I swore I would post my story as I was obsessed with reading these while TTC. So here we go...
Me: 36, DH: 34. One DS: 2. We are statistically average as it took 3 months to conceive our son (before I was 35) and took 6 months to conceive this one (after age 35). And this was 6 months of charting and BD'ing at the right times with stark white pregnancy tests staring back at me each month.
I eat a healthy diet, the only things I did differently this month were to cut my caffeine intake to 2 small cups of coffee or less a day (down from 3-4) and started exercising more frequently. I typically have 25 day cycles with a 14 day luteal phase and based on my charts this month was looking to be around 25 days too. We BD'ed one time 3 days before ovulation due to DH going out of town, so I was pretty sure we were out this month too.
Symptoms (I noted ones that are normal PMS symptoms for me):
1-6 DPO: Nothing. Felt the same as every other month
7 DPO: Started to notice that I was unusually tired, but thought it might be because I'd had a few drinks the day before and had to get up early with my toddler
8 DPO: Sore breasts (normal). Hungry, ate a ton (normal). Veins on chest more noticeable. Gassy. Extremely tired.
9 DPO: Cramps felt like period cramps, along with diarrhea. Cramps worse than normal. Extremely hungry (normal).
10 DPO: Sore breasts (normal). Somewhat less tired. Cramps don't feel like period cramps. Face feels hot. BFP!!!
11 DPO: Cramps/pressure ongoing. Sore breasts, getting more sore. Major nausea after lunch. Feels like I'm getting sick. BFP again.
12-17 DPO: Cramps and sore breasts ongoing. Extremely tired all the time. Starting to get some minor waves of nausea and food aversions.
The big clue that something was up was the fatigue. I never nap, but I was tired all the time. Other symptoms were all pretty similar to PMS.