One of my most frequently googled phrases during my pre-TTC and TTC days was “early pregnancy symptoms.” It’s nearly impossible to not symptom spot, and we all just want to have a tiny peek inside to know if our body is making a baby or not. With that in mind and acknowledging that no two people or two pregnancies are the same, I thought I would share my early, early pregnancy symptoms.
Intuition: Not Pregnant
1 DPO – No symptoms
2 DPO – No symptoms
3 DPO – Bloated, tired, & headache
4 DPO – Diarrhea (TMI- sorry), headache, & heartburn
5 DPO – Bloated, cramps, & tired
6 DPO – Tired
7 DPO – no symptoms
8 DPO – no symptoms
9 DPO – Backache & tender breasts
10 DPO – Very tired (slept until 11:30 a.m.), back ache, headache, & tender breasts. Negative pregnancy test.
11 DPO – Very tired again, backache, cramps, & headache. Very light positive on FRER and positive digital test.
12 DPO – Very tired again, tender breasts & pretty crampy, particularly on my right side.
13 and 14 DPO – Same symptoms. I was very aware of my abdomen. The cramps felt a little bit like period cramps only not quite as painful, though I occasionally had sharper pains.
In the week that followed, I continued to be very tired (still am for that matter) and have some on and off cramping. I was only queasy occasionally, and I never threw up during the first two weeks post-BFP. Looking back, I think most of my symptoms prior to 9 DPO were just life symptoms and not related to my pregnancy. I’m guessing I implanted at 7 or 8 DPO. Then my symptoms really started manifesting, but I was just too convinced that I wasn’t pregnant to notice. :)
One of my big questions pre-BFP was how to know if I was tired enough to check the “fatigue” box on my Fertility Friend app. My pregnancy fatigue feels like when I had mono. I’m tired in a body achey, can’t stay awake to save my life, might cry if I can’t take a nap soon kind of way. Some days are better than others, and I am fairly unaffected by fatigue, but other days, it is a struggle to not fall asleep at my desk and I go to sleep for the night as soon as I eat dinner. In hind sight, I was putting “fatigue” down in FF too often when I was just really tired from my busy life. I would say to generally look for being notably more tired than usual. For instance, I slept in really late two days in a row when I normally can’t sleep past 8:30.
For those of you who have already gotten a BFP, what were your early symptoms?
coffee bean / 41 posts
This was me to a t. Except I was really weird. I stopped getting my period 4 months ago but I don’t think I am 4 months prego. My body has been acting really weird and I have taken a test and had finally scheduled a doctors appointment because all my pregnancy tests had been negative. Last week I finally got a positive test and I am just confused (I had taken a test just two weeks prior) so I confirm next week but yeah strangeness all around with no symptoms but the ones you listed.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
The only symptoms I noticed were around 6-8 DPO, I had mild cramping, and that was IT. I have ZERO other symptoms and just assumed I wasn’t pregnant.
It wasn’t until I got the triphasic chart that I actually started thinking I might be pregnant, and I was!!!
A couple days later, maybe 14-15 DPO, the bloating and fatigue set in.
persimmon / 1161 posts
My early symptoms included a stuffy nose and a weird taste in my mouth (at maybe 10 dpo) that was a gross combination of salty and metallic. The taste went away after a few days luckily.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
I think that my only real symptom was my nipples were really sore. I usually feel nothing there, like ever, but I wasn’t sure if it just was a new symptom of my period coming since getting off the pill. My biggest symptom was I didn’t have any spotting on the day before my period started, then I started thinking, wow, maybe I am really pregnant.
A couple days after my BFP, the bloating and fatigue started.
pomegranate / 3716 posts
Ugh, we’re on TTC round 3, and the first 2 rounds, I was ALWAYS symptom spotting! I felt nauseous and even threw up. Also had heartburn and was abnormally gassy (TMI!) Unfortunately, these all ended with a BFN.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
extreme fatigue definitely topped my list… and my boobs were sore. i felt like a walking zombie all the time and would fall asleep at 8:30pm, which is really early for me!
squash / 13764 posts
The only symptom I had was sore boobs. Like REALLY sore. Other than that, I felt NO different. It was very disconcerting, lol–I took a bunch of tests because I couldn’t believe I was pregnant!
pomegranate / 3414 posts
The big one for me with both pregnancies was tender breasts. It went away after the first trimester but returned (with a vengeance) during the third trimester.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Bone tired, just as you describe. It’s not tired, it’s so fatigued you just can’t manage to move another inch. Also, with every single one of my pregnancies I had a fierce craving for macaroni and cheese very early on. I also was very light headed right around 10dpo.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
i missed out–i didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. looking back there was some cramping that *may* have been implantation (or not), but i’ve had random cramping when not pregnant so it was not out of the ordinary. but it’s so funny how much more aware we are of our bodies once we are TTC!
guest
I didn’t really have any early symptoms. But dang did that nausea hit after the first couple of weeks. Right now I’m stuck with no energy (at the beginning of second tri).
grapefruit / 4235 posts
My biggest symptoms were an increased sense of smell – all my chapsticks tasted rancid – and I could not stop drinking water. Like, drinking 150 oz water a day thirsty.
cherry / 101 posts
I always wondered about the fatigue, like how tired you really feel. Your comparison to mono is something that I can (unfortunately) relate to! Thanks for the tip.
guest
I am 42 ttc and have been trying for over a year now. I am 14 dpo today and feeling mild to moderate cramps and slight nausea. I have had every symptom of pregnancy but tested at 11 dpo and got a bfp. I will test again tomorrow at 15 dpo.