Hi! I know it’s been a while since I took the time to put together a blog post. I’ve been using Instagram a lot more to chronicle the daily happenings. However, I still love to write and you just can’t get the same satisfaction of doing that on your phone in an app.
Since the last time I posted, Devin and I moved to Pittsburgh! We’ve been here for a year now and are so happy with this change. We loved living in the DC area; it brought us together along with providing quite a bit of career opportunities. But this felt like the right next step for our life. And now it couldn’t be more true! We’re expecting our first baby in March of next year. Being closer to family, having a home with a yard, and being more removed from the rush that the DC area brought is perfect!
We knew we were ready (or as ready as you can be) to start our family. Over the 4th of July weekend this summer, we went up to our family ski condo to just relax. If you want some peace and quiet, a ski village in the middle of summer is perfect! We took Sully and enjoyed some R&R. Most of the weekend I felt just blah and tired and chalked it up to having a lot going on prior to our time off. Then, we went for a drive into Ohiopyle State Park and I just couldn’t wait to get out of the car. The winding roads and bumpiness of the drive made me really uncomfortable and I felt car sick. Devin said to me “I bet you’re pregnant!”. I was nervous to take a test. When you’re trying to have a baby, you just hope that it will return a positive back to you – so there’s a lot of anxiety in the anticipation leading up to that test. I figured I’d wait until we were home the next morning to see if he was right. Also, my period was late, and I’m lucky to say I’m a pretty regular gal. So, I had this feeling he was spot on when he said this.
We left Saturday evening to head back home. I woke up early the next day and went straight to take the test. Devin was outside with Sully, so I didn’t even tell him I was doing it. I waited in the bathroom by myself until I saw the positive sign. I couldn’t believe it! When Devin came in the house, I yelled down the steps and showed him the stick “Guess what!!” While we were both really excited, I wanted to confirm with another test or two. I had this box of generic drugstore brand tests and wanted to verify against a brand name. So Devin went to Target – bringing back a slew of options to we could feel more confident that this was a definite. They all said the same thing: positive.
For the first couple weeks after we found out, I felt pretty good. I’d feel a little uncomfortable, kind of like I did on that car ride through the mountains, but nothing crazy. Then around week 7, the nausea hit. Only it was painful nausea. The kind where your whole body hurts and you just can’t focus. I stayed in bed most of that first day I experienced it. Trying to drink water and a little ginger ale. It was on and off like this for a while. Most of my time was spent between the couch and our bed. Devin started joking that the chaise on our couch was my “pregnancy pod”! Luckily, I work from home, so being able to curl up and get work done even if I was running to the bathroom every couple hours was such a blessing. Mamas who go into work each day, you’re the real MVPs.
Like most pets, Sully and Charlie were right by side while I binged on Netflix when I didn’t want to think about the nausea. Even turning my head from left to right made my nausea go haywire. After that 7 week mark, exercise wasn’t an option. I got lightheaded easily and it felt like my heart was racing with light movement. This was also the hottest part of our summer. Even in Pittsburgh, we have continuous days in the 90s.
I don’t write this to complain or make anyone scared about pregnancy and the 1st trimester. For me, I just want to journal this experience so I can come back to it and remember all the ups and downs of bringing a baby into this world. That’s been the fun part of having a blog – it’s a way to remember!
Around the 10/11 week mark, I started to realize that if I ate something first thing in the morning with protein, I could get ahead of the nausea. It didn’t make me feel absolutely amazing, but I could function! So for a while, I was living off of egg sandwiches. Other foods consisted of crackers, bagels, cereal, rice, and mashed potatoes. A lot of white foods! As a dietitian, this was driving me crazy, but I had friends telling me this was completely normal and to not worry about it. I’d be able to stomach healthy food again.
Eventually, I learned a lot of my discomfort was coming from gas and heartburn. I had never had heartburn in my life, so experiencing this during the 1st trimester was a shock. It would wake me up in the middle of the night when my stomach was empty and I’d have to eat crackers or a banana to calm it down before I could fall back asleep. Unfortunately, no natural solutions worked, so the above pictured tums were the key to calming it. Which now as I head into the later half of my 2nd trimester, I’m starting to need again. Oh the joys of pregnancy 😉
So when did the magical 2nd trimester finally show up? For me, it really wasn’t until around week 16. So if you’re a newly pregnant mama, don’t get worried if week 12/13 shows up and you’re not magically cured of all the nausea and other symptoms that seem to make up your 1st trimester. I’ll do another post soon about my 2nd trimester and how that has been going. Spoiler: I’m learning to enjoy the moments I feel great, and to rest and take care of my body when I’m not 100%.
Are you a new mama? Pregnant? Have a couple children? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out via Instagram or Facebook (I’m most active there) or you can leave a comment here on the blog. We’re all in this together right?
Leave a Reply