The First Trimester

Writing this post feels WILD simply because I have dreamed of becoming a mom since I was little. Growing up, when asked what I wanted to be when I was older I would always say “Mom,” like it was the most important and amazing job in the world. I absolutely know this is because I was lucky enough to grow up with a stay-at-home-mom of my own, and to this day she is someone I aspire to be like. I also now realize that I wasn’t too crazy in believing that becoming a mom really would feel like one of the most important jobs in the world.

I am incredibly lucky to have had an easy first trimester- I know that those first few months can be extremely rough on women, and aside from some nausea and extreme sleepiness I felt more or less like myself. I think the hardest part about the first trimester, that doesn’t get talked about too often, is how difficult it is to be experiencing such a giant life shift and not feel confident in sharing it with your world just yet. For the first few weeks of pregnancy, I remember feeling so anxious about the health of the new life we were creating. Almost every blog and article I read advised not to share news until at least 12 weeks pregnant because the likelihood of miscarriage is still so high until that point. Justin and I were so excited about this baby, and I remember avoiding seeing friends and family because I didn’t think I could be around them and Not share the news! While it was, in retrospect, a brief few weeks and a very special time for us to share this life changing secret as a couple, it was also a time of stressful “what if’s…” and “if we really are pregnant’s…” The worry made it hard to really believe that our pregnancy was Real, and that we could truly feel excited about it. The very best advice I read for this period was to acknowledge each day of pregnancy as valid, and to repeat the mantra “Today, I am pregnant.” I remember wanting to be pregnant so badly that just feeling this little bit of gratitude day by day helped me stay grounded and kept me from going too far down the road of worst case scenarios.

While I intuitively knew I was pregnant almost right away, my intuition on gender was dead wrong. I was so positive that we were having a little boy, I cried tears of genuine shock when our genetic testing came back saying Girl! We found out at 12 weeks that our little girl was healthy and that this pregnancy was right on track, and I have honestly never felt more relief. It was one of the biggest joys sharing the news with our friends and families, and finally feeling like we could take a collective breath and embrace this new little family member growing inside me!

Cravings: Cutie oranges, fruits of Any kind, and bagels! I think I had more food aversions than cravings in my first trimester… even some of my favorite things (tacos, popcorn, veggies…) didn’t sound good to me. I remember feeling like I was force feeding myself smoothies and salads so that I wouldn’t only be consuming sweets and bread.

Travel: Pescadero, Mexico and Kauai, Hawaii

Favorite things: The best thing was feeling the beginnings of this baby’s little kicks and flutters. She’d done some big enough that even Justin could feel them. It was truly magical. I also loved seeing my belly begin to grow, and rubbing oil all over before bed. I would with my hands on my stomach and just wait for her to roll around and say hi every night before falling asleep.