Caitlyn Bradley admits she used to love watching TLC's I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. And, like most of us, she remained a skeptic of the oddly addicting show. ("I always used to think, how could you possibly not know that you’re pregnant?" she tells CafeMom. "No feelings at all? No symptoms?") But after being blindsided by her own surprise pregnancy, the 25-year-old mom-to-be from Buffalo, New York, sees how it's possible. And believe it or not, the only thing crazier than suddenly learning she was seven months pregnant was how she discovered the news.
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Bradly first shared her story in a jaw-dropping Reddit post in 2020.
She'd been having some digestion issues, coupled with bloating and a fair amount of heartburn. All uncomfortable stuff, but not necessarily unusual, because she has celiac disease (a gluten allergy). In other words, her symptoms were easy to shrug off — at least for the time being.
"I told myself I’d go to the doctor after the pandemic, due to fear of going anywhere near a doctors office during this time," she explained on Reddit.
It was a trip to the bathroom that left her with, well, a LOT of questions but ultimately the answer.
"We have a porcelain toilet seat in our downstairs bathroom that mysteriously turned blue the one day," Bradley explained. "Thinking it was my Young Living [toilet] cleaner I had just purchased, I tried scrubbing it off with no luck."
She decided to ask Google what to do – and the results she got back left her stunned.
"All that popped up when googled were blog pages after blog pages of people talking about how pregnancy hormones turn porcelain toilet seats blue!" Bradley shared.
As crazy as it sounds, it's true.
A quick Google does in fact show that the mystifying phenomenon is real (and sometimes even referred to as "Smurf butt"), though the theories as to what's behind it remain varied.
Among the most plausible ones out there is that the blue tint is caused by a condition known as chromhidrosis.
Angela Ballard, a registered nurse with the International Hyperhidrosis Society, told Metro UK:
“Chromhidrosis is a disorder of the sweat glands that usually manifests with colored sweat on the face, in the underarms, or on the areola of the breasts (the darker circle of skin around the nipples). Sweat may be yellow, green, blue, brown, or black. The colors are due to a pigment produced in the sweat glands called lipofuscin … Lipofuscin is common in human cells, but for some reason people with chromhidrosis have higher concentrations of lipofuscin or lipofuscin that is in a higher-than-normal state of oxidation.”
Hmm … strange, but true!
Whatever the case, Bradley's suddenly blue seat led her to take a home pregnancy test, and lo and behold ... it was positive.
To say she was shocked would be an understatement. Bradley says her emotions ranged from shock to happiness, and even fear.
"[It was the] fear of not knowing at first how far along I was and if the baby was okay," she explains. "My first thought was, 'Oh my gosh I need to see a doctor as soon as possible.'"
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Needless to say, her family was taken by surprise, too.
"I think the best way to describe everyone’s reactions about the baby is complete shock," she tells CafeMom. "Shock because I was not showing up until this week."
At the time she took the test, Bradley admits she'd been slightly bloated for weeks, but she certainly didn't appear to have a baby bump. That is why she was further stunned after visiting the doctor and learning she wasn't just pregnant – she was seven months pregnant.
"The day we told everyone my mother-in-law told me I did not look pregnant at all, let alone 30 weeks!" Bradly recalls. "Of course, I had to tell everyone why I was telling them so late – how I had no symptoms and the ones I did have mimicked my gluten allergy."
Another compounding factor, Bradley explains, is that she'd been taking birth control pills for some time, which had caused her to lose her periods. As a result, she thought nothing of the fact that she hadn't experienced one in over a year.
Still, Bradley can't believe that a blue toilet seat is what ultimately led her to learn about her condition.
"It’s just such a crazy story. A lot of people are just in disbelief when I tell them," she says, adding that as an essential worker, she's been continuing to work throughout the pandemic, and her coworkers have been stunned to watch her literally "pop" in the course of a week.
"Everyone is over the moon excited, but also just can’t believe how this all turned out!" Bradley says.
Also in complete and total shock? Bradley's fiancé.
Ultimately, though, the news has been a welcome surprise in an otherwise trying time.
"This has definitely helped everyone," Bradley shares. "Me, my fiancé, friends, and my family. It gives us something to look forward to."
Right now, she's spending her free time busily prepping a nursery and setting up a remote baby shower to get things ready before her baby boy is due to arrive. She's also happy to report that after visiting her OB, both she and her baby are healthy.
"It’s definitely upped our spirits during this time and helped us forget about the not-so-happy times," she says.
The mom-to-be says she's also learned a valuable lesson about listening to your body and not ignoring symptoms — no matter how small.
"Yes, I didn’t know I was pregnant. But I knew something was up, and thought I was having issues with my body due to my gluten intolerance," she shares.
"COVID-19 played a part in me not going to the doctor to get checked out, but I am also the type to try and shrug things off. This has made me realize that when I don’t feel right I need to go to the doctor, and not put it off. I could have found out about my baby a lot sooner!"
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
