Time is flying! I can’t believe that I’m already in the second trimester. As much as I’m excited for our little one to be here, I’m really trying to soak up every second of this pregnancy. I never knew what to expect or how I would feel before I got pregnant, but I have been absolutely loving this chapter and all that comes with it. During my first trimester, I loved reading about other women’s experiences throughout their first couple months. I’ve learned that everyone has very different experiences, but also share common symptoms and encounters and I’m so excited to share mine. Hopefully some of you can relate and this can provide some comfort to you in knowing that you’re not alone.

Symptoms

My symptoms have varied throughout the first trimester, and I swear I experience something new every week but I’ll start at the beginning! One of the most common symptoms that I think a lot of women experience is sore/tender breasts. This was happening for me from the very beginning.

Weeks 5-9

These first couple weeks I was so emotional. I cried every single day and the smallest things would bring tears to my eyes. I’ll never forget I was scrolling Tik Tok and someone was talking about being grateful and I just bawled my eyes out. When I say I was sensitive and emotional, I’m not kidding haha. I found I was pregnant around 5 weeks and something I wanted to mention is the shock that I experienced after finding out. Even though this was planned, I still was incredibly shocked how fast it happened and then the reality sunk in of how much our life was about to change and I became terrified. For about two weeks I was completely overwhelmed and I think this is totally normal.

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I began to research online and the first article I pulled up was someone saying “grieve your life now because you’ll never get it back.” It really hit me hard. I love my life now, but I know I’m going to love my new life with our new baby and I think it’s really important to talk about this. As time has progressed, I’ve found that I spend less time on the Internet because it can be a really scary place and I could not be more excited for our new life with baby! If you experience this, know that it’s normal and don’t listen to those people.

Weeks 10-13

I know this isn’t the case for everyone, but I have been very lucky and haven’t experienced any morning sickness/nausea. However, during these few weeks I was hungry all the time. I’m not a big person and I don’t eat a lot normally but if I wasn’t eating something every 2 hours, I would feel sick. I found healthy snacks (veggies, cheese/crackers, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and tried to plan my eating schedule for the day so that I wasn’t just grabbing the first thing I could find. (Now that I’m in the second trimester, this has subsided so just know that it does get better). The hardest part about this symptom for me was feeling guilty. I felt bad that I was eating so much. It wasn’t like me at all, but I knew that it’s what baby needed and that’s the most important thing to me right now.

Insomnia

This hit me hard. I have been a very deep sleeper my entire life. Nothing wakes me up and I’ve never had a problem falling asleep but around week 10, I found myself lying awake almost all night, every night. It has gotten a little better, but it’s been about 4-5 weeks now and I still find myself waking up every couple hours, or every hour and it’s not to go to the bathroom, or for any specific reason. I just wake up. Maybe this is my body preparing me for a newborn?

Nose Bleeds

For someone who has never had a nosebleed in my life, for about 3 weeks I woke up everyday with a nose bleed. Like I said, the symptoms are always changing! This one surprised me but it’s also common in pregnancy. That symptom subsided around week 15, into the second trimester.

Acne

I actually started to struggle with my skin in 2021, before pregnancy and started seeing a dermatologist for it. I stopped using the products when we started trying to get pregnant because they were not pregnancy safe. A couple of weeks into pregnancy, my skin started started breaking out so bad. I am still struggling with really bad acne. Thankfully I have a sweet husband that reminds me it’s all part of this beautiful process.

13 Week Pregnancy Scare

Around week 13, the day before I announced publicly that we are pregnant, I had a very traumatic pregnancy scare. I am sharing this in case it happens to anyone else. I truly was terrified and didn’t know anything about this. It was a Sunday and I had just made lunch for Eddie and I. Everything was normal, we ate and then I was cleaning up and doing dishes. As I stood over the kitchen sink I suddenly and out of nowhere experienced incredible pain in my side. In the span of 2 minutes I was on the ground in excruciating pain. I couldn’t stand, sit, or lay down – I was on my knees, Eddie holding me up and my words weren’t even coming out. My body temperature was rising and I was sweating profusely.

I have never been in so much pain in my life. All of the pain was in my right side and I knew I needed to get to the hospital but I couldn’t get myself to the car. Eddie put my shoes on me and 15 minutes later, I got myself to the car. Luckily the hospital is just a couple minutes drive. On the way to the hospital the pain started again and it was unbearable. Eddie got me into the emergency room and I was put in a wheelchair. I couldn’t even walk. Of course, all I could think about was our baby. In my head, I really thought there was something wrong with the baby and it was just so hard.

I sat in the emergency room by myself for 6 hours before I got any answers, which was incredibly hard. They did blood work, put me on fluids and did an ultrasound. Everything was normal and baby was healthy (thank goodness!) and the last thing they did was urine sample. I had a Urinary Tract Infection. This is common during pregnancy and this is why I wanted to share. I’ve had UTIs in the past and have never experienced any kind of pain like this. They gave me medicine and reminded me how important it is to drink a lot of water during pregnancy. I’ve always struggled with drinking enough water. So, just a reminder – drink your water!!

The second trimester so far has been 10000% better than the first trimester and I can’t wait to share a recap with you in a couple of months. We are finding out the gender in about a month and we can’t wait! What do you think – boy or girl?

Funny Story: My sister and I got our nails done together and I picked the first color I loved off the shelf and when I looked at what it was called, it was called “It’s a girl!” What do we think? Is it a sign?

First Trimester Purchases

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