I know what you’re thinking, where the hell have you been Jess?! I know. Life’s been crazy. Between buying our house in December and moving in two days before Christmas, to the flurry of holiday madness that always ensues, to the excitement of learning we were pregnant and yet having to hide it from nearly everyone, to completely switching up my jobs – some planned, some not so much. Its been a whirlwind five months and even though it’s not slowing down anytime soon, I finally found some extra time to sit down and write out my thoughts on my first trimester to share the experience with you.

THE TEST(S) – ALL THE TESTS

Once I was pregnant, I wasn’t one of those women who knew it right away. In fact, I was quite sure I was NOT pregnant. We were in the crazy chaos of moving into our house and though I was feeling a little more grumpy/emotional than usual, I honestly just blamed it on the stress of moving so quickly and the sadness of leaving our apartment that we had lived in for four years and made so many wonderful memories in. Just to be sure though since we were trying, I took a test when I thought it would be about the time that I would be able to know (you know all those commercials – “know sooner, blah blah”). That test was negative, and the hubs and I were definitely bummed hoping for different results, so I gave it a little cry and then decided it was all good because we have plenty of time to sort this out and try again.

Then a week later, when the obvious main indication of NOT being pregnant was still quite delayed, the hubs and I decided maybe again we’d take another test in the wild case that the commercials were ALL WRONG and I was in fact hosting our own little miracle in my belly. We picked up a different test than the last time, me thinking lets try a different brand, which was ultimately a mistake because when it turned out positive, the husband and I clearly did not trust it since it was different from the one before and that one had said not pregnant. So my sweet husband ran back out to the store to buy two other tests (one being the same one we tried the first time) and I drank a ton of water and verified via 234326473 tests that yes, shit was about to get real REAL.

I did what any person rationally does and facetimed my sister right away, who was already in bed at 9PM and when I forced her out of bed to FaceTime me, immediately knew I was pregnant (sisters just get it).

THE NOT SO FUN PART

The worst part of the first few weeks was keeping it a secret and giving up my weekend wine but then…….. THEN the symptoms started. Some people cutely refer to it as “morning sickness”, but I’m going to shoot you straight, ITS ALL DAY SICKNESS. It’s like goodbye appetite, any food that isn’t a bagel or an apple is probably repulsive, and don’t even make me look at raw meat or pretend to cook dinner. If I didn’t eat……I felt nauseous. Once I ate…….. I felt more nauseous. In cars it was REALLY bad. I was picky as crap and hated all the foods I used to love. It was rough. This whole “cravings” thing was a joke bc I craved not eating and just feeling normal.

And the exhaustion. I mean I have always been in favor of naps but never have I ever needed a nap midday like in my first trimester. This part totally hit me unexpectedly and between my full time job and moving into the house my workout game totally took a backseat which was a really tough part for me. Going from someone who worked out 4-5 days a week to not working out at all made me feel pretty lame, and pretty self-conscious. But thankfully something had shifted the moment I found out I was pregnant where I knew this all was no longer about me, but about that little nugget who was making me feel awful, and I had to put that above all else.

Now don’t get me wrong, these symptoms aren’t guaranteed for all pregnant women, everyone’s pregnancy is different, but I’m just sharing how mine was and why I have been SO M.I.A. ………just trying to survive over here.

THE GREAT PARTS

Because we were out of town during week 8, we had to wait until week 10 to finally go into the doctor and get the official confirmation and I have to admit, that was my favorite part. Yes the symptoms and pregnancy tests had proven I was pregnant, but it still felt like just a dream until we went in for that first appointment. We got a sonogram and as soon as the screen got settled we saw our little “gummy bear” who was magically posed all perfect and actually looked like a tiny little human and not the squiggle of goo I was expecting. CUE ALL THE TEARS.

Yes the symptoms are awful, but seeing our little one made it all worth it.

HOW TO GET THROUGH IT

Though the symptoms were tough, they did eventually disappear (though gosh darn it they fought on till mid-month 4) and I found some helpful things to do along the way to make things a little less awful.

1. Small meals/snacks, often: I found one of the keys to making myself feel less nauseous was to having something in my tummy, nothing big, but something. I’d slice an apple in the morning, have a slice or two before work, and snack on it throughout the day which seemingly helped. Like I said, my tastes were really boring, so find whatever you can that sounds decent and have it handy as a snack.
2. Eat whatever you can: when I used to think about my future pregnant self, I thought about how healthy I’ll eat, green smoothies, all the veggies, you know basically Kourtney Kardashian 6.0. Well that didn’t exactly happen since everything I normally eat (balanced, fresh all that ish) sounded awful to me. There was even a day I didn’t want pizza (and thats no day I want to remember). But getting something down is what’s important during this time, so you have to figure out the things that you can stomach, even if it’s an Einstein bagel a day, give yourself a break and EAT THE BAGEL.
3. Go easy on yourself: If you’re anything like me, a planner, you already had it made up in your mind how you were going to be when you were pregnant: working out, eating balanced and healthy doing all the “right” and good things. Well getting into it and feeling the way I did, it ended up looking ALOT different than I had planned. But you know what? It was all still ok. You need to nap? NAP. Because soon you may not be able to. You feel like a spoon full of peanut butter for dinner? GO FOR IT. No energy to workout? YOU WILL SURVIVE. Give yourself a break because life’s about to change and it will be much harder to then.

 

Any mom’s out there who remember their first trimester?! How did you get through?

 

XO,

JESS