Severe Headaches, Mood Swings, and Missed Period? Are you Pregnant?

The first signs of pregnancy are different for everyone. With my first baby, I got super sick like four days after implantation. I was really, really tired. Seriously, all I could do was lay on the couch and take naps. With my second baby, I didn't get symptoms until I was 11 weeks. Then I was tired and a little nauseous. So how do you know if you're pregnant? Here are some of the top symptoms of pregnancy:

1) Nausea: Otherwise known as Morning Sickenss. That's a silly and misleading name because this sickness strikes at any time, so don't be fooled. About one half of women experience nausea during early pregnancy. And here's the really fun part: you may or may not throw up.Hormones peak during the tenth week of pregnancy, so you might be feeling the sickness from about ten weeks to about fifteen weeks. Most women start to feel better during the second trimester.

2) Fatigue: Like I mentioned before this one hit me hard with both pregnancies. Best advice: sleep. With my first baby this was much easier to accomplish. I had to get pretty creative with the second. So I  watched (fell asleep to) a lot of Disney movies with my toddler!

3) Frequent Urination: All the sudden you're making nightly trips, yes I say trips because that's what happened to me, to the bathroom. It is really annoying especially when you're super fatigued.The good news, this usually subsides during the second trimester, but it comes back with a vengeance during the third.

4) Headaches: Because your body is producing crazy amounts of hormones, you may experience frequent headaches.

5) Missed Period: This is sort of the mother of all symptoms. If you have had regular periods for your whole life and all the sudden they stop, you're probably pregnant. 

There are a litany of other "symptoms": tender breasts, spotting, heighten sensitivity to odors, high basal body temperature, food aversions/cravings, darker areolas (the area around your nipple). But the only way to truly be sure that you're pregnant is to take a pregnancy test.

Just a note about pregnancy tests. Save yourself some cash and buy your tests at the dollar store. I was sort of worried about the reliability of a dollar store test, but my doctor assured me that whether a test is a dollar or ten dollars they all test for the same hormone.So since it's doctor recommended, save yourself some cash. Because if you are pregnant, you're going to need that extra cash flow for some diapers!