The First Trimester (what got me through)

The first trimester: How quickly the initial excitement fades as the reality of the "what-the-eff-is-happening-to-my-body" symptoms set in. Between the nausea and the secret-keeping, those first 12 weeks can seem to stretch on forever. Luckily I stumbled upon a few things that helped get me through ...

Lemon and Ginger Tea
Everyone knows that ginger is supposed to help with nausea, but I read somewhere that you need to be taking it on a daily basis before it starts to make a difference. I drank this tea on the regular during those yucky weeks of all day nausea ... and it did seem to help. (Bonus points for the probiotics).

Carbs, carbs, carbs
For awhile there, I wasn't able to stomach anything but simple carbs. I stocked up on crackers, bagels, cereal and anything else that made me feel good. I usually felt best when I had a full tummy, and would sometimes throw up (gross, yes) if I let myself get too hungry.

Forever 21 Longline Knit Camis
I kid you not, I wear one of these almost every day, even now at 24 weeks. I bought one on accident pre-pregnancy (I thought it was a normal length tank), and hardly ever wore it. Once I got pregnant and the belly started to get a little bigger each day, I realized this was the perfect tank to put under all those those shirts that would soon be too short on me. And they're only $4! Stock up on the cheap stuff when you can, because maternity clothes are expen$ive.

BKR Water Bottle
I know you're supposed to drink a lot of water when you're pregnant, and I had been on the hunt for a new water bottle anyways, so I used this as my excuse and went with one of the pretty BKR bottles. There are so many colors to choose from, and I get compliments on my water bottle all the time.

Vitamins
Take your vitamins, y'all! I've been taking this one since before I was pregnant. I hate swallowing pills so I mix my liquid vitamin with a little bit of pomegranate juice and suck it back. I like that it has the DHA in it, so you don't need a separate supplement. Chase it with some OJ or Mango juice if vitamins are making you sick.

Cocoa Butter
Boobies, belly and thighs, everrry day. Never too early to start slathering on the lotion, right?

An Extra Pillow
Congestion is a fun little pregnancy bonus symptom. At night I made sure to prop that head up in an effort to keep the nasal passages a bit clearer.

Rubber Bands
You know, for this fun little my-pants-are-too-tight trick!

Books & Apps
I've been reading the classic What to Expect When You're Expecting, and Your Pregnancy Week by Week, both of which I borrowed from a friend. I also checked in with these two apps every morning: Ovia for updates and it's list of approved/unapproved foods and medications, and Glow for a daily update of what's going on with my baby.

An Understanding Husband 
(This is a big one!) Even though this pregnancy has been pretty drama free on all fronts, I know there were times that my dear husband probably wanted to kill me. The first trimester is full of moments where you just want to lie there, and you can't be bothered to complete even the simplest of tasks. I know it was not fun for him to have (at times) a seemingly helpless wife, and I could sense his frustration, but he loved me anyways and we made it through the tough days.

Fun, right?!

The First Trimester (a look back)

The beginning

So I'll start from the beginning, because I should probably be documenting this little miracle of new life in some way or another, no?! The beginning of the pregnancy would bring us back to October, but if we really start at the beginning of the journey, it's when we decided to start trying for a baby, which was just a few months before that. 2014 marked 7 years of marriage for us. SEVEN YEARS! We got married fairly young, and back when we were just babies ourselves we used to say we'd have kids while we were young, too.  I wanted to wait until after I was 25 and Alexis wanted to do it sooner than that. But as the years passed by, we waited and we waited (much to our parents dismay). The timing was never quite right.

In 2013 we decided to do "one last big trip" before maybe-sorta-kinda being ready to start trying for kids. We spent a gloriously amazing week in Maui that I will never forget ... and then we started planning our next trip, because, duh, "we need to do a Europe trip before kids!" So in May 2014 we spent two weeks in Italy. After that, we knew it was time, because if we didn't do it now, there'd always be "one more thing" to do or see before we did. Pretty soon we started ... well, you know, trying. The problem with that is, I'm the opposite of patient. Once I decide I want something, I want it yesterday. So it wasn't long before I caved and bought an ovulation kit. It was a 2 month kit and I didn't even get through the entire box before, BOOM, the bun was officially cooking in was in the oven. 

We're pregnant

In October we were pregnant, but of course, you don't really know it right away. I kind of assumed it would take several months of trying before it happened. Still, every month I took a pregnancy test, and for October I had a date in my mind on which I would take one, first thing in the morning, just like you're supposed to. However, there was this one particular Monday while walking to my car after work, I had the most overwhelming urge to TAKE ONE NOW. I drove straight home and while Alexis was working, took the only pregnancy test we had in the house. Lo and behold, there was the faintest little line I'd ever seen in my life. You could barely see it. So I drove to Publix where I bought an early predictor test and, yes, there it was, a real line! (well, a cross actually). I was freaking pregnant. 

Sharing the news

I couldn't wait to tell Alexis as soon as he got home from work. While I was out picking up the second pregnancy test, I also bought a "welcome new baby" balloon, so I left it sitting in the garage for when he got home. As much as I wanted to see his face the instant he knew, I also kind of wanted him to have a moment to himself to take it in before I bombarded him. In typical Alexis fashion, his reaction was "no way, you're kidding me, there's no way," even though he knew full well, it's for real. I had both tests on the counter (safely sealed in a plastic baggy) to prove it. We were both so excited and yet it felt so surreal.

The hard part was waiting until 12 weeks to share the news with everyone else. The week of Christmas would be 12 weeks, so we decided to have our families over for a gift exchange where we would drop the bomb. We gave our parents gifts that they had to open at the same time, and each one contained a framed picture of our 8 week ultrasound, with the words "The best parents get promoted to Grandparents" engraved on the front. Upon opening there was a lot of shouting, screaming, and freaking out that ensued, followed by a quiet "what is it?" from my father-in-law. What, that black and white etch-a-sketch looking thing doesn't scream "little grandbaby" to you?! 

The first trimester

Looking back on the entire first trimester, I was extremely lucky to have a (mostly) drama-free pregnancy. There was that one time I went to the doctor for extreme cramps and they couldn't find a baby and told me it could be a molar pregnancy and to come back next week ... but after a week of wondering (and pretending to drink at my sister-in-law's 30th birthday bash, complete with party bus), praise God, they found a baby! And the cramps were gone. Other than that, I had it pretty easy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't fun. I had food aversions to anything even remotely healthy (which means I ate mostly fast food and packed on 5 more pounds than I was supposed to, right out the gate). There were a few weeks of all day ickiness and nausea, some occasional vomiting, and there was a lot of being tired (can't wait to do this again, y'all!). But I've heard crazy horror stories of extreme nausea lasting for up to 16 weeks, so I'll thank my lucky stars. My symptoms subsided fairly quickly and by week 10 were pretty much gone. By the end of the first trimester, I almost felt ... normal. (We'll see how long that lasts).

To be continued ...