Pregnancy Symptoms to Recognize in the First Week

Pregnancy fact: There's no such thing as being one week pregnant. Since your doctor calculates your due date from the first day of your last period, you are already considered to be two weeks pregnant the moment you conceive. In theory, you could already be one month into your pregnancy journey without even knowing it!

At 32 years old, I am 28 weeks pregnant with my first child. When I first found out I was pregnant I was incredulous. I knew it was a possibility, I had been off birth control pills for three or four months, but when I considered my age and the infertility problems all my friends had (and I do mean all of them), I didn't think getting pregnant would be so... normal.

Before I knew I was pregnant I felt absolutely exhausted. I wanted to take a nap every day. In my "day job" I work as a flight attendant so it didn't seem unimaginable that I would be exhausted. After all, the Thanksgiving holiday had just passed, the flights were packed, the airport drama was at its annual peak. In addition to being so sleepy, I was also experiencing sore breasts. Assuming it was just a symptom of PMS, I didn't even think twice about it.

My husband, who has been eager to have children for as long as I've known him, thought we should get a pregnancy test. My period was only three days late, I figured it was just irregular from suddenly being off birth control. He was much more optimistic. We went to the neighborhood drug store and bought one of the generic cheap-o pregnancy tests and took it home. I did my thing on the little stick, and within a few minutes we had our answer. A little plus sign appeared in the window. I was most definitely pregnant.

I remember from a high school health class that you can't get a false-positive on a pregnancy test so I didn't even second guess the outcome. In just a few days I started to take note of the messages my body was sending me. Never one to turn down a cookie or another piece of pizza, I suddenly found that I didn't have much of an appetite at all. Finishing a slice of toast was a chore. Meats and protein packed meals turned me off completely. I wasn't experiencing morning sickness in the traditional sense, I just had no desire to eat.

To try and keep my diet on track I would start my day with a tall glass of chocolate milk. While eating disagreed with my new pregnancy, I sure did like to drink. My cravings for chocolate milk, orange juice and tomato juice were insatiable. I would eat plain, dry salad with my fingers. Call me crazy but the thought of using utensils was almost too civilized. To my pregnant brain, eating with my fingers made the food seem more bland, and bland was just what I needed to get the food down. I would wash my flavorless meals down with hot water and lemon, or water boiled with slices of ginger root.

My fatigue got to the point where I could not, under any circumstances, stay awake during the day. I wasn't sure how to explain my sleepiness to friends and family, I didn't want to tell them I was pregnant until I saw my doctor first. On several occasions I had to politely step out from the fun and lay down, hoping rumors wouldn't start. At one backyard barbecue, I hid my non-alcoholic beer inside a very tall neoprene koozie so nobody could see the label. Keeping a secret of this magnitude was tough!

Another unusual symptom that has plagued me from the very beginning was the frequent urge to urinate. It usually strikes when I'm sleeping, I'll be up four times a night to use the bathroom. They say that sensation should wane in the second trimester but not for me. A good percentage of my day is spent in the ladies' room. Pregnancy may look cute from the outside, but it sure is trouble on the inside.

For those of you who think you might be pregnant, don't ignore your body's signals. They might be as obvious as slap in the face, but they just might sneak up on you. The sooner you know if you're pregnant, the better off your baby will be. Always be sure to take your prenatal vitamins, eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired. It is the one time in your life that you can pamper yourself - and so will everyone else.