by Allison Tannery

Created on: June 12, 2008   Last Updated: June 21, 2008

My very first pregnancy symptoms were not those I could reliably find on line. Some women would report the crazy sense of smell I had, or the sudden aversion to food I loved, or worse, the craving for food I'd sworn off! To become pregnant is to nearly become a different woman. Your body is suddenly not your own.

Very typically, before a period is even expected, the body is so rapidly changing that more subtle observations can be detected. While difficult to separate from the routine emotions prior to menstruation, early pregnancy also carried the possibility of wildly varying mood swings, irritability, or just a general funk. From the second conception occurs, the Human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG hormone is doubling every couple of days, in order to support the new pregnancy. It takes up to two weeks from conception, and often a few days more, for the presence of HCG to be indicated by a urine test. However, blood, or pregnancy serum, tests can reveal the levels of HCG as early as seven days post conception. Until these test can be accurate, your body can give you some very definite, while nearly imperceptible, indicators.

One of the more difficult to scrutinize is the gradual deepening of the blue veins around the breast, and even up the neck and shoulders. I spend hours trying to decide if these veins were, indeed, more blue than the day, or the week before. And these veins may be covering breasts that are increasingly tender, sore or swollen. Or not. This is a symptom I only experienced the very first pregnancy, but subsequently. The nipples, also, can radically change. From smallish pink buttons, to what my husband affectionally referred to as "Husky pencil erasures". Thanks, hon. Along with this nipple change, tiny nodules may arise around the areola, called Montgomery's tubercles. It seems that these pimple-like bumps produce a lubricating substance that alters the skin's pH, and helps to discourage bacterial production. A very good thing for the tiny little mouth who will likely be spending much time there!

Much more vague, but possible to detect, are two changes in and of the vagina itself. Apparently, the inner folds of the labia itself shift in color to a dusky lavender-purple. Now unless you've been looking at those inner folds regularly, like an OB or midwife, I don't know HOW IN BLUE HEAVEN you're going to be able to figure this out. I'm pretty familiar with myself, and at the risk of serious embarrassment, no amount of looking helped me determine

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