1st Trimester Review 2021 - Baby Due 11/15

If you had told me at the beginning of this year I would be writing a post like this about my pregnancy (!!) in 2021, I definitely would've laughed! But we are really excited to meet our little girl Stella in November. Approximately on the 15th! Even before I ever thought I would be pregnant, I always enjoyed reading blogger's trimester updates, I have no idea why they peaked my interest as a non-pregnant person but I thought I would share what the past few months have been like for me in case anyone is curious, expecting, or plan to be pregnant in the future. :)

I found out I was pregnant on March 15th at exactly 5 weeks. But for 4 days before that I already suspected. I just felt 100% different. Around the time I was supposed to start my period I spotted super light. Every day after that I felt more strange, dizzy, and nauseous. I felt tweaks and pulls in my lower abdomen I had never experienced before. I also started getting the strangest, most vivid dreams that woke me up in the night they were so crazy. The day before I took the test the smell of my freshly washed hair made me gag. To me it smelled like cigarette smoke, even though I haven't smoked a cigarette in my life and can't remember the last time I was around someone who smoked. After Bjorn went to work on the 15th I went to Target and bought a pregnancy test and Cheez-Its (nausea lol). I couldn't wait and took the test in the Target bathroom. It didn't take more than a couple seconds for the plus sign to pop up. I hadn't cried in a Target since I worked there as a cashier in high school, but I definitely did that day. 

I really wanted to tell Bjorn in person (this was going to be a bit of a shock) so I had to go through out the day texting him like I didn't know I was growing us a little human. And as it would turn out, a big random wind storm would come through Southern California that day making it impossible for Bjorn to leave the ship he was working on that day out at sea. He ended up having to sleep on the ship overnight until the winds/waves died down. This had never happened before! I had to keep this huge secret until the next afternoon. Of course being the emotional wreck I was I made the idea of telling him way worse in my head than it actually was. He was definitely shocked, but so happy! 

Weeks 5 & 6 were the hardest so far. It felt like you mixed beer, wine, and tequila the night before. I was nauseous all day, dizzy, emotional, tired, so sensitive to smells, and had strong food aversions to everything except crackers. I especially had aversions to meat, seasoned foods, and even coffee :( It really affected my ability to go about my normal routine. I am super lucky I never threw up though, and once I got to the end of week 6 I was feeling more like myself again. I felt my worst when I had an empty stomach or drank liquids on an empty stomach, so I always tried to eat a handful of crackers right when I woke up and every hour or so throughout the day which really helped. My thoughts go out to women who suffer a lot worse sickness through out the first trimester, and even their entire pregnancy! Women are amazing. 

I went to my first doctors appointment a couple days into the 6th week. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but lets just say the baby is tiny so they can't do the ultrasound over your belly. I'll leave it at that. Already at 6 weeks we could see and hear the heartbeat! It was such a relief. I assumed Bjorn couldn't come to the appointment due to Covid so I went alone, but my doctor is great and allows one support person during appointments so he has been since. 

First and second trimester appointments are a month apart, so the next appointment at 10 weeks we actually had the option to do a blood test with my doctors office that would let us know the gender as well as test for any genetic abnormalities. I had no idea this was a thing! I assumed we would have to wait to know the gender when it was visible on the ultrasound. We decided to do it and got results just a couple days later. We wanted to do a little gender reveal with my family so my brother actually helped us out by reviewing the results and ordering the supplies so it would be a surprise to Bjorn and myself. We tried to do something a little unique so my husband had the fun idea of doing a burnout with his car (when the back wheels spin and make smoke without the car actually moving). It worked perfect, and I was so shocked and happy to see pink powder shoot up. I was so certain baby was a boy! All the other genetic tests came back negative, which was also happy news.

One thing that has surprised me during the first trimester was how consuming the thought of miscarriage was to me, and how this made it difficult to bond and plan for baby. I kept putting off sharing with family and friends because I was worried I would jinx it in someway. One website that helped ease my worry was a miscarriage calculator. You put in your info and it shows you for every day of your pregnancy the odds of miscarriage, along with odds of not having a miscarriage, which is a reassuring number. I checked it almost every day. 

There have also been some pleasant side effects of pregnancy too (aside of course from the whole getting a baby part lol). I used to suffer 2-3 migraines a month, but since getting pregnant I have not had one. I am also so much less anxious and more go with the flow, happy, and slower to be annoyed/angry. Honestly not sure if this is a side effect of pregnancy or not taking birth control anymore for the first time in 10 years but I'm happy with it either way. 

​And that pretty much brings us to today in the second trimester! Thanks for coming along. :)