I am PREGNANT! (Trimester 1 Recap)

You heard that right! We are expecting our beautiful baby in early March 2022 (or late February) 😀

We are so overjoyed with this news as my husband and I did a lot of preconception prep for this baby (link here for the video). We did this for the health of our first child and to reduce my risk of any pregnancy complications.

We tried for only one month and we found out on Fathers Day that we were expecting!

Keep in mind that I have been tracking my cycle and optimizing my future fertility health for the past 2 years as I knew one day I would want to start a family. Plus, I also teach my clients how to track their fertile (ovulation) window. So planning my conception was pretty easy as I knew when I was in my fertile window.

My goal with this post is to share with you my experience of the first trimester & what I did during this time.

To start things off I thought I was going to get my period that month because I was already getting some light cramping. Later figuring out it was implantation cramps. I also felt the slight fatigue that I usually get around my period. This is normal as I just take it a little easier those 2-3 days anyways.

I ended up taking a pregnancy test on the day after my period would normally arrive.

Since knowing I was pregnant the mild fatigue didn't go away and was the worst around weeks 8 - 10. Those were two very long weeks for me as I barely did anything. I would sleep 9-10 hrs & then still need the occasional nap. Lucky I did not get any nausea thought-out this. I will say the mild cramping went away after a few weeks and I personally got no spotting.

After 10 weeks, I did not need to take any more naps, my energy had improved and I was able to get back into more walking and exercise. I still needed 9-10 hours of sleep though. This was critical or I felt blah all day. Which made travel days BRUTAL. Since it was summer my husband and I are driving back and forth from Northern Ontario (where we have a landscaping business) to our home in southern Ontario, which is an 8 to 10-hour drive. So the times we were driving from south to north were the hardest as I had to wake up at 4:30 am to drive and pick up my husband from work at 7 am. And since he worked a 24-hour shift, he was tired too, so we had some very rough driving experiences 😛 When I wasn't pregnant, I didn't mind driving, but that was a different story now.

The good news was that my husband and I got to spend a lot of time together during my first trimester, so he was amazing at helping do more chores as I had a very hard time getting around to doing them. And for when I did have the energy I spent a lot of my time reading educational books & writing notes. I took this time to go through a learning sprint.

My Nutrition

• First of I have only had a glass of wine twice since February 2019, so stopping drinking wasn't an issue for me. If I was still drinking, I would have stopped 1-3 months before planning to get pregnant.

• I went off of all caffeine in the middle of April as an experiment & have not gone back to having matcha or green tea since.

• I started drinking Celery Juice almost every morning to help give my body the minerals & hydration it needed. I did this because my minerals tend to be lower than optimal, and I also had to come off of herbal supplements that helped manage stress. So making sure my body had enough minerals was a must.

• I also did Cucumber Juice mid-afternoon if I needed an energy boost and it was refreshing to have on a hot summer day.

• I continued my daily morning smoothies, and I never lost interest or taste in them

• I did not have any cravings, I would just have my days where I was "in the mood" for a particular food.

• I did go through a 2 week period of only wanting starches (potatoes, sweet potatoes, or yams) and protein (either fish, meat, or beans/lentils). I sadly did not want any of my non-starchy veggies. The thought of leafy greens was meh, and vegetables, in general, seemed to have lost their taste. I could still eat them, but I wasn't enjoying them like I usually do.

What my exercise was like

• I'm going to be REAL honest with you all here. Since I struggled a lot with fatigue, I was happy if I got my body walking. Some days it was a small walk with taking breaks outside in the sunshine. My goal was to continue my daily step count of 10,000 steps, but that just did not happen.

• There were a few times I felt good and would get in a bodyweight workout with some bands for the upper body. These workouts were no more than 30 minutes max.

What were my appointments like?

• Week 5: I had my first doctor's appointment, which was over the phone. It was a basic discussion of what to expect during pregnancy & going over anything standard stuff.

• Week 10: I had my first ultrasound, which was super quick.

• Week 11: second doctor's appointment - My blood pressure, blood work, the baby's heartbeat, and ultrasound all came back normal!

• I did get the occasional massage or chiropractor appointment for my regular tune-ups.

• I did have to see an osteopath up north a few times because I did get sciatica pain (hip/lower back area), which limited me from doing much movement. Luckily this did resolve pretty quickly.

Midwife and Doula?

• I applied for a midwife as I am planning a home birth, but I did not know how high the demand is here in Southern Ontario, Canada. So if you really want a midwife, apply as soon as you find out that you are pregnant! I know this varies depending on where you live in the world (in Canada, midwives are covered by OHIP).

• I did interview a doula and hired her. It is important if you hire a doula to find one you really get along with, as she is there to support you during and after birth. I wasn't sure I would get one at first as I can see my husband being enough to support, but since he does work 1 -1.5 hours away we decided it was a good idea for both of us to have her at our birth. And I'll tell you now, she has been amazing and the reason I don't need to spend hours researching things I have questions about.

That sums up my first-trimester experience pretty much. We told my parents at 10 weeks, which they were super shocked and happy about (I'm the oldest and the first to have a baby). Then we told my husband's parents around the 11-12 week mark and they were super happy of course (this will be their 6th grandchild 🤪). Oh and we told them by getting glass mugs engraved with their "grandparents" names (since I'm Flemish & my husband is Dutch they have different names) and with the year of birth. So that was super special. We told the rest of the family at 13 weeks.