I suspect my pregnant wife is trolling me about coffee

"I need a second opinion here... is this a reasonable request?"

There are many joys of pregnancy, but a change in a sense of smell is not one of them.

While it's common for expectant mums to experience heightened sensitivity to odours, it can be challenging - especially, as one dad discovered, if you're the cause of the smell.

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"I need a quick sanity check"

Writing on Reddit, the man shared his situation.

"Hey guys, I need a quick sanity check... My wife (1st trimester pregnant) told me that if I'm waking up before her, I can't brew coffee till she is up.

"If I want a cup of coffee, I can do pour-over outside and wait till the smell dissipates before coming back inside. (4-bedroom, multi-story, single family home.)

"I'm not sure if I'm being trolled right now? Is this a reasonable request and one that others here have made?

"I work in tech, have multiple roles and frequently wake-up at 4-5AM to get work done before our other two kids wake-up.

"Just need a second opinion here!"

Image: iStock

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"I could smell the oven preheating"

The comments section was full of people encouraging the husband to be patient.

"You aren't being trolled," one wrote, "she literally can probably smell it. I once smelled an onion going bad in the back of a cabinet. The pregnancy nose sensitivity is insane.

"Can you make up some iced coffee and do that for a while? Or set up a coffee pot in your garage?"

Another shared, "When I was pregnant, I could smell if there was coffee anywhere in the house and it made me so nauseous. That pregnancy sense of smell can be ridiculous. Please inconvenience yourself a little to make the hell that is pregnancy a little easier on your wife."

And a third added, "Just the smell of the cabinet where we kept our coffee beans could make me vomit when I was pregnant. Things that never bothered me before were absolutely GRATING to my olfactory system, including my own shampoo/conditioner lol.

"Pregnancy is HARD in ways that I don't even remember the extent of now that I am no longer pregnant. Please be kind; the support from loved ones can go a long way when you are in such a vulnerable state."

This mum also had a scent issue, sharing, "Mine was ground beef while it was cooking- like I could pinpoint the moment where beef goes from raw to cooked and it make me feel so sick. I didn’t even have to be cooking it or be in the kitchen."

Others added, "Black garbage bags. Which I could always smell, but 100 times worse when I was pregnant," and "I could smell the oven preheating."

"She's growing a whole ass human"

Other dads advised the poster to have a reality check and go easier on his wife.

"Let your wife sleep. I can't think of any request my pregnant wife made that I questioned the validity of. Everything about it can be hard.

"My wife needs to take all kinds of anti-nausea and anti-reflux meds just to not vomit constantly. She's exhausted constantly.

"If her only gripe was drink coffee later rather than say no coffee in the house, I'd be ecstatic."

Another admonished, "My man...she's growing a whole ass human in her body and sharing said body for the next 2-7 months. Suck it up. It's possible that the smell is really messing with her right now."

And this commenter sagely advised: "Some pregnant women actually get disgusted by their husband's scent. You should count yourself lucky it's just coffee :)."

This article was originally published in August 2023 and was updated in August 2024.

Originally published as I suspect my pregnant wife is trolling me about coffee