I doubt I ever would have known I was pregnant without the stick-test.  Which I only took on a lark because I was a whole day late for my period.  Imagine my surprise when it came back + !  Other than a barely late period, I had no idea that anything was up! Not to say that I didn’t eventually have symptoms…

Yes, yes, a missed period is one of the largest clues that you could be pregnant sure (as is the pregnancy test itself!); but a lot of us just don’t experience menstruation like clockwork either so it really depends on the individual.  Implantation bleeding (when the fertilized egg attaches to your uterus) can look very much like a period, though, it’s what happened to me.

I would have written it off as a short, brownish, period if I didn’t already know I was pregnant.  If you’re pregnant and experience spotting, don’t be scared, you’re likely fine.

Morning sickness, the biggest clichéd symptom of them all, is such a misnomer!  Mornings my tushie!  I’d always feel this indefinable (generally non-pukey) sensation in the late afternoon/early evening time, usually when I was at work.  How fun.  I’d sit there thumping on my chest to force a burp so I could stop feeling green at the gills.

Eventually, I just started drinking sodas (non-caffeinated) to help the burps along faster.  If remedies like Ginger don’t help you, prepare to do some forced napping, it’s the only thing that helped me pass through it.

I’m not going to discuss constipation; you don’t want me to.  You really don’t.  Just make sure that you’re drinking looooots and loooooots of water, okay?  Okay.

Heartburn sucks!  I never ever had heartburn before I got pregnant, and boy was it a surprise!  You can’t tell me that there isn’t a little Leah-Voodoo doll with needles sticking out of its poor little back/chest/throat.  At night, I would wake up out of dead sleep with bile about to spill out onto my pillow.  Ick!  I went through sooooo many antacids.  Sleeping with your upper body elevated does help, take all your husband’s pillows if you have to… If he knows what’s good for him, he won’t mind.

But as for a lot of the other symptoms, there was nothing to tell me of my impending babyhood.  My breasts weren’t sore, I didn’t feel especially tired in any way, nor was I making extra trips to the little girls’ room.  I wasn’t dizzy, tired, bloated, cranky, faint or experiencing food aversions; nor was I having mad cravings for garlic ice cream.  Though (cliché alert) I did once have the compulsion to eat a giant pickle seconds after I’d eaten ice cream.  Does that count?

Don’t worry if you think you aren’t experiencing ‘enough’ symptoms.  You’ll catch up.