Ahh I can’t believe I’m already in my second trimester but I thought I’d recap what my first trimester was like for those of you that are curious, or even on your own baby journey!
Time really does fly fast while you are pregnant and my first trimester seemed like years ago haha, but that’s only because I’m in the “honeymoon” stage of pregnancy and most of my first trimester symptoms have gone away.
So the first trimester is the first 12 weeks of your pregnancy and also the most delicate stage of pregnancy. Usually once you hit the 2nd trimester you can start to feel a little more at ease because your risk of miscarriage goes way down from 80% to almost 5%. Being that I’m a little older, this was always in the back of my mind, and I would feel blessed by every passing week all the while battling some crazy nausea and exhaustion.
My First Trimester Symptoms
So I’m sure a lot of you want to know what dreaded morning sickness ailments fell upon me during my first trimester and to be honest, I feel like I got off pretty lucky. My biggest symptoms were nausea, loss of appetite, extreme exhaustion, sore breasts, getting emotional and crying, and heart burn. One of the reasons for having morning sickness is because your body is trying to develop a placenta to support the baby! This was such an interesting thing that I learned. You’d think that the placenta just happened like the baby just happening, but your placenta needs to develop to feed and nourish your baby and until that happens it’s your body that has to do all the work to keep your baby going and morning sickness is the toll! So interesting!
Nausea / Loss of Appetite
I was really lucky to not throw up once during my first trimester (though I heard it can come back in the third trimester because of heart burn so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen). I dreaded throwing up the most because I really can’t deal with it (not that anyone really can). I literally tried everything in my power not to get too nauseated to the point of throwing up haha. This meant eating ginger candy like these and drinking ginger ale and lemon lime soda. I also made sure I took it easy or napped when I felt nauseated or dizzy. Also it’s true, morning sickness doesn’t happen just in the morning. Most of my nausea happened in the middle of the day and at night.
I also did not want to eat anything because I was so nauseated. I thought that when you got pregnant you would just want to eat anything in sight and that was not the case for me. I could barely get through any meal without pushing my food away. It was even sad when my beloved beyond burgers that I used to love so much, now made me want to throw them out the window. To this day, I’m not sure if I can eat a beyond burger which is so weird because I used to love them before I was pregnant. I ended up losing 8lbs in my first trimester and have yet to gain any of it back. Since I’m already overweight it isn’t something to be alarmed about and the baby is getting all it needs, mostly from my stored energy supply (aka my fat =) haha, which is fine with me! Due to my weight, I was actually advised by my doctor to aim to gain no more than 15lbs during this pregnancy and so far it hasn’t been difficult to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the 3rd trimester, but so far it hasn’t been difficult to stay steady at my current weight.
Exhaustion
One of the biggest symptoms that hit me first, even before I took a pregnancy test, was exhaustion. I just felt like I had ran a marathon most days and would feel so heavy and way too tired even to walk up the stairs. I’m a morning person and I’m usually never a napper but I’ve never taken so many naps in my life while in my first trimester. There were even some work days where I just pretty much took the day off and slept all day. Thank God I have a job where I can usually make my own hours as long as I meet my deadlines. Being able to have that flexibility was a God send.
Sore Breasts
Sore breasts were also a big sign I got that made me want to take a pregnancy test. Usually I get sore breasts right before my period but it only last for a few days and its intermittent. This time around my breasts would not stop hurting and it was like 24/7 all day long. Wearing bras even hurt me and sleeping on my stomach was painful. Now in my 2nd trimester they are only sensitive a few times day.
Crying / Feeling Emotional
I feel like some of the first things I did after finding out I was pregnant was cry haha. I mean, being pregnant was just a bit of a shock, even though we were kind of trying, but for some reason, I just did not expect to get pregnant. I mean, I had been with my husband for a very long time and it never happened (well we weren’t really trying, trying) so I think I was just in shock coupled with fears of “how do we afford a baby?” coupled with raging pregnancy hormones haha. I wasn’t crying to commercials or sweet photos of babies, it was like fear crying haha because I’m such a planner and I just wanted to know then and now, everything about being a mom and how to handle it all and how afford it all. I wanted to have it all figured out but being a first time mom I had no clue what was happening each day with my self and anything else, like health insurance and how all that worked! My husband is such a trooper though because he kept me calm even though there were days when nothing he could say to me could make me feel better. Now that I’m in the 2nd trimester, I can see how my hormones played a huge role in my emotions.
Heart Burn
I hated heart burn and to have it coupled with nausea is not cool haha. My heartburn would usually happen at night and there were many a time where I made my husband drive me to the market or gas station late at night to get a ginger ale. So far in my 2nd trimester it has subsided but out of all the symptoms, it still lingers.
Cravings / Aversions / Eating Healthy for the Baby
I am sad to report that I didn’t have any real distinct cravings during my first trimester, mainly because I was so nauseated most of the time. The only thing I remember craving was cinnamon rolls but I never indulged in any. Also, it seemed like the only thing that didn’t make me nauseated were carbs. I did indulge in the occasional croissant and dessert and still do. One of the first things I was concerned about in this pregnancy was preeclampsia / high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. Preeclampsia is an extremely dangerous thing that you can develop in your pregnancy where if your blood pressure gets too high it can put you and your baby at risk, very quickly. Being that I’m older, it’s my first child and I have a family with a history of high blood pressure and stroke I was very concerned and tried to research as much as I could to prevent these things. One of the first books I bought when I found out I was pregnant was Real Food For Pregnancy I highly recommend this book if you are pregnant and want to know about how to eat healthiest for your baby. Registered Dietician Lily Nichols takes an almost Paleo approach to eating during pregnancy and advocates for little to no sugar and lower carb eating to keep high blood pressure and gestational diabetes at bay.
I will say that the first trimester is the most difficult time to try to stay away from carbs, especially since it’s some of the only things you can keep down. My approach was just to do what I could and eat what I could stand during the first trimester and try to go lower sugar after my placenta formed and the first trimester symptoms went away. I’ve been conscious of my sugar intake also, though I won’t deny myself strong cravings and I try not to have days of just sugar bombing myself.
Prenatal Vitamins
One of the most important things you can do as soon as you find out you are pregnant is to take prenatal vitamins. In fact, my dear friend, who became pregnant years before I did told me her doctor told her to take them well before she even got pregnant so that your body would be baby ready so to speak! The folic acid in the prenatal vitamins helps ensure your baby develops well and isn’t at risk for any neural tube defects. You also need a lot of iron and calcium to help grow a baby. I take these Naturemade Prenatal vitamins with DHA and actually had a bottle laying around a few months before finding out I was pregnant when Jared and I decided we should start trying. I found out I was pregant probably in week 5 so that’s when I started taking them. The DHA in these prenatals are omega-3 fatty acids that help lower your chance of preeclampsia and preterm delivery.
And that’s my first trimester in a not so small nutshell!
Well I think that’s all I can think of about what I went through in my first trimester. I hope that there are some things in this post that are helpful to you! I’m very glad I’m out of the first trimester because the 2nd trimester really has been great! I have so much energy now and my first trimester symptoms pretty much went away within a week of hitting the 2nd trimester. I’m still in the middle of my 2nd trimester so when I’m through it I’ll do another recap! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions, or what your first trimester experience was like. Also, if you aren’t following me on instagram check me out at @littlesweetkaren. I’ll be doing a lot more day to day baby updates on there as well as a plethora of bump pics! Thanks for reading!=)
*Note: This blog post contains affiliate links which helps support what I do so thank you for clicking on them. I hope they are helpful to you.!