Hello Lovelies, as promised I am writing here today to tell you all about my first trimester of Pregnancy! This is my first baby so everything that has been happening over the past few months has been completely new to me and honestly I was clueless as to what to expect so I thought this might be helpful for any other first time mamas! Obviously every pregnancy is different, we can all have different symptoms at different times but even just to know what to possibly expect and to know that somebody else went through the same thing or a similar thing can be helpful! Also I have found it a little bit difficult to share this blogpost as pregnancy can be quite a personal thing to talk about so publicly so please go easy on me!
This is me and bump now at 19 weeks
I found out I was pregnant at 3weeks 6 days, of course I didn’t know how far along I was at the point as I hadn’t seen my doctor yet. At this point I hadn’t really noticed any changes other than the fact I was having very vivid crazy dreams! Your first trimester is from Week 1 to the end of Week 12 so for this blogpost I just want to go through my symptoms, appointments etc from Week 4 - Week 12 for anyone who may be curious! So here we go...
Week 4 - At this point I had just found out, literally the day before! I had taken a home pregnancy test the day before, which was a very obvious positive, as I had been having some cramping for about 3/4 days beforehand and I just had a feeling it wasn’t my usual monthly cycle. So the next day at the beginning of my fourth week of pregnancy I bought a digital pregnancy test just to confirm it because honestly I was in disbelief and sure enough after about 30 seconds that test came up positive as well! I was in absolute shock but overwhelming happy all the same time. This week I had basically no symptoms at all aside from some slight cramping and sensitive breasts. I also scheduled an appointment with my GP for the following week so that she could confirm it and advise me how to continue.
Week 5 - The very start of this week I had my appointment with my GP, she confirmed my pregnancy and checked my blood pressure and BMI. Going by my cycle dates she told me I should be 5 weeks exactly however that can’t be known for sure until you get your first scan done as it’s a more accurate technique of telling how far along you are. Everything was normal so she filled out a form for me to send into Limerick Maternity Hospital with all my information and told me that the hospital would send me out an appointment for my first scan which they would carry out when I was about 12 weeks. Again this week I didn’t have many symptoms at all, my cramping had subsided and some tiredness had taken over but aside from that I was totally fine! My doctor also suggested I start taking Pregnacare vitamins so I did and I still take them to this day!
Week 6 - This Week was unfortunately my week from hell! I’m 19 weeks now and I can safely say that so far Week 6 was the worst week of my pregnancy! I was incredibly tired, my breasts were sore to touch and achy and I was nauseous constantly, so nauseous that I felt dizzy 24/7! I also developed really bad acid reflux which made the nausea worse and ultimately led to me puking several times a day for the entire week! I spent the majority of this week in bed with the blinds down, as I couldn’t bare to see the light, gulping down acidex and puking most of it up again 20 minutes later. Extremely glamorous as you can imagine! This week basically nothing helped with my nausea. I tried eating ginger, eating dry toast/crackers first thing when I woke up, drinking plenty of water, drinking carbonated drinks and nothing worked! The funny thing was though I didn’t really mind! As sick as I was I knew it was all for the little person that was now growing and making a home in my belly so I just remained hopeful that the sickness would end soon and eventually I’d have my baby with me and it would all have been worth it!
Week 7 - This week I started to feel a bit better thankfully! My symptoms all weakened slightly so they were more manageable. My mom had suggested drinking ice cold Diet Coke for my nausea, as carbonated drinks are supposed to help with it and she said it worked wonders for her when she was pregnant. This week it actually worked for me! I wasn’t entirely happy about drinking fizzy drinks as I had been drinking nothing but water beforehand but it was definitely better than puking all day everyday! I still vomited occasionally mostly at nighttime funnily enough but I was much better. I also was still getting acid reflux but the acidex had also started giving me some relief so to be honest I was over the moon! I still wasn’t flying around the place but I was miles better than I was so I was delighted! I also started noticing some bloating that week but it was nothing too unusual.
Week 8 - This was the week I received my letter from the hospital with a date for my first scan, I was absolutely ecstatic! I had been anxiously waiting on it for weeks at that point and I just couldn’t wait to see my baby and make sure everything was okay. I still had 4 weeks to wait but at least I had a date, that was all I cared about! My symptoms had continued to get better so this week my nausea was very slight as I was still drinking the Diet Coke to help with it and my acid reflux had reduced dramatically! I only really got it at that point after certain foods such as garlic or anything spicy. I was even more bloated this week, I knew I didn’t have a bump yet but sometimes I looked like it because I was just so bloated! It was a little discouraging as I was seeing all these women online that still had abs at 12 weeks let alone 8 weeks but I just kept reminding myself that everyone is different!
Week 9 - By this week I barely had nausea anymore. I only felt nauseous if I hadn’t eaten in a while, at this point I more so needed to eat plenty of small meals/snacks daily rather than 3 big meals. I just felt better with food in my stomach. However even though I wasn’t very nauseous at this point anymore every morning just after waking up I would puke once. It was like my morning ritual, it was so bizarre. I would wake up, have to puke straight away, never more than once and then I would be starving! I didn’t mind it at all though, it was so predictable that I was always ready for it and to be honest it was this week that I started being able to enjoy my pregnancy so I was happy!
Week 10 + Week 11 - Not much happened during these weeks, my acid reflux slowly disappeared and so did my nausea however my morning ritual as I call it continued. It was during these weeks though that I realised my bloat was not going away. My belly looked bloated rather than a little round bump like I was expecting to get a bit further along so I did just assume it was bloat but unlike my usual bloat it didn’t go away! It was there from the minute I woke up to the minute I fell asleep so I just made peace with the fact it was here to stay! Over time it did tighten up and become more round looking, leading to the bump I have now. I was someone who started showing very early and it was hard because most people apparently don’t start showing until 16-18 weeks and I kept being told it would go away as it was just bloating but it didn’t, it was quite frustrating just not knowing to be honest but again I knew it was all happening to accommodate my baba so I made my peace with it.
Week 12 - This was a big week for us! At exactly 12 weeks I had my first scan appointment! For anyone wondering this is usually the longest appointment you’ll have in the hospital. It takes place in the antenatal clinic, they will sign you in and send you to get your scan done first in the ultrasound department. Once that is done you return to the antenatal clinic to meet with a midwife who will discuss classes/services available to you at your local hospital and she will also go through your entire medical history very thoroughly and check your blood pressure and BMI. Also your partner or husband cannot come in with you to speak to her just so you know. After that you will get your bloods taken to check your iron levels, blood type and to check whether or not any of your vaccinations need to be updated! Then the last step will be a quick meeting with a doctor there just to make sure everything is in order and they will advise you as to when they want to see you again. Usually you won’t be back there until your 28 week update unless they want to check on something in the mean time. It was absolutely unbelievable to see our baby moving around that day on the ultrasound screen, it all just became so real at that moment. It was such an overwhelming feeling! That week all of my vomiting disappeared as well so i was able to properly resume my exercise regime and I felt great! I had slight headaches from time to time but nothing I couldn’t handle!
That’s it for my first trimester lovelies! I realise in comparison to some people I have had quite an easy first trimester which I am extremely grateful for. That was a thought that helped me to stay sane to be honest during the bad times because some women suffer terribly with several symptoms for weeks on end and sometimes even their entire pregnancy so I was just thankful that could feel myself improving all the time. For now though I will attach some pictures below of my belly as it grew over the weeks and give you all my few key tips for mamas experiencing their first trimester.
This was the first 'bumpdate' picture we ever took. Although we forgot to take one again for another month!
Can we please take a minute to appreciate Skinny Tan Mousse?! Its unbelievable, if you haven't read my review of it yet check it out!
My Tips for the first trimester are:
- Don’t worry it will get better, symptoms will fade over time
- Don’t join any online pregnancy forums, they are more unhelpful than helpful. I joined several of them and I found they more so focused on the bad rather than the good and you don’t need that in your life!
- Do however get a tracking app on your phone, they are so handy for tracking symptoms and appointments over the weeks and give cute little bits of information about the average size of your baby each week and what they are up to in there!
- Don't compare yourself to other pregnant mamas! We are all different people and will experience pregnancy differently.
- Last but not least, enjoy it! You’ll never be pregnant for the first time again and while it can be confusing and frustrating at times it is also an incredibly exciting time to enjoy and use to make memories that you will cherish forever!
I really hope you enjoyed this blogpost and found it helpful! If any expecting mamas or anyone really have any questions for me, feel free to ask, I will always answer! I will be back soon with more blogposts both pregnancy and beauty related but until then enjoy your week!
All my love,
SJL X
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