Hey guys! So, if you didn't see my post from last week my husband and I are expecting our first child in June! Right now, I am currently 16 weeks and some change, but I wanted to do a recap on my first trimester! Was it a surprise? Technically, no, because we were "trying", but still it is always a surprise and exciting when you find out even if it was planned! I actually found out when I was only 3 weeks pregnant, and usually you wait until the day you are supposed to start your period, which is at 4 weeks. I was having really weird cramps and just felt off I guess. So, I took a test (one of the cheap pink strip ones from Amazon--which I highly recommend for anyone trying to get pregnant because they are so much cheaper than buying at the store!) and I saw a light pink line! My husband was actually hunting that week and had limited cell phone service, which made it so hard because I wanted to celebrate and he wasn't there! Anyways, I really didn't start to feel anything at all until about 6 weeks, which is the same time I coincidentally got a terrible virus. So, the morning sickness snuck in along with the fever, chills, cough, sneezing and other lovely symptoms I had during the virus. For me, the morning sickness was the worst in the afternoon, kind of around the same time I would have lunch, and would get worse the later in the day. It actually kind of worked out perfectly (trying to be positive here) because I work from 6:30 or 7:30 am to 4 or 5 pm and I really only felt awful at the end of my work day. After a few weeks I honestly got used to feeling hungover all the time and was able to manage it, but I know a lot of women literally throw up every day of their first trimester, or even their entire pregnancy! So, I definitely feel lucky that I wasn't to that point. I ended up getting another virus about 2 weeks later, which made me super nervous because I am such a worrier about medical stuff, I didn't want to be harming the baby or anything! I did have 2 days where I got sick probably 15 times and couldn't keep any food down, which was a little scary! But, it went away. Not sure if it was pregnancy related or just a stomach bug, but I NEVER throw up so it was a little weird. Besides the typical feeling nauseous and having sore boobs, the other biggest "symptom" that I have had is sneezing. I have no idea if this is even related to being pregnant, but I have been sneezing so much more than I normally do.
Appointments:
I had my first appointment at 8 weeks and a few days, but after getting the ultrasound there they had recalculated it to be 7 weeks 6 days, which they told me was totally normal and sometimes you miscalculate or you don't ovulate on day 14, which is how most apps and everything calculate how far along you are. Anyways, first appointment was super easy just did the ultrasound (at my office they usually schedule that out after you are seen for the first time, but I had really bad cramping for a few weeks when I had called to schedule so they wanted to do one first just to make sure everything was okay) which was so fun and then some blood work, family history questions, kind of boring stuff. It's so exciting to get the ultrasounds especially when you don't "look" pregnant because sometimes I would forget I even was and it didn't seem real so it was cool to actually see that something was growing in there! I am not exactly sure, but the doctor said that you are seen every 4 weeks for most of the pregnancy, and then towards the end they start bumping it up. So, the next appointment was at 12 weeks. At that appointment they started out with the fetal doppler to heart the heart beat, which is a little nerve-wracking at the beginning, but reassuring when you get to hear it! They couldn't find it, which the tech said was normal because I was only about 11 weeks 2 days at that point, so she had the doctor bring in his handheld ultrasound device. He found the baby right away, and said it was because it was moving around so much they couldn't find it with the doppler. It was cool too because I got to see the baby again and it looked so much more developed than it did at the last appointment, which was crazy! After he found the baby, he just asked if I had any questions and that was pretty much it. I still was feeling sick at this point, but I was hopeful the end was in sight! I actually didn't start feeling better until about 14 weeks, which is a little later than most people I think. We had our last appointment about a week ago, which was the 16 week appointment. It was super easy again, just checked the heart beat and weighed me, asked if I had any questions and that was pretty much it! The next appointment is the anatomy scan, which is at 20 weeks and that is when most people find out what they are having.
Finding out the gender:
We really wanted to find out the gender a little early if we could and I had friends who had done the genetic testing to find out what they were having at like 10 weeks, so I had asked the doctor to do it, but after talking to us we decided not to find out that way and instead went to a 3D/4D imaging place that can tell as early as 14 weeks. Since he recommended them, I felt comfortable doing that. The place we went to was called Sweet Pea and it was seriously amazing! It's not something that insurance will cover because it is an elective ultrasound, but it isn't super expensive or anything I think around $150 and she said you can come at anytime after 14 weeks to find out the gender. It's not guaranteed just because the baby actually has to cooperate to be able to see, but we lucked out and found out right at 14 weeks! It was sooo exciting right when she put the probe on my abdomen you saw the baby on the huge screen and she was like "Oh! I already know what it is!" and she asked us what we thought it was going to be. Both of us thought boy the whole time and we were right! I started crying my eyes out lol it was seriously the most exciting thing finding out! We are both pretty private people and I really wanted to just find out with my husband and not in front of a bunch of people because I am pretty shy! The baby wouldn't really cooperate for any of the 3D/4D stuff to see his face, but that was okay it was cool enough to find out and just see his little body! Also, really reassuring to have between my 12 week and 16 week appointment.
Food cravings/aversions:
When I was feeling super sick around weeks 6-14 I was really craving cold, fresh fruit, popsicles and CARBS! I wouldn't really say I had a lot of food "aversions", but the smell of my husband cooking ground turkey makes (still does) me want to gag and anything to spicy or too flavorful makes me feel a little sick. I also haven't been able to eat a lot of food at once. I feel like whenever I eat a big meal it makes me feel so sick and just super full and uncomfortable, so I have been sticking to just eating small snacks all day long and that really seems to help. Oh ya, another thing that really does sound good that I normally love is anything sweet like chocolate. I typically have a separate full appetite for sweets and would prefer to eat them over savory foods, but I definitely have not been in that mindset since I have been pregnant. My husband brought home a box of white fudge covered Oreos probably 2 months ago and they are still in the freezer, which they would honestly have lasted me two or three days prior to being pregnant! Lastly, coffee sounds gross to me. I stopped drinking coffee a month before I found out I was pregnant (worked out to be good timing haha!) because my skin was terrible and I could not figure out what was going on. I cut out coffee and it completely cleared up after a few days! Not sure if it was the acidity of it or just the caffeine, but it worked. I know that doctors say that you can have a cup or so of coffee a day when you are pregnant and it is safe, but to me it just sounded disgusting. I had 2 decaf coffees from coffee stands around Christmas time because I love holiday drinks, and I drank like a 1/4 of each of them. Some foods that I have been obsessed with throughout my pregnancy have been cold honey crisp or granny smith apples, Halo or Cutie oranges, pineapple, bananas, Annie's white cheddar shells mac and cheese, bagels (with avocado and tomato or cream cheese), plain chips, crackers and peach outshine popsicles!
Let me know if you guys want to see more of these kinds of posts, I personally love reading them! Also, let me know if you want me to do weekly updates or just every trimester if you like them! I am planning on working on a pregnancy skincare post next to show you things I swapped out to be safer for pregnancy!
