Just as Laura began her third trimester, I started my first! I found the timing of pregnancy to be very interesting. Until you become pregnant or at least start trying, I feel like you don’t pay much attention to the details. The first two weeks, technically you are not even pregnant yet and the second two, you likely don’t know you are yet. Since my husband and I were trying, I tested on the first day of my missed period so found out once I was already 4 weeks and a day pregnant. That first month was the easiest 🙂
Keeping the Secret & Telling Our Friends and Family
As I am writing this post, I am actually already fairly far into my second trimester. We were very careful to keep my pregnancy a secret and didn’t even let our friends and family know we were interested in expanding our little family of two. That meant that the first trimester I spent with only my husband and Laura knowing our exciting news. I barely had any symptoms so most of the time it was fairly easy to act like I wasn’t pregnant.
At the very end of our first trimester, we called our families (who mostly live on the East Coast) with the good news. We had lots of great reactions including Sam’s sister asking “was it an accident?!” and my sister’s reaction as she walked around Italy and instantly burst into tears in the middle of the street while Face Timing with us.
Because I didn’t feel sick, the hardest part for me during the first trimester was not drinking wine and coffee. It was very interesting to me that my body really wasn’t interested in consuming two of my pre-pregnancy favorite beverages. But pretending that I didn’t want a glass of wine when out with friends or convincing my co-workers that I didn’t want to go on a Friday morning Starbucks run was a challenge. My husband and I did a fair amount of, “we’ll share a glass” at restaurants with friends. I also found that since I was a little tired, it was usually easiest to pretend I already had plans and he’d go out without me.
We decided to wait to tell our friends, co-workers and extended family until the start of the second trimester once we’d had the genetic testing done and were less likely to have a miscarriage. As I’ve started to notice other friends announce their pregnancies and read articles and group boards about pregnancy, it seems like this is the trend these days. I didn’t show at all during the first trimester which helped.
How I Felt: Signs, Symptoms, and Cravings
I was incredibly lucky to not get any morning sickness. But with that luck came a bit of stress. I was fairly worried about not having it. Was I really pregnant? Was the baby ok? Did I have a miscarriage and not know it yet?! I loved reading the book Expecting Better. But I had to take a break from reading it during the chapter about morning sickness. The author, Emily Oster, wrote about how morning sickness was a sign of a healthy pregnancy and she went on about it for several pages. Unfortunately, those few pages really stressed me out and made me worry that something was wrong. It’s funny that this same book made me feel less stressed during the “two-week wait” because I realized how you just really don’t know then and it’s ok to go about your normal life. Overall I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone that is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant.
I did have a little bit of spotting and extremely sore breasts right around the time that we found out. At first, I thought it was just my period, but once I’d tested positive, they remained my only pregnancy symptoms for the first month that I knew. I slept in a sports bra and that helped a lot at night. A little later into the first trimester I started feeling tired. Not so much that I wanted to take naps, I just couldn’t stay awake past 9pm. I was also extremely hungry and drank more water than I’ve ever thought possible.
Once we went to my first appointment, around week 7 or 8 and the doctor confirmed it, I relaxed a lot. I also remembered that my mom mentioned that she didn’t have morning so that made me feel a bit calmer. By the time we had our second appointment at the end of the first trimester and we had an ultrasound where we could see the little baby moving around and dancing on the screen, I really relaxed. Our doctor told us everything looked great and the size was right on track.
My biggest craving in the first trimester was carbs. I couldn’t eat enough pepperoni pizza and started almost every morning with a Thick & Fluffy Eggo Waffle (have you tried these?! they are amazing) with a little maple syrup. My only aversion was fried or scrambled eggs. I think the real thing that I didn’t like was the smell of them cooking. It wasn’t so bad to eat them but I couldn’t stand to be in the room while they were cooking.
What I Did, Read & Learned
I read almost all of Expecting Better (finished during trimester 2!) and started Like a Mother. Both books were recommendations from Laura and I greatly enjoyed them. I also watched almost the complete 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls. It was great to re-visit an old favorite of mine and I liked that it is a story of relationships between mother, daughter, and grandmother. Even though it didn’t teach me much about pregnancy, it did take my mind off things and since I’ve seen it all before, I was able to zone out or fall asleep without missing anything.
I am a huge fan of hot yoga. It’s my primary form of exercise and unfortunately not advised during pregnancy. Luckily, my studio offers a few non-heated classes and I also have free yoga offered at work in my building. I’ve taken yoga teacher training and my husband is a yoga teacher so I felt very confident doing my own adjusting and taking things at my own pace. The two hard parts were the schedule (most non-heated classes are around 8pm and I couldn’t stay awake!) and not telling anyone. I know a lot of teachers and fellow students at my studio so I had to be careful to come up with fake injuries and reasons for wanting to take the non-heated classes and request no adjustments.
I was very lucky to be exactly 6 months behind Laura in pregnancy, she was the only person my husband and I told so I was able to bombard her with questions about what was going on and get tips from her experience. Our pregnancies were very different even on day 1, but it was still great to have someone to talk to and think things through with. I also downloaded a few iPhone apps including Ovia, What to Expect, and The Bump. I read lots of articles online and tried to take everything with a grain of salt and listen to my own body and not get too caught up in what was going on with everyone else.
Looking Ahead
We moved apartments at the end of my first trimester! 
I was convinced everyone knew we were pregnant when we told our friends and family we were moving to a 2-bedroom unit after almost 8 years in the same spot. But it was a very necessary move. Our old place didn’t have air-conditioning or heat … not a necessity in Southern California for two adults but very needed for a pregnant lady and/or a baby. Our new place not only has the second bedroom but it also has central air, a washer, and dryer in unit, a dishwasher and a parking spot (in a garage!). Plus it has this beautiful porch off the bedroom that we are using to cultivate at home yoga practices.
I also started my registry at the end of the first trimester. Laura recommended Amazon, partially due to the great Welcome Box and also because we really love free two-day shipping 🙂 Once Laura had her baby and we started telling a few people, I got a slew of recommendations and in order to not forget, it seemed easiest to just start the registry.
Is anyone else starting the second trimester? What are your tips and tricks for this part of pregnancy? Let us know in the comments!