Early Awareness of Pregnancy

[curiouslily]

We (as a culture and with current technology) know that it isn't supposed to be possible to be aware that you are pregnant shortly after conception, especially before implantation. Yet, it is not unknown to hear of women who 'just know' that indeed they are. I happen to be one of those women.  

I thought I'd share my thoughts and current experience regarding this matter and see what other people think. I've visited several pregnancy sites over the last few days looking for information regarding this situation. Unsurprisingly, there aren't many people who seem to support 'just knowing' as a valid source of knowledge. In fact, several posts simply stated that it wasn't possible and that the woman concerned was basically fooling herself. Though I can understand why it seems illogical, I don't think that unexplained trends should be dismissed just because they are unexplained.

Awareness after implantation is something I feel more comfortable with. It seems more valid. A physical connection has been made between the growing fetus and the mother. Chemical interactions between these two people have begun. It would make sense that some people who are in tune with their bodies could detect such changes. Sometimes, there are even some obvious indicators when this occurs (implantation spotting, behavior alterations and such). 

Now what about an awareness which occurs before implantation?

I will describe what has happened to me regarding this. I know that definitions for intuition vary, but it seems to be the best fit word, so I will use it here. 

I knew that something special had occurred shortly after having sex. Something nagged at my consciousness and grew into awareness within the hour. I just had a little 'oh, dear' feeling. The next morning, I was sure of it. After four days of an excited and expectant feeling, indicators of implantation occurred. I've even had feelings regarding the sex of the future baby! Sometimes, particularly if something is bothering me, I just watch a train of thought and see where it goes without trying to intervene. This practice can provide insight. In this case it led me to think that this child will become a boy child. Actually, it was more of a fear. For some unfortunate personal reasons, I am somewhat afraid to have a son. Because of this bias, I have trouble trusting my feeling that he will be a he. Still, I can't dismiss it. 

Almost exactly the same process occurred with my daughter. I knew something different had happened, and I did dismiss it. However, the feeling persisted. I didn't say anything to anyone - I didn't trust myself. When enough time passed, I ended up taking a pregnancy test, which was a joyful positive. With her, I strongly desired a girl child. I also felt like she was a she very early on (not sure exactly when I felt this, but within the first few weeks). I thought that such a strong desire was mucking up my intuited feeling, or rather posing as it, so I didn't trust it. I wanted to be prepared to love a boy if it turned out to be a boy, so I ignored my intuition as a way of not getting my hopes up for a girl! 

I wonder what is going on. Could it have something to do with energy flow? Some sort of electrical field awareness? I wonder what sort of characteristics that a fertilized egg has that early on. What sort of things can current technology measure? Is it some sort of future telling thing? Lol, I almost didn't put that last question in there, it just seems so 'out-there' - censoring myself. Still, assuming there is some way to detect a fertilized egg even before implantation, being able to tell the sex of the child to be is a whole different thing. 

Anyway, I am posting this mid-event as it were. Right now, it has been a whole whopping one week since indications of implantation occurred. For the most part, I have no wish to use a pregnancy test. I just want to trust myself. However, I think my husband needs the confirmation and it may aid his stress levels. Heck, I may not be able to resist just for the validation. Yesterday, I noticed my sense of smell has started to become more sensitive. Such observations should be validation enough. Anyway, I will update this post as required in order to prove or disprove the feelings I've had.

I look forward to reading what other people are willing to share on the subject.

[TinyFrog]

I had a feeling three days after ovulation.  I guess that was more of a gut instinct.  Five days after ovulation I knew something was different.  I actually could feel it, could feel a difference in my uterus.  I am 35, I had never been pregnant nor truly suspected I was.  I was on birth control for 12 years before DH and I made the decision to go off if it, though we did not TTC for another 3.5 years.  By that time I was very in tune with my body.  When I conceived, my sacrum got a little stiff and stayed that way for several weeks.  Of course I did not know for sure in those very early days if it would be a sticky baby or not.  My intuition said yes it would, but I also knew that logically it was a possibility that it would not.  I just knew that my body was doing something it had never done before.

[~Demeter~]

I knew with all of mine before testing or having other confirmation. My first I knew but didn't trust my instinct. I was young. Second babe I didn't test at all... I just knew with him, I also knew without a doubt that he was a boy. My third I had a feeling before he was even conceived... I didn't listen to myself again but when I came up so tired, craving foods, and a few other symptoms I tested and it was +. 

Then along came my daughter (first 3 were boys), I was far more intune with myself and listening to myself. I said a month before she was conceived that 'if' we were to ever have another we would have a baby girl. I felt her implant... I felt the egg float down and settle into my uterine lining. It was an odd sensation, lol. I felt electrical type sensations there for days. I tested shortly after feeling that and it was negative. 2 days later I had a faint positive.

I just recently had another baby girl... I conceived her 6 weeks after a miscarriage. I just knew I was pregnant with her. I didn't feel implantation like I did with my first daughter but I felt her presence. I started testing very early with her, too... and was rewarded with a positive at 10dpo. :)

The only pregnancy I didn't 'just know' about was my miscarriage...  I'm pretty sure it was a blighted ovum. With that pregnancy I waited until I was on cycle day 37 to test and I only tested because I thought it odd that I was having such a long cycle. I didn't feel like I was pregnant at all. In fact, I really didn't want to be pregnant at that time (though after I lost the pregnancy I desperately wanted to conceive again).

[strawberryprincess]

My first two pregnancies, i knew about within 2-3 days after conception.  I felt nauseous, and I felt different somehow.  I don't think I was particularly in-tuned with my body when I got pregnant with #1, and only slightly more with the second.  with my first, i so desperatley wanted to be pregnant, I though i had created the nausea, etc. in my head.  I was delighted when the test was positive, but still felt like maybe I imagined the symptoms.  With the second, i didn't want to be pregnant quite yet...thought it would take a few months.  Even though I knew it was highly unlikely to be pregnant yet, I knew that I was. 

Now, I feel like I understand my body's rhythms much more, and yet, I was totally taken by surprise with both my 3rd and 4th (current) pregnancies.  With my 3rd, a few days before AF was due, I just knew I wasn't pregnant, but we had been trying.  i stood in the grocery store deciding if I should buy a pregnancy test or some tampons. I decided the tampons were a more imminent need, so I bought those.  The unopened box is still in my bathroom :) 

I have also had more than one "i know I'm pregnant" feelings, when in fact I wasn't.

I do agree with your thoughts on intuition and correctly interpreting energy when it comes to our bodies.  But our minds can be so powerful over our bodies, i think that desire or denial can cloud those signals.  Even when you are open to them, you can completely miss the signals!

[orange_mommy]

I completely believe that you can "know" that you are pregnant before you would logically think it could happen.  I believe life is life from the time that the sperm meets the egg, and there are chemical processes happening even at that point, even before it implants!  And it is logical that there could even be a scientific explanation for being able to "know" that you are pregnant.  Not only that, but I think that mama's intuition can be very strong about this kind of thing and it doesn't seem the least bit crazy to be able to have a gut feeling that you are carrying a new life inside you, even if there were no scientific way to back that up!

[RoseRedHoofbeats]

I was not expecting to be pregnant this cycle- I was really stressed out and traveling at ovulation and I didn't even time sex. But at around 8 DPO I started to feel pregnant- I was feeling more moody, teared up at all kinds of things, and my cervical discharge wasn't going through it's usual post-O changes- it stayed thick and creamy instead of drying up and it still smelled fertile. My cervix also went WAY high and tight, when it usually drops a little bit and gets squishy before my period. My nipples started to hurt when I nursed and my breasts were sore. My husband noticed a lot of changes too- I bloated and stayed bloated, and he said I smelled different. I got a positive at 12 DPO.

~Rose

[WifeofAnt]

I had a feeling when I went to buy the pregnancy tests.  I've bought a lot in my life but I always had the apprehensive overly analytical feeling.  I didn't realize it at the time but that last trip to the store it just felt like I was supposed to be doing.  I didn't have that feeling like I was wasting my time and money.

[dakotablue]

With DS I knew when I saw the mature follicle on the ultrasound screen that it was in fact DS (his name sex and all). My heart lept and I knew.  (note we did not find out the sex and Dh had final say on the name which I was ok with since it as the choice of a Jr and DS's name)

We were seeing an RE and had gone through 2 years of IF, which is why the ultrasound was done.

With this baby I really didn't know. I was pretty convinced I was pregnant 3 days before ovulation (ironically same time span as DS's awareness) but took a test and dismissed the feeling and ignored intuitions for a few more weeks and was blindsided when positive because I had convinced myself I wasn't. (and have to admit hadn't drawn the parallel until just now)

I don't think everything we experience is chemical or scientifically explained. Its kinda like how if you is at a play ground long enough you'll find a Mom rushing over to a kid who is perfectly stable on some contraption, yet they fall just as she gets there, people sitting at green lights for a moment longer then they would have just to have someone run a red light that could have killed them, and the feeling something is off when a baby stops breathing or the gas was left on. Or when despite all logic one family member stays alert when the rest of the family has fallen asleep to carbon monoxide poison. 

Then again there are plenty of examples when the 6th sense fails. I thought I was pregnant (so sure) two months before I was with DS (as it ends up my sister had become pregnant that cycle, we are close) at people get into accidents and children fall.

So I don't know...but I always listen to my gut when at red lights...

[rainbow_mandala]

I started to feel pregnant within a few days after this little one was conceived, believe it or not...I was more tired than normal and my stomach started to feel "off"...when I couldn't hardly eat the salad I normally loved, I knew for sure what that meant.  My logical mind couldn't grasp how I could be having all these symptoms after only a couple of days, but they were real, no doubt about it.  Intuitively I knew it as well.

With my first, I don't remember having symptoms right away...not until I was 4 or 5 weeks along.  But a week after conception, I was lying in bed about to fall asleep when the awareness of being pregnant suddenly became known...it was like it burst inside of me as if someone were excited for me, sharing the wonderful news that only I could hear. 

[Thparkly]

I have had an amazing and unexplainable experience with ESP while pregnant, but it is funny because I always write of the experience of others as wishful thinking, being thre skeptic that I naturally am.

But, yeah, why not?  WHat  is this thing called?  I don't know, but it seems a more acute awareness when women are pregnant. 

As for conceiving, I was not 'aware' of anything, but had a strange joint pain in my fingers unlike anything I'd ever experienced before and quite similar to rheumatoid arthristis that I now formly believe was caused by horomone fluctuations before implantation had even occured (if that is even possible).

Perhaps in your case the other likely cause was that you knew subconsciously that you were ovulating; I literally got pregnant the very first time I consciously tried  after being married for three years.

Anyway, interesting discussion.