With the overwhelming majority of you asking for a pregnancy journey update, I figured I would backtrack and start with the first trimester. If you read my WE’RE PREGNANT post, you already know the secret. What I didn’t go into detail about is how I have been feeling. I kept a little note in my phone and jotted down symptoms throughout the entire pregnancy thus far. That way I could go back and write these posts once I finally announced I was pregnant.
Everyone says the first trimester is the worse and now I understand why. Although I have had a fairly easy pregnancy and I’m so grateful for that, I definitely experienced the most annoying symptoms during the first trimester.
Let’s start with my very first symptoms — I actually didn’t have any symptoms before finding out I was pregnant. No immediate morning sickness or anything like that. I had just missed my period by 7 days and suddenly realized I was late so I probably needed to take a pregnancy test. I was 5 weeks by the time I found out I was pregnant and had zero symptoms up to this point.
It wasn’t until around 7 or 8 weeks that I started noticing some changes. My stomach felt a little bloated (although looking back at photos I laugh at myself because I definitely was NOT bloated). Around 8 weeks I was absolutely EXHAUSTED. I mean, sleeping 10-12 hours a night and still passing out in the middle of the day on our sofa for a 3 hour nap because I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I can’t even remember the last time I took a nap!! Kyle and I were so tickled about how tired I was all the time. This is when I took an Instagram hiatus (which some of you caught onto) and literally doing anything felt like such a daunting task. Workouts? Forget about it. Getting ready for a shoot? Almost impossible. I had no energy and no motivation to do anything. I was just trying to survive at this point and keep my business afloat by working on sponsored content only. This is why you didn’t see a lot of unsponsored/organic content during this time! It really is true when people say that growing a human requires so much energy. The best thing you can do during this time is rest and I started to do exactly that!
At 8 weeks, we also went to my OBGYN to confirm the pregnancy and hear the heartbeat. This was a big milestone because it actually felt real at this point! I was still keeping it very hush aside from telling our immediate family members, because after so many friends and family miscarrying their first I was worried about this happening to me. Luckily our doctors appointment went great, the pregnancy was confirmed, and it seemed as though I was growing a healthy baby. Thank the Lord!
From 9-12 weeks I started really noticing some pregnancy side effects. I never had morning sickness, but I was feeling nauseous almost every afternoon. I also had no food aversions, in fact my appetite was out of control and I was eating everything in sight, ha! If I didn’t eat after 30 minutes of waking up in the morning, I felt like I was going to vomit. Kyle thought I was being dramatic, but I truly needed to eat like RIGHT AWAY.
I also noticed my boobs start to get extremely sore (and big lol). I was so thirsty all the time, had dry/chapped lips, and my nips itched like crazy! I also progressively felt more bloated, noticed mild cramping, and would get randomly constipation with sharp stomach pains.
At 12 weeks I started to notice my skin changing a lot. It got very dry, which for me was unusual because I have more oily skin. I suddenly got this little rash on my cheeks that I still have today and I’m predicting it won’t go away until I give birth! They are just small dry bumps on both of my cheek bones but particularly noticeable on one side. I also began to experience less nausea and more headaches, but the biggest change was MORE ENERGY. I finally started to feel like I was getting my energy back just like everyone tells you around week 12-13. This was very much needed as I felt like I needed to get back into a routine and some consistency in my schedule.
I hope this post can serve a purpose and help some of you relate to the symptoms you might also be experiencing during the first trimester of pregnancy. Google can be a scary place and I always recommend talking to a sibling or friend who has been through it to ask if things are normal. Worst case scenario, always call your doctor instead of relying on google!
I will be sharing a second trimester update with y’all soon! If there are any topics you’re specifically interested in hearing about for the next update, please leave in the comments below 🙂
