My First Trimester During Pregnancy Weeks 1-12 (How I felt, Things I did, Decisions I made)

First Trimester: How I Found Out That I Was Pregnant

This is how my first trimester started out.

It was Saturday, September 14th, 2019. By this point I had missed my period by a week. There were only a couple other times when I missed my period by 5-6 days, but never 7, so Alex and I decided that we were going to go to the store and buy our first pregnancy test.

At this point we weren’t trying to get pregnant and so everything was coming on as a surprise. After buying a pregnancy test we came straight home. I used the test as instructed and gave it to Alex right away without looking. As it sat there on the bathroom counter it didn’t take long for the positive sign to show up.

At first we were in a little bit of shock and surprise. It all didn’t feel real. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was pregnant. I didn’t feel any different, no symptoms at all. After processing the news together for a little bit that evening we quickly started dreaming and getting super excited for our little baby.

God Had a Plan

God knew what we needed and He already had a plan for this little one. Our baby was known and was being knitted together perfectly by God. Even though we didn’t have a plan, God had a plan for us.

There were many doubts, fears, and anxiety following that day. Somehow I felt unworthy, I felt like this was not real and I was just getting my hopes up, I feared losing the baby, I feared that it was all too good to be true somehow and many other fears that had me giving into the lies that were stealing my peace, joy and confidence in God. I had to daily surrender to God and remember his truth. That I was worthy, that He is a good Father and wants to bless us, He is taking care of my baby and even though I wasn’t “feeling” like I was pregnant, I was, and I had to believe that.

During my first trimester I started praying about a theme or word that I could hold onto during the good and the challenging times of pregnancy. God answered my prayers with the word, “Blessing”

I still hold onto it because it reminds me of how good God is. He is my Father, He loves me, I am worthy and He wants to lavishly bless me.

” Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17

“The Lord will again take delight in prospering you.” Deut. 30:9

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” Eph. 3:20

How I Felt During First Trimester

To be honest I felt great during my first trimester and that’s what made it so hard for me because it felt like I wasn’t even pregnant. I know it sounds silly because a lot of mamas have bad morning sickness and wish to be well but I struggled comparing myself against other people. During this time I had a lot of doubts, fears and anxiety. I remember feeling like I wasn’t ready and feeling anxious that we wouldn’t be able to pursue our dreams/goals anymore now that we were having a baby.

Deep down I knew that I would never be ready and sometimes you just have to get into something and figure it out as you go. I also knew that life wouldn’t be over and we would still adventure, travel, explore and be awesome parents. We saw so many other families living unconventional lives during our travels and that was really inspiring. I wrote affirmations daily on notecards and reviewed them whenever I felt anxious, afraid or doubtful about something.

There were only 1-2 weeks that I remember when I had less of an appetite for food and I didn’t want to cook but that quickly went away. I did experience some food aversion especially to mushrooms even though I love mushrooms!

I felt well enough to continue to exercise daily, walk during the day and eat healthy. There weren’t any crazy cravings other than wanting simple/plain foods like oatmeal, rice crackers, fresh fruits, and plain noodles. Also for some reason I really craved red wine, even though I rarely drank before.

Food & Supplements During First Trimester

I drank a lot of tea with ginger and lemon and bought a few packs of Gin-Gins to help with the loss of appetite and slight nausea feeling on some days.

Diffusing peppermint and lemon essential oils also helped with the yucky feeling of nausea.

Also, I started taking prenatal vitamins as soon as I found out that I was pregnant. One important thing to look for when choosing a prenatal is making sure it has mentholated folate instead of folic acid. Methylated folate is the easiest for the body to use unlike the folic acid which has to go through an enzyme conversion process. Also, if you have the MTHFR gene variant then its very important to look for a Methylated folate.

Supplements

There are so many prenatal vitamins out on the market. It was pretty overwhelming choosing a good one. I went with the Seeking Health Optimal Prenatal. I also heard a lot of good things about Ritual Prenatal, Zahler Prenatal, and other food based ones such as Mega Food Baby & Me Prenatal, Garden of Life, New Chapter perfect prenatal multivitamin, and Vitamin Code Raw.

Other supplements I took were fermented cod liver oil for omega 3’s, Vitamin D3 because it was fall/winter and Just Thrive Probiotics for a healthy gut flora.

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Foods I tried eating more of were high omega 3 rich foods such as wild caught salmon, sardines, and salmon caviar. Other foods I ate during my first trimester were eggs, organic chicken, leafy greens, salads, smoothies, fresh fruit, and oatmeal. Like I said it was a little bit hard for me to have a huge appetite during the first trimester so often times I just stuck to making plain and simple foods for myself.

Baby Bump Progress Pictures First Trimester

I decided to start doing these progress pictures early on. I wanted to document week by week the way my body was growing and changing. These start somewhere between week 6/7 ( when we found out that I was pregnant) and go to week 12.

Looking back at these pictures now I can’t even believe all the changes that have happened. The body is amazing and I am daily mesmerized by what it’s able to do. At this point in time I couldn’t even believe that there was a little cute human growing inside of me. I felt pretty small and didn’t notice much change. It worried me often times but I just trusted the process.

Exercising During First Trimester

I made it my goal to exercise and move every single day in some way. I continued attending a yoga/exercise class, went to the gym at our apartments, went on walks around the neighborhood, went rock climbing, went on hikes during the weekend and did short 1-2.5 mile runs. My workouts looked more or less the same as when I wasn’t pregnant. During those times I really made sure to listen to my body and not push myself too hard. I think one of the challenging things towards the end of the trimester was expecting my body to be where it was before pregnancy. I had to remind myself that now is not the time to push myself hard but it was the time to stay healthy and feel well throughout my pregnancy.

At this point no one knew I was pregnant and we were planning to tell our family and friends on Thanksgiving. It was still a long ways away and oh boy it was hard to keep it in at times. It was a special time though and felt like it was our little secret. We were over the moon about it and so excited.

Books I Started Reading & Podcasts During First Trimester

Alex and I both love reading books, so as soon as we found out that we were pregnant I started googling for the best books we could read about pregnancy, birth and parenting.

I really do believe that knowledge is power and the more you know the better prepared, aware and less fearful you are especially about the whole pregnancy/birth.

The books that I read during my first trimeter really helped me understand pregnancy and what birth options I had. For example, giving birth at a hospital, a birth center, or doing a home birth. It also helped us make the right decisions for ourselves without just making an assumption or going with what everybody else was doing around us.

One of the first things I did was download the “What to Expect” pregnancy app. It updated me with how many weeks I was, what to expect that week, how the baby was growing and more! I loved seeing weekly what changes were happening, baby growth and what size of fruit or vegetable my baby was that week. 🙂

I’m also a journal lover so I went ahead and bought the “Expecting You” pregnancy journal that includes simple prompts and journal pages for each month of the pregnancy. I also bought a regular blank journal to write down my thoughts, prayers, affirmations, and letters to the baby.

Stay tuned for the next post on Second Trimester because there’s a lot more books & podcasts that I read and listened to that have been very helpful!

The Mama Natural Week by Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth

This was one of the first books I got when I found out we were pregnant. The Mama Natural has a Youtube Channel, a blog dedicated to natural birth, a birth course and this amazing week by week guide to pregnancy and childbirth. It’s a great book because you can read it week by week and not be overwhelmed with information. She includes helpful recipes, affirmations, covers different topics that pertain to pregnancy and childbirth and more! Whenever we get the chance we read the week’s chapter together, if not I read it on my own.

Husband Coached Childbirth The Bradley Method

This book goes over the Bradley Method of childbirth. Alex read the book and picked up a few great things for himself and I.

Your Best Birth

This book really opened my eyes to what the birth experience has been made here in US vs. what it’s like in other parts of the world. I saw what the birth experience could be like if we knew our options.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

Ina May Gaskin is the nation’s leading midwife and she approaches birth from the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care. This is an amazing book to read especially if you’re planning to have a natural birth. It’s inspiring and so helpful! It’s very comprehensive and covers many different topics. A must read in my opinion.

Praying Through Your Pregnancy

Each chapter in this book follows the weeks of pregnancy and highlights what is happening with the baby’s development that week as well as spiritual insight and prayers for the baby. I read through this book week by week and came up with my own prayers for our baby and wrote them down in my journal.

Documentary- The Business of Being Born

This documentary gives a peek into the American health care system and its view of childbirth. It was an interesting documentary and we both think that it did a good job comparing the different childbirth methods.

Podcasts-

I didn’t start listening to many podcasts in my first trimeter because everything was so new to me and I was figuring stuff out as I went. I did listen to a few different shows from Wellness Mama and the Pregnancy Podcast. In my second trimester I found a lot of great podcasts and I’m excited to share them with you in my Second Trimester post.

Specific episodes I listened to from the Wellness Mama Podcast:

76: How to Optimize Your Pregnancy and Birth Experience with Mama Natural Genevieve Howland

88: Pregnancy Exercise, Diastasis, and Pelvic Floor Health with Lorraine Scapens

279: Making a Personalized Birth Plan With Dr. Elizabeth Pearce

Making a Decision on Where to Give Birth

As a little girl and even now I am terribly afraid of hospitals and doctors and anything to do with that. I think it began with a traumatizing experience of getting vaccinations as a little girl and carried on to my adulthood. Way before we got pregnant I had an interest in natural birth, home birth, and having a midwife. I thought the idea was great but I wasn’t really committed to it because I never had to face that decision before. When we found out that we were pregnant I wasn’t sure where I was going to give birth. I thought that maybe our insurance wouldn’t cover a home birth/natural birth center and that it would be cheaper to just give birth at a hospital.

I didn’t know a lot about stand alone natural birth centers or home births because everyone who I knew gave birth at a hospital. Also, keep in mind I haven’t told any one really that I was pregnant except for my women’s bible study group because it was such a surprise to me and I needed prayer and support. Thankfully some of the ladies from my group knew others who gave birth at natural birth centers or at home and connected me with them.

Making a Decision

After some research we found several stand alone natural birth centers in the Portland area that would possibly take our insurance. We toured 3 of them and then it was time to make a decision on which one we were going to go with. There were two that especially stood out to us and it was hard to pick one over the other. During this time we were praying for clarity and wisdom with the decision we were about to make.

I didn’t want to make a quick desicon and I wanted to meet and hear actual experiences/testomials from other women about their experience with giving birth at a birth center. That’s when I met two other ladies who gave birth at one of the birth centers we were considering. Alex also had a guy from his men’s group recommend him the same birth center we were considering. It was so encouraging to hear their positive experiences and right then and there we made our decision. God had answered my prayer.

We scheduled my first prenatal appointment at 14 weeks with Andaluz Waterbirth Center.

Prenatal Care

My first trimester appointment was 1 hour long. It was a time to get to know my midwife, the birth center, ask questions that we had, fill out paperwork, go over medical history and how I was currently feeling, and do a blood test to check my levels on iron. Our prenatal appointment was in one of the beautiful rooms at the birth center and it felt so peaceful and easy going as if we were just hanging out. At that moment I felt so thankful for the opportunity and decision we made. I could totally imagine our baby being born here with all the love, care and peace that this place brought.

First trimester flew by fast and before I knew it I was already in second trimester! I hope in sharing my story it will be helpful and encouraging to someone. This is me being honest and vulnerable. Stay tuned for the Second Trimester blog!

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