I might be pregnant, and am going to pick up a test or two tomorrow afternoon.
There’ve been a few signs so far, but nothing to make me think “Aha! Yes!”, or really a more honest reaction of “Aww no. Damnit!” Last month’s period was pretty much nonexistant; maybe 2 days of very light flow. Usually it’s 2 or 3 days of obnoxiously heavy flow, then tapers off slowly to the end of the week. This week has been some spotting, and I’m not due for another week or two (I’ve never been like clockwork).
There’s some nausea, my breasts are tender (couldn’t tell ya if they’re swollen, but I’m thinking no) and it seems like I constantly have to pee.
I realize this could all mean nothing, and I’m hoping that’s the case. I’ve never wanted children, and don’t intend to change my mind anytime soon. I feel a bit bad for feeling that way, since there are a lot of women (some on this board, I’m sure) that are trying to conceive and are having problems, but it’s the sad truth.
Anyway, I’m curious what your experience was like. Did you just have a feeling you were pregnant or did it take a missed period before you realized? What signs did you have?
Pregnancy number one, I got low-grade nausea first. I may have had breast tenderness for some time before I realized it, though; see, I had a water bed at the time. I didn’t really register the breast tenderness until I spent the night at a friend’s house, and slept (face down) on a firm mattress. I had chalked the nausea up to a touch of the stomach flu or something. I dismissed my skipped period with a cavalier “well, I’ve never been regular anyway”. But when I woke up at my friend’s house that morning with aching nipples, it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Oh, shit, I’m pregnant!” Resulting baby is 20 years old now, hard to believe.
Second pregnancy, symptoms were pretty much the same, but I caught on to the fact that I was pregnant much sooner. Mostly because, with that pregnancy, we were trying to get pregnant.
Third pregnancy, I had no symptoms at all until a skipped period.
My situation: I went through four years of trying unsuccessfully for a baby with my previous partner, so to fall pregnant from a single encounter while taking precautions was utterly unexpected. As a result, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to my symptoms early on because I wasn’t even aware that it was possible that I might be pregnant.
Going on symptoms alone, I wouldn’t have realised I was pregnant for weeks. I had some mild nausea, but that’s a symptom of PMS for me and it was no worse than in any typical month. My breasts were a little tender, but again, no worse than they usually are right before my period arrives. I was tired, but not more tired than I expected to be with the hours I was working at the time. The oddest thing that I remember noticing before it occurred to me that my period really was rather tardy was that I had this odd little feeling deep and low in my abdomen - it almost felt like something was stretching. It was fleeting and to this day I can’t describe it well but knowing what I know now, I do wonder if it was something to do with the pregnancy. The only other thing I can remember that was out of the ordinary was how hungry I was all the time.
I was nearly 6 weeks along when I finally cottoned on (on a slow day at work I finally realised that I’d been expecting my period to arrive “soon” for rather a while… a home test quickly confirmed that I shouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to start). Now I’m 18 weeks in and not a lot has changed. I did have three or so weeks of morning sickness but overall I’ve felt far better than I ever expected to.
In future I’ll be keeping a closer eye on when my period is due and not relying on symptoms, because mine were far too subtle to tell me anything. I’d have been at least eight weeks before the nausea became severe enough to suggest something wasn’t right.
(ETA)
How quickly we forget. Stomach cramps. Stomach cramps have been the major feature of this pregnancy for me. I have had pains in my stomach regularly and of varying severity from very early on. For me, they have been the biggest feature of being pregnant, but they aren’t even completely out of the ordinary… rather pregnancy seems to have disturbed my IBS, which had been under control for several years since I modified my diet to suit. The cramps eased off a couple of weeks ago, and in that time I’d nearly forgotten about them, but for the first 12 or so weeks that I knew I was pregnant, I almost always had a pain in my belly.
My breasts started to get sore, and I had a heavy, crampy feeling, but my period didn’t start. It was like low-grade PMS that continued for a week. I went out and bought a test the day I was due for my period. So I found out when I was two weeks pregnant.
Good thing, too, since intense nausea hit at week five. If I hadn’t known before, and mentally prepared myself a little, it would have bowled me over.
We were trying to get pregnant, so I took a pregnancy test at the earliest possible time – the first one was negative, so I took another one a couple of days later, and it was positive. Later that same day, my breasts got really tender and sore, and that continued for a couple of months. It was a few weeks before I got any other symptoms (other than the missed period, which would have started right around the time I got the positive test), but they were mild, anyway – some fatigue, occasional nausea.
The other symptom I had for most of my pregnancy was general antipathy when it came time to choose what to eat. I didn’t have food aversions or cravings, really, and I was definitely hungry, I just didn’t want anything in particular – nothing was what I wanted right now. Another pregnant friend had the same thing, and it was bad when we went out to lunch together – the ultimate, “I dunno, what do you want?” discussion!
Tender breasts (VERY sore… my new boyfriend was not allowed to touch at all), overly emotional (normally I’m fairly stoic, or I get bitchy but I was very weepy… A Walk to Remember put me over the edge, we watched it on video and I cried for hours… I still despise that movie), I felt ill… just tired and nauseated all the time (which was compounded by stress, and being sick, and not eating well on top of it… so it didn’t click with me till I was almost two months along…)
Both times for me, it was the absence of any symptoms at all that should have tipped me off. Each time I was trying, I had months with every early symptom in the book, and I was convinced I was pregnant, only to have it be PMS. Twice I was sure I was not pregnant, because of the complete lack of symptoms, BOOM, that was the month. I got negative pregnancy tests both times, BTW. I had to wait until I was actually late before the tests came up positive.
I’m one of those weird women who just “know”. No physical symptoms, and even before implantation - actually, even before conception, now that I think about it. Both times, I finished the sex act and I knew. With my son, everyone just wrote me off as paranoid until I was able to take a test. With my daughter, we were trying to conceive, but had sex 6 days before my ovulation - more than the 4-5 days most people can conceive during. Still, I knew it had worked, and of course my temps stayed up, so it was confirmed for me that way the day my period was due. My husband didn’t entirely believe me, so I went and got a pregnancy test to convince him, but I already knew I was about 7 weeks along.
My first symptoms are good ol’ fashioned morning sickness and frequent urination. Super-human clumsiness follows soon after.
Tender breasts, period-like cramps but no period, needing to pee ALL the time, low-grade nausea (just feeling slightly sick, but no vomiting at all) and exhaustion! I felt like I needed to sleep for a week!
It felt like super PMS. Irritability, sore, swollen breasts, and a heavy, bloated feeling in my abdomen, like I was trying to start my period. The breasts were the most noticable though – in fact, I didn’t suspect I was pregnant with my second until I commented to my husband “My boobs really hurt!” and he replied “I think they’re bigger,too.” He didn’t recognize the significance, but I did. Took a test that day and it was positive (this was right around the time I should have gotten my period. I MIGHT have been one or two days late.)
Tender breasts, a vague feeling that I was pregnant and an insanely strong desire for sex all the time. My mother said she was the same. The horniness kicked in before any other symptom. It didn’t go away until 7 1/2 months. Very hard to accommodate with the *all day *morning sickness through months 1-5!
With the first one - sore breasts and a bit of nausea. With the second, I didn’t even realise I was pregnant until I was over 4 months gone so the first signs (which I thought were nausea) was actually the baby kicking! D’oh!
It seems to me that early pregnancy symptoms are generally indistinguishable from PMS symptoms, except in hindsight. (And my personal belief is this is more proof there is no benevolent god.)
Despite the fact that I was charting, this pregnancy still managed to surprise me. I thought I might be, happened to get a yeast infection, and asked the doctor to do a blood test so I could take Diflucan if I wasn’t pregnant. Blood test was negative, so I took the Diflucan, plus I went out for our anniversary and had wine with dinner. Then woops, next week I still hadn’t gotten my period, so I tested at home - positive!
I’d say my real, discernible symptoms didn’t start until well after I could get a positive result on a pee stick. Then of course I peed all the time, got sore nipples, and was exhausted.
I wish you good luck, and I don’t think you should feel at all bad for not wanting kids. In fact, I applaud you for knowing your mind and not bending to what can be tremendous social pressure!
Extremely tender breasts were the most obvious symptom, accompanied by the less obvious general malaise and fatigue. The malaise and fatigue I could have passed off as a few bad nights’ sleep or a virus, but nothing in this world makes my boobs hurt like being newly pregnant.
