LindsaydaModel

hi guys! as requested by a friend, i'm finally sitting down to type up some stuff about how my first trimester went. it's kinda funny because as i sit here writing this, i'm actually over 23 weeks along and well into the second trimester. but you'll have wait til next month to hear about how the past two months have been. 😉
i hope this post about my experience is informative and helpful for you! ~Lindsay

how i found out
this is actually kind of funny, it was father's day and i was feeling pretty unwell. so instead of hanging out with the family, i drove back to my house and was feeling incredibly sick and nauseous the entire hour long drive. i waited around a while before taking the first test that day. a few days later, i took a second test. both were positive.

keeping secrets
paul pretty much coaxed it out of me when i told him, this was basically the week after i'd found out and he was noticing how sick i was and that i was weird about him helping me buy more pregnancy tests. sometime after my first appointment, i'd told my manager so that plans could be set in motion. not telling everyone else until the first trimester was over was quite difficult. my coworkers were beginning to suspect things because my behavior and availability in the office changed some..but the didn't make too big of a deal about it and were certainly more understanding after i'd made my announcement. we waited until about week 13 or so, during August birthday week to make the announcement.

morning sickness
the first week of me knowing and feeling sick was the worst! i went an entire week before calling the doctor, because i wanted to wait until i took the second test, and i was incredibly nauseous that entire time. once i'd called the doctor, we scheduled my first appointment, got some initial questions answered, and was prescribed nausea medication.
the other terrible thing that happened, during this first week of not telling, i found out my food aversion...but i had to play it off despite how miserable it made me feel. T & B came over to hang out and try the new ramen chain that'd opened up, and we ordered takoyaki. the takoyaki itself was super good, the takoyaki sauce....made me queasy. from this point until my morning sickness went away in the second trimester, i had a huge aversion to barbecue sauce by way of takoyaki sauce. the thought, sight, or smell of barbecue sauce made me gag and queasy. the feeling was super bad, even with the nausea meds in my system.
back to the nausea medication. the prescription that i was on was a 4-6 hour, as needed, dissolvable tablet. most days, i tried to get by with taking just one, but occasionally i needed a second dose to be able to function the rest of the day. because of the morning sickness, my diet consisted of crackers, cheez-its, apple juice, coconut water, fruit, and whenever possible: half of my usual portions of other meals. i threw that last one in there because my coworkers and i frequently walk to get lunch. as far as keeping up appearances, i'd often try to walk places with them to get food. but this was a pretty difficult task between the nausea and the louisiana summer heat. needless to say, i ended up losing some weight during this time because i couldn't stomach more and constantly felt ill. thankfully, i didn't throw up more than a handful of times during this time.
motion sickness. it was really tough during this time for me to play the lightest of video games. physical motion did not make me feel ill, but sometimes motion in video games did. ever since i got the app, i have played animal crossing pocket camp on my phone daily. sometimes just having my character walk around was bad. 😖 other games, like visual novel style games became the best choice. like the phoenix wright: ace attorney trilogy (i loved this series when it first came out!), and our world is ended (yes, that is the title). other games that were released during my first trimester, like astral chain (💗) and a handful of others had to get put on the back burner because the motion and camera changes were too intense. 😭
motion sickness and the food aversions thing also kind of went hand in hand. i love food, and follow several food related channels or accounts across various social media platforms. and during the first trimester, scrolling through my feeds and seeing photos of food, or even looking at my own account and seeing food photos.. i would feel sick and have to look away or close the page. 😷

appointments
for clarification purposes, for the past few years, i have been visiting the local hospital for my GYN appointments, and my OB is a doctor at the same clinic. at every appointment i've had at this clinic, they've taken urine samples and weight measurements.
my first appointment was close to the 8 week mark, in july. at this appointment, we did an ultrasound, had some time for Q&A, and i had blood drawn and some additional samples taken to get our baseline. a few days later, they called with the results of all the tests. the first ultrasound was interesting, they did a heart rate measurement, as well as showed us what the baby looked like. at this stage, it was pretty blob-like, a head with a torso and the nub of an appendage.
my second appointment was much less intense. there were the usual status update questions, time for me to ask my own questions, and they used the doppler to check on the heartbeat. and i was on my way.

body changes
there weren't too many changes that happened in the first trimester. the most noticeable one was my jeans were starting to get tight around week 7, but we waited a couple weeks before going to the maternity store. we ended up getting several sets of bottoms: jeans, shorts, work pants, for my growing belly. tops at this time were otherwise not a huge deal, but i was quickly switching from my tighter, fitted shirts to my looser, if not large by my standards tops.
i have a history of migraines, in college i had them almost weekly, and since i've started working i've had less than 1 per month. thankfully, ever since i've become pregnant, i have not had any migraines, but i have had headaches. the few times that i did have headaches (through today), i've only taken a half dose of tylenol (basically the only thing i'm allowed to take) and it would more or less knock it out. there was one especially bad day that i ended up having to take 2 nausea tablets and a full dose (2 tablets) of tylenol.
my skin. omg let's talk about this one. my skin has been doing it's own thing ever since i got off the pill about two years ago. not that most people would have really noticed much because i've been blogging so irregularly, but i did change up my routine at that point because my skin was behaving the same as it did when i was in high school, all over again. basically the things that were able to help maintain things was the drunk elephant line, plus a few sunday riley products. i'm undecided if tati's halo kiwi supplement helped or not because i was briefly on the pill again (3 months), and then stopped taking kiwi when i found out i was pregnant -- i finished 5 bottles. for the most part, my skin had been up and down the past 5 months, but it's at a mostly maintainable state now thankfully.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

first trimester: thoughts and reflections

update