First Trimester Pregnancy Update (Already 13 Weeks!)

If you had asked me 6 weeks ago how my first trimester was going, I would have probably replied with “ugh”. If you made the comment, don’t worry, you will only feel sick for another 6 weeks, as it eases up for most people after 12, I probably would have given you dagger eyes.

6 weeks seemed like it was a lifetime away. How could I possibly make it through another 6 weeks of literally feeling like I had food poisoning all day every day?

And yes, that was after all the worrying I did at 5 weeks pregnant, almost HOPING for morning sickness, as that time is so scary. I talked about that in my pregnancy fear post.

I knew I could make it, I would make it, but it was not fun. I almost, I did wish the time away. I just wanted to make it to the “good part”, or at least the slightly better, tolerable part.

Ending up in the ER was kind of a blessing in disguise. It forced me to swallow my ego and admit I needed help, admit that this was not just morning sickness that I needed to feel guilty about being unable to move off the couch, feel guilty about being unable to keep even a bite of banana down, or a sip of water. This was something that needed more than my will and stubbornness to get through.

I HATTTTEE taking medication, and I will avoid it at all costs, so I was NOT happy about being put on anti nausea medication for the semi permanent future, but when I tried not once, but twice to come off it, feeling absolutely terrible and back to being couch ridden within a day of skipping one, I knew it was a necessary evil to keep me and my baby safe.

Thankfully I had a lot of friends and family reassuring me that I was doing the right thing. We know you don’t like medication, but it is allowing you to function, and that is what your baby needs, nourishment and life.

Once I started taking the Ondansetron, I noticed I felt markedly better. I would often feel nauseous overnight, but if I ate IMMEDIATELY upon waking up and took my medication (once a day, rather than the twice a day recommended…my stubbornness still stuck to that part!), I found I could pretty much get on with my day, as long as I didn’t let myself get too hungry.

Whenever I wasn’t feeling good, I would just look at photos of this cutie, and that made me see what would be coming of the end of this. Always worked 🙂

Now I can barely believe I have made it to and surpassed that 12 week mark, and finally, I am starting to see glimmers of feeling back to myself…well, as “yourself” as you can be while you have a small human growing inside.

I had a wonderful time at home, and had very few bouts of bad nausea, although I had to take it a lot easier than I usually would on a trip home, allowing for naps and rest if I needed. I was successfully the bridesmaid in my beautiful best friends wedding, and none of my wedding day fears of ruining her special day came to light.

Phew.

My friends had a field day holding and touching my stomach at every available opportunity during the wedding day, and although I managed to fit in my dress, it was apparent I had either eaten FAR too much in the last 24 hours, or I was indeed pregnant.

I know most people don’t like others touching their stomach, and I don’t know how I would feel if a stranger did it, but as for my friends holding on to me, I kinda loved it. I miss them so much throughout the rest of the year, it was so nice to just be around them and have them able to touch me (in a non creepy way!).

I stopped taking the anti nausea medication the day after the wedding, as I figured everyone else would be hungover, so if I felt like crap then I would just be the same as everyone else. Thankfully, the nausea was tolerable, and has been since. I did take it the day I was flying as a precaution though, but I think I am okay to leave it behind now, woooo!

I have always LOVED reading pregnancy updates on other blogs, I always found them fascinating, so I thought I would do a little roundup of some questions, I will be updating more now I am back home in the US, and this is starting to become more real.

It is strange, you get so excited when you first find out you are pregnant, you vow you will look after your body with everything you are, you think about it all day long, and you talk to your little ball of cells often, knowing they can’t hear you, but it helps you to process what is going on.

But once you get to around 8 weeks, when the fears of something going wrong start to ease (I have a blog post coming on this topic!) and in my case, you can finally bring yourself to eat something other than crackers and bread, you get into this weird state where you just kind of let your baby do its thing…well I did anyway. I have pretty much been living my life, avoiding the things I need to avoid, but not really talking to your little love or really doing much at all. You know it is growing in there, and you can finally get some nutrition in there, and although it is in your mind often, you aren’t as obsessed as those first few weeks.

So that is where I have been lately. I was writing to my baby in a journal almost daily, but I haven’t written in there for weeks, and I haven’t really been talking to it much, other than when something on TV brings up a baby, then it might remind me and I will smile as I rub my belly.

Okay, enough of a ramble, time for some questions:

How far along?

Just over 13 weeks

How big is the peanut?

The size of a Georgia peach (or a large macaron), so getting there!

The featured photo for this post was last week, the size of a plum 🙂

Total weight gain/loss?

No idea, ask me on Wednesday when I have my next scan. Last time I was weighed was at 6 weeks, and I was 130lb…so 0 at that point…unless you include the 15lbs I put on to get my period back 😉

Maternity clothes?

My mum bought me a few things while I was home and my sister gave birth in February this year, so she gave me her pile of maternity clothes, which is rather nice! I don’t really fit in most of it that yet, other than a pair of tights Steve’s mum bought me, those feel good. I have been absolutely LOVING the Ingrid & Isabel BeBand for my jeans as they no longer do up.

I did try to purchase some more jeans, but my size wouldn’t button up and the larger size looked really awkward and baggy in other places. I am in that weird part where you might just have a food baby, rather than an actual baby. The constipation didn’t help with this…

This maternity wear cheatsheet from baby list has been helpful to plan ahead.

Sleep?

Not bad overall. I can no longer sleep on my stomach as it just feels uncomfortable, kind of how it would feel if you ate a big meal and then lay on your stomach, again, basically I just have eaten too much at this point hah.

I did purchase this Snoogle Pillow as I figured I would want one anyway, so why not make the most of it, and I LOVE IT! Nevermind pregnancy, this might be my pillow for life! It is so damn comfortable, and I honestly considered trying to take it in my suitcase to England when I went home.

Best moment so far?

Haven’t really felt anything yet, so hard to say, but Steve and I do enjoy watching the video update from the What to Expect App on the morning of our changeover day. That always makes me smile seeing how things are going this week.

I honestly would say it was the wedding and seeing how excited my friends all were, one of the first babies in our group, so they are loving it.

Symptoms?

Hmm, how far do I want to go here with being honest? This is a new crossroad in this blog.

Running for Real right? Pregnancy for real (I actually own that domain name…so maybe!).

Nausea.

You already know about my nausea, that was really bad for about 2 weeks, and although much better, still very much in my life to this day. I stopped taking the medication a week ago, other than taking it the day I flew home as a precaution, and it feels so good knowing that I am off it. I have felt nauseous at times, mostly when I get hungry, but other than the one meal I threw up in the restaurant bathroom immediately after eating it on Wednesday (oops), I have managed to keep everything else down.

Constipation.

One of the side effects of Ondansetron is constipation. This was the one thing my OB mentioned to me when she put me on it. I didn’t really pay much attention to that, as that has never really been an issue for me, and I thought I would be fine. However, the medication combined with the stodgy white carbs I was devouring (and a lack of vegetables) did not lead to a good situation, and I was not going very much…If at all. I tried softeners, and those helped, but I had to take the max dose every day. When I was in England, they put me on a fiber gel to put in a drink, and it took a few days to start working, but that definitely helped.

Now I have been through this, I definitely feel for people who go through this often. It is not comfortable, makes eating miserable, and just leaves you feeling horrible. I looked like I was 5 months pregnant, when in fact I was just full of food!

Fatigue.

Fatigue hit me really hard in the early stages. I felt more tired than I ever had in my entire life, even when I was training at my hardest. I was sleeping 9+ hours a night (UNHEARD of for this insomniac!!), and I was still needing 1-2 naps a day. Even a simple task like vacuuming the floor would leave me falling to the couch unable to move from exhaustion until I had rested for 30 mins.

Although it has eased up over the last 7 weeks, I still feel exhausted often, and have to take naps and rest a lot. I have really been enjoying how deeply I have been sleeping, I see what I have been missing out on all these years, but the fatigue that goes along with it makes me feel lazy and frustrated that my brain and body can’t do as much as I want them to.

Burping.

I swear I burp about 1000 times a day, don’t worry, not massive belches, just little pops often where you taste whatever you ate hours ago. I LOVE Branston pickle, but every time I eat it, I taste it for the rest of the day. This is not necessarily something terrible, although not pleasant, it is better than the other symptoms, just makes people around me laugh as I am ALWAYS burping.

Super smell.

This one is weird. It is like your nose suddenly gets a superpower and you can smell everything and anything. My deodorant became so strong that I stopped wearing it and had to search for an unscented. I had Steve cleaning like a mad man chasing the smell of garlic around the kitchen for a day, when he couldn’t smell anything, but I could smell it so strong that it made me feel ill. Sounds like it is a good thing for the most part, and it should be…If there weren’t so many aversions!

Food cravings?

I have been through quite a few of these, but all having one thing in common; salty/savory.

Now I know what the old wives tale says about that, and that actually follows my gut, which says it is a boy, but we have about 7 weeks before we can find that out.

My first craving was these Late July Lime Jalepeno Tortilla Crisps (CHIPS), I couldn’t get enough of them, and this started VERY early, like 4 weeks! Then I graduated to any lime chips, and then any chips, they were my favorite thing in the world…that is until one day I threw up my salt and vinegar chips shortly after eating them, and lets just say that vinegar taste might never be forgotten.

Next I graduated to real chips/fries, and I loved them in every day, as long as they were crispy.

From there I moved on to Marmite about 3 weeks ago, and that is where I am residing. I know, not everyone’s favorite, and I have always loved marmite, but now I have it every day, I LOVE it on toast with butter. It is good for you too, lots of B Vitmins, so I am happy with that choice. I have also been enjoying popcorn late at night. I find eating just before bed helps with the nausea, and popcorn has been one of my choices lately, along with English Crackers.

I have had a few other random ones that I satisfied right away and they went away; corn dogs (not my finest moment!), pizza, and granola with fruit and yogurt.

The funniest thing about cravings in pregnancy is that they are like your normal cravings on turbo. You obsess about it, it sounds like the best thing in the world, and then you eat it, and it tastes even better than you could ever imagine. When you indulge on those cravings, you feel like that is the best thing you ever ate, and it makes you so happy. For any pregnant mammas out there, go for those cravings, enjoy it, you won’t regret it!

Oh, and the other thing, I don’t know if you would call it a craving, but I have been loving ALL THE CARBS. All the white, stodgy, foods I haven’t eaten in years; pasta, bread, cereal, potatoes. Anything that is carb heavy!

Food aversions?

This is the interesting part, as you noticed above, my cravings have all been salty/savory, which kind of goes against who I am as Tina Muir. Everyone knows me as the girl who LOVES her sweets/sugar.

But you know what?

My sweet tooth has gone.

So strange, but true.

I don’t crave any dessert anymore. I don’t care for cookies, cake, ice cream, and especially chocolate. I haven’t eaten any chocolate since I have been pregnant, it doesn’t even sound good.

Here’s the thing:

When I am eating those foods, if a cake is put in front of me, and I eat it, it doesn’t taste bad, I can tell it tastes good, and it is enjoyable, but you could just as easily take that plate away from me and I wouldn’t care. I guess this is what other people feel like when they say that they would rather have chips and salsa than a dessert.

I do like gummies right now, but just the rest of it, I can take it or leave it, which I have NEVER had in my entire life. I will be curious to see how this one changes…even if this is pregnancy related, surely, it will cure my addiction to sugar?

Salad/Green vegetables.

For many years I have loved my salads, Steve and I would have salads a few times a week, absolutely LOADED with ingredients, definitely hearty, but definitely healthy, and I really enjoyed it. My favorite lunch restaurant in Lexington was Vinaigrette, a salad restaurant, and I would go there often, LOVING IT. suddenly though, the idea of a salad made me feel like I was going to throw up. I choked them down a few times, but literally hating every single bite, and trying not to retch while I was doing so.

I also hated any other green vegetables. Spinach and kale were the worst offenders to me, I could not stand the idea of them, iceberg lettuce was just about okay if it had dressing on, but other green vegetables were in there too; bell peppers, broccoli, beans, zucchini, all of it. Other vegetables weren’t offensive, but I definitely didn’t want them.

Poor Steve was trying to eat our entire farm share (which is already too big for us) on his own!

For weeks, I didn’t eat a single vegetable. From there I could only manage sweetcorn and peas. I could still eat berries, which saved me from being a complete health failure, but eating vegetables has only really come back to me in the last week, and on Friday, I went to Vinagrette for the first time in months and actually enjoyed my lunch.

Fish, especially salmon.

Any strong smelling fish/seafood soon became a no no. I tried eating them a few times, one even at one of the best restaurants in Lexington when I had scallops, but the smell was so overpowering I couldn’t handle it. I made Steve cook all fish on the grill and he had to eat it outside as the smell was too strong. The only fish that I did find was okay was cod. I am hoping I can work salmon in sometime soon as its so good for you!

Coffee.

I had only really been into coffee for about a year and a half, and I had finally made it to the point where I could have a latte with no sugar or syrup, just plain, and I enjoyed it. However, from the first moment I felt like I was pregnant, I completely went off it, and started to despise it. I couldn’t even sit in a coffee shop as the smell repulsed me. One day Drew was standing next to me talking after drinking a sip of coffee, and I had to turn away, I felt like I was going to throw up as I could smell it on him.

I am not really fussed if this one returns or not.

Sweet potatoes.

About a year ago, as we were chomping down on some roasted sweet potatoes, I said to Steve, “ahh I don’t think I could ever tire of sweet potatoes, they are just so good”. Well, turns out I spoke too soon, I have completely gone off sweet potatoes, and the thought of combining them with almond butter, bleugh! What has happened to me?! For those who don’t know, that was my go to meal before races!

Water.

The taste of water, especially at room temperature is just horrible. I would rarely drink anything but water or Kentucky Kombucha before, but now, I can’t drink it on its own. I have had more flavored, fizzy, sugary drinks than ever in my life, but it is the only way I will drink. I only wish we could get squash in America! Crystal light is just not the same!

Gender?

Too early to find out, but my gut says boy. Steve thinks girl.

Yes, we are finding out, the planner in me can’t handle waiting 😉

Belly button in or out?

WAYYYYY in. I have never seen it so deep!

What I miss?

Soft cheese (Brie and blue cheese mostly) and cider (hard cider, not apple cider).

Being able to order anything I want in a restaurant, rather than being a pain in the ass who has to ask for “no blue cheese” or “how do you cook your ham?”.

What I’m looking forward to?

Our scan on Tuesday!

Milestones?

I reached the 2nd trimester! Umm, I can’t button up my jeans? Is that an accomplishment?

Bump?

Definitely something there, whether it’s a baby or fat, I am not sure!

Products I am loving

Well, I mentioned my Snoogle pillow earlier, that is by far my favorite thing so far.

I have also been applying this Burts Bee’s Mama Bee Oil to hopefully prevent stretch marks. The smell can be a little too strong at times, but it fades quickly, and it does feel good on my skin.

My sister bought me this pregnancy journal, which I am enjoying filling out.

I tried taking a Thorne Prenatal, but it just didn’t make me feel very good, so while I was sick I took Prenatal gummies, and now I am taking this MegaFood Baby & Me prenatal, which I am happy with, and it is made from plants and fruits.

And of course, my love right now, Marmite 😀

Running

As much as most people tend to struggle with their running more and more, I am actually getting a little fitter with every run, so feeling better almost every week! I took 12 weeks off running, and then slowly started to build it back in, so my fitness is improving every week. Now I am up to 15-0 miles a week (3-4  runs of 5 miles). Although I have not been looking during my runs #NoWatchMe, I can see that my pace has drastically improved.

My running has therefore actually felt better with every week rather than worse!

I Intend to keep going with it as long as I can, but if it feels too uncomfortable or becomes unenjoyable, I think I will stop. I am excited to go swimming though! I am still strength training with Drew twice a week.

I thiiiink that Is about it, and rightly so as this post is far too long.

Will try to update more often now, so it won’t be so much in one go!