BABY: The First Trimester

I'm writing this post whilst 23 + 6 weeks pregnant, but thought I would take us back to the first trimester of my pregnancy...

I was 5 weeks pregnant when I actually took the pregnancy test. Initially we thought we wouldn't tell anyone until we had it confirmed at the doctor's surgery. I suppose nothing really ever goes to plan as we pretty much told both sets of parents straight away and swore them to secrecy until we were ready to announce it ourselves. It was all just too exciting! The decision to keep it a secret from everyone else was mainly from the panic that bad things can happen at such an early stage and we didn't want to tempt fate.

I'm not sure if everyone else is as clueless as I was, but I assumed you book a doctor's appointment who do a pregnancy test and, if positive, they hook you up with a midwife. Maybe that is what happens in some parts of the country? Well, here in Cornwall they apparently do things differently. I was registering at the local surgery, with us just having moved here, so informed the nice lady on reception that I was pregnant. I was quickly informed that these days, pregnancy tests are very reliable so there was no need to book an appointment. It was just a matter of filling out a form for the midwife who would contact me to book an 8 week appointment.

So, over Christmas we both had this weird limbo where we were happy at me being pregnant, but still had this uncertainty at the back of our minds that it didn't feel official until a health professional gave us the thumbs up. As it goes, we met our lovely midwife who did the usual form filling, urine checking, blood taking, information giving and organising a 12 week scan with the hospital. I even took another pregnancy test just before the appointment, which was again very much positive. Things definitely felt more real for us.

First Trimester Symptoms:
Tiredness - For pretty much the whole of this trimester I felt very tired. I would end up napping during the afternoon and although my spirits were high, my energy was at an all time low. Chris was brilliant really, he would come home from work at 5pm and cook tea, do most of the housework, help with the laundry etc. Without too much PDA he really was my very own Superman *grabs the sick bucket*.

Morning Sickness - On the subject of sick buckets, I had no morning sickness throughout this trimester. There was a rare moment in Morrisons where the smell of all of the mixtures of food made me feel a bit iffy, but no actual vomiting occurred. The same goes for our fridge. The fridge was my own personal nemesis. I was a million percent certain that there was something rank smelling in there that was making me feel queasy every time I opened it. Much to my annoyance I was assured that it all smelt fine to the non-pregnant nose.

Boobies - Sore boobs soon became a reality. They were so tender, even if I accidentally brushed against things. They did seem to grow a little and become more veiny under the skin. My areolas were noticeably getting darker too, which didn't really bother me, it was the tenderness that was frustrating and, to be frank, a bit of a bitch.

Urination - Frequent urination became noticeable very early on for me. This is probably because I'm one of those naughty people who forgets to drink and so doesn't seem to go as often as I probably should. But boy was I making up for lost time on the peeing front. I would even be getting up during the night for a little wee, which was unheard of in my pre-pregnancy days.

Nasal Problems - As I mentioned before, my sense of smell was definitely heightened, mainly to horrible smelling odours. I also had a permanently stuffed up nose for the whole trimester and got through a mountain of tissues.

Weight Gain - Although I didn't look pregnant, I definitely was more bloated and was finding that I was gaining weight quicker than I would usually. Thankfully it was easy to blame this on the annual Christmas binge eating.

Cravings - I didn't actually have any weird cravings. I did find that philadelphia on a toasted bagel was all I wanted for lunch. I did also go off strong garlicky foods, coleslaw and anything with raw onion in... cooked onion was fine.

This trimester seemed to be over oh so quickly. Have you had similar experiences during your first trimester? Feel free to comment below, I would love to see how yours differed to mine.