The First Trimester of my Pregnancy

I'm finally sitting down to write a blog post. I miss blogging. Actually I miss a lot of things I used to be able to do. This whole pregnancy thing has been pretty hard on me. I've heard from a few people that they loved being pregnant or that they miss being pregnant. One part of me thinks they are crazy and I secretly hate them. The other is just jealous because I wish my pregnancy would have, and still could be, easy.

When I found out I was pregnant they was a mix of emotions. I was happy, but I was also pretty freaked out. We were actually going to be bringing a tiny person into the world. What do I know about taking care of a baby. Nothing. Am I going to break it? Adam was excited and I felt crazy for being so freaked out. I remember actually asking him to be freaked out with me. It would make me feel better.

We went to the first OB appointment and they confirmed the pregnancy. The doctor then stated we would be getting a sonogram. Adam came into the room with me to get to see what was going on. To be honest I have no idea what the doctor was looking at or saw in the sonogram. It all looked like static from an old TV screen with the antenna malfunctioning. What the doctor told us was a different story.

 He saw a sac but didn't see anything confirming there was an actual baby inside. He also saw something on my ovary - this could be a cyst, or it could mean I had an ectopic pregnancy. There was also free fluid in my abdomen, which could be blood - another indication of ectopic pregnancy. I was told I would need to get blood drawn 3 times, spaced out 48 hours, and come back for a sonogram. 

When I went back to the doctor's office he still couldn't see what he needed to confirm the pregnancy. He said it looked better, but we still weren't out of the woods. And as for the labs - well my HcG levels should have been doubling every 48 hours. They went up, but they hadn't doubled. I had to come back again in 2 days. This was a pretty nerve-racking week, especially when you are told that if you have any severe cramping or bleeding go straight to the ER because if it happens to be an ectopic pregnancy you're fallopian tubes or ovaries can rupture. 

Finally, two days later, the doctor confirmed that everything seemed alright. He asked how I was feeling and I guess I felt okay besides the extreme exhaustion. I wasn't having any morning sickness, which was great since I absolutely hate being nauseous, but I was overwhelmingly tired ALL THE TIME. He told me this was normal and sent me on my way. 

I was told that I could workout as long as I kept my heart rate under 140. From most of what I read/hear now, I have found out that train of thought is very old school. You should be able to workout as long as you can carry a conversation. I was dead set on being active and continuing to run during pregnancy. I got a pre-natal yoga video, looked up some others online, got a book called "the pregnant athlete" and signed up for a 5k the day before my wedding. Unfortunately for me, the exhaustion took over and I could barely get through a day of work without falling asleep. Many a time I took a nap on my lunch break.

When I was home all I wanted to do was sleep. Working out was not in the cards for me. When I did have a little bit on energy I tried to clean or do laundry. Most of the time I would fail, being too tired to take the clothes out of the dryer and they just became a wrinkled mess. On top of that I was trying to plan a wedding. I have no idea how we pulled off a wedding with my exhaustion being so crazy. However, we did, and it was amazing....but that will be another post!

Looking back on the first trimester I have no idea how I got through working 40 hours feeling the way I did. Luckily for me that was pretty much my only problem, with the exception of a few bouts of crying for no reason. Then it was on to trimester 2....