Hello. I’m back! I have been a little absent from my blog for the past few months and I’m here to let you know why. I’m PREGNANT! The first trimester brought a lot of fatigue and decreased motivation, so this creative venture was put on the back burner. Tuesday will mark my 17th week of pregnancy, so I figured I would drop in for a little update on the first trimester.
Am I Really Pregnant?
Back in October, we had a vacation planned that involved a road trip across New England and New York. We had been trying to conceive for the past 5 months, so I had been tracking everything religiously. My period was due on the Monday after we left. We were leaving on Friday and I hadn’t finished packing. I knew it was early to be testing, but if it came back positive maybe I wouldn’t have to pack any feminine hygiene products.
I used my first morning urine and a cheap test strip, hopped into the shower, not really thinking anything of it. When I got out of the shower, I saw the faintest second line. Could it be? I didn’t feel like I could trust the test, since it was longer than the allotted time period, but felt like it was possible. I texted my college roommate, before I even told Shawn to get her opinion. She could see the second line, but advised that I test again tomorrow, if I wasn’t sure. I packed more pregnancy test strips and tampons in my suitcase. Shawn woke up and I showed him the test, but he wasn’t convinced that it was positive, since it was so light.
Okay, Maybe I am Pregnant.
That evening, we had a daycare family potluck at my son’s daycare. I went to the potluck right from work, so I was in a separate vehicle from my husband. Of course, my son wanted to go home with Daddy in his truck, so I drove home on my own. I knew that when you are early on in pregnancy, you should use your first morning urine to test, but I was antsy. The second pregnancy test was taken that afternoon and in the 5-minute allotted waiting time, the second line appeared even darker than that morning. I started to think I may actually be pregnant. The pregnancy test strips, and the tampons remained packed.
Our first stop to our road trip was Albany, where Shawn was running a marathon and we were staying with our friends. I took another pregnancy test on Saturday morning and the second line grew darker. Okay, maybe I actually am pregnant, I thought. I continued to test a couple more times during our vacation with the line growing darker and darker. The tampons remained packed away in my suitcase not needed.
First Trimester Symptoms
During our vacation, I started having my first pregnancy symptoms. They were the same as when I was pregnant the first time around. When I would stand up from lying down or bend over, I would feel lightheaded. Another thing I noticed early on was an increase in dreams and more insomnia in the middle of the night. I would wake up and not be able to fall back to sleep. Anxiety riddled my thoughts early on in my pregnancy regarding viability. I was 35 when I first got pregnant and now turned 36 years old. This label of advanced maternal age gave me more anxiety. There is a higher rate of miscarriage and genetic abnormalities in this age group, and I hated being a part of this subcategory of pregnant women.
I am not one who has morning sickness or a ton of nausea. I consider myself lucky. One thing that I noticed this time around was the fatigue. I would often fall asleep with Nolan when trying to put him to bed. I don’t know if it is my advanced maternal age or the fact that I have a toddler to chase after, but the fatigue is much worse this time around.
As for cravings or food aversions, I didn’t have many of those either. Oddly enough, I craved fresh vegetables and salads at the beginning of my pregnancy. I kind of wish that would have continued into this second trimester!
My First Appointments
My first appointment with the midwife was scheduled at 9 weeks. It was already a week later than my initial visit with my first pregnancy. The first ultrasound for dating and viability wasn’t scheduled until 12 weeks, because of my schedule at work and the lack of ultrasound techs available. Luckily, a portable machine was brought in by the midwife at my first appointment. It didn’t have the details and measurements as the one I would later get but was enough for me to see the little baby and heartbeat. That helped to settle my nerves a bit.
During my 12-week appointment, I was able to get the MaterniT21 non-invasive prenatal blood work drawn to screen for chromosomal abnormalities and also can tell the gender. We got the results about a week later. My husband and I decided to look at the results together. I was so nervous sitting on the couch opening the results on my electronic MyChart record. Scrolling through the results, all of the chromosomal tests were normal. At the bottom was the gender–consistent with female. We were having a baby girl! We were so excited to have a little girl to balance out the testosterone of our current household. Our first official ultrasound was done at around 12 weeks. She measured at 12 weeks and 2 days with normal findings and a heartbeat of 161.
Letting Everyone Else Know
We told our parents that we were pregnant back in November when I was about 8 weeks pregnant. We waited to tell the rest of the world when I entered the second trimester and had my MaterniT21 results. For our gender reveal, we planned a little Christmas themed way to tell our families. I got a Christmas ornament that said, “He or She Open to See” on it with pink crinkle paper inside. It was a fun and exciting way to share our news during the holidays. Needless to say, everyone in our family was happy for us.
What’s up ahead, you ask?
Now that I am almost 17 weeks pregnant, I have a little bit more energy and motivation to start being more consistent with my blog. Besides the fatigue of the first trimester, I didn’t feel ready to share anything, because my pregnancy wasn’t public. During this pregnancy, I have already started to research and act upon ways to make my birthing experience and postpartum better. Future posts will go into more detail about that.
I plan to continue with sharing my pregnancy with all of you and other things that have helped me or that I have struggled with along the way. It seems to be going by so much faster the second time around and I just now feel like I can start to process being pregnant. What started as disbelief is slowing transforming into a very real scenario that I’m excited, scared, and ready to experience.