Surviving and Barely Thriving in the First Trimester

 Pregnancy is nothing like I thought it would be. I’ve spent years hearing friends discuss it and watching it depicted on television, but until you experience it, you just don’t really get it.  

For example, I always thought I would have really bad morning sickness and be throwing up all day. I get motion sickness very easily and was told that can increase your likeness of morning sickness. However, while I’ve had nausea throughout my first trimester, it was never “that bad”. It was more like a constant uneasiness and just never feeling “good”. For me, it would get worse around 4pm and throughout the night. The only things that really seemed to help were McDonalds and Diet Coke (hello carbonation burps). Of course, I didn’t want to be eating McD’s fries every night so some nights I just curled up with a blanket to my belly. 

Another surprise was how quickly my sleep was affected. I was only getting up to pee once a night, but sometimes that one event was enough to have me tossing and turning to fall back to sleep. Oh, and the night sweats, where I would wake up with my sheets drenched. Then I would start to stress myself out about choosing the right baby name, and feeling an impending doom coming that I didn’t already have the perfect name selected. 

The fatigue was something interesting too. If I had a good night's sleep I could usually make it through the day fine, but when that didn’t happen (see above), I felt like I was constantly in a state of post deep nap grogginess. Sometimes I would close my eyes on my couch for “a few minutes” and wake up 2 hours later! I'm even guilty of taking a nap in my car on my lunch break once. 

Anyways, I’ve put together a list of items that I used throughout my first trimester that helped me! 

1. Peppermint Tums: I’m not sure why, but this pregnancy safe antacid helped my nighttime nausea and as an added bonus it gives you extra calcium - something you need a lot of in pregnancy!
2. Benadryl: Also pregnancy safe - this helped with nausea symptoms and sleep. I didn’t want to take it too often so I saved it for the nights I knew I needed a good sleep. I also found that the nights I had a good night sleep - my nausea the next day was significantly better 
3. Diet Coke (caffeine free when possible) - or any drink with bubbles. Getting that carbonation and burps helped tremendously!
4. Pj short set: Just trust me. You will be waking up sweating throughout the night - wear something light and breathable to maximize your comfort. 
5. Doordash: The thought of prepping dinner most nights was more than I could stomach, but I still wanted good food. Having a hot meal delivered to my door based on that nights cravings was just what I needed. 
6. Anti nausea ginger gum: This got me through my days at work when I didn’t feel my best. 
7. Bio oil: It’s recommended to start using an oil or lotion for stretch marks before you really start growing! I’ve been applying this to my boobs, belly, and thighs - all areas that I know will be growing shortly! 
8. Hydroflask: Staying hydrated is a must. I upgrade to this 40oz Hydroflask and try to drink 2 of them a day which is giving me at least 80oz of water (640z-96oz is recommended!).
9. Loose dresses: While I don’t have a visible baby bump yet, I was surprised at how uncomfortable my pants had become by week 9. Getting them on wasn’t always the challenge, but as the day went I would become increasing I sadly folded up most of my pre-pregnancy pants at week 10, and started living in dresses. 

Link to my Amazon Storefront that has all of these items and more!