Caution: Pregnant Women Have a Heightened Sense of Smell

So, I have always heard that women have a heightened sense of smell during pregnancy and that strong smells can be highly offensive and agitating. It's not that I didn't believe that this fact was true, but I gained a new knowledge of how agitating smells can be just the other day, and no, I am not talking about my own body odor.

Thus far, Liz had been free of the vomiting and morning sickness that is associated with pregnancy. We had both feared that she would be very sick in the mornings because of her vertigo and already nervous stomach, but we made it through the first trimester with no hang ups. She had mentioned a few times that smells were offensive to her. For instance, when we saw the new Harry Potter movie in a crowded movie theater at a midnight showing on opening night, a girl sat down next to Liz that smelled to high heaven of cigarette smoke. I was sitting a seat over and could still smell the reek of this girl (who, consequently, was extremely annoying to be sitting near in a movie theater anyway). I was a little afraid that the smell would get to Liz and make her sick before the end of the movie, and I offered to switch with her, but she turned me down. Nonetheless, Liz made it through the movie with no real problems. Considering that I also found her smell offensive, I thought that maybe smells wouldn't offend her too badly.

Fast forward to a few nights ago after I got home from work. Ants have found their way to Winnie's (one of our dachshunds) food bowl. We had already combated this issue once by moving the bowl further away from the back door and spraying outside. This time, however, we had to spray Raid inside. So I cleaned out Winnie's food bowl and went to work spraying the baseboards and window by the back door. The smell of "country fresh" (yeah, right) Raid permeates the house. Liz begins to cough, and I turn around. The color has gone out of her face and she starts gagging. She rushes through our bedroom to our bathroom and the sound of vomiting commences. Granted, the Raid doesn't smell great and is very potent, but it did not even occur to me that it would affect Liz to the point of throwing up.

We spent the next three hours locked in the bedroom. We even ate dinner in there. Finally, after running the vent hood over the oven and the exhaust fan in the guest bathroom and turning on the Scentsy, the smell cleared out. Needless to say, next time I need to spray anything (cleaning supplies or whatever) in the house, I will make sure Liz is out of the room and that she stays out until the cloud room clears. Lesson learned: pregnant women have a heightened sense of smell, for real.