First Trimester Recap!

The Gist

Our little one is due in March and after some back and forth, I decided to blog about my pregnancy via trimester snapshots. My first trimester was July – September and I was oddly happy to start the journey in the summer vs. being super pregnant during the warmer months. Plus I get to openly indulge in all holiday treats “for two” now as I’m in my second trimester during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I found out I was pregnant on a Sunday, after being only one day late. The plan was to wait the “5 days after your missed period” but I had a dream that night that I was pregnant and sleepily decided to just see in the morning when I woke up. I grabbed an expired test we had and … 2 minutes later ran into our room to wake up Mike with the news. I will say, I do suggest at least letting your partner know before you take a test (if you’re actively trying anyway, and both of you know a test is in your near future) as it was a bit of a surprise for Mike; particularly since I changed the plan from taking the test on Wednesday without letting him know.

Of course, as the common troupe goes, we went out and bought more pregnancy tests later that day to be sure. The second one was a deeper colored positive, and, of course, had the benefit of not being an expired test…

That first day of knowing was so surreal. There was a mix of feelings and also a sense of perplexity… like, is this really real (even after two definite positive tests).

I called my doctor the next morning and they set up an initial phone appointment. I figured they would want to see me in person for an exam right away but it turns out you have to wait until you’re 6 – 8 weeks!

I finally went in when I was 7 weeks and 4 days pregnant. (Longest 3 week wait of my life.) During this appointment we saw the heartbeat for the first time. Of course it was such a special moment; coupled with wrapping my head around my body growing this little sweet thing while I seemingly did nothing different (aside from cutting my coffee consumption, eliminating alcohol, and avoiding foods I had heard not to eat).

Overall the remaining 7 weeks of my first trimester were relatively easy. I didn’t get any morning sickness but I did feel waves of nausea throughout the day. I also felt fatigue that I’ve never experienced before, like down-to-the-bones tired. I slept like a rock and was consistent in getting 7 – 8 hours every night. The only real aversion I had was a seemingly never ending sour/metal taste in my mouth. I was eating more to keep the taste at bay than out of hunger. Dried mangos at work became my best friend because I could suck on them slowly throughout the day.

Thinking about it, I generally wanted a lot of sweet things, which is off-brand for me. In the early days, lemonade was a favorite (my mom mentioned she craved lemonade when she was pregnant with me too). Meat was another one that I typically don’t eat much of but all the sudden I was eating it every day. I’ve always been a coffee lover but our affair got more serious – at least emotionally – during my first trimester. Ah, that sweet, sweet hot black magic… I WANTED SO MUCH COFFEE but with strength, limited myself to a cup or two a day.

The other piece of the first trimester is having the best news of your life and not really sharing it with people. We basically only told our family – which is pretty typical – but man, it was hard to keep it to myself for those first few months!

Things We Did

Met the Reagans! We spend every 4th of July with our friends Gary, April, and now their little one Grayson. This year we flew down to Simi Valley for the weekend and visited the Ronald Reagan Library. I was only a few days pregnant here and obviously didn’t know yet.

The Oakland Triathlon! A few weeks after finding out we were expecting, Mike participated in an aquabike. It was an early wakeup call and a cold morning, but always good to be there cheering on Mike (future daddy)! We grabbed brunch after with friends we don’t get to see nearly enough, which was also great (although so hard not to tell them the exciting news).

A group of us were supposed to go camping at Big Sur in early August but plans fell through. We took advantage of a rare free weekend and went kayaking in the Half Moon Bay Harbor with our friends Lauren and Ian (you can reach about other HMB adventures here and here). It was such a fun thing to do for an hour! After we hit up a brewery (where I had to pretend I just wasn’t in the mod for a beer…. suspicious, I’m sure) and then got iced teas and dessert at a local cafe.

Wedding time! Right before I started the 2nd trimester we went to my friend Debbie’s wedding near Santa Barbara. Look at that strategically place soda water and lime. 😉