The First Trimester: A Recap

I’m so excited to finally be able to share this exciting news with you all!!!! It took a little bit to get to this point, and Adam and I couldn’t be more excited to be welcoming a little baby in October. I remember when I was in the thick of trying to conceive and scrolling through blog posts, reading about others’ experiences. I am humbled to be able to share mine, and look forward to updating you all as we go!

Finding Out

I found out EARLY. Like, 7 days after ovulating (a week before I was supposed to take a test). If you’re someone who also falls victim to pregnancy tests, you’ll understand. Each month, starting around a week after I ovulate, I begin peeing on that horrible stick. I wish I could say those tests didn’t consume my life, but I would be lying. The fact is, each negative would send me spiraling into a depression, and I would subsequently spend my day Google-checking my symptoms, wondering if the pregnancy test was wrong, or if I was simply dying. Not at all dramatic, I know. So in December, after taking my first round of fertility medicine (Letrozole), I had a hard time believing what I saw. Not at all like the moment I had conjured in my head, I ran to Adam and shouted “DO YOU SEE A LINE?!” Sadly, he did not. I peed on another stick. Again, a barely visible shadow appeared, and after squinting and holding the test up to the light, neither of us were convinced. Finally, after peeing on a digital test and seeing the word “pregnant,” we finally believed it. I laugh now, thinking about how I always envisioned surprising him with a gift and capturing that moment on video. Should’ve known that’s not how our experience would play out…and I wouldn’t change it for a thing.

Early Symptoms

I know anyone reading this who is currently trying to conceive is likely curious to hear if I had any symptoms before getting my BFP (big fat positive). While yes, I did (I’ll detail them in a second), I also am cautious to share them, because I had other similar symptoms in previous months that did not result in a pregnancy. It’s hard to know what’s in your head and what’s a direct result of being pregnant.

That being said, one of the first things I noticed this time around was how tired I was. I would do a home workout and, after 2 squats, would need to take a break to breathe. It was a feeling of such lethargy that I had never experienced before. Even walking up a flight of stairs had me panting for air. The other big symptom that was unlike anything I had experienced before was night peeing. I’m not one to get up in the middle of the night and use the restroom, but the entire week prior, I had been waking up 3-4 times with an urge to go. The last strange symptom was an aversion to coffee. I am usually a coffee-addict, and a few days before getting that positive test, I found myself leaving my morning cup of coffee completely untouched. Confused by this sudden dislike, I even went to Starbucks and ordered my all-time favorite latte, only to bring it home and dump it down the sink. I couldn’t understand at the time why my stomach was turning at this smell, but it ended up being an aversion I had throughout my entire first trimester.

First Trimester Symptoms, Week by Week

As the weeks went on, I started recording some of my other crazy symptoms:

Weeks 4-5: Frequent peeing, exhausted, aversion to coffee, meat and fish, sore boobs (they hurt when I walked or reached for something), and extremely out of breath.

Weeks 6-7: Excess saliva (super weird, I know…I legitimately drooled on the floor when doing a push up!), nauseous, hungry but nothing sounded appealing to eat, aversion to coffee, meat and fish, extremely exhausted

Weeks 8-9: Adam began smelling like onions to me. I know this seems like a stretch, but it was the strangest thing. He always smells so good, but all of a sudden my body was rejecting my poor husband and gagging from whatever weird smells I was picking up!! The other one that nobody warned me about was the bloating. As the day progressed, I would look bigger and bigger. By the end of the night, I looked like I was 6 months pregnant at only 9 weeks!

Week 10: Extremely emotional…I would start crying for no reason, acknowledge that I didn’t know why I was crying, and be unable to stop! I also started noticing spider veins on my legs, which are dark red/purple and have continued to appear.

Week 11: Dizziness, leg cramps

Week 12-13: Nausea finally dissipating, getting a little bit more energy back, can stomach coffee (finally!), and getting my appetite back

Cravings

As far as cravings go, I started off mainly having aversions to foods more than any cravings. The thought or smell of coffee, fish, meat, or any sauce would have me gagging. There was one night that Adam made garlic steak and I almost divorced him.

The only things I could stomach were pb&j sandwiches, grilled cheese, and plain cereal. Oh, and cream cheese. That was a weird one! I loved to eat crackers or bagels with plain cream cheese. Towards the end of the first trimester, I began craving citrus (cold oranges, grapefruits, tropical smoothies).

Doctors Appointments and Anxiety

The first trimester was honestly pretty textbook, which is something I am so grateful for. We got to have our first ultrasound at week 7, which is when we saw the little babe for the first time and saw its heartbeat (we didn’t get to hear it until the 10 week ultrasound).

I will say that the time between each ultrasound and doctors appointments has been hard for me, and causes a lot of anxiety. I want to be honest that I still deal with some PTSD around the previous miscarriage, and I’m not sure if that will ever go away. Every time I feel something down there (lots of crazy stuff comes out of you when you’re pregnant, sorry for the TMI), I rush to the bathroom and check for blood. I also got extremely nervous any time a symptom would magically disappear in those first few months, which happened often. One day I wouldn’t feel as nauseous, and my immediate thought would be: “oh no, is this a bad sign? Has the baby stopped growing?”

The only thing that really eased my mind was hearing the heart beat at the doctors office. Which is why I decided to buy an at-home doppler (linked here). I know there are mixed opinions on this, and I urge you to speak to your doctor before buying one, but mine did give me the go-ahead, and it’s been such a game changer for us. Since I do struggle with anxiety and have a hard time waiting weeks in between each appointment, this gives me some peace of mind to hear the baby’s heart beat at home. I ordered this around week 10 and was able to hear the heartbeat by week 11. I do want to note that it can be tricky to find (especially that early when the baby is so little), so please don’t panic if you can’t find it right away….it’s very likely that everything is FINE.

I also was pretty surprised to learn that you don’t get an ultrasound at every visit. For most pregnant women, that’s probably not a big deal, but I realized that seeing the baby helped ease my anxiety TREMENDOUSLY. I asked the doctor countless times if there was any way an exception could be made, because I didn’t want to wait between week 7 and week 20 to see the baby again…that seemed like an eternity! For whatever reason (insurance, probably), my doctor said they don’t do additional ultrasounds unless something is wrong (bleeding or cramping), so I took matters into my own hands…obviously. I found an incredible private ultrasound place nearby that charges $50 for a 10 minute scan so you can check on your baby and hear the heartbeat whenever you want. We decided to do one at 12 weeks, and it was incredible. We were able to see the baby move, and it looked so much more like a baby than it had at 7 weeks!!

As the weeks have progressed, I continue to feel more excited, but I’ve noticed the anxiety growing as well…something I didn’t expect. I always assumed that once I got out of the first trimester, I would feel so at ease, knowing I was in the “safe zone.” Everyone is different, but for me, I’ve realized that the bigger the baby gets, the more fear I have around potentially losing it. I say this because I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, and i want you to know that if you’re in a similar boat, those feelings are completely normal.

Telling Our Families

Now back to the exciting stuff! We decided to wait an excruciatingly long 9 weeks before telling my parents, since they live in a different state than us. I couldn’t imagine delivering that news via FaceTime, and I’m so happy we decided to do it in person. My parents have always talked about what they’ll want to be called as grandparents, and could never decide on a name. So, with their birthdays right around the corner, we gave them an early birthday present when we saw them. It was a book on grandparents names (linked here), and on the first page was our ultrasound picture. As soon as they saw it, they shrieked and cried. It was one of the most special moments that we’ll remember forever. We also waited to tell Adam’s parents until 11 weeks along (!!!) so we could do it in person as well. We gave them onesies (linked here and here), and they were so surprised.

Finding Out Gender

At our 10 week doctors appointment, we decided to get NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing), which determines the risk of a fetus having certain genetic abnormalities. Since this test looks at the baby’s chromosomes, you’re able to ask for the gender with your results. I personally wasn’t ready to find out that soon, and wanted to get past the first trimester before finding out. Adam, on the other hand, was ready to know ASAP. So, he looked at the results (which came back genetically normal), and read the gender as well. He had a straight face the entire time and began teasing me every day after, saying “he, I mean she! I mean he! I mean she!” *Eye roll. Then, at 15 weeks, I decided I was finally ready to know, so Adam filled a giant balloon with the color confetti and had me pop it, just the two of us. It was such a surreal, special moment, and I can’t wait to share it with you all!!

More to come in the next few weeks! I can’t wait to update you on the second trimester, my baby registry, the gender, and so much more!!