2 weeks ago
26
I've heard that pregnancy can come with some wild and unexpected symptoms, especially in the first few weeks. I've always wondered what specific symptoms make women have that "wait...could I be pregnant?" moment.
So when user TiffanyAmberThigpen on Reddit asked, "What were some of your earliest signs that made you guess you were pregnant before you could test?" the responses were super fascinating:
1. "I was really emotional. I cried so easily. When that rover on Mars stopped working in 2019, I was inconsolable. I cried HARD for hours, as if a family member died. I had never even cared about space or rovers before that, really. A week later, I took a test, and I was pregnant."
2. "I was sitting in the bath. I just knew. I could sense it. I thought, Oh my god, I'm pregnant. It was too early for a test, but 10 years later, my beautiful son is sleeping upstairs. I also knew it was a boy. Instantly. When the doctor asked if I wanted to know the sex, I remember I said, 'I already know it's a boy.' I was just so connected to him."
3. "With my first, I had a massive headache and pulling sensation in my uterus — not cramps, really, but it felt weird. I just knew! With my second, I had the same pulling sensation and then was so, so tired."
4. "I was SO CONGESTED! I had pregnancy rhinitis with both kids, and MAN! With baby number two, I knew immediately because my sinuses felt so terrible all of a sudden."
5. "My boobs hurt SO BADLY. Like, within 3–5 days of getting pregnant."
6. "I needed red meat. My husband had to make me a strip steak at 9:30 p.m. because I couldn’t stop thinking about it."
7. "Vivid dreams. I never dream THAT vividly. And all the times I was pregnant, I had wildly vivid dreams. I knew before the pregnancy test turned positive."
8. "I had heartburn for 2 weeks straight. I tested 7 days before my missed period, and it was negative. 6 days before, I got the positive. Then I had no heartburn again until my mid-third trimester."
9. "I had a 'period,' but an incredibly light one. I bled from July 9–13, but I didn't even fill a pad a day. My period is usually a lot heavier than that. It was implantation bleeding."
10. "Night sweats. I think they started the day I conceived and lasted until the day I delivered. I had to buy cooling sheets, pajamas, fans, etc."
11. "I got a migraine with both my girls in early pregnancy. I never got migraines before or after that."
12. "My dog sat up on the end of the couch one evening when we were watching TV and just fucking stared at me. The whole evening. Two nights in a row. I did a test on day three and, yeah, positive. She still stared at me for a good while in the evenings, but I would tell her, 'I know why now.'"
13. "Acid reflux! Such a strange feeling I had never experienced before, and was like, 'Why now?'"
14. "I'd been tracking my temperature, and it was higher than normal for longer than it should've been."
15. "Anemia. I hadn't even tested at home for pregnancy, and people began to ask if I was pregnant just by looking at my face."
16. "The skin on my face was incredibly greasy, which was abnormal for me!"
17. "I was hungry even though I had just eaten. I could smell the trash can from outside even though the door was closed. I had incredible energy that it felt like I was nesting. Mind you, I got pregnant at age 40."
18. "I lost my voice for 2 weeks, was absolutely STARVING when I usually have no appetite, and my sex drive dropped pretty significantly and quickly.
19. "Heart palpitations. This started around ovulation and went on for maybe a week."
20. "So tired. So incredibly tired."
"This. I thought I was super depressed and only wanted to sleep."
"Yes! I could not keep my eyes open. And I’m someone who is genuinely unable to nap."
21. "Big veins on my chest and having butter fingers. I was dropping everything."
22. "I could smell EVERYTHING."
"I was in a restaurant and totally overwhelmed by the smell of truffles. No one else at my table noticed it. I joked, maybe I’m pregnant! Well. Also, the smell of water when showering was suddenly noticeable."
24. "I drank one light (4.2% ABV) beer before bed. I woke up an hour later, barfing my brains out. My husband called it on the spot. I was wary until morning, when I took a test, and it confirmed."
25. "I felt the moment of conception in my fallopian tubes. It was extremely painful. No one believes me except my partner, who had never seen me writhing in pain like that!"
26. "I typically work out in a sauna, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t go 15 minutes into a 45-minute workout without needing to sit down or feeling like I was going to pass out."
27. "I had a sudden hankering for Coca-Cola. I've never been a big consumer of fizzy drinks, but one day, I woke up and fancied it. And what do you know? Pregnant! It continued through pregnancy until my son was born, and then vanished."
28. "My boobs got HUGE. Not to attract the wrong kind of attention. Like, I always had tender breasts before my period would start, and they might swell a little, but it was to the point that I was staring at them quite a bit. I’ve always been in the itty-bitty committee, so I was pleased, LMAO. This didn’t last long, though, lol."
If you've ever been pregnant, what was the symptom that made you immediately know? Let us know in the comments or via this anonymous form!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
English (US) 