Cat protective over our new pregnancy?

Jynx is about 7 months old. Female. She isn't spayed. She usually kneads my hair at night when we sleep, but for the past week she's been curled at my stomach purring and even licking my stomach/shirt. My husband and I just found out we are about 8 weeks pregnant this morning.
Also, as soon as her nurturing behavior started, she also has developed a very wild side and persistent on attention not stop.
Could she possibly sense it? Did she know before we did?

It is very likely that she does/did.

From personal experience, my darling Sinbad is a very protective cat and he always knows when something is wrong with me, my husband or Tempest (the other kitty in our house). I have a chronic illness that gives me random dizzy spells, for example, and he always senses them coming on. I have learned that when he darts in front of me and circles around my feet in  a particular way I need to stop and sit down because I'm about to have a "grey out."

That's an excellent question @jds181987  I don't think anyone can provide you with evidence either way though. You mentioned Jynx isn't spayed which means her behavior could be merely a reflection of her own heat cycles. It's also entirely possible she could sense the hormonal changes taking place in your body. 

Congratulations on the pregnancy and please get Jynx spayed ASAP. It's absolutely time by now (a bit late, but at least she's not pregnant yet   )

Anne said:

It's also entirely possible she could sense the hormonal changes taking place.

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I'd assumed the kitty was hearing the heartbeat. :lol3:

Losna said:

 

Anne said:

It's also entirely possible she could sense the hormonal changes taking place.

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I'd assumed the kitty was hearing the heartbeat.

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It's possible, around week 7, I think. I just don't see why a cat react to an additional heartbeat like this. Hormones make more sense to me as a potential trigger for behavioral change, though who knows really.

Anne said:

It's possible, around week 7, I think. I just don't see why a cat react to an additional heartbeat like this. Hormones make more sense to me as a potential trigger for behavioral change, though who knows really.

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True enough.. I am admittedly biased towards cats detecting health changes because of Sinbad, even though even the vet has commented on how unusually aware and responsive he is to my husband and I. He lets me know when I'm about to fall over, and my husband know when he's having a blood sugar spike, and even goes to get the other human when one of us is so sick we can't do so on our own. We call it the Sinbad Alarm. :lol3:

So it doesn't seem strange at all to me that a cat would detect and react to a pregnancy before anyone else knows about it.