Ahh pregnancy. Bringing a new life into the world, growing a little human inside your very own body; the miracle of life. What they don’t tell you is, in most cases it’s not like the movies; throwing up once in the morning, then radiating in a mother-to-be glow (which I later discovered is mostly just sweat!). No, in fact there are lots of little signs of early pregnancy that have nothing to do with throwing your guts up. I was asked by Emma’s Diary to talk you through what lead me to take the test!
For me, looking back, it was probably quite obvious, but as this was my first pregnancy, I really had no idea at the time. I discovered I was pregnant very early on, at just 3 weeks, with lots of little signs pointing me in the direction of the chemist, but in my head, we weren’t trying so there was no way I could be pregnant (oh dear). For a good 2 weeks, I simply thought I was due on. I had slight cramping, headaches, and I was absolutely shattered. I kept going to the loo thinking I had come on, but the period never came. To be fair, I’m not very regular, so this wasn’t that unusual for me. I was super emotional, but again, I thought it was PMS, and having spoken to a few women now, this is a really common symptom! The cramping can be implantation and you can even have a bit of spotting.
The exhaustion was almost straight away. When you think about all the changes happening in your body, it’s no wonder you’re exhausted really. And I mean, couldn’t-get-off-the-sofa-all-day exhausted. Along with the headaches, I put it down to hormones or a bug. But then things started to get weird. I’m not a big fruit eater. I get IBS, so I stick to veg, and never really fancy fruit anyway. But for a whole week I ate a pineapple EVERY DAY. An entire pineapple. Mus couldn’t believe I was asking him to go to Asda twice a day to keep up my supply. We still suspected nothing (I know I know, but it wasn’t even on our radar!).
The final symptom that pushed me towards the two blue lines was a weird one. I’ve actually never told anyone this, but it happened whilst I was cleaning up dog sick (don’t ask). I work from home, and looking after a puppy had been challenging whilst trying to write. This particular day, Fred had been poorly, so I was balancing phone meetings, article writing and caring for him when a thought crossed my mind…”I can totally look after a child”. Completely out of the blue, as having children wasn’t on the horizon for me at that time. It suddenly clicked; the pineapple craving, the tiredness, the late period…am I pregnant!?
Needless to say we were in shock. To be quite honest, we were in shock until about 3 days after she was born. They say that everything happens for a reason, and I’ve never believed in that more than with our little miracle, Ella. We didn’t know we wanted her so much, but now can’t imagine life without her. (still can’t look at a pineapple the same!)
