Pregnant Life with Baby C: The First Trimester

Hi friends!

Well, here we are a little over a week into the month of April. And here I am almost halfway through my pregnancy! I’m sure most women who have gone through pregnancy would agree with me in that you feel like the whole process is flying by, but you also feel like you’ve been pregnant for awhile by month 5.

I’ve dubbed the babe Baby C – both because our last name starts with a C and because we’re 99.9% sure we’ll name here something that begins with a C – and thought it’d be fun to document what the stages of my pregnancy are like on the blog. So here we are with my first pregnancy recap!

How we found out

I had a feeling I was pregnant 2 weeks after we conceived – I think that when you’re in tune with your body, you just know early on – but I waited a week to take a pregnancy test. It was actually on New Year’s Eve and we were about to head out on a road trip for a wedding. Whew, it was a bit hard being sober while totally freaking out about the news internally and not being able to tell any of my drunk family in attendance at the wedding! Well, except for my parents, who we told that night. My mom, as expected, totally freaked out with excitement.

We were not necessarily trying to get pregnant at the moment. But after so many years of being on birth control, I decided that after our September cross-country move, I would get off of it and give my body time to be normal before “trying” to get pregnant sometime in late 2019. I was doing a lax natural planning method and as it turns out, we’re fertile people! It was the first time in my life when I felt like if I did happen to get pregnant, I would be good with it. I would never play around with not using some form of contraceptive if I was not in the right space for a potential surprise… and knowing what we know now, it’s a good thing too!

It felt so crazy to find out I was pregnant in the last couple of hours in 2018, and then wake up in a new year and think, “OMG! We are having a baby THIS YEAR.” Talk about changes in the new year! For a few days, Adam and I kept looking at each other and would randomly start laughing, trying to get over our surprise and used to the whole idea. I was tripping out over the news for probably a week or so, but from then on, I’ve felt way more excited than terrified.

Symptoms: The Good & The Bad 

Starting off on a positive note, my first trimester was way smoother than the horror stories so many women have told me about. Luckily, there was no puking on the daily, serious food aversions, or needing to pee every hour. I only had mild nausea in the evenings for 2 or 3 weeks of my first trimester, and have barely had any since then. But, of course I’ve experienced some not so fun symptoms too, and here were my most persistent ones:

• Sore breasts. Why in the hell are my boobs so sore?! This was my very first clue that I was pregnant. I had no idea that your body starts preparing you for motherhood in this way so early on. It’s so amazing and wild! Breast tenderness persisted through most of my first trimester.
• Bloating, indigestion and constipation. That’s a trio of fun, isn’t it? I felt like I would eat an apple, and then proceed to burp it up for 3 hours afterwards. Towards the end of the first trimester, I couldn’t tell if I was starting to get a little belly, if I just looked bigger because I was bloated all.the.time.

• Exhaustion. For a solid month of my first trimester, at 4 or 5 pm every day, I would reach the point of, “I don’t give a crap what’s on my to-do list, I need to lay down for a bit.” I also had a nagging upper respiratory thing for a few weeks, which I think contributed to my tiredness. There were a few nights here and there where I passed out before my husband, which normally never happens, as I’m more of a night owl. I’ve heard that constant exhaustion is how I’ll likely feel again towards the end of pregnancy too, so yay for that! 😉
• Sleep insomnia. Adding to my exhaustion was the fact that I kept waking up at 3 am and being wide awake for hours. I’m not a great sleeper to begin with, so I’ll likely have more of this insomnia during my pregnancy.

Food cravings & diet 

Even though I wasn’t all that sick in my first trimester, I still felt kind of blah towards food a lot of the time during the first few months – which felt so weird to me, as I’m usually always hungry & craving something! My hunger all of a sudden picked up in month 3, and then I felt like I was ravenous and constantly snacking. In my first trimester, I started eating more intuitively and became more lenient on tracking macros than I usually am. I figured that if my body was craving carbs, I would feed it with nutritious, complex carbs and not worry too much if I got enough protein or ate enough healthy fats that day.

Most days I still was doing little mental checklists in my head of what I’ve eaten to see if it was a pretty balanced diet. Some days it was, some days it wasn’t, but all in all, I felt really good about my food choices. I didn’t gain any weight in my first trimester, though I definitely could see little changes happening in my body. Some of the foods I craved were:

• Fruit, fruit…give me all the fruit! I especially developed a thing for clementines, followed by a mango obsession that I still am into.
• Peanut buttery things, like PB on toast, crackers or a banana
• Fruity ice pops, especially strawberry and mango
• Avocado toast with everything bagel seasoning

• Asian noodley veggie dishes. I was all about curries and pad Thai, which is why I created this vegan tofu pad Thai recipe for Shape!
• Salty snacks. Besides my fixation on fruit, I sort of lost my sweet tooth and definitely wasn’t craving any baked or processed desserts. Instead, I craved salty snacks. I got home from the food store one day, and realized I had bought popcorn, Pop Chips, pretzels AND tortilla chips. Whoopsies..like I said, there’s been lots of snacking! 

The gender reveal 

After going back and forth, I decided to do the genetic testing that would provide us with information about any major health risks and concerns, as well as fill us in on the gender by week 12. I couldn’t wait to find out the gender, and in the weeks leading up to the reveal, I became completely convinced it was a girl. I kept trying to tell myself to not be disappointed if it turned out to be boy, but indeed, Baby C will be a girl! Finding out the gender made it all feel much more real, and I found myself feeling really excited about the pregnancy after finding out the news.

Lifestyle changes 

• Workouts. I maintained a 5-6 day/week workout schedule throughout my first trimester. On days when I wasn’t feeling so hot, I convinced myself to start off doing just 20 minutes of exercise, which usually turned into a 45-60 minute session because I felt better once I warmed up.

I’m committed to listening to my body throughout this pregnancy, and in terms of my workouts, there are a few ways I’ve done that:  I stopped doing high intensity workouts that included a lot of plyometric moves, as they just didn’t feel comfortable. Instead, I focused on cycling, weight training, yoga, reformer Pilates and daily walks with my dog. I’ve also taken on the mentality that it’s okay to not go 100% all the time in my workouts. Sometimes I’m tired and just want to casually work up a sweat on my bike while watching Netflix.. and you know what? No shame here, that is FINE with me!

• No more intermittent fasting. For years, I’ve loosely eaten on an intermittent fasting routine, where I’ll eat dinner around 7, and not eat again for 14-15 hours. Once I got pregnant, the fasting ceased, because I started constantly eating small meals. Not eating for awhile is the one thing that I know makes me nauseous, and since nausea is a feeling I like to avoid at all costs, I instead eat every couple of hours now. Sometimes I wake up to a growling belly at 3 am and have a little snack!

• Overall attitude of trusting + listening to my body & my gut. I wouldn’t say this is a lifestyle change, but more of something that I’m placing a bigger emphasis on now that I’m pregnant. From my workouts and my diet to my choice for prenatal care (more on that at another time), I want to be making choices that feel right to me and align with my instincts and beliefs. This to me is the epitome of a healthy mindset as I nurture and grow a tiny human.

Mamas, what were your first trimesters like? Any pregnancy questions or comments?