Pregnancy signs, symptoms and cravings

One of the things I really wanted to know about and continuously Googled when I was trying for a baby was whether I was having any very early symptoms of pregnancy. Some people report signs within a few days of the egg being fertilised.

E's mummy:
So I didn't get any signs I was pregnant really early on, the first sign I was pregnant was a positive pregnancy test the date my period was due.
The month before I was pregnant, I had convinced myself I was pregnant because I was having signs that others seem to have had in the very early days; extreme fatigue, bloating and sleeplessness (in fact I was an insomniac for a couple of weeks), but it turned out I was coming down with Shingles!!!

At 5 weeks I had a couple of days of diarrhoea (sorry tmi) which embarrassingly coincided with guests staying at our house.

By 6 weeks of pregnancy I was sick, i mean really sick. Constant nausea and vomiting morning, noon and night. I didn't want to eat or drink and when I did I was sick. Just sips of water made me sick. I would walk into my kitchen, smell the sealed hummus in the fridge and run out to vomit. The sickness was fairly horrendous and I dropped 1.5 stone to just 7.5 stone. Midwives couldn't get my blood at 12 weeks due to dehydration. Fortunately it was completely gone by 14 weeks.

I started to show a bump pretty early, signs of a bump in photos of me (we took one every week from 5 weeks)  from 12 weeks.

In terms of cravings, I never sent my partner out in the middle of the night but I did fancy anything with apple in it... Apple pie, apple crumble, apple turnovers... Plus my savoury tooth became a sweet tooth throughout my pregnancy and continues now whilst I'm breastfeeding.

After my sickness stopped I felt amazing!  I felt more well than I had for years! I usually get quite bad eczema but that completely cleared and my skin was fantastic.  It didn't remain that way after the pregnancy finished though. I had many people tell me that pregnancy suited me!