.

That’s how a pregnant lady’s feet can feel -- like a water balloon ready to pop.

The extra fluid retention during pregnancy can make a woman’s entire body feel and even appear quite swollen, and given that the feet are the lowest part of the body and we tend to need to spend quite a lot of time on them, they can really balloon up at the end of the day.

12 Muscular Matters

“Remember, honey, that time you couldn’t even make it to the next gas station and had to pull over to the side of the road and run behind the nearest bush? It’s kinda, if you think about it, like that.”

That’s one way you may begin your tale to your guy about what exactly contractions can sometimes feel like.

Stomach cramps, as in the sort that usually cause you to have to hurry to the bathroom quick before you think you might have an accident, involve muscles in the abdomen going through some pretty intense action, and it’s action that can build in intensity as your body goes through somewhat painful sensations that are entirely out of your control.

In both cases, it’s the body’s way of, well, expelling something out of itself that no longer needs to be in there.

While contractions during labor are certainly different (though perhaps accompanied by) stomach cramps from having diarrhea, some fitting analogies can certainly be made.

11 Nice Stems

Has your guy ever lifted heavy weights to build up those muscles, run a long distance, or cycled up a really steep hill? If he has with any regularity at all, in all likelihood, he’s probably done so while not quite properly hydrated or with not quite adequate levels of potassium in his system to allow his muscles to smoothly and excellently do their work -- without cramping, that is.

If your guy has had what’s commonly called a charley horse in his leg, you better believe he’ll remember it. The muscle of the calf cramps, often very, very intensely, and this can cause an incredibly urgent and quite awful pain.

And during pregnancy and even during labor, actually, leg cramps are pretty common.

So next time you’re struggling to convey to your significant other just how much fun all the various sensations and pains of pregnancy can be, try reminding him of this little number.

10 Press Snooze

Pregnancy can be really tough on some women simply for how fricking tired it can make them. Yes, ask almost anyone and they’ll tell you that, without a doubt, the exhaustion of pregnancy is real.

There’s the first trimester, when the hormone levels are escalating quickly and a woman can find herself feeling really quite drained. Perhaps there’s morning sickness thrown into the mix, as well, and that certainly doesn’t give her any more energy. But for many women, even if they get a good night of sleep, hit the hay pretty early, and take pretty good care of themselves, the days can seem to drag because they just feel really, really tired.

And the third trimester can feel that way, as well. The body of a pregnant woman is producing much more blood, not to mention carrying quite a heavier load than usual.

And while being tired might not physically hurt, it certainly is a pain, so maybe try starting here when you’re trying to get your partner to commiserate. It’s like that time he was about to fall over because he hadn’t slept for three days.

9 Man Versus Food

Did your guy ever feel compelled, for some reason unknown to you, to enter into some sort of eating competition? Did he challenge himself -- or was he challenged by his buddy -- to eat a huge, greasy plate of chicken wings covered in fiery hot sauce? When the Fourth of July rolls around, does he down a plate of hot dogs -- and do it at record speed?

Extreme eating challenges may not even be required, in all seriousness, to produce the common sensation of pregnancy that I’m getting at here. It’s heartburn, and many guys have probably already experienced it, even if they’re not competitive eaters.

The feeling of acid rising in your throat is unmistakable; and yet it can be hard to explain to someone just how awful it is unless it’s happened to them before, too.

It can be straight-up painful. It is certainly unpleasant. Eating large meals, drinking lots of liquid amid said meals, or consuming spicy or acidic things might all trigger it. And it’s not fun.

8 What A Night

Was it a good idea to drink three beers, followed by two shots? Nah. Did he do it anyway? Yep.

And the next morning, he paid for it.

Morning sickness can be just like other scenarios in which you find yourself feeling queasy, ill, and, well, needing to vomit.

The thought of food, or maybe certain foods, may completely disgust you. Even sipping water may be quite a challenge. And there’s sometimes nothing you can really do but just wait it out -- or, um, get it out (go ahead and throw up, sometimes many times in a row).

Sorry, guys and gals. I know no one really likes to think about barfing. In fact I’m cringing quite a bit as I write this now. But surely, due to stomach flu, drinking too much, or food poisoning, your guy has felt nauseous before, so this is one it’s quite easy to describe to him.

7 Talking Temps

With hormonal changes, increased blood volume, and a heavier load to carry around as the baby grows, grows, and grows some more, pregnancy can be a time when women more often than not find themselves feeling hot.

It can come on quite suddenly, too. Even if you’re wearing breathable cotton clothes and no one else in the room is uncomfortable with the temperature, you can find your body heat rising and yourself looking for the nearest exit to go get some cool fresh air.

Having a cold beverage, in the form of a nice big water bottle, can really help. As can fans, shade, dressing in layers, and of course all the other simple steps one can take to deal with temperature changes.

This is another one that might not actually hurt, but it certainly is a pain, and it’s certainly something your guy has been through before: being too darn hot!

It’s like that time his buddy challenged him to sit in the car with the windows rolled up and the heater on full blast to see which one of them would crack and roll down the window first.

6 All Work

As if you needed another pregnancy pain to worry about… Then along come dry eyes.

Some women develop this condition early on or during pregnancy, and it’s thought to be caused by those same old hormonal changes that cause everything else.

If you normally wear contacts, it might be a great time to consider switching -- at least temporarily -- to glasses. And if your eyes already tend to be somewhat dry, then you may wanna brace yourself. (And talk to your doctor about how to best deal with the condition.)

And how do you describe this one to him?

Well, remember that time you stared at your computer screen for like eight hours straight in college with no breaks to try to get that paper done? No? Well how about when you spent an entire weekend in front of the TV playing Halo?

Remember how dry your eyes were? It’s sorta like that.

5 Arcade Fire

The smell of fried food wafts through the summer air. Happy mechanical-sounding songs flow and clash and repeat. The baggie of quarters his mom game him is safe in his pocket, or clutched tight in his sweaty hand. He’s in the arcade, and it’s video game time. He gets sucked in, and before he knows it, he’s spent the entire afternoon trying to beat his buddy’s high score.

Alternatively, maybe flash forward to the adult years, when he spends many hours each day doing the same repetitive motion of typing on a keyboard. For many of us, it’s inevitable. For some of us, it causes carpal tunnel pain.

This is when pressure and pain is felt in one or both wrists, and many women experience it during pregnancy and after. Sometimes wearing a wrist brace can help. And if your guy’s ever experienced carpal tunnel pain, he’ll know exactly what you mean.

4 Just Do It

This one’s at the very end of pregnancy, and nearing the end of the labor itself, in fact. It’s when the contractions have brought the baby far enough down the birth canal and the cervix has opened up enough that it’s finally, at long last, time to push.

And the sensation when you realize that the time has come is not unlike when you realize that if you don’t make it to the bathroom, like, immediately, you think you just might die. Surely your guy has experienced that.

It’s not necessarily really what I’d call “painful,” though contraction pains will be happening at the same time, as well. It’s more what I would describe as “urgent.”

Something’s gotta come out, and you feel the intense, almost-impossible-to-deny urge to aid it in it’s course by using the necessary muscles.

When it’s a baby that’s making its exit, the muscles in use are of course different, but the principle’s the same.

3 Wibble Wobble

This is something a guy has certainly never been through before, but it’s a scenario he may be able to picture when you describe it to him. “See, babe, it’s like someone went into my body and replaced all of my major joints with Jello.”

Especially toward the end of pregnancy, women can feel like their joints are just looser in general, and that is because they are. The hormone relaxin does important work in allowing the body to further open up for the birth of a baby.

But it can also make a mom feel really quite wobbly, or at least just different, as she stands and moves around.

Maybe he’s never had a Jello-for-joints replacement surgery, but he’s probably felt a bit unsteady on his feet or wobbly in his legs after a long run or big workout of some sort, and that’s kinda how it might feel.

2 Beast Of Burden

It’s like someone strapped a three-year-old to you and told you to go on with your business as usual for something like three to six months.

A woman of a healthy pre-pregnancy weight may gain something like 25 to 30 pounds. It’s natural. It’s supposed to happen. A lot of it is actually extra blood volume and fluid being retained, an increase in muscle mass, and of course that ever-growing baby.

At least it doesn’t happen overnight. The body gradually (slowly but surely) packs on the pounds, one week after another, until the very (or almost the very) end.

Even though it’s not as extreme as being suddenly asked to carry around this extra load, maybe ask him to consider how he might feel if he did have to carry around the weight of another small person each day on top of his own. What might happen? Well, there’s muscle soreness and pain, joint pain, back pain, tired and aching feet...

1 Thou Shalt Not Rise

Getting out of bed is probably not something either you or your partner have ever had to give much thought to before, at least until you were pregnant. Then when you are pregnant, it might be quite amusing to your husband / boyfriend / partner / lover to watch you groan as you roll slowly toward the edge of your bed, throw your legs over the edge with a grunt, and use your hands and arms to get yourself to an upright position.

But as he lies there giggling, you might try to describe to him just how it feels to have all that extra weight, a drastically shifted center of gravity, tired muscles and joints, and an instinctual urge to move with more care. Maybe you could say it’s sort of like every time you go to rise out of bed, some invisible force is pushing you right back down.

Hang in there, ladies, and have fun trying to describe all those pregnancy pains to him.

Sources: BabyCentre.co.uk