My First Trimester.

So here goes, the start of my baby diaries online. It’s crazy to think I am sat here writing this a week away from my third trimester. I am currently 26 weeks pregnant, and have had my midwife check up today. Baby boy is growing nicely, and thumping away well in there. I thought today would be a nice day to sit and reflect on those first 3 months, and everything that went along with them. Before I enter my final 3 months! Oh my gosh.

Trying to Conceive

Me and Ste had decided that 2021 would hopefully be the year that we would start a family. We had been trying for about 4 months before I found out I had fallen pregnant. The months when you are trying and not getting positive tests, in my opinion, get harder each time. My heart truly goes out to everyone that waits years for a baby.

The first time when my period came through I was of the mindset of “of course it wouldn’t happen first time”. So I was relatively relaxed about it. But after that each month brought a lot of hope with an equal mix of disappointment. That’s how I knew, after many years of being undecided, I really did want a baby.

In February I got quite sick. I had awful sickness and gallbladder pain. The nurses and Drs think I had passed either gall stones or kidney stones. It never came back which but the pain and sickness was awful. This lingered for about a month or so after. I was putting down not conceiving to this illness. I had never even considered it could be something to do with Ste, it had to be something in my body.

Then after all the tests were done for my sickness, they found out I had a very low count of folate in me, so I was put on folic acid tablets right away. I was on these for a month and a half, and then fell pregnant.

I didn’t know it at the time, as we hadn’t discussed starting a family with our GP, but if you are trying to conceive you’re recommended to start taking folic acid right away. Once you fall pregnant you then continue taking it for around the first 3 months. I genuinely believe that taking the folic acid & also changing up my diet to support my kidneys/gallbladder better, helped us massively.

Finding Out – The Positive Test

We found out we were pregnant on the end of May Bank Holiday. I actually knew the day before Ste did. I’d woken up and still not come on my period and I am usually like clock work. A few funny things leading up to the weekend had also made me question it as well. One of which was being totally repulsed by the smell of KFC, and we all know that smells divine.

I took a test we already had at home, first thing in the morning. Straight away the lines appeared to show positive. Ste was out at the gym, and I just sat on the bed staring at it. Shaking. I then went on Amazon straight away and ordered a Clear Blue test. This was the test I’d always pictured myself taking and showing to Ste, so it had to be done. The tests I’d used, and had been using were 99p from Home Bargains, absolutely nothing wrong with them, totally accurate so don’t worry about stocking up by spending loads.

The Clear Blue test arrived the next day, Bank Holiday Monday. I heard the Amazon parcel drop through the letterbox, while Ste was already sunbathing in the garden. I dashed upstairs, took the test, and saw Pregnant come up on the screen, along with 3+. Three weeks pregnant I was, and I didn’t even know the little bit of pixie dust had been growing in there.

I wrapped up the tests in a little gift bag and headed downstairs to Ste. I told him I had a little Bank Holiday treat for him. He was absolutely elated when he opened them. He had no idea what was coming, I completely caught him off guard. His dreams of becoming a dad had finally come true.

We decided to keep our news to ourselves until our 1st scan. We wanted to have that special time just us 2, and plus we wanted to have something to show our families.

Everyone still says to us now they don’t know how we kept the news to ourselves for 10 weeks.

The Next 10 Weeks

We’re now officially pregnant. Now what? At the prime old age of 31, I had no idea what to do next. I genuinely turned to Dr Google. I called my Dr’s and they gave me “next steps” advice. But basically other than a midwife phone call at around 10 weeks, and then getting our 12 week scan date you’re pretty much just left to be pregnant in that 1st trimester.

Our initial scan showed us we were 13 weeks and 3 days. 13 weeks we had been keeping the biggest secret. In that time I had been on a weekend away with my Mum and Sister. We celebrated my father in laws 60th birthday with all the family. I had been out and about with friends. All the while the pair of us were secretly giggling to each other that a little babe was hopefully growing away nicely in my tummy.

Because we wanted to wait to tell family I was so relieved that I didn’t suffer with any sickness. I waited and waited for the morning sickness to come but it never. I was convinced I would be wiped out with it. That’s not to say that I didn’t have any other symptoms for the 1st 3 months. The main things I experienced were fatigue and bloating. Let me tell you that at 7 weeks pregnant I looked about 5 months pregnant. The bloating was horribly uncomfortable.

The fatigue and tiredness was another level though. I am not much of a napper. Every now and then a cosy Sunday afternoon nap suits me, or after stuffing myself with Christmas Dinner. But I couldn’t get enough of sleep. Thank goodness for working from home because I was napping on my lunch hour, napping straight after work, and then crashing out at bedtime. I’ve never slept so much in my life.

In those first few weeks your body is going through so many changes that it’s perfectly normal to feel exhausted. Brain fog and Baby Brain also kicked in pretty quick for me. Baby brain is something I thought was made up, but how wrong I was.

Telling Our Friends and Family

The time came for our 1st scan and we were so excited and naturally a little apprehensive. I remember saying about 10 little prayers on the way to the hospital and whilst sat in the waiting room that everything would be ok. Thankfully it was. We heard the heartbeat for the 1st time and watched this little baby of ours tossing and turning about in my belly.

It was a complete out of body experience. I was lying on the bed with Ste sat by me, and as we where watching our baby on the screen I had to pinch myself to be reminded it was real. I had heard about this moment from friends, I had seen it on films, and now it was our turn.

• 

• 

Our scan date was on a Tuesday morning, and it just so happened that we were seeing both sets of parents on that day also. It couldn’t have been more perfect. We went straight from the hospital to my parents house. We had built it up to tell them results of my gallbladder ultrasound. They were both so worried as they thought I was really poorly because I hadn’t quite been myself. They thought I was really poorly, when really I was just on edge of blurting out about the baby every time I saw them before getting the scan.

Safe to say that when we showed them the scan they were overjoyed. My mum nearly threw her tea across the room as she couldn’t put it down quick enough to hug us.

That afternoon we went to tell my in-laws, and we got lucky because my brother and sister in law and their kids were also at the house. Telling them altogether made it even more special. They were all so shocked but thrilled. My father in law cried, and my sister in law was so happy that another baby was on the way.

Later that night we finally got to tell my Sister and her boyfriend. This was the funniest conversation of the day as she was completely floored and stood there in shock for a good 10 minutes. Then came the tears, then came the hugs, and then it was back to shock.

From there on out it felt so much more real now our family and friends began to know. We facetimed a lot of our family and friends, and those we couldn’t we made a little video for them.

On To The Second Trimester

So after keeping our lovely news to ourselves for pretty much the whole of the first trimester, it was on to the second trimester with lots of shared excitement.

It’s not for everyone keeping the news quiet, but for us it’s something we always said we would do. Partly to make sure everything was ok, but also to have that special time as just us 2, or technically 3.

I will obviously be writing about my second and third trimester soon. They really won’t be as long as this post, I promise. I really was blessed in my first trimester with a smooth start to pregnancy. For me the second trimester has been the hardest, for a few different reasons. I will go in to that more soon.

I do hope you enjoyed reading this. And I hope it reassures you in some ways if you’re also just starting your pregnancy journey.

Always here for a chat in the comments, so please do leave me with something. Tell me about your 1st trimester, or if you’re currently expecting.

Love, Jessi

xoxo