How should I feel in the First Trimester of Pregnancy?

As I’ve decided to share my experiences of pregnancy and parenthood, I thought I’d look back on my diary, to note how I was feeling at each stage of pregnancy. It’s interesting reading it back and I’m glad I documented this crazy, special time. But also perhaps it’ll put some other mums-to-be’s minds at ease and assure you that you’re not the only one going through these changes and feelings. It can sometimes be lonely and unnerving as you don’t know how and what you should be feeling. So I thought I’d put together a personal series – ‘How should I feel in the First Trimester’ – in order to try and help with some of those questions you might be keeping to yourself (particularly if you’ve not shared the news yet!…

How should I feel in the first trimester?

Weeks 6-8 of my pregnancy

I started out eating healthily when I found out I was pregnant. For the first time, forcing myself to have a proper breakfast of fruits, yoghurt and toast. I thought being pregnant would give me the motivation to be healthier than ever.

Then week 7 struck and the nausea aka “morning sickness” kicked-in. Great! I started to feel queasy and wishy-washy, mainly at night time at first and then almost constantly. I was lucky and surprised that I wasn’t actually vomiting, just feeling sick and retching a fair bit. But the constant feeling of nausea was putting me off food and eating full-stop.

So weeks 7 and 8 was about eating whatever I could stomach, whenever I could stomach it. I found that I could eat a little bit in the mornings – something plain like toast or potato cakes with butter. Then I was trying to get what I could down me at lunch time, which was when I seemed to be able to stomach a larger quantity of food. Then by the time I was home from work of an evening, I was exhausted, sick and couldn’t bear the thought of food or cooking. So my lovely hubby was cooking for me and I was eating about 1/2 the amount I usually would.

And not only had the sickness kicked-in, so had the exhaustion! Complete. and. utter. exhaustion!

By about 2pm everyday, I was dead on my feet and in serious need of a nap. Now this was tricky when I was still at work and nobody knew. I had to try and keep a smile on my face to ensure nobody realised. So I’d drag myself through the afternoons and crash on the couch as soon as I got home. I’d fall into an instant sleep (which is very unlike me).

Weekends were easier as I could sleep till my heart’s content and eat more regularly, but fancying food was still a struggle and my exhaustion would be back by Monday evening after a day at work.

How did you feel during weeks 6-8 of your pregnancy? Is it different with each pregnancy?

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Weeks 8-10 of my pregnancy

Weeks 8-10 fell over the Christmas period for me. Which in some ways was brilliant, but in others was blimmin’ difficult! It was nice to have a break from work for a bit as it was getting harder to disguise my nausea and exhaustion, and it meant that I could get plenty of rest and sleep. But it also meant we were visiting lots of family and being offered lots of food…and drink! Namely booze!

By Christmas we were about 8 1/2 weeks pregnant, which was still quite early in my eyes. I wouldn’t have chosen to tell anyone just yet, but we knew we’d have to tell our close family and friends as it would just be too obvious for me to be turning down Prosecco and Baileys at Christmas. So that’s what we did and we were received with squeals of excitement and beaming smiles from our parents and siblings.

It was really nice to finally be able to say it out loud, but it still didn’t feel real to me. And as a worrier, I was still nervous that something could go wrong in the first trimester and we might be getting excited over nothing. But hubby persuaded me to just relax and enjoy the attention…so I did…eventually.

By this point I was still really tired, so napping in the day and I was still fussy with food. I was finding that as long as I didn’t need to think about what to eat, or prepare or cook something myself, then it wasn’t such an issue. Basically, if someone cooked for me and put it in front of me, I’d eat it, but if anyone asked me what I fancied for dinner, I couldn’t possibly think of anything!

I lost 2lbs during these 2 weeks, which was a bit unexpected, but I suppose makes total sense when you think about the calories a pregnant woman burns at this stage of pregnancy, just sitting down. I also wasn’t eating nearly the amount I usually do, so I was happy to lose a couple of lbs, but conscious that I didn’t want to deprive the growing embryo of what it needed.

How were weeks 8-10 of your pregnancy? Did you struggle with eating?

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Weeks 10-12 of my pregnancy

Week 10 and I was back at work after a bit of a break over Christmas and the New Year. Only close family knew, so no one at work was aware. I was still really tired and sleeping loads at night with absolutely zero energy to do anything or to go out anywhere.

Food was still a struggle for me. Being someone who is really into my food and loves to eat, I felt like my mojo was gone! I just couldn’t fancy anything to eat. I didn’t want anything, I didn’t want to cook anything and meal times were becoming quite stressful to be honest. I was reading-up on this stage of pregnancy and how to combat nausea and everywhere seemed to be advising to eat little and often. So that’s what I tried to do, keeping things quite plain and enjoying salty foods and carbs (I demolished a family sharer bag of salt n vinegar crisp sticks at one point!).

I had what I call my first craving (but might just be one of those random food moments I have)…a cheesy bean roll. That’s right – baked beans, mature grated cheddar packed into a soft white bread roll…delicious! It felt like the nicest thing I’d eaten in weeks. But no other cravings apart from that…a bit disappointing really.

Apart from the occasional dull ache in my lower abdomen and back (similar to period pains), I wasn’t really feeling much else. It’s hard not to be aware of the slightest feeling and worry about the smallest twinge, but generally the only symptom of pregnancy was blimmin nausea!

Week 11 was our first scan (we thought we were 12 weeks pregnant by then), which was full of anxiety and excitement and resulted in utter relief when everything was deemed normal. I was counting the days till 12 weeks, when I knew the risks of miscarriage would decrease significantly and hoping that I’d be able to relax and enjoy the experience more.

How was weeks 10-12 for you? Were you anxious about the impending scan?