As mentioned in the previous post, we are happily expecting our 2nd child in July. I thought I would share some of what I remember from the first trimester; we’re currently at 20 weeks. We’ve not been doing so hot at taking pictures, hence the limited images.
I spent much of the first trimester trying to maintain positive thoughts. Could we really be this lucky to be pregnant? Between the statistics I’d read online about pregnancy in advanced maternal age and having had a miscarriage in June, my mindset had been in a downward spiral. Throw in there being married to lineman who happened to get sent out town at very inopportune times a few months in a row, I was starting to believe it may never happen.
It took me a few days to take a pregnancy test despite feeling early pregnancy symptoms and a missing period. I most definitely was in denial when that positive line appeared before my eyes.
I think both George and I held our breath in a sense until after week 7, which is when by our calculation we lost our last pregnancy. Once I suspected we reached that point with this pregnancy, I finally did an online search for local OBGYNs and booked an appointment.
The OBGYN office scheduled me to come in the very next week. To our surprise, we were a week further along than we thought – at the 9 week mark. The OBGYN took much time during my appointment to learn about my health history and answer my questions and concerns. She also did a transvaginal ultrasound, which is how she was able to more accurately estimate our baby’s due date. I finally felt like I was able to breathe after leaving that appointment.
I had pretty strong pregnancy symptoms up until about 12 weeks. These were comforting to me and helped combat some of the negative thoughts that surfaced in my head.
As with Ellie, I had a persistent metallic taste in my mouth and formed aversions to many foods – the strongest being to peanut butter. I still find the smell off-putting and overwhelming. Beans were a battle for a bit, too. Concerned about my protein intake given I chose to eat plant-based, I tried eggs and salmon each one time. The salmon came back up which quickly turned off my willingness to eat it again. Or any animal proteins.
Thankfully, altering the texture of beans by pureeing them did the trick. I made hummus out of various beans and flavored each batch with different herbs to keep it interesting and to avoid another pregnancy aversion – the same foods on repeat. I also pureed beans to add to soups which was a great way to sneak them in and made the plant-based soups extra creamy.
I had about 1 week where I turned to Amy’s frozen meals. I ate a lot of these during the first half of pregnancy with Ellie. This option came to a quick halt when I suddenly wanted only fresh, homemade meals. That desire overpowered my fatigue and got me back in the kitchen. I was absolutely unwilling to bring any type of snack food like crackers, pretzels or even my beloved dates or Lara bars to my mouth. This made holiday road trips to see George’s family more challenging than normal (gluten free and plant-based meals aren’t exactly at every stop!). Thank goodness George had no problem seeking out the closest Chipotle or Baja Fresh.
Aside from the wild ride of food aversions, I felt low-medium grade nausea all day. It peaked at night and was exacerbated by riding in the car. Sometimes brushing my teeth made me gag. I also was quite tired, especially in the afternoons. Sleep at night was, and remains, somewhat choppy. Thank goodness for my Kindle keeping me company and helping to tire my eyes back to sleep.
This likely could have been a byproduct of my nerves and the negative thoughts, but in hindsight, I felt a bit low during much of the first trimester. To make it worse, I was very judgmental toward these feelings and told myself that I had no right to feel down as we are so lucky to be pregnant. I believe another contributing factor was limited in person connection with others. Most of the line wives and children in the RV park were not here between the stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas. (Having them back has been SO enjoyable for Ellie and me). Also, the colder weather limited the length of our outdoor play each day. Thankfully, my mood improved significantly at the end of the first trimester.
We had 2 routine OBGYN appointments in the first trimester. We also opted for genetic testing of our baby via natera Panorama Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT). We are so grateful the results came back low risk.
Pregnancy in a RV hasn’t been that different from a regular house so far. The biggest difference is the need to see different providers as our travels necessitate. I imagine it will get interesting fitting in small places such as the bathroom as my belly grows.
That’s it for now.