Pregnancy signs

Notice things going on in your body?  Think you might be pregnant?  Then read on.  While the signs and symptoms are not definitive confirmations of pregnancy, they may certainly may be indicative.

10. Abdominal bloating

Hormonal changes in early pregnancy may leave you feeling bloated, similar to the feeling some women have just before their period arrives. That’s why your clothes may feel more snug than usual at the waistline, even early on when your uterus is still quite small.

9. Heightened sensitivity to odors

If you’re newly pregnant, it’s not uncommon to feel repelled by the smell of a bologna sandwich or a cup of coffee, and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system. You may also find that certain foods you used to enjoy are suddenly completely repulsive to you.

8. Nausea or vomiting

For some women, morning sickness doesn’t hit until about a month after conception, though for others it may start a week or two earlier.  And while morning sickness is most prevalent in the a.m., it’s not just in the morning.  Nausea gravidium, the big official name for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy, can be a problem morning, noon, or night.  And while some lucky mamas get to skip this part of the pregnancy experience, an estimated 50-75% percent of all women experience some degree of nausea and vomiting.

About half of women with nausea feel complete relief by the beginning of the second trimester. For most others it takes another month or so for the queasiness to ease up.

 7. Frequent urination

Shortly after you become pregnant, hormonal changes prompt a chain of events that raise the rate of blood flow through your kidneys. This causes your bladder to fill more quickly, so you make more trips to the ladies room.  This symptom may start as early as six weeks into your first trimester.

Frequent urination will continue – or intensify – as your pregnancy progresses. Your blood volume rises dramatically during pregnancy, which leads to extra fluid being processed and ending up in your bladder.  As your pregnancy progresses, you little bitty will become less little bitty and will start to put more pressure on your bladder.

6. Fatigue

Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted.  Beyond exhausted.  We’re talking bionic fatigue.  No one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, but there are many theories, including that rapidly increasing levels of the hormone progesterone are contributing to your sleepiness. And let’s not forget what hard work your body is doing growing your baby.

You should start to feel more energetic once you hit your second trimester, although fatigue usually returns late in pregnancy when you’re carrying around a lot more weight and some of the common aches and pains make it more difficult to get a decent night’s sleep.

5. Tender, swollen breasts

One of the early signs of pregnancy is hypersensitive breasts caused by rising levels of hormones. The soreness and swelling may feel like an exaggerated version of how your breasts feel before your period. Your discomfort should diminish significantly after the first trimester, as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes.

4. A missed period

If you’re usually pretty regular and your period doesn’t arrive on time, you may decide to do a pregnancy test before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you’re not regular or you’re not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom could be pregnancy before you realize you didn’t get your period.  That being said, some women actually experience these symptoms and it’s simply a part of what they go through during their period.

3. Implantation bleeding

Very early in pregnancy, even before you realize you’re pregnant, you may have some spotting that lasts for only a day or two. There’s no way of knowing for sure why this happens, but it may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the wall of your uterus – a process that starts just six to seven days after fertilization.  Because of this spotting, coupled with a lack of the typical early pregnancy signs, some women don’t recognize they’re pregnant until later in their pregnancy when they have more definitive pregnancy signs.

2. Your basal body temperature stays high

If you’ve been charting your basal temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you’re probably pregnant.

And finally …

1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy test

In spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to reliably detect pregnancy until about a week after a missed period.  Yes, you might get a positive pregnancy test a few days before your missed period (I did with both of my children), but chances are you will not.  So if you decide to take a test earlier than your missed period date and get a negative result, don’t get discouraged and try again in a few days.  And if you still get a negative result and suspect you may be pregnant, talk to your health care provider.

Once you’ve gotten a positive result, make an appointment with your practitioner.  Congratulations!!!!

 

---