Pregnancy: Symptoms Stuffy Nose ~upd~

She took another breath, just for the joy of it. Then she looked down at June, who was already scrunching up her tiny face, rooting for milk, utterly unaware that for her mother, every clear breath from now on would feel like a small miracle.

Maya sank onto the bed, a grin breaking through her exhausted, puffy face. “Apparently. It’s called pregnancy rhinitis. Your body increases blood flow to all the mucous membranes. Everything swells up. Even your nose.” pregnancy symptoms stuffy nose

“You sound like you’re talking through a kazoo,” her husband, Leo, observed over breakfast. She took another breath, just for the joy of it

“Allergies,” she muttered, reaching for the tissue box. It was April. The cherry blossoms were in full riot outside her window. Of course. “Apparently

That night, as she lay on her side, the upper nostril miraculously cleared—a cruel trick of nasal physiology—and she managed a few hours of mouth-breathing sleep. She woke up to a dry, cracked lip and a new, unwelcome certainty: this was no cold. There was no fever, no cough, no ache in her bones. Just this relentless, stuffy, velvet-lined prison in the middle of her face.