Still can’t believe I get to say those words: I’M PREGNANT!!! Well, WE’RE pregnant, seeing as I would be lost in all of this without Chris + it wouldn’t have been possible 🙂 This is our first pregnancy and we are still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that a little one will be joining us in March. But we are over the moon excited and cannot wait! Since this is our first pregnancy I wanted to go ahead and document a first trimester recap for me to remember, as well as what to expect for other new mamas.
How I Found Out
So, a question I’ve gotten a lot is ‘were you trying?’, and the answer is both yes and no. I have several autoimmune disorders and felt that birth control was further disrupting my hormones and making them worse. Chris and I both felt that we were mentally and financially ready to add a child to our family, so we agreed that I would stop birth control in May. We were not doing any ovulation tracking or trying to time anything, I just simply stopped my birth control and we said ‘if it happens it happens’. We had planned to start seriously tracking and trying to get pregnant if it didn’t happen in the first 6-8 months.
Well… it didn’t take 6-8 months. I had one period after stopping my birth control mid-June and by July 4th weekend I felt extremely bloated and tired. I was so bloated I told Chris I was convinced I had parasites and was looking up cleanses on Amazon. Well.. just for the heck of it I decided to take an early pregnancy test 2 days before I was supposed to get my next period, and low and behold, the faintest little pink line showed up! I was extremely shocked, mainly because I’ve had so many female issues my entire life and I thought it would take a long time to get pregnant. I feel extremely blessed and we are so thankful for this healthy pregnancy!
How I Told Chris
Since I have so many female issues and autoimmune disorders, I wanted to go into my OBGYN to confirm everything looked good before telling Chris. So I took the test on Friday night and had to wait all the way until Tue to tell him, which was HORRIBLE! I was so excited and it was super hard to keep it to myself. The doctor did confirm the pregnancy that Tuesday and when I got home I shared the good news with Chris. He was incredibly shocked to say the least (he had it in his head that it would take months or even years to get pregnant) and it took a bit for it to sink in 🙂 I got him a cute Dad fishing tee I found on Amazon and put it in a box with the test for him to open up.
How We Told Family + Friends
We told our immediate families the weekend after finding out. I know some people wait until their first ultrasound to share with parents / family, but this being our first pregnancy we were very excited and couldn’t wait! We got little Bundt cakes for after dinner and put a little pacifier on top for our parents to find <3
For the rest of our family (grandparents, aunts & uncles, close cousins) we did wait until our 8 week appt when we had our first ultrasound. It was fun getting to call everyone and then send the little ultrasound pictures over to them! Everyone is out of town so we did have to do it over the phone. We also told our close friends between 8 & 10 weeks. This was especially nice for me since I was able to talk to all of my friends who have kids! They’re already giving me lots of great advice, especially for getting through the 1st trimester!
First Pregnancy Weekly Recap / What to Expect
Weeks 4 – 5
The first two weeks after finding out were pretty uneventful in terms of symptoms. I didn’t have any nausea at first, I was just very tired everyday and suddenly needed naps around 3 pm. Biggest issue I faced during week 4 was bloating. When you become pregnant the extra hormones slow down your intestinal track, basically throwing everything off, so I got myself some Metamucil capsules and that helped a lot!
In terms of a prenatal vitamin, my doctor actually recommended to start taking one 2-3 months before going off birth control, so I was already on it when I got pregnant. She had recommend the Nature Made one and so far I’ve had no issues with it!
Weeks 6-7
Week 6… glorious week 6 🙂 Literally the day I hit 6 weeks the morning sickness (aka all-day sickness) set in and it came in STRONG! I wasn’t physically getting sick each day, but I was nauseas all day, every day with the worst being first thing in the morning and then late afternoon. I spent a lot of time working from bed and pretty much lived off crackers and water. The one thing that seemed to help calm my stomach was soda, so each day I had a little bit of coke in the afternoon which helped a ton! You need to watch caffeine intake while pregnant so I limit it to about a glass or so a day. I also could no longer stomach coffee (even the thought of it made me nauseous) so that cut out most of my caffeine intake.
Linking all of the products that helped me during the first few weeks here!
Weeks 8-9
Week 8 was a tad better in terms of nausea. I seemed to be in a good routine of knowing what & when to eat to help myself feel better. Luckily I am currently working from home because during weeks 6-8 I worked almost 100% from my bed. If you are pregnant and have to go to work with morning sickness my heart goes out to you!! We also got to visit with my doctor during week 8 and hear the heartbeat and that was absolutely amazing! Little peanut is growing strong 🙂
Week 9 was an AMAZING week! Just like the morning sickness came in the day I hit 6 weeks, the day I hit 9 weeks it almost 100% disappeared. I was thrilled to say the least!! It still comes and goes but it’s only a tiny bit of nausea or dizziness here and there which is 1000 x better than being in bed sick all day!
Not really a visible bump as of 9 weeks. In general a lot of women see bloating in the first trimester, plus I have a lot of tummy issues, so I had LOTS of bloating going on. Basically I looked like I was rocking a lil bump but it was all bloat!
Weeks 10-11
Weeks 10 and 11 were very similar in terms of how I was feeling. Nausea mainly gone and just pretty tired during the day. Biggest difference starting in week 10 was noticing my body changing. The boobs had gone up at least 2 cup sizes and my jeans were becoming VERY hard to button. Typically you gain 2-5 lbs during the first trimester and I definitely saw that. It’s definitely odd to see your body start to change shape in such a short period of time but it’s definitely a beautiful process and I’m trying to embrace the weight gain. Weight gain = healthy baby for mama right?! But if you’re also struggling with pregnancy body changes know you’re not alone. It’s definitely a big change all at once!
Somewhere between weeks 10 & 11 is when I started to notice my little bump emerging! Like I said, I have lots of bloating issues already, so it was hard to tell what was baby vs bloat, but best way for me to notice was first thing in the morning. By the end of the day I looked like I was 3 more months along! 🙂
Weeks 12-13
Similar symptoms to weeks 10 – 11, but this is when I really started to notice the lil bump coming in! During these weeks I was thankful that my morning sickness was to a minimum now because we took a few trips, one to Charleston and one to Santa Rosa Beach in FL. It was so nice to get out of the house and get some exercise because I definitely did not get any weeks 6-10!
Since the bump started to show at the end of week 12 I had a friend take announcement photos for us at the beach. They came out amazing and I was so happy to be able to document it! We decided to announce on social media during week 13 which was a relief for me in terms of the blog because it was getting really hard to hide the bump! And I was extremely excited to get to talk about it and share my experiences with everyone! I definitely have the first pregnancy nerves and it’s so nice to get to talk to other people about it.
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