Trimester one… the one that everyone says is the hardest, which is why we knew we wanted to share with our closest friends and family early – for the support. It can be hard, lonely and scary to be in these initial weeks and months were bub is growing at a rapid pace, hormones surging and nausea or vomiting often at its peak.
I was super lucky and had a relatively easy first trimester, not too sick, not too tired, and mild food aversions. Even though we found out we were pregnant around 2 weeks (yay for BBT tracking!) We decided to tell our family around 6 weeks after our first dating scan.
This was our Trimester one…
Highlights: Finding out we were pregnant was the biggest highlight naturally, but a very close second was seeing babe at the 6 week dating scan. I had to wear a mask (ah COVID) and as soon as I saw that tincy bean on the screen and the tiny thump thump thump of a heartbeat you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face – or Robs. The other big high was getting the results of the NIPT back, and finding out the gender. We went down to the beach and had a wonderful moment just Rob, myself, our pup piper and the little bean.
Lows: Even though the evening sickness has gone it was replaced with afternoon fatigue. I get really sleepy around 3pm and you can pretty much always find me asleep on the couch at 8pm (unless you are reading this Rob, I was awake through every movie we watched). I also picked up a cold (not covid, I got checked out) which was super hard to shake and there was a week or so of constipation I happily would have done without.
Dietary Changes: everything I know as a naturopath and nutrition went out the window, if it was close to healthy I just didn’t want it. I didn’t want veggies, red meat, fish, or anything smelly. I was lucky that morning sickness was mostly in the late afternoon and evening so I was able to get some nutrients in for breakfast and lunch – there were a few dinners that may have been skipped.
I was grateful that I had done so much preconception work that I didn’t feel too bad about not eating the way I normally did.
Food Aversions: potatoes! and they still are not my friend (hot chippies excluded, but aren’t they always). Red meat also needed to be consumed away from me, but that resolved a few weeks later.
Food Cravings: all the salty, crispy, crunchy delights! Chips, corn chips, corn flakes, saos, cheese crackers (yep the ones that taste like cheese not cheese on crackers), pickles, pickled onions, vegemite from the jar, sauerkraut (not Kim Chi.. that I couldn’t stand) … if you believe gender can be predicted from food cravings, this one was spot on!
Morning Sickness: I was beyond lucky that I wasn’t to sick throughout trimester one. I had about 2 weeks of afternoon nausea which allowed me to schedule clients in the morning, head home and rest before the evening nausea hit. It also allowed me to eat well throughout the day, try and balance my blood glucose levels to prevent a drop; and make nausea worse.
How I worked to reduce my morning sickness; 1) balanced blood glucose levels. 2) ate small frequent meals 3) stayed away from high sugar foods 4) rested when I needed to 5) mineral water with fresh ginger
Supplements: I swapped from my preconception multivitamin to my trimester one multi… but I didn’t want it. My body just wanted a break so I listened. I had a few good days where they got in but there were a lot of missed ones. Especially weeks 8 – 10. Again, knowing all the work I had done before, bub and I would be fine if I missed a few here and there. Once the nausea lifted I was back on the pregnancy multivitamins, DHA, Vitamin D and zinc every couple of days.
Medical: Due to my health history we decided to go through my private gyno (who had seen me through my endo/pcos) as he was also an Obstetrician. At our first pregnancy appointment, we discussed my birth options and we decided on our local hospital. Going private means that you get frequent scans, check-ups with the same Ob every couple of weeks before heading to the hospital later in the pregnancy. Due to COVID we weren’t able to have a hospital walkthrough (we still haven’t at 17 weeks) but knowing lots of clients and friends who have used this hospital we felt comfortable.
alyce x