My Pregnancy In a Nutshell

On the morning of June 2nd, the day before our 1 year wedding anniversary, I excitedly placed the pregnancy stick with the 2 lines on top of Brandon's chest while he was still sleeping in bed. He opened his eyes, looked at it and says, "Hey, hey!" with a smile on his face. I immediately laughed and teared up. We hadn't been seriously trying to get pregnant for very long. The attitude was more of if it happens, it happens; and if not, we've got time. But it happened!

We spread the news to our family all in that same weekend. I was nervous to tell them, but their reactions were priceless. Particularly, my dad had narrowed his eyes and I was worried he was judging us for getting pregnant so soon or something. I found out later that he narrowed them because he was holding back tears of joy. I was hit with all the feels to see the expectation of this baby bring such emotional responses from those I love.

First Trimester

The exhaustion and nausea began fairly shortly following the positive pregnancy test. Perhaps within the first couple of weeks, I was so incredibly tired. I felt like I needed 10 hours of sleep and then some. I'll admit the nausea wasn't terrible for me. It was never to the point where I had to actually vomit. It was more of not wanting to eat my usual foods. In fact, I could only stomach unhealthy, carb and sodium heavy foods such as korean ramen and cereal. I craved spicy food more than anything. The usual hunk of protein, starch, and vegetable plate was the most unappealing meal ever. Even water wasn't the easiest to drink, but luckily I found these True Lemon mix packets that motivated me to drink a lot more. In the end, I lost about 5 lbs from my normal weight.

Notable positive was my boobs going up a cup size. For a flat man-chested girl like me, this was a big deal even though they were uncomfortably tender.

Second Trimester

Luckily, the nausea and exhaustion disappeared right into the second trimester. All the weight I had lost, I gained right back. The hunger was crazy, to the point where I got frustrated being hungry all the time. Everywhere I went, I had to be prepared with snacks or small meals. I attempted healthy snacks, but it wasn't always the easiest thing to do. I would wake up hungry, eat breakfast, eat another breakfast within the hour, snack, eat lunch, snack, eat dinner, and finish by day with a bowl of cereal before bed. Phew!

The nausea had kept me from exercising during the first trimester, so I was grateful to have enough energy back for the gym. It was silly, but going back to the gym was a mental struggle for me because I felt that people would judge me for gaining a beer belly. I felt much less insecure when that beer gut turned into a more obvious belly bump. Either way, I was able to jog and do my usual strength training. That is, until transitioning into my last trimester. Womp.

Third Trimester

My bump grew rather quickly in the first few weeks of the third trimester, to the point where I had to focus on walking normally instead of waddling like a penguin. Sleeping got tougher too. I began sleeping with a body pillow towards the end of my first trimester because I'm a stomach and back sleeper and I read I was supposed to sleep on my side (preferably the left). I found myself waking up on my back a lot anyways, but it did help a lot. What really sucks is waking up around twice every night to pee, which I guess is the body's way of getting ready for when the baby needs feeding every few hours.

Reading baby books became a more consistent part of our nightly routine and we made final purchases of the necessities. We also prepped our hospital bags as I began doing a lot of research on labor and delivery. Finally, we switched from seeing a regular OBGYN doctor, who delivers at a hospital, to midwives at a natural birth center at 36 weeks. More on that in another post!

Today - 38 Weeks

I'm lucky in that my pregnancy has been pretty textbook. Negative on all the tests you want to be negative, and apparently he's in a good birthing position. I have nothing legitimate to complain about. All those crazy mood swings and emotional breakdowns portrayed in movies and TV...didn't happen. Seriously, even Brandon was surprised.

At this point, I've gained about 25 lbs and I'm happy that my appetite is mostly back to normal. I'm already looking ahead to when I can eat sushi and deli sandwiches and working on getting back to my pre-baby body.

Honestly, I did not have feelings of excitement to meet my baby until I began to feel a lot of movement towards the end of the second trimester. The kicks and rolling around got even stronger during the third trimester, which is so alien (fun to watch). Every day that I get closer to my due date and knowing that he could come at any moment, I'm VERY excited to meet him.

Hopefully in one of my next posts, I can share my labor and delivery experience with you all!