First Trimester Pregnancy Update

editors note: this post was originally written several months ago but, in true pregnancy style, publishing slipped my mind.

While not everything is shifting to motherhood content here on the blog, I'm excited to share with you our journey to becoming a family of four (which still sounds so crazy!). I thought it might be a fun change of pace, helpful to those of you who are going through pregnancy (or plan to sometime in the future), and something fun to look back on to chronicle the different stages of this time. As I write this update I am fourteen weeks along and so incredibly happy to be out of the first trimester. They say that the first couple of months of pregnancy are the worst and boy, do I agree! Here's what's been happening lately:

HOW I'M FEELING:

Since I'm now squarely in the second-trimester club (woohoo!), I'm just now starting to feel human again but the first couple of months were a whole different story! One of the coolest/craziest parts of being human is the capacity to forget feeling shitty and in pain and since we had Lorelai almost seven years ago, I had all but forgotten just how rough being pregnant actually is. This time around I was pretty sick almost instantaneously. There are beautiful, amazing goddess women who glow through their entire pregnancies and I am not one of them. If you've heard of a symptom, I probably had it during the first three months. Nausea in crashing waves (but minimal getting sick), extreme fatigue, round ligament pain (which is basically the feeling of being stabbed in the tummy when you get up to fast or move your lower abdomen, headaches, an insane sense of smell... fun stuff. But just like they all said it would, a light went off as soon as I hit this week and I feel so much more like myself now. I'm still nursing a headache and could probably take a nap at any moment but we're in the clear guys. Something that's very different from my last pregnancy is my workload. I stopped working when I was pregnant with Lorelai and spent a lot of time resting. While I'm fortunate that I work from home and can spend most days on the couch, I am not juggling four freelance jobs, part-time school, and a home life which has made the fatigue 10,000x worse. Also, my skin is awful!

PROGRESS:

More than anything, I'm amazed by how fast it all seems to be going this time. So far we've had two ultrasounds (one being an early-on emergency room visit for a bit of scary bleeding that turned out to be nothing) and things are progressing perfectly. We've heard a heartbeat, we've seen little limbs, it's all good! The ultrasound tech had a pretty clear inclination toward gender but we'll wait to find out officially for another month. This week baby is the size of a lemon (and Lorelai has been totally excited to find out a new fruit equivalent every week)but I'm not yet showing. We're due on October 31, 2018.

SLEEP:

I've been sleeping okay. I'm always in bed by 8 pm and most nights I toss and turn and get up to make bathroom trips every couple of hours but that's pretty much par for the course. I've already ordered a pregnancy pillow (oh Amazon Prime, I love you endlessly) and my dreams are getting crazy!

FOOD:

Oh, food... how I love you and hate you all at once. Living on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean is proving difficult as far as cravings go. Mostly I crave food that reminds me of home (In N Out burger, authentic Mexican food, etc.) but I haven't reached the point where I NEED to have something specific right this very moment. Hopefully, those cravings coincide with our travel and the things I want will actually be accessible. In the first few weeks I found that I needed to eat THE MINUTE I woke up or the morning sickness was unbearable. I also ate A TON of carbs during those days because something about heavy, starchy food helps to ease that queasy feeling. I have loved fruit (mango, fresh pineapple, apples) and am still drinking one cup of coffee per day (which is totally safe). So far I haven't gained a ton of weight (about 5lbs in fourteen weeks) but I'm hoping that healthy foods appeal to me more soon. What I wouldn't give for an avocado...

WEARING:

Leggings. All the leggings. Something I didn't experience with Lorelai is pregnancy bloat but it's real and it's real painful. I pretty much blame being twenty and super fit the first time around for my lack of real struggle. Since I'm now almost thirty and my body has totally changed, I'm finding that things are way different. Right now, even though it still fits, I'm ignoring my entire wardrobe and sticking to leggings all day, every day because they just feel better at this point. My bras are comfier, my t-shirts are looser, and I don't really care what I look like in public. Yesterday my husband complained that he hates folding my laundry because everything is triangle shaped. LOL Get used to it buddy.

I did purchase my first round of maternity clothes last week. I have denim, this cute dress, and duh... more leggings en route for when I need them.

BUYING:

For me: pregnancy pillow, roomier clothes, belly bands (for extending the life of my favorite jeans), bio oil to help with stretch-mark paranoia, and a CASE of San Pellegrino sparkling water.

For baby: nothing yet! We're waiting to figure out our plan for the next couple of months (we'll leave for California in July and won't return until our family is + 1... in December). Right now my biggest logistics worry is whether or not we ship things like bassinets and baby gear there or to our island. We'll also wait to start buying smaller things like clothes and decor until we know the gender. Because we had Lorelai such a long time ago and have long since got rid of all of our baby things, we're starting at square one. That said, I'm taking a minimal approach this time around and buying the necessities and not registering anywhere.

HOW LORELAI IS DOING:

Great! She's beyond excited and it's so sweet to hear her talk about what life will be like with a little brother or sister. She wants a girl but we've had a ton of discussions over the last couple of weeks how fun it would be to have a boy too. At six, she's such a big help to me and seems to really understand that I need to take things slower than usual. She's also equally excited for Disneyland. I'm really not sure which she's looking forward to more (probably Disneyland).

PLANS FOR THE NEXT TRIMESTER:

Most of my second-trimester will be spent sweating it out on the island but we're taking off at around 25 weeks. Because the hospital/healthcare here just isn't up to snuff, it's better safe than sorry AND Lorelai will need to start school in SoCal during the first week of August. I've mentioned our plan loosly before but her and I will be staying with my dad AND his dad AND his sister in their 1960s childhood home in Cypress. Because we haven't really ever lived close to family as adults, it will be an interesting but sweet transition and I'm really excited. That said, we'll be without Ainsworth for nearly 5 months and I'm NOT excited about that. Here's hoping he pulls off the timeline and we're able to be together for the delivery. Yikes!

FAQ:

Was this pregnancy planned?

Yes. We tried for a couple of months but were pleasantly suprised at how easy it happened.

Will you find out the baby's gender?

Yes. I'm far too type-A not to plan everything out and not knowing stresses me out big time. We don't have a steadfast preference either way and will be excited regardless. We also know that gender is a big, tough topic these days and I can't even begin to tell you the mixed bag of emotions and feelings that come along with talking about it publicly (even on a tiny blog like mine). We will not be doing a gender reveal (although I will tell you) and take to heart that ultimately, how our child chooses to live is their choice.

Do you have a name/names picked out?

NO! I'm having the hardest time coming up with names that I like. If you have any suggestions, fire away!