The First Trimester
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OUR PREGNANCY STORY
Mr. Heid and I have been talking about what our future family might look like for years now. Sometime during our engagement, I asked him how long after marriage he wanted to wait to start trying for kids. I remember we were in a grocery store parking lot, but I don’t remember what prompted the question. He shrugged and said, “I dunno. I mean probably not very long…”
I was a little surprised, though I really shouldn’t have been — like I said, we’d been talking about family planning for years. On top of that, we’d been friends for 12 years, of which we’d been dating for five. We definitely felt like we’d had plenty of “just us” time. So we got married in October, began trying in January, and found out I was pregnant in March! I want to take this moment to say that I know it’s not that easy for everyone to get pregnant, and I hope anyone who has struggled or is struggling doesn’t become saddened or disheartened by this post. I used the Ovia Fertility Tracker while we were trying and let me tell you — I’m saddened and embarrassed to say that I learned so much about my reproductive system through this app and the research it prompted. The South Carolina sex education system is severely lacking, and that’s an understatement.
The morning I found out, I hit the mall and purchased a pair of baby Vans, made Mr. Heid a sweet note, and put it all together to gift him as an announcement. We called the doctor and were told we’d have to wait four weeks for an appointment because the ultrasound wouldn’t be able to detect anything that early.
Despite that making sense, I was still stunned at the amount of time I’d have to wait. Two weeks later, our state shut down for quarantine, and two weeks after that, I was able to see our little static fuzz of an embryo on ultrasound and that squiggly line that was a heartbeat. Mr. Heid wasn’t allowed to go in because of the new virus restrictions (more on pregnancy and coronavirus later). The rest of pregnancy was very nerve-racking for me — I don’t like not having control over my own body and I hated not being able to confirm that the baby was still thriving. Each appointment is a month apart (meaning a whole month between hearing those heartbeats) and you can’t feel baby’s movements until the second trimester. This, I did not handle well at. all. I constantly worried — going through thoughts of “Everything’s fine because I’m not bleeding...” to “But how do I knooowww??”
Here are some of my other first trimester experiences in a nutshell…
THINGS I HAD TO CUT OUT THAT I MISS
Runny eggs
Raw batter of baked goods (those pesky eggs)
Deli meat
Kombucha
Tuna sandwiches (though, I can have them occasionally)
Alcohol (which I hadn’t been drinking since just after our honeymoon in January anyway)
SYMPTOMS I EXPERIENCED (WEEKS 5-12)
Tailbone pain (yup, it’s real)
Nausea, but no vomiting (and my doc gave me a prescription to ease that)
Constant bad taste in my mouth
So many pee breaks
Insane levels of fatigue
Breast tenderness
Sensitive skin (my favorite face mask burned)
One really “fun” emotional spiral (it covered the virus possibly ruining my baby’s first Christmas, Mr. Heid losing his job due to the pandemic, me needing to eat more vegetables, what if the baby’s stopped growing, what if the vet can’t diagnose what’s wrong with our dog… like I said — fun.)
Zero fucks given about bullshit. Like I’ve lost a ton of patience and care about the stupid, unimportant things that others have chosen to make a big deal out of. There are too many other important things to focus on in my book and my family is at the top of that list.
AVERSIONS & CRAVINGS
The smell of the fresh peppers and just the sight of ham both make me gag. I craved cinnamon ev.er.y.thing. and the deli meats (minus ham) that I could no longer have. The worst part about that is one of my favorite local delis closed permanently during the virus *ugh*
I’ve incorporated a lot of water, veggie quiches, Raisin Bran, and Multigrain Cheerios into my diet.
I’ve always associated scents with memories. As it turns out, being under quarantine was not something I handled well. That coupled with constant nausea and a heightened sense of smell meant the body wash, hand soap, laundry detergent, and dish soap I was using were all offending me in the worst way. They had to go and I’ll probably never bring them back into rotation.
FIRST TRIMESTER STAPLES
The Ovia Pregnancy Tracker has been very useful in helping me keep track of how baby’s progressing, my symptoms, my doctor’s appointments, and my milestones. The app is pretty customizable and includes tools that explain what your and baby’s bodies are going through during each week, helpful articles, medical and food safety lookups, and more!
The Bump Pregnancy Tracker has most of the same information, but I enjoy their articles more and they have a really cool 3D view of how your body looks with baby inside. I don’t know how to explain it, you’ll just have to download it!
My 30 oz RTIC Tumbler has also been my favorite! I honestly don’t love drinking water, and it definitely has to be ice cold when I do. Having this tumbler by my side has helped me reach my water intake goals, keeps my water cold, and I have to refill it less often — win, win, win!
THE ANNOUNCEMENTS
For the parents, we got RetroViewers from Uncommon Goods and had custom reels made to include photos of us as kids with our parents. Then the last two frames of each reel had a photo of my ultrasound and a photo of us with our positive pregnancy test. We came up with what we thought were convincing excuses to visit our parents during quarantine, and we gave them the RetroViewers as “early Mother’s Day presents” while we were there. My dad and mother-in-law didn’t believe our excuses and had a feeling we were going to announce our pregnancy.
We had recently gone through family photos while organizing some things during the quarantine. For my sister and siblings-in-law, we slipped a copy of the 8-week ultrasound in a stack of photos that we were giving them. Since my brother is out in Cali, we mailed him a copy along with a card announcement!
Stay tuned for the second trimester recap!
xoxo,
K
