First Trimester Woes Week 1-13

You’re pregnant! Boy oh boy! (Or girl oh girl!) Are you excited? Worried? Totally psyched? Don’t worry, whatever emotion you’re feeling will only be magnified like 100 times for the next 13.5 weeks… possibly the next 40.

Everyone’s pregnancy is different. Just like every person is different! Some ladies (I’m sure you exist somewhere) breeze through pregnancy, others have a harder time. And that’s okay! Here are some of my pregnancy woes from the first trimester.

More like anytime day or night might wake you up out of a dead sleep sickness. I found out I was pregnant on New Year’s Eve and by about New Year’s Day I was VERY pregnant. Side note, I have a severe aversion to saliva, mucous or anything really that could be considered a “secretion”. It’s so bad that the term “swapping spit” makes me nauseous just typing it. So, you can imagine that the increased water retention causing an overload of mucous in the back of my throat ALL DAY made things a little difficult. YUCK!

I have called into work a couple of times when I just can’t seem to get myself under control. The worst part about the whole thing is that sometimes (most of the time) I would pee a little, or if it was bad, I’d pee my pants! My advice: always keep your pelvic floor muscles in shape!

I didn’t have it as bad as some women though, I could keep food down after breakfast and I didn’t get nauseous from food, but from the build-up of saliva and “stuff” in the back of my throat. Some women are sick the entire time that they are pregnant. If you find that you can’t keep any food down or you are too sick to continue most of your normal activities, contact your doctor for advice on medicinal or non-medicinal solutions.

None of it sounded good. Not chicken, not beef, not pork. I couldn’t get enough crab meat though! What an expensive craving… I could eat meat if it was in something like a salad or some sandwiches, but if you handed me a chicken drum, top sirloin or a pork chop, I would politely refuse while gagging on the inside.

Apparently, this isn’t abnormal. At my first prenatal visit, my doctor just asked if I had a meat aversion. I looked at my husband with wide eyes and we were both thinking, “It is a thing!”. It didn’t stop my handsome meat eater from trying to serve me meat, unfortunately. Bless him.

I’ve always been a napper. I love napping. But holy moly folks, this is another level of sleepiness. I used to be a 9:30 pm bedtime kind of girl. Now you can count on my eyes being closed by 8:00 pm. I am lucky enough to work in a place that is mostly women (a veterinary hospital) and many of them are moms as well. We have a “break trailer” with a full kitchen and living room. I took so many naps AT WORK during my lunch breaks.

If you are lucky enough to work in a place like mine, where naps during lunch hours aren’t foreign, then yeehaw! But if you are not so lucky, power naps in your car may be an option (I’ve done this as well). Or if you live close to where you work, consider taking a power nap at home.

I could not (and still can’t) get enough water. I drank three gallons over a weekend once and could have kept going. Unfortunately, this means more potty breaks, but what can you do? I know what you’re thinking, “One of the hallmark signs of diabetes is increased thirst and urination!” and pregnancy.

I’ve never had the greatest skin, and now I am back to my high school face cleansing routine. My acne has worsened on my face, neck, chest and back. I have a subscription with ProActiv which is a brand that has made a huge difference in the quality of my skin, however, it can be extremely drying for me so I switched to Murad for the time being. Man is it luxurious!

Restless Leg Syndrome has affected me my whole life. I get it when I’m SUPER tired ie. After taking Benadryl, a long day or just being up for longer than normal. Now it happens every night when it’s time to go to sleep or even just when I’m resting on the couch. It feels like your legs need to stretch but you can’t quite seem to relieve the feeling.

Once my restless leg syndrome was affecting my sleep regularly and largely, I told my doctor about it. He recommended an iron supplement, a brand called Slow-Fe. I was advised to take this supplement once daily or every other day if it caused constipation. Luckily, I never experienced constipation so I take the iron supplement nightly. It has helped a lot! It has just taken the edge off, not fully relived the symptoms.

I sort of began nesting before I knew I was pregnant. My house had never been cleaner! When baby clothes started appearing in my home, I washed them, sorted them and sometimes re-sorted them. I’ve meticulously prevented dust from collecting on any baby items and my right eye twitches whenever someone goes in the unfinished baby room.

Our pregnancy was definitely a surprise. I had so many things that I wanted to have completed or prepared before we started having children: finances, a well-paying job, a solid laundry schedule, etc. I couldn’t believe that I was having a baby and I was SO not ready. It took me a little while to get over that, but once I did, I made friends with the tiny person that was growing inside me and really started looking forward to becoming a mom.