How long before your pregnancy felt "real"?

I can’t answer your question, but I just wanted to say Congratulations! That’s really exciting!!

Oh, it won’t feel real until you actually feel the baby kicking (around the fifth month) and reality really hits you when you’re holding that baby in your arms. My husband and I were in denial for several months with our first. It was unplanned and we just kept saying to each other “how could you do this to me”? Nice, I know, but we were scared as heck and SO not ready.

Thanks PnL. I’ve never been happier! (Well, my wedding day might be a tie..)

thebeadholder ~ I’ve got a ways to go then!

I just spent all day with my best friend in the hospital after she gave birth. We were talking about exactly this and she said it wasn’t real until 5:30 in the morning when she went into labor.

First of all!!! Congratulations!! When I first knew I was pregnant, I didn’t believed it either, I started to feel really pregnant in the 3–4th month,when I felt sick and started hating my favorite food!! In the 5th month my baby started moving, the most beautiful thing in the world I have to say, but this can vary, obviously…

Speaking as a guy, it wasn’t really and truly real until I watched my son be born.

Around five months when the baby starts kicking. It gets real, too, when you have an ultrasound and hear the heart beat. Congrats!

I just got home from the hospital, where my best friend gave birth to her first child. She said it felt real when she saw the ultrasound and you can hear the heart beating. Also, when she found out the sex of her baby, she was “really” pregnant then :) Congratulations!

#1 I needed a new bra and couldn’t button jeans at 6 weeks.
#2 I started to have strong aversions to some foods (but no real morning sickness).
#3 At beginning of fifth month I felt the butterfly flutterings – that was thrilling.
#4 Several weeks later, if I lay on my back (no other way to lie down, as it happens) the baby would kick a plate of grapes off my belly.
#5 The gradually strengthening undulations under my abdomen caused by little feet, hands, rump, head, as baby rolled around and thrashed around. I’d see lumps come and go on the skin of my stomach.
#6 Belly button becomes an “Outie.
#7 Heartburn, stretch marks, odd little brown line down your middle to crotch, odd little hairs sprouting in odd little places.
#8 We had no ultrasound and learned the sex only after the baby had “popped” -(well,“popped” isn’t exactly the most descriptive word)
#9 The world’s most extraordinary adventure to me. Congratulations and enjoy every second. (burp.)

Thanks everyone for all of your great answers!

<3

With my first one, I was sick every single day and it felt very real, right from day one. With my second one, I had to have amniocentisis because of several risk factors. I knew I was pregnant the day after conception, but I had two wait two of the longest weeks of my life before I could truly feel pregnant, because of the remote possibility I would have had to terminate. I’m so thankful I never had to make that decision.

We found out he was a boy and gave him a name within a few days, so for the whole nine months, he was our son.

My Daughter-in-law has done the same thing, and is carrying her second son, Joshua, inside, until next week!