After writing a brief post on how I felt about becoming a mum, I thought I’d do a post on how each trimester of pregnancy has been for me. If we’d been posting at the time, then I would have broken this up into separate posts. However, because I’m now well into the third trimester it just makes sense to do one big post. I’ll try not to ramble on too much, but be prepared; you might be reading this for a while!
Just a quick disclaimer here, this is how I’ve felt personally throughout my pregnancy. This in no way means that this is how you are going to feel, so please don’t read this and think just because this is how I was that you will feel the same. Pregnancy is different for every woman!
In this Post.....
First Trimester (0 -13 weeks)
So I discovered I was pregnant when I was about 7/8 weeks. The best way to describe this trimester for me was feeling like I was CONSTANTLY hungover, literally all day, everyday. I was absolutely exhausted all the time and my body ached, I felt nauseous constantly, I went off a lot of foods and just felt generally shitty. In all honesty, I never even considered that I might be pregnant and so when Mark suggested I take a test- I laughed because there was no way I was possibly pregnant.
Oh how wrong I was! After finding out I definitely was pregnant, I stopped drinking and taking my contraceptive (yes I was on the pill – but I hadn’t been having a great time with it for a few months) and started taking vitamins and drinking as much water as possible. I booked in to see a midwife just to check everything and figure out how far along I was.
A fun story here is that the midwife initially got her dates wrong and told me I was about 14/15 weeks pregnant, which she found hilarious but I nearly fainted and Mark looked like he’d seen a ghost. She then told us she was wrong and confirmed I was about 8 weeks pregnant, I was then booked in for a dating scan just to confirm this and make sure everything was progressing fine (which it all was!). I found that although I certainly wasn’t big or pregnant looking at this time, that I was really uncomfortable in all my clothes and so I started wearing maternity items quite early on, simply because they are much more comfortable.
Second Trimester (14 – 27 weeks)
Many women and health care professionals say that you start to feel much better during the 2nd trimester, some women even call this the ‘honeymoon period’ because you just feel so good. I was not one of these women. Don’t get me wrong, I was starting to feel much better but I was in no way thinking I was some sort of pregnant goddess. I was still very tired, but no longer felt like I’d had 2 bottles of wine the night before- which in my eyes was a win. In the early stages of the 2nd trimester, I just looked a bit podgy to be honest. I think people probably just looked at me and thought that I’d eaten a bit too much for lunch, thankfully when I reached about 20 weeks my belly started to have much more shape and more people realised I was pregnant and that I hadn’t just eaten a baby.
At your 20 week scan is when you can find out the gender of your baby, and if you’re impatient like Mark and I, there are places you can go to get this done early. We obviously found out we were having a little boy which was just an incredible moment for us both and makes it all so much more real.
It’s also during the 2nd trimester that you should first feel your baby kick. Now you may find initially that you aren’t sure whether that feeling you just felt was just gas or was your baby moving, I had this a lot. However, it reaches a point where you have absolutely no doubt that what you just felt was your baby moving. It’s an absolutely insane feeling and one I can’t explain, but it is amazing. Initially our little boy wouldn’t kick for anyone but me and I think it got to the point where Mark either thought I was lying or that our baby didn’t like him. Eventually Mark did feel him move and was absolutely amazed as well.
Towards about 25 weeks, I did have a slight blip. I’d come down with a cold and felt really run down and baby G was also laying sideways and back to back. This position must have been comfortable for him but was absolutely excruciating for me, it got to the point where I just wondered whether I really could do this. Thankfully after about a week and a half he did move himself and although I still had a cold I felt much more positive.
Third Trimester (28+ weeks)
So as I’m sat writing this, I’m 33 weeks and 5 days. I definitely look pregnant now, as random people are starting to ask me questions about my pregnancy (and stare at me, which I hate). I’m suffering from something called symphysis pubis dysfunction which causes a lot of issues for my pelvis and my back, I’m struggling to move without making some form of ‘uggh’ noise and I am still very very tired.
However, the 3rd trimester is the one I’m enjoying the most so far. Yes it is hard work and I am uncomfortable 99% of the time and I do still have the occasional blip when I’m very tired and in discomfort, but I think I’ve now reached a stage when I’ve had to slow down- whether I like it or not.
Sometimes I forget I’m carrying so much extra weight and I’ll try and jump out of bed, and my body just goes “LOL NO CHANCE PAL” but most of the time now I am moving slower and taking my time with things and my body is thanking me for it.
Looking back on my pregnancy, I’ve had some little issues don’t get me wrong but I know how lucky I am. I’ve not had any weird cravings (I just want fruit and fizzy drinks all the time), I didn’t really suffer from actual morning sickness (I was sick once) and I’ve not had any mental mood swings, I’m still a moody cow sometimes but that’s just normal. I know I’ve been lucky, but at the same time pregnancy has been really hard for me sometimes. Suffering from mental illness and being pregnant is a big thing to go through and it can be really really hard sometimes, but the best thing you can do is not be too hard on yourself and let the people that love you support you.
I know this has been one hell of a post, and I’m sorry if you got bored or you’ve gone “I’m not pregnant/ not interested in this”.
I do hope that some of you have read this and found it interesting or helpful, and know that you aren’t alone and if you do have any questions- please feel free to ask!