The First Trimester
Surprise! The two positive lines on the pregnancy test led me into disbelief, resulting in me going to the store to buy the test that directly says either ‘YES’ or ‘NO’. After having another positive test result, I think I finally started to accept that I was actually pregnant. Right after finding out, I was feeling pretty good. Normal energy levels, same level of appetite and food preferences, so I was thinking, hey, this isn’t so bad! Then right around weeks 7 or 8 or so is when I really started to feel pregnant. I have always heard of people having food aversions or unusual cravings while being pregnant. I always thought, “I love vegetables, I will never not eat them!”. What an optimistic thought. My nightmare happened overnight. Cooked, roasted or sautéed vegetables made me nauseous at the sight or smell. Soon I started to feel nauseous most parts of the day, so nothing sounded good. In addition to the food aversions, one of the early signs I noticed was sore and tender breasts, which has been lasting on-and-off throughout my pregnancy thus far. Also, increased congestion and ‘stuffy nose’ has been a new pregnancy symptom!
Being a first time mom, aka knowing nothing about ‘normal’ symptoms, I started to worry that the baby wasn’t getting enough calories or nutrients. Especially since I was having food aversions to my usual nutrient-dense, veggie-filled diet. Then I remembered, the little babe was the size of a raspberry and everything I was consuming, baby gets first priority and access to. There would be nights I would wake up hungry and then think the baby must be hungry too. So for a couple nights off to the kitchen at 3 AM for a handful of almonds or other snacks (I’m sure we both would have been fine waiting until morning, but oh well!).
Luckily I had such a strong habit and routine of eating healthy foods built in prior to getting pregnant, which helped me tremendously during those couple weeks of feeling nauseous. I had nutrient-filled, fat- fueled smoothies prior to getting pregnant, but now I took it up a notch to make up for the lack of nutrition I wasn’t getting through diet. I was adding more full-fat coconut milk from the can in for healthy fats, 1 Tbsp of chia seeds, flaxseeds and hemp seeds, MCT oil and clean protein powder. Oh, this also was an excellent way to sneak in some organic veggies that were lacking from my diet!
I noticed that my nausea got progressively worse as the day went on, so dinners were not my friend. I would try to eat more mid-morning and bigger lunches. I also would eat a ‘dinner’-like meal or snack right when I got home from work while food still sounded somewhat appetizing. So this meant I was eating around 4-4:30 PM most nights. Pregnancy is a great, reminder to listen to your natural hunger cues ;)
Overall, I would say this weird time of feeling nauseous and where my once beloved foods sounded awful lasted about 2-3 weeks (thank goodness!). I didn’t have too many crazy, strong food cravings. The main cravings I had were for carbs, specifically grilled cheese and tomato soup and peanut butter toast. Something that stopped sounding good was caffeine. I was never a daily, multiple cups a day type person to start, but I would have my daily green tea and coffee 1-2x a week. When I became pregnant coffee wasn’t appealing, so I listened and stopped drinking any caffeine. I still take it day-by-day well into the second trimester. This has been a good reminder and practice for me to listen to my body without forcing or judging what I am wanting. Some days a food will sound great, then the next it will make me nauseous. I guess I’m just reminding you to do your best because your body is going through some crazy changes (the pep talk I would tell myself)! Something else to think of is the nutrients you are getting daily from a daily high quality prenatal vitamin.
Workouts:
Have been staying pretty consistent with working out 4-5x a week. Strength training for about 30-35 minutes and walking. Nothing too high intensity and focusing on strengthening my back to support the growing belly!
This was just my experience through the first trimester and everyone’s can be so different and it can all be normal! Below I will share my tricks I used to help try to combat some of the nausea during those couple of weeks.
Some Tips to Help Nausea (what worked for me):
I bought organic lemon or peach-ginger lozenges to suck on throughout the day when I was feeling a little nauseous. Ordered through amazon.
I know this is hard when nothing sounds good, but eat MORE OFTEN instead of waiting 3-4+ hours between meals. I kept crackers and snacks on hand!
I was more drawn to fruit, especially citrus fruits, like cuties as a morning or afternoon snack and that helped decrease the nausea between meals.
Ginger tea. I would drink this in the morning and often at night before bed.
High quality B6 supplement (which should be in your prenatal, but additional supplements may help)
Dairy. I know not everyone can do well with consuming dairy products, but with the probiotics in organic, full fat greek yogurt was something that I was able to stomach and helped with the nausea. It also is common for women who usually don’t eat a lot of dairy to crave it during their first trimester.
Coconut water. For some reason when I was feeling nauseous and just in general during the first trimester, drinking water became more difficult. Coconut water was more appealing and has the ability to help me stay hydrated.