1. Spotting a week or more after your regular missed period (this is assuming you have a 28 day cycle). When pregnancy is a-happening, this is called implantation bleeding. Implantation of the fertilized egg begins approximately 6 days after conception and continues during the following week. Spotting is often a by-product of this process, occurring during the 3rd or 4th week after conception. Anne Frye, the lady who wrote the textbooks for midwives (and a Portland resident), mentions that if implantation occurs high in the uterus as it typically does, spotting may be delayed a bit as the blood works it’s way down the cervix. This is not an absolute indication of pregnancy, nor does it happen consistently.
Here’s a textbook example for you:
Going with a 28 day cycle and assuming you ovulated and conceived on day 14, then implantation would begin to get going around day 20. Day 28 would pass without a period, but you would have spotting, which would be lighter than your regular period, around day 35. A woman could easily confuse the spotting, also sometimes called break through bleeding, with a period and carry on as if she wasn’t pregnant for another month.
2. About 1/3 to 1/2 of all pregnant women experience some nausea with or without vomiting. Nausea and vomiting can happen for lots of reasons and because of that is not a definite sign of early pregnancy, but it could be.
3. Breasts changes such as tingling and burning and enlargement can be felt as early as 4 weeks after conception.
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