Sunday 18 September 2011

My First Trimester (0-12 weeks)

0-4 Weeks

I found out I was pregnant on what doctors term the 4th week (they take it by the date of your last period rather than the date of conception). At that point I was incredibly excited and scared at the same time. It was the morning of my third anniversary with my partner, and I had to take three tests before believing it.

The hardest part for me was keeping it to myself until I saw him for our anniversary dinner! Me being me, there was no way I could hold it in for even an hour, so popped in to see him on my way to work and gave him the shock of his life!



That was definitely the happy part. It was a lot to take in though, and the first thing I did, after running straight over to my mum's of course, was call my doctor, who unfortunately didn't seem to act the way I had always imagined. I thought you had to confirm the pregnancy by visiting your GP, but no, he took my word for it, and just told me to eat healthily and gave me the number of the midwife to book my scan and first visit.
As he was rushing to get off the phone, I asked him what I should avoid eating and doing, and he said just alcohol, cigarettes, soft cheese and that was it. I asked him about fish and he said that was fine.
(but thank god for NHS online, as I found out you should avoid shellfish, pate, liver, a few certain species of fish and lower caffeine).

My advice is to Google what pregnant women can eat, as so many sites such as Bounty, NHS Direct and BBC Preganancy Calendar are a lot more helpful!

At this stage I felt physically fine. My boobs were fuller and more tender, but I still felt like me. It was just a confusing time in regards to trying to make sure I didn't eat some of my favourite foods, but you get used to it. The most important thing to remember is to take your folic acid as soon as you know you are pregnant, and read up on the first trimester as much as possible.

4-8 Weeks

This is where I started to really feel it. It was a huge shock to my system- I literally felt like someone had replaced my body overnight, as I suddenley felt soooo tired and nauseous constantly.
Now everyone knows that some pregnant women get morning sickness, but I was never told that you can feel like you want to puke EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF THE DAY!
I was not prepared for constantly feeling unwell and like I had not slept for two months. This was by far the most awful part of it for me in the first trimester.
I felt like I had flu; my head constantly felt hazy and heavy, I couldn't concentrate as I felt sleep deprived, all I wanted to do was vomit but it never quite made it to the surface, and I was suddenley consumed by smells.

The smells were another shock. I have never had a great sense of smell, so to suddenley notice every tiny smell as if it is right up  my nostril was awful. You literally cannot stand the smell of anything- my favourite perfume had to go, clean clothes smelt so strong, my partner's breath randomly became rancid and the weirdest one was I would heave at the smell of stale water when I went into the bathroom or kitchen after waking up.
I didn't want to cook, as I couldn't bear the thought of what the smell would do to me, and I got to the point where I couldn't wear any body spray apart from underarm deoderant, as otherwise I would gag all day.

Combine all of this with trying to work full time, keep my flat vaguely hygienic and attempt to stay in touch with my partner, family and friends and it was an awful, awful time!

Apologies for being so negative, but I cannot put across how unprepared I was for this- no one ever told me that the symptoms are all day and night. Even on TV, women might puke once or twice in the day, but you don't see them struggling to stay awake at work and constantly feeling unwell.
What didn't then help, were the women who would say to me- "Oh I was lucky, I never felt sick at all when I was pregnant"- I HATE YOU!
And the other comment I tended to get, was "It should all be gone by week 12". When you are at week 6 and you are at the point where you are begging and praying for just 30 minutes of feeling like yourself, the prospect of another 6 weeks of this is not what you want to hear!

So girlies, if you have ever said either of those quotes to a woman like me- please don't ever do it again, and just try to instead give her some remedies.

Weeks 8-12

Still felt awful at the time, except now I wasn't just feeling sick, I was also being sick sometimes too. Thankfully this was not whilst I was at work, but mainly in the mornings, and on the worst days I could not even keep water down until about 2pm. This particular example was on the day of my first scan!

At times I got stomach cramps, and pains at the very top of my stomach- this could be the womb expanding, I'm not sure. Despite being tired all the time, I would be falling asleep on the sofa by 9pm, and still no matter how tired, I would always wake up between 5.30am and 6.30am. However, this was good in some ways, because it gave me a few hours to get the sickness out of the way and attempt to get up and eat something.

Getting up and ready for work seemed a hell of a lot harder in these weeks! Before I became "with child", I only needed 45 minutes to get up, washed, dressed and eat, but at this point I needed about 3 hours!

All I did was count down the days and pray that I would feel like me again by week 12, but it didn't seem to go that way...


3 comments:

  1. Hi!!i just totally love reading all tht uv writtn.i m bginning to think of writing my Moms Journey too.actually i wanted to ask whether at 6 weeks(which i am nw) u had any pains in yuor rigt side or anything related??(its worryinge sick) I gt sme on n off esp when i sleep on my right side.
    It would help if u knw or flt sumthng like ths...
    Thnx...i love ut post:-)

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    1. Thanks for the great comment! I dont remember having pains on my right side, but then i had bad back pain from early on, so it could be the way baby is laying- always worth checking out with your midwife or GP (whichever you trust more!).

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  2. I'm at week 11 and I feel the same as you did, constantly nauseous! I haven't thrown up much though. And yes the smells oh my god!! I gave up smoking as soon as I find out which improves your sense of smell too bluurrghhh!!!

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