WHAT WEEK?

The first trimester

HOW BIG IS BABY?

By the end of the first trimester my baby is roughly the size of a key lime ½ an ounce

WHAT’S SOMETHING NEW THIS WEEK?

We just announced we are pregnant with baby number 3 and we are very excited to share the news with all of you. It’s a specifically uneasy and vulnerable time in the world currently and it is important to celebrate our health, our family and the joyful moments!

MOST CHALLENGING MOMENT

The most challenging moment during the first trimester was a day when I lost my symptoms. I began to get nervous that my nausea had gone away the night begore and that day and I wasn’t feeling much of anything. This was roughly around when I assumed it would get a little worse. I contacted my doctor and he asked me to come in so that I could have peace of mind. I went to see him and had an ultrasound and everything was fine. My baby was moving around and the heartbeat was strong. I cried as I looked at the monitor. The trauma of my previous loss had brought fear into these two days and it wasn’t until this moment that I truly allowed myself to breath. I told myself that this experience is its own and is in no way connected to the one before. I cannot trap myself in a bubble of fear because I cannot control the outcome no matter how much I worry. The moment I started to let go, it felt so good and I started to allow myself to connect with my baby in a new way.

MOST EXCITING MOMENT

Finding out the sex. Yes we know the sex although we are not ready yet to share. My doctor called me to let me know and I cried on the phone. I had no preference but I was excited for my kids and couldn’t wait to tell them.

EXERCISE

I have been told light to no exercise for me for the first trimester. I was so sick during this time I as honestly grateful to have this time to rest and I had zero desire to go outside and exercise. The reason I was told not to was because I have a little bleed where implantation happened and it is near the cervix opening. I was told I will most likely spot or bleed at some point so to not be concerned if there is some spotting but exercise could bring this on.

MEALS

I generally eat pretty healthy. I am celiac so I have a gluten free diet. I also stopped eating meat a few years ago but I do eat fish and an otherwise vegetarian diet. I am having lots of greens, lentils, avocados, green soup, veggie lasagna, salmon, potatoes and oatmeal.

FOOD AVERSIONS

Well honestly a lot of things. I love eggs but didn’t care much for them during my first trimester. I didn’t like the smell of onions and garlic but I was ok to eat them. I actually hated the smell of anything cooking but when I would eat I could manage most things. Even though I was hungry by dinner time I couldn’t eat much and felt so exhausted that I would go to bed with my kids around 7:30pm.

I do remember telling my husband one day to turn off the air in the car because I couldn’t stand the smell of any kind of air at the moment. Which I know sounds absolutely INSANE but made perfect sense to me.

CRAVINGS

Potatoes (ANY KIND)

Anything really comforting like cheese, fries, bread, sour candy (smart sweets) soft serve ice cream

REFLECTIONS

This was a challenging first trimester. I have two and a half others to compare it to and it was by far my hardest. I was very sick almost every day morning until night and all during the night.But as bad as I felt I was grateful to feel this way. I wanted the reminder that everything was ok. As the nausea would ramp up in the evenings and I would feel ill and exhausted I just kept thinking that in a few weeks this would calm down and I would get to see more of my baby.

I think it’s hard to be the mama you want to be during the first trimester when you have other kids but I kept an open dialogue with my children. I would remind them that I didn’t feel well but this wouldn’t last long and my son would rub my feet and my daughter would rub my belly and they would lay next to me and tell me its ok mama. It felt so good to snuggle with them and to day dream about the new baby that we will all hold in the months to come.