The First Trimester

This is our little stinker, who I think looks like Daddy...

Today I'll summarize my first trimester.  Overall it was not so bad.  I've heard some real horror stories about constant vomiting and stuff and I thankfully have not had to deal with that.  I guess I'll start at the beginning, and this is not how it is for everyone, but I knew I was pregnant right away.  My body basically had PMS on steroids shortly after my ovulation date which made me suspect something was up.  My boobs got HUGE and hurt so bad.  I also had spotting about 10 days after ovulation, which my doctor said was implantation bleeding.  This is pretty common, but not everyone gets it.  I knew definitively that I was pregnant when I was so tired one day that I TOOK A NAP! Now, if you know me well you know that I NEVER nap, unless I am really sick.  So the fact that I took a nap on a normal Saturday afternoon is bonkers. I took a pregnancy test the next day and voila! Just so happens that the hubby and I went on a little double date the night before and drank several bottles of wine...whoops! 

That was 5 weeks in, and the worst for me in terms of fatigue was really 4-8 weeks. After that I think I had 1 normal week where I felt OK and then I got the flu.  That shit is sooo much worse when you are pregnant, as your immune system is suppressed so that you don't reject your fetus.  The day before I got the flu I had a CRAZY migraine, preceded by an aura.  I had never experienced an aura before and it was totally wacky.  Super trippy, sparkly lines and crazy weird visuals and also blind spots.   I was initially really freaked out because I was going blind and I thought and me and my baby must be dying or something.  Then I did a quick inquiry with Dr. Google and came to the conclusion that it was just a migraine and I hightailed it home in a taxi.  By the time I got home, the headache was setting in. My doctor said that unfortunately if you've had migraines before they tend to be even worse when you're pregnant because of all the hormone craziness.  Lucky me.

When I "woke up" (I use this term loosely here because I didn't really sleep much that night due to the migraine) the next day I still had the migraine and I also had the body aches and pains that signify the flu.  All downhill from there. Two weeks and four seasons of Person of Interest later I was finally on the mend.  My sister-in-law recommended that show because one of the main characters is a dog that looks like my dog.  Luckily there are like a million episodes per season so it got me through the flu.  Post-flu I have still had issues with congestion which wake me up every night when I can't breathe.  It's pretty great.  Interrupted sleep is the worst, but I suppose it's preparing me for when the baby is actually here and I need to feed every 3 hours....

Other than the flu the first trimester was not so bad, I was still able to work normally and work out 2-3 times a week.  I had nausea, but no vomiting, and as long as I ate certain things this was easily tolerated.  I was a little bummed that most of what my body seemed to tolerate was carbs, but since I actually really love those things and only avoid them because they are bad for you I considered it some sort of freebie.  If baby wants bagels, then baby is gonna get bagels! Bagels, pierogies, pasta and rice have all been very popular.  I fortunately do not crave anything sweet yet, just salty, sour and spicy.  I read that this means you're having a boy.  We shall see....Oh, also! I gained 10lb in the first few weeks and not much after that.  This is WAY more than you're supposed to gain in the first trimester, but my doctor was not concerned, since she said I was thin to begin with. Everyone is different, so if you gain nothing, that's totally normal and if you're a big fatty like me, that's totally normal too! 

When I found out I was pregnant I decided I needed to be as informed as possible about this whole process so I got a bunch of books.  Here are the ones I recommend:

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know 

by Emily Oster
This book is written by an economist who believes in data and numbers, so she tackles the literature on major topics in pregnancy (like how much booze is safe to drink?) and other things every mom-to-be wonders about. She cites published literature and I found it really useful and refreshing to have data on various questions instead of just someone's opinion. Everyone's got one of those, but not everyone has the hard numbers to back it up. Oster does, and it's very satisfying, especially for me as a scientist.


Making Babies: The Science of Pregnancy by David Bainbridge

This book tries to deliver the facts in a nature special-esque pleasant and historical package. The author is a little verbose at times, but I think the information is super interesting so it's totally tolerable. He goes into a lot of science history, like Mendl and the history of genetics, for those interested in that sort of thing, and also delves into fascinating topics like the differences in fertilization between various species of mammals - I had no idea we weren't all the same in that dept, so this was a particularly interesting section.  Damn it would be sweet to be a marsupial!  Although a vet and developmental biologist by training, Bainbridge's work is an easy read, written for the non-scientist, and has information that I haven't found in other books, like the stuff about marsupials.


The Science of Mom: A Research-Based Guide to Your Baby's First Year by Alice Green Callahan
This book starts out at birth and is similar to Oster's book above in that it presents the facts that you will need to base your important decisions on concerning your newborn. Callahan is a scientist by training and this is clear in how she presents the data and her own decisions. This is a great place to pick up where Oster's book left off.