Member- Ree723
- 7 years ago
- Wedding: July 2011
Hi bees,
I’m not pregnant yet but am constantly on the babies boards, reading about everyone’s journey as Darling Husband and I get set to start TTC in the next few months. I seem to notice a lot of comments about cramping during the TWW, followed by a BFP, and then more cramping throughout the early stages of pregnancy. This is one of those pregnancy symptoms I had never heard prior to entering the world of baby brain and I’m just trying to figure out what to expect.
***Bit of a back story***
Darling Husband and I were still doing the long distance thing last year but were able to spend ten weeks together over the summer. I had recently come off BC as my doctor was a bit worried about a lack of period and thought I may have trouble conceiving. In being off BC for six months, I’d only had two cycles, the most recent one two weeks before I arrived in Australia to visit Darling Husband (at the time FI). We decided to throw caution to the wind in terms of any BC as we figured that there was little chance of us ever getting pregnant, and if we did get pregnant, that was ok too!
Well, about ten days after arriving, I started getting niggling cramps during the night. Nothing major, just minor ones that would wake me up once or twice during the night. I also got horrible cramps when I went for a run, which was most unusual for me. I just assumed AF was coming soon and popped a couple of Advil when the cramps kicked in and went on from there.
A week and a half later, the cramps were still there and getting stronger every day. It was to the point where I spent half of my day gingerly curled up on the couch with the cramps coming and going intermittently. In the evenings, the cramps were a thousand times worse – to the point where I was nauseous, having bowel issues, and was up several times throughout the night, for about 45 minutes each time as the cramps came in waves, growing in intensity for a while before they would taper off again. I would also break out in a cold sweat during these cramps and shake uncontrollably throughout the duration of each episode.
The possibility of being pregnant never even crossed my mind, I just assumed the period from hell was due any minute. In hindsight, I can look back now and pinpoint several other symptoms that I know now are a sign of pregnancy, but at the time, I had no idea. Of course I was also doing everything wrong for pregnancy as well – taking Advil frequently, drinking wine, scuba diving, eating deli meat etc… We were also in the process of moving so we were without internet for about a week during that time, but once we got to our new location, I googled ‘cramps without period’ and discovered it’s a common sign of pregnancy.
Darling Husband and I went to get a test and sure enough, it was positive. Talk about a confluence of emotions – excitement that we were pregnant, relief that we could get pregnant, and fear that all this cramping was a sign something was definitely not right, not to mention all the things I’d done wrong.
We went to the doctor who said this kind of cramping wasn’t normal, although some was to be expected. Long story short, we ended up in the ER a few nights later, they did an ultrasound and discovered it was an empty sac pregnancy. They said the cramping was likely due to my body preparing to miscarry, and sure enough that is what happened.
So I guess with my previous experience, I’m trying to figure out what is considered ‘normal’ for cramping. I’m hoping that my experience wasn’t normal because the thought of going through that again really scares me; it was a truly horrible experience having that much cramping, although I wonder if it was made all the worse because I didn’t know what was causing it for most of that time.
Is my experience normal for a healthy pregnancy? Anyone have any stories or experiences they’d care to share? Maybe reassure a girl who is about to start TTC but is freaked out by the past experience? 🙂
