Severe Congestion While Pregnant -

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.

Not the kind you get with a cold. Not the sniffly, blow-your-nose-and-move-on kind. This was pregnancy rhinitis —a cruel joke of biology where your body, in its wisdom, floods your nasal passages with extra blood and hormones, swelling everything shut from the inside. severe congestion while pregnant

I called the nurse hotline at 2 a.m. on Saturday. “Is this normal?” I asked, nasally, barely understandable. I used it once

And for the first time in three months, that was a beautiful thing. Not the kind you get with a cold

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.

By Wednesday, the tickle had turned into a dull pressure behind my nose. By Thursday, I understood what true congestion meant.

My husband looked over. “You okay?”