It is crazy times right now and I haven’t left the house in 6 days, but Colin and I cannot be more excited that we’re expecting a little baby bun in September. We just recently announced the news to our friends and family and of course on Instagram. I’m now well into my 14 weeks, almost 15, so I’m done with the first trimester of my pregnancy and into my second. Here’s a little update on what my first 12 weeks.

I feel very lucky to report that I have not been experiencing any morning sickness. I got sick one morning but I think it had more to do with some bad thai food I had the night before than full blown morning sickness because I haven’t felt that way since.

I haven’t been craving anything specific but I do want to eat a LOT of everything. And often. Like all I think about is what I’ll be eating next. I was definitely more ravenous during my first trimester than I am now – I’m still hungry often but not as bad as before.

In terms of diet, I haven’t been too strict on what I’m eating, but I did cut out caffeine. I know a cup of coffee a day won’t hurt but I actually don’t mind decaf coffee at all and used to drink it all the time, so switching to decaf wasn’t a big deal. I do love black tea with milk so I was able to find decaf Earl Grey tea. In general, I try to avoid too many processed foods and things that are too sugary. But I say this as I just polished off an ice cream sandwich in the middle of the day. So everything in moderation I guess.

The prenatal vitamin I take is Ritual. I’ve actually been taking it for the last 2 years because that’s about how long we’ve been trying to have a baby. So for those of you who have been trying and it’s taking longer than you expected, don’t stress or feel like you’re alone- it took us a while but it happened at the right time for us, and it’ll happen at the right time for you!

I have been trying to move my body to get strong and healthy to deliver this baby. I started using ClassPass and taking Reformer Pilates at least once a week. I was going 2 to 3 times a week up until last week when Social Distancing became critical. But I LOVE Reformer Pilates. I never looked forward to working out before this. And I never thought to try it in the past because I didn’t know too much about it and the machine looked really complicated. Which it is actually kind of complicated but that’s what’s so fun about the classes, especially if you take classes with different instructors – you never really do the same thing twice. I also feel that it’s a very challenging, yet very calming workout. Which is important to me right now – I don’t want to do anything too intense that stresses me out while I’m pregnant. I am really obsessed with staying calm and doing things to mitigate stress during this pregnancy. So this was the perfect workout for me in my first trimester. As my belly gets bigger and I’m stuck at home, I’ll be looking into online classes or youtube videos for yoga and other low impact workouts. If you have suggestions, please throw them my way!

I’ve always loved a good nap even before I was pregnant… but the fatigue is something else. I remember in the first couple weeks of finding out I was pregnant, I laid my head down in the middle of the day between meetings and fell asleep for 45 minutes. Luckily I woke up before my next meeting. After the first few weeks, I wasn’t too sleepy during the day, but I was definitely ready for bed way earlier than usual. And if it was a day I worked out, I would barely be able to keep my eyes open after dinner. I did get a pregnancy pillow and started using it pretty early on – not because my belly was in my way but because I like to sleep on my side and my neck was hurting from lack of support. This is the pillow I have and other than being bulky, it’s been helpful so far in helping me sleep and taking away the neck pain. It kind of feels like sleeping in a giant hot dog bun.

Some real talk. When I have to pee, I REALLY have to pee. My goodness. I also notice I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night pretty regularly to pee. This doesn’t happen all through the night, but it’s pretty normal for me to wake up once a night. And going back to sleep after that is difficult. I like to think it’s my body preparing me for all the middle-of-the-night feedings. In the last week or so, I did notice that I’m no longer waking up in the middle of the night to pee, just super early in the morning- which I definitely prefer.

Some more real talk. I remember a good solid 2 to 3 weeks where my tailbone hurt. It was the strangest thing, like this pregnancy was literally a pain in my butt. I’d be sitting at my desk working and whenever I shifted or tried getting up, it would feel so sore and painful. I sat on a little cushion which helped but the pain was definitely still there. I also felt a lot of little pulls and tugs around this sides of my pelvis. These weren’t painful, just a little weird and some minor discomfort – I told my doctor it felt like my ovaries were aching but she explained to me that’s not where my ovaries are and that this is all very normal because it’s just my body adjusting itself for the pregnancy.

Speaking of discomfort, remember that most drugs, including over the counter medicine, are off limits during pregnancy. So whether it’s a headache, cold, cough, congestion or sore throat, you pretty much have to power through those things without drugs. All of which I had in my first couple months of pregnancy. I caught a small cold after the holidays from Colin, which just resulted in congestion so nothing too bad. But not long after that, I caught a really bad cough while my coworkers were in town from Milwaukee. After our last meeting that week, we went on an outing together where we did a lot of walking outside and it was pretty cold that day. By the time the weekend came, I was knocked out. That little cough combined with the fatigue turned into a burning sore throat and a sore body, and I pretty much couldn’t get out of bed for 2 solid days. Since I couldn’t take anything, Colin did a great job of keeping me hydrated and well-fed. He made sure I was stocked with plenty of hydrating foods like cut up watermelon and pineapple and a ton of citrus ginger turmeric shots. Lesson learned that I should not overexert myself and definitely do everything possible to avoid getting sick at all.

Covid-19 aside, I am hyper aware that I don’t want to get sick or hurt in any way because I know medical resources are scarce right now. So I’m extra careful even when I’m cutting vegetables because I think about stuff like… what if I cut myself and had to get stitches?? I can’t just walk into a hospital right now and conveniently get that taken care of without any risk of exposure to Covid-19. So I’m definitely putting my energy toward staying inside, being safe and staying healthy.

But overall, I feel really good. No big discomforts. Once I get back into my routine of exercising, I know I’ll feel even better. I hope that was a helpful view of what a first trimester can be – everyone is different but this is what I’ve been experiencing. I hope to share more as my pregnancy progresses.

Thank you to everyone for all the sweet messages on instagram and facebook! We are very very happy, and we can’t wait to reveal the gender!