First Trimester
Cravings: Fresh, cold fruit. Salad bars. Non-fancy everything. I made Nick drive an hour to a dive steakhouse that I knew (from my childhood..) had an amazing salad bar, complete with crisp iceberg lettuce (only the best over here, people!) Side note -- why do restaurants not have salad bars anymore?
To describe in one word: sick. All the time. This did not end after the first trimester, which is what everyone will tell you. "You'll wake up at 13 weeks and you'll feel like yourself again! It's amazing!" You won't. And it will not feel amazing. So many women don't experience "morning" sickness, but I did and it was horrendous. It's also so hard the first trimester because no one knows you're actually pregnant, if you decide to keep it under wraps, so you just seem a little bit nuts. I remember planning my day around being sick, knowing I could make it from our apartment to work (a few mornings I did not, and my sincere apologies to those I almost threw up on on the streets of Boston as I pulled over to be sick). I could get to work, be sick in the bathroom before anyone else got in and then we'd go from there. It was torturous.
But besides the sickness, I was so NERVOUS. It's as if as soon as the universe knows you're pregnant you start getting served insane pregnancy articles everywhere you look. You can really drive yourself nuts. Almost everyday my husband, Nick, had to calm me down and reassure me the stories were so rare and far and few in between. But still, the whole experience was terrifying, and I was petrified to get excited about our new baby in the fear that something would go wrong.
We were now in July/August and I was also avoiding dinners and drinks like the plague. Very unlike me, and I'm sure very rude and annoying to friends and colleagues. Sorry guys!
Second Trimester
Cravings: Cold fruit. Salad bars. Non-fancy everything. Oreos & milk. Popsicles. Meatball subs.
Still sick over here. We finally announced our pregnancy at 18 weeks, and it felt so good to let everyone in on our biggest secret. With this also came a weird sense of relief and calmness. Connecting with other pregnant moms who were as nervous as I was, or as sick as I was really helped. Otherwise, I felt the same as the first trimester. I was still sick daily, and my daily routine included going to work, and racing home as soon as humanly possible to change into lounge clothes and lay on my couch and sleep.
Third Trimester
Cravings: Fresh, cold fruit, salad bars, and non-fancy everything. Oreos & milk. Popsicles.
I felt so much better come the third trimester. Super big and super uncomfortable, yes -- but finally not sick and getting SO excited to meet whoever our little son or daughter was going to be. We traveled to England for Christmas at 29 weeks, and the flight really opened my eyes to swollen ankles... We spent the time with family, and instead of our usual pints and pubs and football games, we spent a ton of time taking nice, long hikes through the countryside and drinking a whole lot of hot chocolate.
Once we got back from England, we were in full blown 'ready' mode. Nick and I both agreed we wanted to wait until January to start setting up the nursery -- superstitious side of us both -- so we started that and it was so fun to have a little design project to work on to take my mind off the final stretch. During this time I relaxed and slept a lot. I was so so exhausted and by the time the end of my work day hit I was ready for bed.
This trimester seemed to last years. I was so big and it was so cold out but I was so hot and nothing fit and it was a serious exercise to put my snow boots on. I felt like I was reliving the scene from 'A Christmas Story' where the mom dresses Randy in so many layers he couldn't put his arms down. We also kept getting hit with storm after storm and since I slipped on ice earlier, I was very cautious about being out and about. I lost count of how many times I vowed that our next baby would NOT be born in the winter.
But, as my doctor kept telling me -- "The baby will come. It won't stay in there forever" And boy did he. More on that in my birth story....
