Pregnancy Symptoms

With my first pregnancy, I was sick the entire nine months. I said I knew every parking lot between work and home, because I had stopped to puke in most of them.

This time, I haven't really been sick unless I don't eat something every few hours. My first real symptom was sore breasts. Also, with this pregnancy, I am totally exhausted by 1 p.m., every day. I just want to fall asleep at my desk.

I was nauseous the entire first trimester with my daughter (no. 1) - never got sick, but felt awful. I also developed an aversion to certain smells - olive oil and garlic - early on. And ditto on the sore breasts - it was like PMS, only worse.

With my son (no. 2) - nothing. nada. zip. No morning sickness, no nausea. No aversions to anything.

But, I have to note that neither of my kids were surprises - so the first day of that missed period, I was out buying pregnancy tests both times. I knew before those first symptoms showed up because of it. Don't know if that would skew any data.

I lucked out--both pregnancies I had one minor day of morning sickness where I looked at the toilet and thought, nope.

However, I had weird food issues. There is a restaurant here called The Cheesecake Cafe. I love the Cheesecake Cafe. But when I was pregnant, even the sight of TCC made me want to hurl. I'd make my hubby drive a different route just so we wouldn't have to go past it.

I knew one girl who had a similar reaction to a pair of leather boots. She had to stick them in the shed for the 9 months, because even seeing them set her off. I wonder now if it was the smell of leather?

My symptoms were tender breasts and that was about it. Oh and forgetfulness. I'd do stuff like use the oven at lunch and leave it on all day, only to notice it when I went to make dinner. Whoops.

Cravings were McDonald French fries and cream soda slurpies.

I knew within three days that I was PG. When I went to brush teeth I wanted to throw up. Something in the toothpaste really made me sick in the first three or four weeks.Then it passed....nine months later had a baby.

lol

I completely forgot about my increase in sense of smell. My dog has been having accidents in my bedroom, which we promptly clean up. My husband and my daughter can't smell it, but I can. We've even rented a steam cleaner, and I still nearly gag at the smell. I had my sister go in my room yesterday, and she said there was no smell at all. I've been sleeping in the recliner because of it.

Aversion to certain smells, oh, yeah. When I was pregnant the first time, my husband liked me to fry two hamburgers for his lunch everyday and bring them to him on the job. I got where I could not stand the smell of the frying meat, not at all. It nauseated me so bad.

Also, puke and pee; with my twins, both were the entire 9 months, with my son mostly the first trimester...and not just in the morning.

My first indication of preganancy the first time was morning dizziness, a wave of extreme dizziness before I ever got out of bed.

Other things I remember - extreme fatigue, craving certain foods (but never the same in different pregnancies), and a growing sense of clumsiness.

tender breasts and I was an emotional rollercoaster- any sappy commercial would set me off, that or disney movies-

Food cravings- mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, comfort foods-

I was sick too, the kind where I got IVs a lot.

The weirdest thing, though, is that to this day (5 years after first pregnancy) is that I still retch at the smell of cereal in milk. Not cereal--I can eat it dry--but cereal in milk sends me running.

It's kind of hard to remember that far back, but I'll try.

Do you mean how did we first know we were pregnant (symptoms) or how did we feel throughout the pregnancy?

With my first child I remember very clearly I had spotting. I was at the hairdresser talking to her, she was a good friend, and I mentioned that I had spotting. Another woman overheard and said, "Oh, you're pregnant." She seemed so sure of that. I had not yet missed a period.

When I did not get my period, I took one of those home pregnancy tests. Back then they were very hard to read. It looked positive to me, but I wasn't sure. I made an appointment with my doctor and other tests and it was indeed positive.

As for symptoms throughout the pregnancy, I did not have morning sickness. Or none that I can remember. I did not vomit, may have just had a little queasiness. I remember going to work every day and feeling pretty good.

The things I remember most are being tired easily, having a good appetite, trouble sleeping in the last couple of months with the baby moving around so much, being very emotional and being totally focused on my pregnancy, not caring about much of anything else. I devoured all kinds of books about childbirth and children.

A couple of other things:
Rather than nausea or dizziness at the beginning I had stomach pain, similar to menstrual pain. And I had this feeling like being tickled on the inside.

I'm a vegetarian and pretty much a health nut. I was about 6 days late, no big deal, but all of a sudden I wanted a cheeseburger and a twinkie. I swear, I've never eaten a twinkie in my life. LOL. I waited another couple weeks to get the test, but I knew I was pregnant.

pregnant women go about in bare feet,
because their feet swell, causing their shoes to no longer fit.

source: hearsay.

anis said:

pregnant women go about in bare feet,
because their feet swell, causing their shoes to no longer fit.

source: hearsay.

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I can confirm this one, not from myself but from a coworker. She had tiny feet, like a size 4 or 5, but when she was pregnant her feet swelled to a size 8 (though she also ended up having pre-eclampsia or however you spell that). I bet if she could have she would have walked around the office barefoot (though she did have to buy more shoes).

from size 4 to 8?
Holy Mackeral :-O
Pregnancy is a wonderful thing, though.
Hats off to all those who have been, and are.

Like Jersey Chick, I was waiting with pregnancy tests in hand for the earliest opportunity to test, so I didn't have any symptoms that hailed the pregnancy, as I knew so early.

With my daughter, I was exhausted. I'm a person who regularly stays up until 2am or so, but those first few weeks of pregnancy, I napped, and then went to bed at 7am. My husband's favorite story: At lunch one day, I started going on and on about this fabulous cake I remembered eating years ago. I was newly pregnant, my husband was obliging, and so we went driving around the city in search of this cake. We found it and, under no circumstances, was I going to wait until we got home to eat it. Plastic fork in hand, I dug in right there in the car. With a mouthful of cake, fork raised to bring up another bite...I fell asleep. After driving all over in search of the cake, I fell asleep, midbite, in the car!

With my daughter, I was sick the whole nine months (overnights in the hospital kind of sick). With my son, I had only the usual trimester of morning sickness, but had food and smell aversions (which I hadn't with #1). Couldn't stand cheese. Couldn't bear either the sight or smell of raw meat, which was obnoxious, because that was the one thing I consistently craved. Oddly, hated the smell of Doritos. If my husband wanted to eat Doritos, I made him leave the room and then he had to brush AND use mouthwash before he could rejoin me on the sofa.

The one frustrating thing about my last pregnancy was that we had just moved overseas and, of course, the food cravings I had were all things that I couldn't get down at the local grocery stores! I used to go online late at night to look at what I called 'food porn': menus of favorite restaurants in my hometown, recipes of things I couldn't possibly get the ingredients for, pictures that made my mouth water. Ok, who am I kidding. I still look at food porn!

Saritams8 said:

I'm a vegetarian and pretty much a health nut. I was about 6 days late, no big deal, but all of a sudden I wanted a cheeseburger and a twinkie. I swear, I've never eaten a twinkie in my life. LOL. I waited another couple weeks to get the test, but I knew I was pregnant.

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But did you get your Twinkie and cheeseburger?

My family has a bit of a history of being slow on the uptake. With my first, I was eighteen weeks pregnant before I decided I had better go pee on a stick.

I should have known, though. Of course, I hadn't had a period for four months. But ever since I went off the pill, two years earlier, my periods had been going a bit haywire. So I just thought my body was trying to sort itself out.

Really, really tired was the main symptom. Hubby kept telling me to see a doctor, but I just thought it was due to a new job and all the junk I had been eating. All I wanted was ice cream. I couldn't get enough of it.

The straw that broke the camel's back was after a pub crawl. I vomited two or three times, where normally I can handle a hangover pretty well. I did most of the things you shouldn't do while you are pregnant - I got an X-ray in that time, as well. Thankfully, our son turned out fine.

It only took a few weeks to work it out with our second. I was at the gym doing crunches, and where before my stomach would curve in nicely, it kept sticking out. I thought to myself, "If I don't get my period next week, I'll bet I'm pregnant".

Not tiredness so much as sudden onsets of overwhelming sleepiness...

willwrite4food said:

I'm looking for anecdotes about pregnancy symptoms for an article I'm working on for iParenting.com. What were yours? Did you have unusual food cravings? Bad morning sickness that lasted the entire pregnancy? Please share, PM or e-mail me at [email protected].

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I suppose you could have wrapped this article already, but I'll still share. I had a problem, through my second pregnancy, with what I think is called the sciatic nerve. Moving too quickly or bending over too abruptly caused excruciating pain in my low, low back - right around my tailbone. I spent fifteen minutes of an afternoon stuck in bed, supine, because I couldn't move... and misterwrites couldn't hear my calls.

I knew I was pregnant because I gained 5 pounds in a week. (I'm small and at the time that was 5% of my body weight)

Coffee, my very life blood, became some vile liquid, akin to the contents of a septic tank, that I couldn't handle having in the same room as me.

Proir to getting knocked up, I had a strange inability to smell sour milk. To me, it got a sweet smell, like overripe strawberries. Once I had a kid in me, all dairy smelled sour, even ice cream. Except cream cheese, which I ordered triple thick on bagles for breakfast everyday. The sour milk thing has returned. I make my husband sniff the container before pouring milk on cereal.

Baby one: thought I was just getting chubby, no symptoms, finally peed on a stick at 4 mnths. Started weird toothpaste aversion as well.
Baby two: toothpaste tipoff but great pregnancy
Baby three: no symptoms, baby two in/out of hospital for first 18 months - nurses had to tell me I was pregnant. We blamed an intern since I hadn't been home in months.
Baby four: sore boobies, getting older so tired out quickly, toothpaste
Baby five: craved banana milkshakes, slept allllllllllllllll the time