First-Week Pregnancy Symptoms: Signs that You're Expecting

Best friends often spend an incredible amount of time together. They are often so close that noticing changes, no matter how subtle, can occur almost immediately. When my BF started acting funny a few months ago, I immediately knew something was up. She had symptoms that could only be caused by one thing. Before I had the chance to ask, she told me she was pregnant! As best friends do, we talked every day as she shared her pregnancy symptoms.

During the first week she began noticing tenderness in her breasts. This is one of the first signs most all women exhibit during the first weeks of pregnancy. Some women barely notice this symptom since it can often be confused with normal symptoms that occur during the menstrual cycle.

I noticed after our morning exercise routine that she was not eating as much breakfast as normal. When I asked her how she was feeling, she said she was feeling a bit nauseas in the morning and certain smells made it worse. We began eating breakfast at home, rather than eating at our regular restaurant to avoid whatever smells were making her nauseas that day. Mostly we would stick to English Muffins or cereal since they both have little smell.

Another symptom I noticed was my friend going to the bathroom a lot more. She said that everything she was drinking was going right through her. It made it rather difficult for us to continue our morning exercise routine without some intermissions and changes. We could no longer walk an entire six miles without having to stop. We scheduled a new walk route that took us past a public restroom so she could take a potty break. It really didn't make anymore than a four minute difference in our workout time though.

During one of our many conversations, she admitted that she had been taking an afternoon nap. My friend had been having difficulty staying asleep. She told me that going to sleep was not a problem, staying asleep was difficult. She was waking up in the middle of the nights repeatedly. Dreams or being uncomfortable were causes she gave when I asked her why she wasn't sleeping well. She said that the afternoon naps were a necessity to function until bedtime.

My friend confided that she had been crying for what seemed like no reason at all one minute and within minutes she was happy again. She explained that these were the worst mood swings she had ever experienced. She wasn't really sure if the mood swings were happening due to being pregnant or if she was having mixed feelings now that she finally was pregnant. We talked at length on the subject. The initial thought of being pregnant was entirely different from actually knowing she was pregnant. Know that she was pregnant, there was no looking back. I believe after all the talking we did, she came to the conclusion she was overly excited about the whole pregnancy thing since having a baby had been a longtime dream.

During the first week, my friend and I had many conversations about symptoms, the future and pregnancy in general. I recommend all mommy's-to-be get the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting". This book is filled with tons of wonderful facts for first time pregnancies about the symptoms from week to week. It has wonderful tips so mother's-to-be can compare. My friend and I are reading this book together.