Surprise – I’m pregnant! Well, I guess it’s only a surprise if 1) you don’t know me in person and 2) you don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook. But, I’m excited to finally write it down here. I feel like each time I write a blog post, I always talk about how I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. And it’s true – life just seems to get busier and busier and the thoughts that I want to write down stay in my mind until 20 months after-the-fact, ha! Maybe that is stretching a bit (obviously), but you get the point.
Anyway, I have SO many things that I want to write down here…and I promise they are coming eventually. I think (maybe) I am to a point where I can balance everything out a bit more. I’ve been working with 2 influencer marketing companies and this month has just been wild, so this post has been a bit delayed for me. But, I’m here now, and I’m excited to tell you all about my first trimester!
Right now, I am currently 15 weeks pregnant. Only 5 weeks to go until I’m halfway there which feels incredibly surreal! The first 15 weeks have honestly been pretty rough. I don’t take pregnancy for granted AT ALL because I know how many people wish that they could experience these “bad” side effects, but I also cannot come on here and lie and tell you that everything has been sunshine and roses.
I went back through the first-trimester post that I wrote when I was pregnant with Avery, and boy is this one different! I knew I was pregnant immediately because I had “morning sickness” before I even had a positive pregnancy test. Absolutely wild! It started on my birthday – we were over at our neighbors’ house and Avery threw up all over their floor (sorry, Laniers!) and I remember thinking “Oh no – I have no idea where we could have gotten a stomach bug from, but I’ve actually felt really off today too.” So, I geared up for a stomach bug that never came. Turns out that Avery probably just drank hot tub water and I was pregnant!
The next week was Jenny’s (my sister’s) bachelorette trip (I need to write about this because it was AMAZING) in Santa Fe, NM, and this is when I finally got a + pregnancy test AND had increasing amounts of nausea. The timing was so funny!
When I got home, things just kept picking up. Lots of feelings of heaviness, stretching, and LOTS of nausea. It took a good 12-13 weeks to feel even somewhat normal. I mean, I was laying on the couch all day and all evening. And then passing out at night. I could not eat much, I could barely drink water, but surprisingly, I only puked one time (again – my neighbor, Alicia, got a front row seat. Not sure what it is with us puking in front of her. Hahah!). I just felt AWFUL the entire time.
I can’t even begin to describe how bad it really was. I got so behind on everything with the house (still trying to catch up – I just emptied our bathroom trash for the first time in literally 12 weeks. Wish I was joking about that, but I did it this morning, and I truly feel accomplished). Avery was sitting in front of the TV pretty much all day and night, which I feel really bad about, and then she didn’t have a chance to get her energy out, so she stayed up until 10pm-11pm each night.
We were really struggling. Like REALLY struggling to barely get anything done. Honestly, that was my entire first trimester, from start to finish.
The good news, though?
- We had an elective ultrasound done at 7 weeks because I wanted to get a clinical sneak peek done this time (I’m not doing a NIPT test as I did with Avery). This means that we got to see a healthy baby AND we know the gender. We’re not officially announcing until after my 20-week scan, but it has been so exciting! I can’t wait to share more about this.
- I found an AMAZING homebirth midwife practice. I’m extremely excited about this! Last time, I had a pain med-free water birth in the hospital, but honestly, aside from the induction (which we can hopefully avoid with a homebirth midwife because they do things VERY differently), I could have done everything else at home. So, we’re trying it this time and I’m super excited about it! I’ll have to write an entire post about it but my care has been night and day from the hospital-based midwives that I saw with Avery. SO much more in-depth and attentive, which I really appreciate it. I’ll devote a full post to it, but we have had a really great experience, so far.
- I made it through the first trimester!!!!!!
- Avery is incredibly excited to become a big sister 🙂
At the end of my first trimester, I had my first prenatal appointment, which went well. We couldn’t find the heartbeat with a doppler, so I went in about 2 weeks after that and we tried again (here’s an example of them being so kind – they knew I was a bit worried and squeezed me in, just to give me peace of mind. What OB office would do that?). We found the heartbeat that time, and found out that the top of my uterus is actually measuring quite big! Wild.
I was also able to get my first round of labs done and we are changing a few things up in my diet to make sure that I address anything that was low or borderline low. My ferritin is normal, but it’s on the low side of normal, so we’re being proactive and I’m starting NORA tea a bit early, an herbal iron tonic, adding in spirulina, and I am going to start increasing my red meat intake + dark leafy green intake. I typically would not have another round of labs at 20 weeks, but we will probably do one just to see how my levels are, to make sure that my diet changes are working for me. Again – what OB office would flag ferritin that IS normal and recommend holistic ways to improve it, so that we don’t run into any potential issues in the long-term?
All in all, I’m REALLY loving this care style with our homebirth midwives, so far, and I’m finally at a point where I can enjoy this pregnancy. I still have a bit of a sour stomach most days, BUT I’ll take it because it’s 10000x better than what I’ve experienced up until this point.
I’m excited to continue sharing with all of you!!!!