Well, I can most certainly relate. The summer I turned 30, I had not had my period for two plus years. I wanted to have a baby and it was nearing the time I was going to start dealing with whatever the problem was. I expected the solution to be expensive and suboptimal. Foreign adoption and IVF were top of mind for me.

I started experiencing morning sickness in midsummer, right after having made squab for my mother's birthday. I attributed my morning sickness to my poorly prepared pigeon. Later on I felt symptoms that were absolutely incontrovertible, my tummy got hard, and I felt and saw the baby kick. I attributed the kicking to gas and the hard tummy, I prayed was not a tumor. I could not dare hope that I was pregnant. BtW I am tall and thin, and was still wearing my jeans, not showing at all at this point.

Then one day I actually started showing, so I called the doctor's office and the nurse making the appointment said, Would it be alright if you were pregnant? I told that would be the best news possible. I was sent for a blood test and loe and behold I had to be at least past the first trimester. I went to the OB and he had me at five months based on physical exam. Off to sonogram and the answer was seven months pregnant.

A good friend put together a wonderful baby shower, with only one game, Guess the gestational period of various animals compared to me ;-)

I gave birth to an eight pound baby boy less than two months after learning I was pregnant. So yup, I can relate, especially if the person desperately wants to be able to have a child, but is afraid she can't.

Zalco, that is a wonderful story!

Thank you, maddielee.

Ooops looking over my account, I notice my husband is conspicuously missing. We were married for five years at this point ...

When I was pregnant with my first, there was a women that did not look pregnant. Typical waiting room chatter, she was almost 8 month pregnant.

Evidentally the baby was pushed toward her back and and she carried vertically instead of extending out.

But, she knew she was pregnant.

I can understand severely obese people maybe not realizing, but fir the mist part, it’s hard to believe.

I became huge right away for both my DD’s.

I have a HS friend whose mother was in similar situation. Her brother was 18 when she was born and her mother was told it was likely gallstones since she was 42 and likely not able to conceive. Then my friend had difficulty conceiving and then surprisingly was pregnant and has two adult sons now.

I love your story Zalco!!!

I could have never hidden or not known that I was PG. Both times I looked like I had a basketball under my shirt and I started to show quickly.

We did give up trying to concieve when I was 39 after two failed IVFs. I conceived my 17yo DS when I was almost 41 and gave birth at 41. We were not even remotley trying to concieve so it was a very unexpected but a thrilling surpise.

I do know two girls that were PG in highschool and were able to hide the fact. One until her mom became suspicious and took her to the Dr and found out that she was 8 months PG. The other gave birth in her bathroom while her parents were in the house.

In all my me, me, me me-ing, I forgot to say, Congratulations to your friend and her family. Talk about a dessert baby!

that story is a nightmare to me. not just the "I didn't know I was pregnant", but also the "unplanned at age 42" part. I'm childfree by choice and let's just say we're on some rather bulletproof BC.

I do have a few friends for whom this would be a very happy surprise though.

What an amazing blessing for someone who does want children and didnt have any or as many as they would have liked.

I am very happy for those who do,want the children as in Zalco’s case and I am assuming in the case of maddielee’s friend’s daughter. And happy for the healthy birth of the babies! I can see now how it can happen during the mother’s perimenopausal (or assumed menopausal) stages.

I can’t say they were trying for a baby, it definitely was a surprise.

After the husband picked himself up off the floor he did and said all the right things and he is smitten with this new little being.

Too funny, as I’ve actually been there myself! Back a number of years ago, we had this home of ours, in the mountains outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, custom built with a whole lot of design input on my part! We finally moved in over Memorial Day weekend and had my parents and favorite aunt and uncle coming to stay with us (from Tampa and San Diego) for a week right over Labor Day. Not the best timing, but we loved them and missed them, and wanted to share this new adventure with them. Both my mom and aunt (two of the most wonderful, fun, caring and wise women this world has ever known) were concerned at how wiped out I seemed to be. OMG, I’d just personally helped design, create, decorate, and move into this amazing dream home of ours! Of course I was a bit tired! I actually thought that I was in early menopause at the time. I’d been told many times over the years, after going through 2 surgeries for serious advanced endometriosis, that I’d never get pregnant. Our beautiful, wonderful adopted son then was 9 years old and we were perfectly content. Apparently, though, Mom and Aunt Loretta were so concerned with my being happy but very worn out, that they all decided to head home early 😢. The next day, as we were driving to town for an errand, I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed some skin darkening on my chin and lower face. Weird! And so my sweet husband, a family practice doctor, decided to do a just-in-case pregnancy test on me, although we both truly thought that I was in menopause. The next day when he came home from work, he was very pale and told me that - oh my gosh, I was indeed pregnant for the very first time ever in my life! Neither of us would’ve been more surprised if someone had told us that aliens had just landed in Santa Fe Plaza! But, it was a wonderful, wonderful surprise and, yes, I did know how I got there (ha ha)! I was actually three months pregnant, but had no symptoms whatsoever that I recognized. Probably because I was going absolutely crazy by then getting this house ready to move in to, not to mention ready for company! Two months later (at 5 months), I went preeclamptic and had to go on bedrest. At seven months, I went eclamptic and had to have an emergency C-section right then and there, as I was dying. I’d quickly gone in just a day, almost completely blind, my kidneys were in almost total failure and I had major fluid in my lungs and around my heart from the eclampsia. Thank goodness my husband‘s clinic was only 10 minutes away, as he made it there in time to be with me as our 2 lbs. 14 oz. daughter was born. After two months in the neonatal ICU unit, and an emergency surgery for bilateral inguinal hernias, Emily came home to us and has grown and thrived ever since. Today, she is a normal, healthy young woman who thrived in college and grad school, and is now a very successful clinical mental health counselor. And I am a pretty darn normal and healthy (NOW in real menopause) woman! But, I can understand how life can just totally throw you for a loop sometimes, and make you miss major body signals🤣! Been there!

I can understand it also, having had periods the first three months of my first pregnancy. I had no idea I was pregnant as my periods had always been light and these were pretty normal, for me. Surprise!

Seattle, as soon as my children were old enough (about 15) I told each what method of BC i had been on when they were conceived— not to tell them they werent wanted, but to drive home the point that no method of BC was 100% effective. It made believers of them all 😎

I became pregnant four times on four different methods. (We have three kids, my last pregnancy of twins was lost at 6 months)

Kswl 2 I'm so sorry for your loss!

and I hear you on the BC odds. but my husband had a vasectomy and I'm on the Mirena IUD. I didn't intend to double the BC, but Mirena has really good side effects for me (no periods and my adult acne cleared up), so I figured I'd go back on it. anyway, I'm no statistician, but I feel really comfortable with those odds.

After the husband picked himself up off the floor he did and said all the right things and he is smitten with this new little being.

awwww! that's good to hear. they will have fun stories to embarrass that kid with in the future!

Kswl, I have a couple of grandkids old enough for me to tell them my similar to your BC story and welcome children.

Seattle, doubling up is the ONLY safe option! I delivered a 10” kite IUD right after DS2 😳 The OB told me he had once delivered a baby holding an IIUD like a flag! Mine was considered 99.99% effective….after the last pregnancy DH got the snip.

Thank you for your kindness…. every year I think of the twins and say a prayer for other moms who lost their babies before meeting them.

Well obviously it is possible but I just have such a hard time believing a woman can actually experience fetal movement and not know she is pregnant--Zalco, I surmise you must have felt the very faint beginnings of the baby's activities? Because having experienced two full term pregnancies it is utterly impossible to imagine how you can not to know you've got someone in there growing by the time you get to the third trimester.

That's really why I've never quite believed the women who pop out a baby and are supposedly completely unaware. The accounts shared here all seem to have a common theme of being surprised at an early (ish) point.

Congrats to your friends!

My story is much like Zalco's only I was 31 and no squab. ;-)

We had been trying for years to get pregnant again. Took us 5 years and a lot of fertility drugs to get the 1st one.

We had been trying for awhile and had almost given up for the next child.

I had been taking fertility drugs again, but never had a cycle, I mean NEVER, so I really didn't think I could even GET pregnant. I was 5 months along before I had the pregnancy test.

I'd been working on getting fit again, and had lost about 35 lbs and plateaued on the weight loss, and couldn't figure out why. One would assume that I would have know what the signs were having been pregnant before, Nausea, hard abdomen, etc. But nooooo.... when you have no monthly cycles, you don't think you are PG.

I was also considered "high risk." But when you don't realize you're PG, you continue to do things you're not supposed to, like mow the lawn, climb up and down ladders to get on the roof, and to paint and all kinds of risky things. When my doctor giggled and told me I was pregnant, I told her I wanted a note from her saying I never had to mow the lawn again!! LOL

3 months after we learned I was expecting, we had an 8 lb girl. I was pre-eclamptic (with both babies actually) and a c-section was necessary. My blood pressure bottomed out on the surgery table and all I remember was when I was coming around, the Doctor was telling my husband, "no more babies." My children are not quite 5 years apart. 18 years would be quite the adjustment for me.

Running, I most certainly did feel the baby move. All I could say to myself was, If I didn't know any better, I would think I was pregnant. But that seemed like too much to hope for at that point.

Have had two friends in this situation. One had her period throughout her pregnancy. She thought she might be pregnant but 3 separate pregnancy tests over 5 months, including one at the doctor’s office, came back negative. Finally at her 8th month she went back to the doctor’s office as she was feeling the baby move, and they did confirm she was pregnant.

My other friend had never been able to get pregnant. She was a bit overweight but not by a huge amount. In her mid 40’s her period stopped, she assumed she was going through menopause. She did not go to the doctor, she had no other symptoms and never gained weight. She found out she was pregnant when she went to the ER thinking she had appendicitis, she was in labor. I worked with her during this surprise pregnancy and I never saw any change in her appearance that would make me think she was pregnant. Thankfully, she and her husband were thrilled with this new addition to the family.

My sister thought she was in menopause at 44. Nope, a month before she turned 45 she had her third child who was born 15 and 13 years after her first two.

I LOVE these stories. Proof life will find a way!! I can believe one could feel baby movement and not "get it". At 62 there are times my intestines move stuff and I am reminded of the four glorious times it was a baby not bodily functions!! The heart breaking stories of couples struggling with fertility issues are in the millions. Soo fun to hear happy endings! I grieve with you on the loss of the twins, I lost my first baby to miscarriage and it was a horrid time. 🙏🙏🙏for all those struggling to know the joy of parenthood!!

I had a front placenta and I didn’t feel kicks until well after 20 weeks! Basically no morning sickness either. I felt fantastic - except for the heartburn.