1st Trimester Recap! Weeks 1-13

Guys!!! I can hardly believe we are pregnant!! I always said I would like for us to start trying to get pregnant and have a baby by 27… but with how my reproductive system WASN’T working (you can read more about this here), as well as the fact Trev was unable to commit to start trying for babies due to fear. :P I had no idea when it would actually happen! But here we are, surprise little miracle baby GIRL on the way…. and boy are we happy about it! :) Read below for a recap of my first trimester of pregnancy… including all the good, the exciting, and the ugly! :)

Note: my hospital has the first trimester ending after the 13th week. I know this can be different for everyone depending on where you give labor! So just wanted to clear up the confusion!

Weeks 5,6,7

When we found out…

Week 5 is the week we found out we were pregnant! It was exactly 5 weeks & 2 days, Sunday April 26th, when I decided to take a pregnancy test after about a week or so with a lack of interest in food & nausea! My mom suggested I take a test, just to rule out pregnancy. (If you read the post I linked above you will learn that I hadn’t had my period for 1.5 years prior to conceiving.) So Trev and I went by the dollar store to get some pregnancy tests, I grabbed 4 , and we went home to take “one”. First test, and 1 minute later… POSITIVE. I was literally IN SHOCK … and so was Trev! So I drank some water and decided to take another one… ALSO POSITIVE. We were a little skeptical of the dollar store tests at this point so we actually went to Target and got the more expensive tests. We then came home, I drank MORE water and we took another test… POSITIVE!!!! At this point we started to really believe it was true :P (& if you didn’t know a false positive is VERY rare.) Trev was right with me when I took the test, so no surprising him with anything cute, but it was still such a special moment! We just hugged, looked at each other in disbelief with our hands on our heads, and felt excited/nervous all at the same time! :) Throughout the rest of the day, and the morning of the next day I managed to take 3 more tests… JUST to be sure... ( & If you’re wondering, dollar store pregnancy tests ARE accurate, & they are only $1, so save your money on the pricey ones .;)) The day we found out I immediately called my sister who lives in CA because I NEEDED to tell someone who had gone through it before so I could ask questions (and she was someone I wouldn’t be able to surprise very well anyways.) She told me to call my doctor and set up an appointment, so I did! Since I wasn’t having a period my doctor recommended a blood test to confirm pregnancy, and then an ultrasound to determine how far along I was. At the ultrasound 3 days after taking the at home pregnancy test (Wednesday April 29th) they said I was measuring 5 weeks and 5 days!

How we told our families…

We ended up telling our family after we got the confirmation of pregnancy from the blood test (Tuesday, April 28th) before we got the Ultrasound. My mom wasn't very surprised since I had been pretty open with her and told her some of my symptoms. She was the one who told me to take the test after all… but I never ended up telling her I took one! We talk on the phone pretty frequently, and Sunday/Monday she had asked if I took a test, (I lied and said I wasn’t going to because I was “feeling better”) and by Tuesday she stopped asking… (which is NOT like her) So I had a strong feeling she sensed it (which she did)! :P Her and my Dad were still SO excited to be adding another grand baby to their already 3 granddaughters + 3 grandsons! :) We Facetimed another one of my sisters, shared more excitement and then it was onto the next!

Trev’s family on the other hand was literally SHOCKED! I am so sad because I failed at getting their reaction on video like we had planned, but their reaction was PRICELESS & forever instilled in our memory. What we did to announce to both our parents was by writing on the rim of these little pots that I planted basil in, “ We planted the seed and now it’s growing…” With “Baby DuBois Coming....” written underneath growing. Trev handed the pot to my mother in law, and said we got you this for “May Day”. I pointed out the saying and she twisted the pot around to read it… ending on the Baby DuBois coming part. She paused, then responded with “WHAT!!!! You’re pregnant!?” This then resulted in an excited / surprised reaction from my father in law, sister in law, and brother in law. With lots of hugs and even some tears! Our baby girl will be my in-laws first grand baby / niece!

We then told my final sister and her family. I made a shirt for Ollie that said “Future Big Bro, Baby DuBois Coming…” We asked my sister if we could come over for Ollie to have a play date with her pups. We then put him in the shirt, and let him into the house. Being the friendly pup he is, he ran up to everyone standing around… but my sister was the first to notice. Her response being… “Shut the Fu*k up.” :P My nieces & nephews seeing it shortly after and everyone full of happiness and excitement!

How I felt…

Shocked, excited, nervous, happy, and unexpectedly worried! During these 3 weeks, I honestly felt a lot more worry than I had anticipated. The moment I saw that little bean growing in my tummy at 5 weeks & 5 days I felt connected to it. I believe the worry stemmed from a few things. Such as the fact something scary could happen to this living being growing inside of me, and the uncertainty, and the inability to control what was going on inside my body. As well as the fact I didn’t want to do ANYTHING that could interfere with our little ones health and wellbeing.

Symptoms I experienced during these weeks…

Nausea mostly present in the evening (so eating dinner was a struggle), but sometimes present all day. Crazy fatigue. SORE AF BOOBS & a significant increase in size! :P

Food aversions to things like meat, ice cream, candy, nut butters, veggies.

Cravings for things like donuts, egg & bacon sandwiches on sourdough w/ mayo, tortellini, lemonade, French fries, pickles, crackers, pb & j, and coffee.

weeks 8,9,10

Announcing to social media…

Week 8 is when we decided we wanted to announce to social media. Even though it can be risky to share within the first trimester due to the chance of miscarriage being higher. I decided that since I was already being so open about my hypothalamic amenorrhea journey, I wanted to continue to be open about conceiving too, no matter what happened! If Trev was on board I honestly would have posted about it the second I saw the positive pregnancy test :P (I’m not a patient person), but he was a little more hesitant to share so we waited and by 8 weeks he felt it was okay. He really was just concerned about how it would effect us emotionally if something unfortunate were to happen, but once he realized I would be okay, I think he felt okay too. So we did it, it was super exciting, and for some who had been following my journey, shocking! It felt SO good to get it out in the open and not have to hide our exciting news anymore!

Our first appointment…

At 10 weeks we had our first appointment with our midwife! (Waiting for this appointment felt like an eternity!) Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions Trev could not come. :( It made me super sad, but it was cool because during the ultrasound he was allowed to FaceTime in to see the baby at the same time as me! :) We got to see our healthy little baby, measuring perfectly at 10 weeks 3 days, and in some of the pictures they almost resembled a chicken! HAHA!

How I felt…

Still worried… but hearing the babies heart beat with our home doppler helped to ease some anxiety! ( I use this one ) Worry was still pretty present up until our first appointment at 10 weeks, then I felt relieved to know we had a healthy baby! :) Started getting more and more excited, and feeling more real!

Symptoms I experienced during these weeks…

Still evening nausea… (which I found these nausea candies helped significantly), still VERY SORE BOOBS, super sensitive nipples (sorry TMI) :P. Started to feel VERY needy, became VERY outspoken/ bitchy / sensitive / emotional. I would get pissed about Trev playing Xbox. Sad about Trev “not showing me enough affection” ( he does guys, I just wanted EXTRA :P). I had one entire day where I CRIED nonstop. Literally couldn’t control it!!! Began also having laughing attacks I couldn’t control. (Trev was like WTF… not that funny... haha) Middle of the night, “have to pee” wake ups, several times… which often led to me not being able to fall back to sleep so…. insomnia!!! Woke up one night to a bloody nose… that was fun! Bloody noses are actually pretty common in pregnancy due to the increase in blood volume and change in hormones.

Food aversions still to meat, now also things like rice, still most sweets! Pretty much didn’t want anything that wasn’t salty, and non processed HAHA (who am I)

Cravings for things like… strawberries, bananas, saltines, chips & ketchup, salad w/ ice burg lettuce + garbanzo beans + ranch, ham, hi chews, hotdogs, breakfast burritos, still pickles!

Weeks 11,12,13

Our second appointment…

We had our second appointment at 12 weeks 3 days. However, this appointment was not with our midwife, but instead with an ultrasound technician + an RN for genetic testing AKA non invasive prenatal testing (NIPT, you can read more here)! We really did genetic testing to find out the gender of the baby as early as possible (like I said I am NOT patient.) I was super happy we did, because Trev was actually able to come to this appointment with me! We did an ultrasound first, and then they drew blood. They then sent the blood to a company called Invitae, where they look for possible chromosomal disorders (Trisomy 21, 18, and 13), but also can determine the gender with a 99% accuracy! It was so special to have Trev by my side while for the first time we got to see our baby actually looking like a baby (and not a chicken or little dot :P.) We were measuring a few days ahead at 13 weeks & the technician saw all the right signs for a healthy baby (he even said he could have told us his gender guess based off what he could or couldn’t see… but we opted out!) Results from the testing take about 5-7 days. So a week later on the dot, the hospital called us to tell us that there were no abnormalities found and our baby was indeed healthy! We wanted to keep the gender a surprise for our gender reveal, so we had them write the gender in an envelope and I picked it up as soon as I was able! Without peaking I passed the envelope off to my brother-in-law & he kept the secret until our party! Remember how impatient I am? Well we got the results on a Tuesday and my family decided to plan the party for the following Friday (right when we hit 14 weeks)… so as you can imagine I was just a bit anxious! :P

I started working out more during these weeks, and feeling really good during & after! I started with 2, then added a 3rd. My sessions include lifting weights for about 30 mins with a strong focus on strengthening my hips, glutes, and core!

How I felt…

EXCITED!! I always get SO excited leading up to an appointment, because thus far we’ve had an ultrasound every time. Seeing our little babe makes the fact I’m growing a human feel REALLY REAL! :) ANXIOUS! I wanted to know the gender so bad! I honestly had such a STRONG feeling it was a boy in the beginning, then a couple things made me think girl. THEN I had a dream of a boy and I was like… okay it’s a boy! :P Well, little did I know… ;)

Symptoms I experienced during these weeks…

Nausea slowly started to subside, energy slowly started to increase! Boobs started to get less sore. Food aversions began to slightly dissipate! Began tolerating small amounts of meat. Started to feel full on amounts of food I normally could eat no problem. Started experiencing shortness of breath while explaining / showing workouts to clients at work!

Occasional insomnia due to pee wake ups, but i’ve noticed since going back to work and working out my sleep has been much better!

Food aversions still to some meat, and large amounts of meat. Still not into too many cooked veggies.

Cravings for things like….frappacinos, curly fries, subway sandwiches, chocolate milk, Annie’s Bunny crackers, jalapeño chips, cinnamon & blueberry bagels, grilled cheese, cheese & crackers, cherries, egg salad sandwiches, & more sweets like chocolate and cookies!

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading if you made it thus far! Stay tuned for my 2nd trimester recap! :)