How Early Do You Get Signs You Are Pregnant?

Hi M.,
I took a pregnancy test when I started having morning sickness and I noticed my breasts were feeling bigger. The test said positive, and when I went to the doctor they determined I was 7 weeks along (that was about 1 week after I took the home test). Maybe you can tell around 5-6 weeks.

A great resource for information on fertility is Chistiane Northrup's book Women's Wisdom Women's Bodies. I discovered in that book how to check for ovulation by taking my body temp every morning, and paying close attention to how discharge changed on a daily basis. Not all women ovulate 2 weeks after their period. Everyone is different, but there are ways to tell when you are fertile. It's usually best to try a day or two before ovulation.

2 weeks before your period starts is a little early. If the egg has been fertilized, it usually takes 6 or 7 days for it to travel down to the uterus and implant itself. That's when you'll start noticing signs of pregnancy, like breast tenderness, nausea, and change in color of the nipples from pink to brown.

Good luck!

I totally agree with what Cindy S. (below) said about the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility." I read it while trying to get pregnant with my first child, and for the first time in my life, I finally understood my monthly cycles. It is such a good resource for every women, those trying to get pregnant or those trying to prevent pregnancy. As for being able to find out if you are pregnant this early, I don't know if any of the "signs" you mentioned can be reliable indicators at this point- I too spent several months anticipating "Could my tender breasts mean I'm pregnant," etc. You can drive yourself half crazy with this. I say, just take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the anticipation. Good Luck, and hopefully in 2 weeks congratulations will be in order!

There is no way to know for sure until you can take a pregnancy test. When I became pregnant though, I had a good feeling immediately, and it wasn't a planned pregnancy. My breasts were itchy adn a bit swollen, but the main thing that happened to me was heartburn. I had only had heartburn like once or twice in my 30 years of life and suddenly I had heartburn everyday!

That being said, you could driveyourself nuts believing you are pregnant or not and hoping. Just relax and wait until you can tell with a test. I tested slightly positive at 4 weeks (there was a slight blue line...at 5 weeks a dark blue line). Also, one third to one fourth of fertilized eggs are flushed out by the body before they impant, that means even if you are pregnant, there is a huge risk of teh baby being lost before it will show up on a pregnancy test. So just hang in there. If not this month, maybe next. All will come when it is meant to come.

You can join fertility friend to find out about ovulation. It's free and has a ton of great info.

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/

With my first pregnancy I knew right away I was pregnant. With this one (I'm 16 weeks) I didn't think I was pregnant because I didn't have any early symptoms. I was surprised when the test was positive. I think every pregnancy is different. Best wishes!

cramping 2 weeks before your period is due could be a sign of ovulation. time to work on getting pregnant!

Check out "Taking Charge of Your Fertility," by Toni Weschler.

There are many signs without doing the test. Pants are getting tighter, nausea, morning sickness, and growing a belly. My first two pregnancies I had no signs. Just a belly, and chest getting bigger. I know the mood swings kick in after a while. Even the urge of wanting to eat, some people don't get that til later. Its never too early to take a test, there are many different types of tests that are useful.

I had quite a bit of cramping, also the veins in my breasts were very dark blue or purple and they were very tender. I was very tired too.

I am in your same situation with a 2 3/4 year old daughter. I just found out yesterday that I am pregnant. I knew from the first week because I felt a little nautious and by around 6 in the evening I became exhausted. If you have any spotting or brown discharge this is probably implantation bleeding and you are pregnant. I just learned that pregnancy tests are so sensitive these days that you can take them up to 5 days before your missed period. So you only have a little over a week to wait unless you want to have a blood test on Monday and another the next Monday. That's the only absolute way to know. Good luck I hope this helps.

Ps - Also breast tenderness is a good indication.

A. E. Wells

Hey you. When I was pregnant I had those little cramps too. It felt like my period was coming but it never came. Some of those in store pregnancy test can be used before your period is due. Your fertil cycle (ovulation) is 14 days after the first day of your period and last about 3 days. This only works if you have regular cycles. Trust me it works. I used this method to NOT get pregnant. When I remarried and accidently had sex on one of my fertil days here comes little Tenaya-Fayth. GOOD LUCK!!!

I had similar symptoms as early as two weeks with my first pregnancy. I highly recommend “Taking Charge of Your Fertility.” It will teach you all of the signs, including monitoring your temperature. If you are pregnant your temperature rises and does not go down.
Good luck!
Angela

haha, the minute I get pregnant my nose stuffs up, and it doesn't come unstuffed until I give birth. I was So clogged up and was also feeling a tad weird, so thought I had either allergies or the flu. First time I ever went in for allergy testing, my doc routinely asked "Is there any chance you might be pregnant?" and i had to say yes, so before doc prescribed anything for allergies he ran a pregnancy test and... well, hello there, little feller! I never got acute morning sickness... I felt queasy 24 hours a day for my first trimester, but only threw up once. (I suggest you avoid clam dip, from dire experience). And don't forget to start your prenatal multivitamins before you conceive, to give your new passenger the best possible start into life.

If you have a regular 28-day cycle, you'll probably have fairly regular ovulation about halfway between - at about 2 weeks. If your cycle isn't really regular, there are still ways to tell. Ask your ob-gyn - you can check the consistency of your vaginal mucus, plot changes in body temperature, etc. Also look at a book like "our bodies, ourselves" that explains the whole process. I usually get a pain in my ovary at ovulation - for some reason they call it "middelschmerz". Sounds like something you'd find on the bottom of your shoe. Interestingly, my left ovary hurts a lot more than my right ovary. I can usually tell which barrel I'm firing on.

good luck with your new baby!
sincerely
A.

I think the best advise someone gave me was find something else to think about. Two weeks can be a long time and you can convince your self you are pregnant and then your period could be late and then that would be such a let down top find you are not pregnant. My guess is the cramping could be part of ovulation or even implantion. I think when we want something so bad we can convince ourselvess that gas is a different kind of cramp. Hang in there. I think the last thing I read was the window of getting pregnant was 3 days. If you go to planned parenthood website they have some realy good charts...that can help you see what the average womans body does. Good luck! Easier said than done...but try to find something else to focus on.

I remember with my first one I had some weird cramping before I missed my period and my breasts were definitely itchy and sore.

If you are on a 28 day cycle then you ovulate 14 days after your period. I believe ovulation takes about 3 days. I always know when I'm ovulating because I get a different kind of cramps than period cramps. You could be ovulating or you could be pregnant....if you are ovulating and you want another one then be sure to make some time for you and hubby tonight!

I know there are some home pregnancy tests out there that claim to be able to test for pregnancy before the first missed period. I don't know the names, but Google it! I'm sure you'll find it in the stores.

Let us know what happens!

The cramping could be an embryo implanting. I felt that when I got pregnant.

I absolutely LOVE the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility (www.tcoyf.com) because you can tell what's going during your whole cycle with this book. Between taking your temperature and checking your cervical fluid, you know when you are about to ovulate. Your temperature goes up after you ovulate, and again at the end of your cycle if your pregnant. Your temperature goes down when it's time for your period, so you're never surprised when it shows up. All of this really helped me to relax when I was trying to get pregnant because I had a daily identifier of what was going on. It also saved a lot of money on ovulation predictor kits and pregnancy tests.
Good luck!

I had the same cramping right before I took the test that told me I was pregnant with my first child. I told a friend that I had cramping and was pregnant and she too had these symptoms...come to find out she was pregnant too!! I think I remember the doctor explaining to me that the cramping is the egg settling. Good luck and best wishes to you and your family!

This topic is so personal and by that I mean, it is different for every woman. With my second son, I knew I was pregnant before I missed my first period. I took one of those home pregnancy tests that say you can test up to 5 days before your period is due. I took the test 5 days before because I couldn't wait to find out. I was right! It turned to a blue straight line immediately - there was no waiting! LOL

I had one additional pregnancy where my experience was the same, unfortunately, I miscarried at 12 weeks. My point is, trust yourself and trust that you know your body. Unfortunately, you do have to wait until you can take a pregnancy test to know for sure. Don't be disappointed if it is negative and remember you are most likely to get a false negative than a false positive. If you take the test early and it is negative, but still feel you may be pregnant, wait a week and take it again. I always bought them in 2 packs, even if only to take the second to make sure it still says positive!

Take care,
Taunia

I started feeling a little different after conceiving my daughter (cramping/sickness) at about 5-6 days later, same with my cousin. I took a pregnancy test a week before my period was due. There are some tests out there designed to take earlier then others.
I did some research on the computer to see when I'd ovulate so we knew when the best time to try was. If you put in the date of your last period it gives you a pretty good idea. I just went to google.com and typed in thing like pregnancy, ovulating, trying to get pregnant, etc...
Good luck!!!

i do know there are test to tell you when your ovulating, some people have morning sickness, i know w/ my youngest, the things i hateded started to smell even worse before i found out i was preg...good luck..P. R. PS..april 2, 2008 i was watching tv n heard them metion this, itook some dozen tryes but i found it n i am hoping you'll like it n find it usefull http://shopsite.nwcryobank.com/? http://www.nwcryobank.com/ good luck

M.,
I found out when I was 4-6 weeks along with all 3 kids.
By the time you miss your cycle, and take the test, it is at least 4 weeks. By the way, you may not always ovulate 2 weeks after, my son was concieved one week to ten days after. Yep, surprize mommy...you're having a third baby.
It the cramping is on your lower left side only, it is not
your period, most likely, but your colon, getting ready for some action. I found that out when an emergency cyst was exploded, and they misdiagnosed me with a colon problem. I remember one true sign, my lower back hurt so
bad, and it never hurt, and there were no cramps. I did however have spotting. Good luck, and have fun trying.
W.

Hi M., I think it is very possible to know by observing physical changes that you are pregnant very soon after conception. With my second child, about 1 1/2 weeks after conception, my husband looked at me and said "you're pregnant". I had been noticing how tender my breasts felt but it hadn't yet occurred to me that I was pregnant. When I asked him what made him think that, he said, "it's your skin--you're radiant". So the hormonal changes in my body presented itself as tender breasts and nicer skin. Obviously everyone is different. In your case,the increasing hormones may present themselves differently.

And yes, ovulation is two weeks after your period starts. The small cramping you feel does sound like ovulation. Use that sensitivity to know optimal times to get pregnant. I think when you really want to get pregnant you become more sensitive to ovulation. I rarely felt cramping around my ovulation before or since, but I noticed it for months when I started to want a second child. I really wanted a girl the second time. Because female sperms are slower and live longer than male sperms, we were able to refrain from sex a few days either side of ovulation and it worked. When my husband noticed I was pregnant, I was, with my treasured daughter.

Your reproductive years are such a gift, such a special time. Trust in your sensitivity and it will see you through. Good luck

Best of luck to you in getting prego. I don't know of any early tests but if you have 2 weeks till your period arrives, I would gather you are ovulating. All depends on how long your cycles are but if they are a usual 28 then you can ovulate on day 12-14 (day 1 being the 1st day of your last period). Once you ovulate and if the egg is feritilized I remember that it takes 7-10 days or so to implant in the uterine wall. Just after this is when your period would be coming. So you could be very early prego or ovulating. try to be patient, I know it is hard.