First signs

So, how did I know we may be pregnant?

I was having cramps days before my period was expected to begin, which is quite unusual. And it was more or less a constant sensation, rather than an intermittent feeling. This was one of the biggest signals to me that I kept trying to explain away: "oh it's stress" "I ate lots of rich food this week" "I must be about to start my period". Nice try brain... foiled again!

Far earlier than cramps however, around the time of conception, I had a couple of terrible, terrible runs. Distances that, at my average rate of training, were typically cake walks. I couldn't understand why I was having such a hard time warming up and why I still felt so sluggish for about a week afterwards. It finally got easier after about a week or so and I blamed my lack of stretching/massaging.

A typical pre-period symptom, my breasts felt huge and sore. What was different was they stayed huge and sore far longer than normal. Compression sports bras are my new best friend.

A more technical indication: I was charting my temperatures and the day that we tested positive was on the longest luteal phase I've had in a long time. (quick lesson: before ovulation, your "basal temperature" stays more or less constant and low. After ovulating, the basal temperature jumps up a few tenths of a degrees and stays high until your period starts again, where it drops back to baseline. This thermal shift after ovulation is called the luteal phase and is pretty consistent from cycle to cycle.) My luteal phase is 10 days long, and I've only ever once had it be 11 days. We were on day 11 ("hmm, this seems odd...") when we took the test that evening.

Yet another "hmm, this seems odd..." I had body acne. I don't have great skin by any stretch, but it was always confined to my face before. A couple of days after my terrible run I started noticing that my back, shoulders and chest were suddenly dotted like crazy and I couldn't attribute it to anything in particular. It made me wonder if *other* hormones may be playing in here.

Some things I was expecting to see, such as extreme tiredness, nausea and suddenly cravings didn't enter the symptoms scene until this week... more on that later this week.

-kameran and bp