up/uc

[moneyplant]

for those who up,did you take a pregnancy test?

I have missed  a period and have loads of signs

but not sure if I should test,part of me wants to do this on pure instinct.

thankyou

[greenrootsmama]

We were planning this pregnancy so I had been charting. I was on pins and needles trying to wait until I missed AF before testing but I just couldn't. I used First Response Early Response and got a faint positive at 10 days past ovulation. DH was a little confused that I was so happy, LOL. He said, "so what does this mean?" He didn't really believe that a faint line is still a line. So to give him peace of mind I took a generic test two days later so that he could see a darker line. AF was due two days after that and never showed :)

[moneyplant]

awesome news :)

what early signs did you have other than missed af,can you remember?

[dayiscoming2006]

Those cheap urine strips work really well for testing. You can order a bunch online for a small amount of money. Cheaper than buying the store tests and more sensitive than most of the store tests. Think they can measure 20IU HCG (I think those are the correct units.) :) Anyway, they are the same type that the doctor's office would use.

[ashleypLC]

DollarTree sells urine test for obviously $1.  They're just as effective, with my third I tested at 8 days past ovulation and got a positive.  I don't get any symptoms until I'm almost 6 weeks.  Good luck!

[MeepyCat]

I would test - I am totally capable of misreading my personal signs though. 

[greenrootsmama]

Originally Posted by moneyplant 

awesome news :)

what early signs did you have other than missed af,can you remember?

Mostly just PMS type signs, nothing that I could define as unmistakable pregnancy symptoms. I was a little tired and a little crampy. At around 5 weeks I noticed my breasts were more tender and I was using the bathroom more frequently. Then at 6 weeks the morning sickness fairy showed up and I've been poised with my head over the pot ever since.
 

[Mamatoabunch]

Just test! I knew at 3 weeks some days when I drank water and it tasted icky. I had a negative test that Friday and Sunday the weird water taste, went home to take a test and positive.

[moneyplant]

well my tests have shown negative,my boobs have grown,

I keep getting shooting sensations right into the nipples.

i am so achey in my back and belly,and my appetite is very strange.

mind you with my others,tests didn't show positive til the 3rd month

very odd.

[dayiscoming2006]

That would be crazy to not have tests show positive til the 3rd month! I'd be going nuts wondering. Although, it'd help if you kept good track of your periods and were normally regular, then you'd kinda know.
 

Originally Posted by moneyplant 

well my tests have shown negative,my boobs have grown,

I keep getting shooting sensations right into the nipples.

i am so achey in my back and belly,and my appetite is very strange.

mind you with my others,tests didn't show positive til the 3rd month

very odd.

[moneyplant]

haha tell me about it.

thats why my first was such a surprise.

I know I am,I think I just am looking forward to that reasurring positive :)

[ElizabethE]

Keep in mind (and I'm not saying anything negative about you here or anything), that a lot of women accidentally mess up their tests in some form or fashion. It's kind of common. That's why you might hear the stories now and then of false negatives on tests... *shrug*  It's probably one of the reasons that so many of those tests come in multi packs. :)

[Sheepdoc]

I am now 17 weeks and 6 days.  I did not test this time.  If I had an old one lying around I might have.  It seemed while cheap a silly waste of money.  I didn't feel like sending plastic to a landfil was a fitting way to celebrate my pregnancy.  I didn't want to give money to a corporation that sells a large disposable piece of plastic with the understanding that I'm just a dumb women who can't be pregnant without help from big pharma.  Further I felt the whole point to me UCing this time is I am rejecting not just the obvious mainstream paranoias of modern obstetrical care such as vaginal exams to make sure dilation is 1cm per hour but all of the baggage society brings to making birth unnatural. 

Just yesterday I went on a long rant to close friends about the wonderful HBAC on ICAN's site.  Yes the mother did wonderful and yes the midwives worked hard to keep a mother w/ several risk factors at home for her birth but then they cut the cord before the placenta was expelled, took the infant off the mother's chest, wrapped the infant in a towel and handed it to the father!!!  That's obstetrics creeping in people!  Physiologic birth means not touching the cord until after the placenta is out except in a very few emergencies.  Physiologic bonding and promoting breastfeeding means keeping infant and mother skin to skin - not towel to father's shirt!  This stuff just creeps into every little aspect until it sounds normal and we accept it.

To my mind giving birth naturally involves knowledge of my own body and surrender to it.  To that end I felt it was important for me to trust my body.  What told me I was pregnant was:

1) I knew from the insane level of desire I was experiencing when I was most fertile.

2) I can't tell you about baby #1 because I don't remember.  But w/ baby #2 it was a similar insane level of desire and the sex was a whole different quality of wonderful as for conceiving #3.  (With #2 we were neither trying nor not trying to become pregnant - #3 has been planned for several years and act. we wanted to wait 1 more month before conceiving - I had it in my head my body would need a "practice conception" like it did before #1 but clearly despite several years it still remembers just fine.

3) Heightened sense of smell.

4) Swollen sensitive breasts.

5) Hungry!  Esp. for protein.

I was fairly sure about 24 hours before my period was due.  My husband didn't have any doubts.

I will admitt that I can't wait for my U/S next week because I will then have "proof" that my clothes not fitting and breasts swelling out of my bras and insane tiredness isn't just from my overeating.  LOL

I know I said above that this time around I am trying to reject anything unnatural and I guess I should clearify with nor useful.  I did do prenatal blood work because I garden and worry about my toxo status.  I will have one u/s to confirm there isn't multiple fetuses or a big genetic defect since those things would make me reconsider UC in favor of more assistance.  I will do the 28 week HCT and toxo test - since if I'm having the toxo test done they can draw the HCT at the same time and therefore if the shit hits the fan I can show documentation that I did the test. 

[ElizabethE]

[moneyplant]

hi all

thanks massively for your replies.

boob tingling,thats my definate.I have put any tests I had laying around in the bin.

symptoms:

* tingling ''let down''sensation in boobs

* tons of spots

there are others,but there my ''you are defo preggo signs.

thanks so much

M

[CherylDec&Jul]

Originally Posted by Sheepdoc   It seemed while cheap a silly waste of money.  I didn't feel like sending plastic to a landfil was a fitting way to celebrate my pregnancy.  I didn't want to give money to a corporation that sells a large disposable piece of plastic with the understanding that I'm just a dumb women who can't be pregnant without help from big pharma. 
 

Normally, I am always "take a test.  take a test.  Take a test."  But this is a really good point.  Thanks for giving me another way to look at it.
 

[happyma]

Moneyplant- Me too!  By my estimates, I am about 4 weeks along!  I started spotting a little yesterday, but I don't think it is AF.  I will not be testing at all because I just know in my heart that I am pregnant. 

[dayiscoming2006]

More power to ya if you can go without testing, but I'd be driving myself crazy with wonder. Even if I was pretty sure. LOL

[amydidit]

I too would be driven crazy if I didn't test. Even though with my youngest DD I had a UP/UC I still tested. More than once! It's not like peeing on a stick has ANY impact on the baby at all, unlike some medical procedures can (for example, amnio). So I don't see anything against poas.

[happynaturalmama]

I love seeing the positive pregnancy tests, so I definitely tested lol.  More than once!