First Trimester Blog

There are some terms in this journal that you'll need pregnancy definitions for, so I've provided them below:

Increased appetite: a need to eat every two hours otherwise you transform from a functioning human to a withered husk barely able to drag yourself to the pantry in about three minutes

Fatigue: your battery is so low that it manifests in weakness and dizziness (and increased appetite)

Cravings: While—for me—pregnancy cravings feel the same as non-pregnancy cravings, when they're SATISFIED? It feels like a drink of water when you were seconds from dying of thirst (or probably your first sip of blood as a vampire). When a craving is satisfied, it feels like consuming the one and only thing your body was created to consume.

A note about progress photos: Endometriosis means that I can look 4+ months pregnant at nearly ANY time ALL the time. I'm not even kidding. The bloating (or whatever goes on inside of me) is unbelievable. So, in order to have a consistent baseline for tracking progress photos, I've been doing transverse abdominal contractions during photos (the healthy, muscle-based cousin of "sucking in"). I'll know the baby is taking up real space when I do a TVA contraction and there's still a bump :)

Weeks 0–4

Symptoms: Absolutely nothing? Vivid dreams?
Cravings: "Tea cakes." I didn't really even know what that was, but as I sat on the couch reading Rebecca, they kept talking about tea and suddenly I NEEDED a crumbly, mildly sweet, very understated pastry thing. I have baked probably seven times in my whole life, but I Googled "tea cakes" and made myself some. They hit.

Typo below: *thing
Inside reference below: "the Eunice." Maybe I'll explain eventually XD



Week 5
Symptoms: some soreness and bigness in the chest region, increased appetite, trouble sleeping
Cravings: none

Week 6
Symptoms: fatigue, continued chest soreness and bigness, increased appetite, trouble sleeping. Google says you don't need any extra calories in the first trimester. My body gives that the finger with f l o u r i s h.
Cravings: Harley Gordon's baked beans (shoutout to her for talking me through her recipe when I texted DEVASTATED that plain canned baked beans didn't taste right), mint chocolate chip ice cream

Over the last couple of years especially, I've been tracking my cycle in every way, from knowing when my period or ovulation are coming to knowing that I'll have more social energy on Week X or be too tired to lift heavy at the gym during Week Y. My food, workouts, social events, sleep needs, eyebrow waxes (pain tolerance is higher around ovulation), and work tasks have been planned with an eye on my cycle. Suddenly being cycle-less feels like being blind and being unchained at the same time. What do I...do? The road map to my body has evaporated.

Week 7
Symptoms: less fatigued, less fatally hungry, less trouble sleeping, aversions to lots of food (especially protein)
Cravings: strawberry ice cream, tomato soup, mac and cheese





I keep saying to Gabe, "Ugh, I just don't know what's WRONG with me!" whenever I don't want to eat something or don't have the energy to clean the whole house in one day or feel kind of nauseous.

Gabe:


Week 8




I wore the ring Nana gave me and Paw Paw's memorial necklace so that they could be with us too when we told my parents the good news :)

Symptoms: insane evening bloating, food aversions continue
Cravings: frozen blueberry waffles with mini chocolate chips, KitKats, chocolate cake, Mentos



Week 9
Symptoms: nausea, headaches, insane evening bloating, food aversions continue
Cravings: spaghetti with lots of red sauce, elephant-sized portions of veggies (?!), biscuits and gravy. Gabe made biscuits and gravy three nights in a row.





Shoutout to Daniel Griffin for not actually asking XD

Week 10
Symptoms: trouble sleeping, food aversions continue. Aversions are by far the worst part of pregnancy so far.
Cravings: frozen orange juice, citrus in general

Not being in debilitating pain for days every month is the biggest gift of all. Every single pregnancy symptom combined doesn't even come CLOSE to equaling the horror of periods with endometriosis. Can I just keep getting pregnant back to back for the rest of my life? XD

Week 11
Symptoms: nausea, trouble sleeping, food aversions continue
Cravings: nothing new

Week 12


Symptoms: trouble sleeping, food aversions continue
Cravings: nothing new



Week 13

Symptoms: trouble sleeping, ulcers on my gums, my clothes don't fit right, food aversions continue. Every meal is annoying XD When will this stop.
Cravings: nothing

At my most recent scan, I learned that I have an anterior placenta, which just means it'll be later (probably Weeks 22–24) before I can feel the baby kick, because the placenta is positioned between the baby and the outside.

Even though I can't feel anything yet, seeing the baby do a bunch of wiggles on the ultrasound monitor was WILD. I couldn't believe that all that was going on inside of me and yet I wasn't feeling anything?! It feels like the baby and I exist in separate universes, on separate planes of existence, and seeing the ultrasound screen is like peering through a portal.

I also saw the baby's face last time. Spitting image of ET.

~Stephanie