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At 2 1/2 weeks, you don't even know you're pregnant yet. That's the first thing. Secondly, if the woman's period is regular, she'll find out in short order by missing a period, and doing a test. If the woman has irregular cycles, she could go for a few MONTHS before thinking to test. The tenderness and breast swelling doesn't really start to happen until around 2 1/2 months. Most women don't even show until the 4th month, and depending on her personal physiology, she may not show until well in to the pregnancy. I've known women who didn't start to show until the 6th month. Pregnancy varies with each woman, depending upon her body type, inherited factors and a few other things besides. Not all women get morning sickness in the first trimester. For example, I didn't have anything remotely resembling morning sickness until around 7 months. That was actually caused by eating too much at one time, with the stomach being squished by the baby. So I learned to eat much smaller portions, and more frequently (think hobbit with 7 or 8 meals a day). Depending upon the individual woman's temperament, is also how she will emotionally handle being pregnant in the first place. I know I hated the last 5 months. But then again, I'm one of those women who don't understand how anyone could possibly be happy with having physical abilities limited because of this. Never did get that, the "I love being pregnant" deal. Depending upon how large the child is in the last trimester, and how quickly it grows, also affects how you feel physically during that time frame. The last trimester is the period of the most growth for a fetus, particularly the last month. And then you get to labor and delivery. Each pregnancy is different. For example, I was in labor with the first one for 18 hours, the second for 8, the third for 22, the 4th one for only four, and the last one for 14 hours. Again, depending upon the size and position of the child (barring no complications) one can have a variety of issues with the actual birth. First babies are honestly the toughest to deal with for the birth itself, as the woman has NO idea what she's getting in to. I don't care how many classes you go to beforehand, there is nothing like the actual experience to really teach you what is going to happen, and prepare you for future deliveries. All five of mine were natural deliveries. Meaning no epidural, no spinal block, none of that. Just enough pain killer to try and take the edge off the pain of the labor itself. So then you have that to look at. Depending upon what kind of drugs one is given, whether or not the birth is c-section or natural, all play in to how much it actually hurts when the time comes.

I'm in total agreement with all that DG and Rogue have said. You really don't know until you've missed your first period, and even then, it's not like you'd rush out and buy a test if you were a day late. I was extremely regular for the most part, but was late once or twice when I was trying for children without being pregnant. I've had both a Cesarean delivery and what they call a VBAC - Vaginal Birth After Delivery. The Cesarean was not scheduled, but Teengirl was having deceleration of her heart beat with each contraction, and since I was "older" my OB wanted to err on the side of caution. You feel nothing past the pinch of the spinal, and since you;re generally draped, you see nothing until they hold up the baby, which is surprisingly quick. Vaginal birth for me was fairly uneventful. I was in actual labor intermittently. I began in the late afternoon, it stopped at around midnight, and resumed at about three am with a vengeance, and Teenboy arrived a little more than six hours later. I had a late epidural (9.5cm dilation because my OB for that birth was an idiot and waited until shift change to call for the epi). But he was still an easy enough birth as things go. Yes, I yelled, because I focused on pushing better when I yelled. (My OB frowned at me and I asked him if he wanted to give it a go.) Yes, until the epidural, there was pain, but it never hit unendurable for me. As far as the physical experiences of pregnancy, again, it varies with every woman you talk to. I had no morning sickness with Teengirl, gained around thirty pounds, and was not ungainly. With Teenboy, I had morning sickness from about 2 months to 4 months along, and I was fecking huge, although I still didn't gain more than thirty-five pounds. It was ALL belly, to the point where people were asking me if I was having twins. But I was fairly energetic through both pregnancies, and can't say that it was terrible, although I could have done without the awkwardness in the last trimester of Teenboy's gestation.

http://www.pregnancy.com/ http://pregnant.thebump.com/pregnancy-week-by-week.aspx http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pregnancy-week-by-week/MY00331 http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/ Now, I had a Cesarean. So I didn't experience the joys :sarcasm: of pushing the child through the birth canal. However, something my mother said to me when I was about nine years old has always stuck with me. I was preparing for a role in the school play and the character was pregnant and had to give birth. So I was practicing birthing noises. My mother asked me what I was doing, and when I informed her, I was promptly advised, "Oh, no, honey. There's a lot more screaming than that. You sound like you're trying to pass a big turd." Point is, when you get to the birthing part of your story, if you have the mother proceeding with "regular" labor (in the sense of in a hospital, drugs have been administered, and there's a doc poised between her legs telling her to push while she's glaring), you might want to watch some birthing videos. A lot of teaching hospitals will have them viewable on their websites (just type "teaching hospital" into Google). No need to credit my Google-fu, though. I just typed in 'pregnancy week by week' and got numerous results.