First Trimester Update
First trimester gear: fuzzy sweater and comfy joggers. Just missing slippers.
In addition to my (now) quarterly work/life updates, I thought I’d do separate trimester updates for those who might be interested in hearing how things are going with the pregnancy. Here we go!
We put a decent amount of thought into the timing of baby #2 (just like with Ellie). I think Mike was ready for #2 shortly after Ellie arrived 🤣. I on the other hand needed a lot more space between my first pregnancy/birth and the next one. Between being sick for the better part of 8 months to a super disrespectful resident during labor, I just wasn’t ready to go through anything that emotionally or physically intense. And truthfully I don’t think I was ever going to feel fully ready. We started to talk more about #2 in 2019. Mike was for sure ready and I wanted to get some health stuff figured out before growing a human, so we set our sights on 2020. Then my dad died, my mom got super sick, and the pandemic hit… cool.
As the dust settled from family crises, my health stuff started to get straightened out, and we settled into pandemic life we started mapping out timelines, keeping in mind that a) there’s a potential move in our future, b) we’d need to travel for my dad’s service at the earliest in summer of 2021, and c) I’d prefer to have my official leave bump up against summer break when I’m off contract and don’t need to use leave. When all was said and done we gave ourselves two tries before we were going to pause until 2021 to try again. And just like with Ellie, I got pregnant on round number two (with the help of an ovulation predictor kit and some [super lax] basal body temping).
I saw a faint positive line on a pregnancy test in early September and there were a few blissful weeks where I felt completely normal. But, like clockwork, nausea and vomiting set in right around the 6 week mark, which also happened to coincide with the beginning of fall term, which honestly was kind of terrible… but could have been so much worse if I had to go in. Wearing a mask when you’re nauseous is miserable (though I gladly do it), so I’m sure if I had to physically be in meetings I’d have been making runs to the bathroom fairly often. Thankfully, I could lay on the couch, turn my video/mic off and just listen. For the class I taught during fall I always made sure to have food with me and block off time to rest afterwards as it took a lot of energy to hold myself together.
The first people we shared the news with was our dental practice 😄. I needed to have 2 cavities filled early on (thankfully before morning sickness hit) and I wanted to be 1000% sure that it was safe to do so. We told our parents shortly thereafter and then our siblings and friends. I shared with just a few people at work but didn’t officially spread the news until I was in the 2nd trimester.
Between this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Ellie, what’s the same?
Nausea, dry heaving, vomiting and taking Unisom/B6 to help reduce these things. In the first trimester this combo helped reduce vomiting and gave me an appetite. The nausea was still pretty intense though.
My love of pears. If we have them in the house I’ll eat them for breakfast on a daily basis.
Intense dreams. This was one of the first things that tipped me off about potentially being pregnant. They tend to come and go, I’ll have a stretch of boring ones and then a really intense one (I’ve woken up sobbing, fun times).
Not noticeably showing during the first trimester. I think having roughly 4.5 years between pregnancies means my abs were fully healed so I’m not showing as much as I might have had they been more closely spaced. I also think the way I gain weight impacts not noticeably showing. Extra weight tends to spread evenly throughout my body vs. just the belly, so I just look like I’ve gained some weight.
Dislike of anything that smells. Unscented soap, deodorant, etc. have been necessary. I stay away from cooking and anything that might be really fragrant.
What’s different with this pregnancy?
I’ve struggled a lot more with eating the same things over and over again (other than pears!). E.g. I loved chicken quesadillas early on and now they sound absolutely disgusting.
No food aversions. This has been amazing. With Ellie I could not stand vegetables, even thinking about them or seeing pictures could bring on dry heaving/vomiting. With this pregnancy I’ve actually eaten salads, which didn’t happen during my entire pregnancy with Ellie.
Movement seemed to be a much bigger trigger for nausea during the first trimester this time around. I’d be okay as long as I was laying down but the second I stood up I’d start dry heaving.
Next level exhaustion during the first trimester. I don’t remember being so tired with Ellie. I struggled to get out of bed before 10:30am during a lot of the first trimester (thank goodness for being completely virtual and having night classes). Of course there wasn’t a 4 year old running around during my first pregnancy and I wasn’t working a full time job (though grad school is certainly taxing), so maybe that has more to do with it.
Pelvic pain, which I’m pretty sure is SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction) related. When I was feeling up for it, I tried working in some exercises that seem to be helpful in reducing the pain. I don’t remember having this issue with Ellie (though certainly afterwards!)
A pandemic! So far it’s just been me at in-person appointments since kids can’t come in and we’d rather not have someone watch Ellie just for an appointment. I’ve had a mix of virtual and in-person visits, so Ellie and Mike have been able to participate for the virtual ones. We’re being super cautious. Early on, Ellie and Mike did some outdoor playdates but as things have progressed those have tapered off.
Genetic testing. I’m over 35 which means insurance pays for genetic testing so we opted to have it done, which also means that we found out baby’s sex pretty early into the second trimester.
Working with a midwifery group vs an ob-gyn group. I’ll be trying for a VBAC and I felt that my chances of being able to do so would be greater with a midwife.
I’ll be back once the second trimester is over for another update!