Happy Friday, everyone! I hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to the first day of fall tomorrow. I know we certainly are excited! Last week I posted my pregnancy announcement and we are so over the moon and cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by. I am officially in my eighteenth week of pregnancy and feeling pretty well. With that being said, my first trimester was not terrible but certainly not as easy as the second has been. I finally took the time to write out a first trimester update to post. (Also, this post gets a little TMI, but we’re mostly moms, here, right?)
“Feeling” Pregnant?
In general, I feel like I knew I was pregnant very early. I just had that feeling. I had the feeling with my first pregnancy, too, and I really think like my mama-intuition was on high alert. I feel silly in retrospect because I became a chronic pregnancy tester way too early, haha! I was literally taking multiple tests a day weeks out from my first missed period. (And to be clear: I know full well that you need to wait basically until the day of your missed period for the most accurate results. I’m just insane.)
My earliest pregnancy symptoms were tender breasts and sore gums. I was pretty much expecting the tender breasts as that’s pretty standard, but the bleeding gums was new to me. In general, my teeth have been super sensitive this pregnancy. Apparently this is not as uncommon as I initially thought, but I was still taken by surprise.
I also had a cold pretty early on and apparently this is also common. In pregnancy a woman’s immune system becomes naturally compromised and I definitely had a runny nose, cough, feel achy, etc.
Definitely Pregnant
About a week or two after my positive test I started feeling the exhaustion kick in. Again, that’s a pretty standard pregnancy symptom but it hits hard and fast. My husband started taking his lunch at a time when I could squeeze in an afternoon nap and I was still falling asleep at about 8:00 PM every night and hitting the snooze button in the morning.
…and then the nausea kicked in and that’s always a ton of fun, haha! I was only actually sick about twice, but I had dull nausea for weeks. It was all day every day and made eating difficult. (Also, who ever coined the term “morning sickness” was very obviously a male doctor who never physically experienced pregnancy for himself because mine hit its peak at about 4:00 – 5:00 PM every day.) To anyone who has never had that dull nausea all day, this all probably sounds pretty dramatic. However, I really felt awful. I even had to skip out on an important business trip because I couldn’t handle food and literally had days I couldn’t get out of bed.
To combat the nausea I started taking a B6 vitamin in addition to my prenatal vitamin and I do think it helped. I also feel like my prenatal vitamin in general helped because it contained ginger. (I am going to write a longer post in a few days about my prenatal and first trimester essentials so stay tuned!) When I took the vitamin as directed (with each meal) I noticed a difference in my nausea. It was still lingering, but not nearly as terribly as without it. (I was originally on a different prenatal vitamin, but it just did not work for me. I found it to have a very fishy taste because of added DHA and that made the nausea ten times worse.)
Food Aversions & Cravings
Nausea is not the only digestive-ish symptom/issue of pregnancy. I am currently in my second trimester and really still feeling an aversion to meat. In my first pregnancy I couldn’t eat red meat for like two or three weeks. With this pregnancy I cannot stand thought/look/texture/taste/smell of chicken. I keep re-trying it but this little guy is not having it. While I type this in real time, the thought of beef is also completely off-putting to me right now and I’m hoping it passes. I’m a meat eater and truly do subscribe to the research on how great animal proteins are for humans (especially in pregnancy) and I am praying that the aversion passes soon. (And yes, I do know that eggs and beans and nuts and seeds are also awesome!)
Regarding cravings, my husband and I were laughing about this last night because my cravings are very “boring.” I love the pregnancy standard of pickles, but the are a huge part of my diet even when I am not pregnant, haha. I started liking salt and vinegar chips more than usual, too.
The real craving for me has been pepperoncini peppers. OMG, I’ve been eating them by the jar.
Spilling the Beans
It was so hard not telling people I was expecting because everyone has been asking when we’re having more kids. To be honest, I basically told everyone pretty early in person. I understand the societal politeness of not announcing too soon, but I also think it’s a little old fashioned and isolating. I think every mother has to make her own decision about when to announce her pregnancy, and she shouldn’t be hindered by other people’s judgements about appropriateness. With that being said, I did tell close friends and family very early on.
I also planned on not announcing online until after the summer. I just wanted to really focus on my pregnancy and how I felt.
That’s the First Trimester Update!
That’s all, folks! This week I’ll be uploading a first trimester essentials list so stay tuned!
Leave a Reply