A Big Pregnancy Update

Ok, so this post is going to be all over the place I fear, but it’s long overdue!

The First Trimester

I knew pretty quickly that I was pregnant. I’m always right on time (tmi?!) so when Aunt Flow didn’t show up on schedule, I took a test the next day. It said yes, but it was one of those ones with the plus sign and it wasn’t totally clear so I needed more convincing. We made a quick trip to Target and got three different tests (yes, three), got home, and then waited. It was the longest 3 minutes ever. We had all of the tests lined up in a row on the bathroom counter and just waited for an answer. After they all came up positive, we freaked out! Well at least I did. When you first learn that you are expecting, a lot of thoughts go through your mind: “I better call the doctor to make sure”, “what if the tests are all wrong?”, “should we tell our family?”, “when should we tell people?!” So many things. I figured we should first confirm what all the tests said. I got into the doctor’s office bright and early the next morning. They have you take a test there and then there is more waiting. When the nurse finally came in, she handed me a stack of papers about being pregnant, what to eat, what not to eat, medicines I could take, etc.. I was like, “So am I pregnant?!” I’m horrible at keeping a secret from family so after a quick chat with my husband, we decided to tell our parents right away. Lots of excitement and freaking out!

I would sum up for the first trimester with three words: Nausea, exhaustion, and fear. I know a lot of women suffer from horrible morning sickness in the first trimester and I consider myself pretty lucky because I only actually got sick once, but had all-day nausea from weeks 5-8 that was pretty debilitating for me. Going to work was really hard because I didn’t want to tell anybody yet, but I was feeling so horrible. I pretty much lived on chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers, and ginger ale. I had to have a stack of saltines next to my nightstand to munch on every morning before I started moving around and continued to eat them all throughout the day. I barely cooked anything. Blogging was also really tough. Luckily, I had a good build up of recipes saved so I tried to post when I could, but looking at photos of certain recipes totally grossed me out even though I know they were good recipes. I was also ridiculously exhausted to the point where I wasn’t sure how I was going to function at work.

We shared the big news in waves. Family obviously knew first along with a few close friends. I had to tell my boss at 6 weeks because the nausea was affecting my schedule at work and I didn’t want her to think I was slacking off. I wanted to wait until we were out of the first trimester to share the news with the rest of our friends and co-workers. I work with a bunch of fun ladies so once I hit 14 weeks, I brought in some cupcakes one day and told them that I brought them a treat for working so hard and put a bunch of these cupcakes on the table that had little babies on top.

I thought they would get it right away, but apparently they thought I was calling them a bunch of babies…sigh…that’s only slightly true, btw.

So the fear thing…nobody ever really told me that pregnancy can be kind of scary. I mean, it’s not like I’m riddled with fear and anxiety, but I was pretty freaked out at first. After the pregnancy was confirmed, we had to wait 4 weeks until our 8-week ultrasound to see that there was actually a baby (which I know is normal). It was the longest four weeks ever. I joined a birth board with other moms that were expecting in November and it was both a blessing and a horrible idea. Horrible because there were so many awful stories. I’ve learned that Google is your worst enemy during pregnancy. Now that I am further along, it’s still scary. I always worry something will go wrong, but I guess that’s a normal part of being a parent!

The Second Trimester

I am now 24 weeks along and the second trimester has been pretty nice. My energy is mostly back even though I have some bad days where I just want to lay on the couch. I know the 115 degree heat isn’t helping.

We have had three anatomy scans. Yes, three. During the first one, our little one was in a weird position and the tech was unable to get half of what she needed. She said she was 85% sure it was a girl, but that we shouldn’t go out and buy pink just yet. We left the appointment kind of bummed out. We planned to go shopping after our appointment to start picking out things for baby and felt like we couldn’t really enjoy it not really knowing if it was a girl or not. We were sent to a different place for a second one with better equipment a couple of weeks later. At the next appointment, the tech saw right away and confirmed we were having a little girl! We were really excited. Not that we wouldn’t have been super happy with a boy, but we really wanted a girl and both our families need more girls so everybody was pretty thrilled. However, after about 3 minutes, the baby started practicing her gymnastics and karate skills and was moving all over the place once again making it really hard for the tech to get all of the measurements she needed to get. After both appointments, I could really feel the baby moving for hours. I’m not sure if she hated the ultrasounds or if she loved them!

We went back for our third anatomy ultrasound last week. This time, Baby Girl was in another unfavorable position and they were not able to get a good look at her heart. So guess what? We get to go back again! I know we will all laugh about this someday, but I feel bad that we have to keep going back. We had the same tech the last two times and she is fabulous, but I know she has to work really hard with our little one. I am hoping number 4 will be the magic number! On the other hand, it’s kind of nice being able to see our sweetie a few extra times!

We are now deep in baby registry mode. Registering is not easy. It requires a lot of research and a lot of trips to the store. There are so many different types of cribs, strollers, car seats, bottles, etc.. The store gave us a list and half of the items on it seem really unnecessary. For example, a nursing stool. Do we really NEED that? No. We are trying to be very practical about what we really need for her. We don’t have a lot of space in our townhouse and are not planning to move just yet so we need to be smart about space. If any of you parents have some advice on what you really need vs. what is not necessary, I would love some advice!

I can’t decide how I want to decorate the baby’s room. Because we are tight on space, her room will also still have to include a guest bed and a small desk. It won’t be perfect, but it will work for now. I look at so many sites and as soon as I see something I like, I see something I like even better 5 minutes later. I would say this is the only fun part of registering!

So how about some of the fun stuff now?

– Cravings? Not really. Is that weird? Aside from lots of water and fresh fruit, I haven’t really had any weird cravings. I did really want some plain cheese pizza from Papa Johns in the first trimester so I guess that was kind of random, but it was just a one-time thing.

– Food turn-offs? A lot of the food I was eating when I first found out I was expecting because about a week later is when the nausea kicked in. So I do not want any hummus, coconut water, or fish (especially salmon).

– Maternity clothes? Let me just say that maternity pants are the best thing ever. While I was still able to fit into my regular pants, I started busting out the maternity pants at 14 weeks. The button on my regular pants was just not comfortable after a couple of hours so I’ve been wearing them ever since. I’m still able to wear a lot of my regular shirts, though it is getting more difficult so I have bought some maternity shirts and also bought some clothes in regular sizes and just went up a size as it seems cheaper. Also, why do so many maternity shirts have stripes? Are they more flattering for pregnant women?!

– Baby names? This is the number one question we get asked. Yes, we have a name in mind. Are we ready to share it with everyone? No. So we’ll just call her Baby Girl for now, okay?

– Feeling baby move? Oh yes! I first started feeling her move around 18 weeks and now she is quite the wiggler. It’s the best feeling ever! I can also tell she likes to kick me in the bladder because I have to pee constantly, especially when she starts wiggling around!

– Sleep? Sleep already seems to be a thing of the past. I have to get up 4-5 times a night to use the bathroom and am starting to feel a little uncomfortable. It’s hard to lay in one position for a long period of time. Sticking a pillow between my knees helps.

Ok, I think that’s enough for now, right? If you made it through all of this post, then you rock my world! I’m so glad I can finally share this journey with you guys and am excited to share more soon!

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