The First Trimester

I have not posted in my mommy blog in a very long time. Seven months to be exact. Life gets pretty hectic!

I am now pregnant with my second child and I thought I’d write about this experience. I am coming to the end of the first trimester. The first trimester was absolutely horrible. With my son, I had plenty of nausea, but I only threw up twice- once in the first trimester and once in the second trimester. But this time around, I cannot even count how many times I have thrown up. It started at about 6 weeks. For a while, it was every day. Then it was about every other day for a while. Then it became a couple of times a week. And now it seems to be gone for good. I haven’t thrown up in a week! Yay! I also have had INTENSE exhaustion! I have never been so exhausted in my life. I felt like I was dying from a terminal illness or something. Of course if I didn’t sleep well at night, it would be even worse. But even when I got a good night of sleep, I would feel like I hadn’t slept in days. I hardly cooked because I was either too tired or preparing food would just make me feel so queasy. We ate a lot of spaghettios and frozen meals! I actually became quite depressed from all the exhaustion and sickness. At one point, I even regretted my pregnancy. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and I became so discouraged. I was very tired, irritable, and moody. I didn’t have any patience with my son- or anyone or anything for that matter. I felt like a monster. But now I am starting to feel more like myself. I am feeling more energetic and happy and bubbly again. I am so grateful! I'm sure my son and husband are, too!

Because of how much I threw up, I developed aversions to foods that were part of my worst vomiting experiences. For instance, I can’t eat burgers anymore, especially from Wendy's, and I can’t drink Gatorade anymore. Despite all my sickness, I still managed to gain 5 pounds in the first trimester. I think this is because I would “pig out” on my good days. I had hardly any appetite and vomited so much on the bad days, but then I would eat like crazy when I had a good day and I think I definitely overcompensated on those days. I also haven’t been working out since I found out I was pregnant. I mean, I go on walks a few times a week (which I’m hoping to make more of a daily thing now that I’m starting to feel better), but I used to run 2 miles a day at the gym about 5 times a week and outdoor 2-4 mile outdoor walks a few times a week on top of that. But I was just too sick and tired to work out for the past two months. 

I’m still pretty exhausted every day, but it’s not completely debilitating like it used to be. I have a fetal doppler that I used during my pregnancy with my son and I have been using it with this pregnancy, too. The baby hangs out on the left side of my belly (MY left when I look down at my belly) and he/she has a good, strong heart beat. I haven’t felt any flutters quite yet. I didn’t feel them until about 17 weeks with my son. Sometimes I think that I am having a girl, solely based on how different this pregnancy has been. But… when I look at the ultrasound pictures that we have from when I was 10.5 weeks along, I actually feel like it’s a boy. So I’m pretty torn. I knew from the beginning that it was a boy last time, and I was right. But I really just don’t know this time. Maybe it’s another boy and he’s just causing me more grief than my first son! We find out for sure on May 28th, which seems like an eternity from now. But we're actually finding out 5 weeks early by getting an early gender scan done. I still can't wait though!

Hopefully my worst days are behind me and the second trimester will be smooth sailing!