First Trimester Pregnancy Recap – Pregnancy Essentials & Helpful Tips for First Time Mom (FTM)

First Trimester Pregnancy Recap – Pregnancy Essentials & Helpful Tips for First Time Mom (FTM) is a blog post documenting the first trimester of my first pregnancy. From finding out we were pregnant to pregnancy symptoms, food aversions, cravings and my top pregnancy essentials, recommendations and tips!

First Trimester Recap

The first trimester of pregnancy, the one where everyone talks about finding out, morning sickness, nausea and how fatigue you are! Well, in this blog post we will be talking about all that and more as it relates to my experience. The first trimester looking back was filled with peaks of joy knowing I was carrying the next generation within, but also lows of extreme fatigue and nausea. Overall, the first twelve weeks went by so quickly and fairly well. I recall constantly being in awe and feeling so overwhelming blessed that God had entrusted me to carry this gift. Let’s get into the details… 

How I Found Out & Told My Husband

I was 7 weeks along when I found out we were expecting. It was a cold January night, hubby was at work and I realized my period was late (I was on the 40th day of my cycle when I checked the app). I decided to take a pregnancy test (which we had because in the previous months I was diagnosed with H. Pylori which caused very similar pregnancy like symptoms) which came back positive. I then, went to our local Shoppers Drug Mart and bought a handful of baby related items – diapers, wipes, pacifiers etc.. I came home and packed it all in an Amazon box for my hubby to open when he came home!

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The First Few Weeks

Finding out I was pregnant at 7 weeks, meant I was practically halfway through the first trimester. Leading up to finding out I was nauseous but nothing unbearable, and crampy, but not unusual for that time in my cycle. The main reason I didn’t suspect anything earlier was because I thought it was simply H.Pylori symptoms striking back again. However, once I found out everything I was feeling made more sense – mainly the extreme fatigue and sore breasts. The following weeks entailed family doctor visits, deciding to go with an OB or midwife, booking an initial ultrasound appointment and simply soaking in the fact that we were about to become parents!

First Trimester Pregnancy Recap: Doctors Appointments & Ultrasound

Being pregnant for the first time during a worldwide pandemic has been a very interesting experience – especially navigating doctors appointments and ultrasounds. Luckily, we have the most amazing relationship with our family doctor and David was able to come with me to our first appointment. However, when we transferred prenatal care to our OB, he was no longer able to come to appointments or be in the room during ultrasound appointments. It was tough, it was challenging because there’s nothing more you want during this time than to experience it with the person you created this little life with. Nevertheless, we navigated each one with grace and let’s just say FaceTime & WhatsApp video came in clutch! Seeing our baby for the first time was surreal – although small (very very small), we saw the heart beating and that’s all I needed to help plaster a huge grin on my face and eyes full of joyous tears! 

Choosing a Health Care Provider: Obstetrician/Gynaecologist

After visiting our family doctor, she asked us if we wanted to go with a Midwife or an Obstetrician, we chose the latter. I originally wanted a home water birth with a doula and midwife, however after speaking to my husband and understanding his very valid concerns and reassessing my own concerns we opted for an OB.

We first chose the hospital we wanted to give birth at; this narrowed our search or an optimal health care provider. From there we we chose a doctor that came highly recommended from not only previous patients but those in the L&D field, as well as years of experience.

First Trimester Pregnancy Recap: Fatigue, Sore Boobs, Extreme Thirst, Bloating, Constipation, Nausea & Morning Sickness

Fatigue

There is nothing comparable to the fatigue you experience when making a human being! I mean, you can wake up from a solid 8 hour night sleep and still feel like you just ran a marathon!

What Helped: 

• Sleep – taking naps whenever, for however long and having no remorse about it
• Dark Room – MAJGULL blackout curtains from IKEA were ideal
• Pregnancy Pillow – Downcool Body Pillow for Adults from Amazon. I preferred this pillow over the PharMeDoc Pregnancy Pillow because as an almost 6ft tall individual it was the better, more comfortable option!

Sore Boobs

The boobs! I’m naturally a larger chested individual – wearing a D/DD the majority of my life. However, the perkiness and fullness of pregnancy boobs are magical! This should have been a tell tale sign that I was pregnant but because I was expecting my period, I thought it was just all related. My boobs were massive and so sore to the point I purchased wireless bras to be more comfy (something I was planning to do anyways for a while).

What Helped: 

• Wireless Cotton Bras – Kindred Bravely Extra Soft Organic Cotton Wireless Nursing & Maternity Sleep Bra from Amazon

Extreme Thirst

Prior to finding out I was pregnant I would always carry around the largest jug of water, but this was thirst amplified. It was December 2020 and we were spending lots of time with our family over the holidays. They can all recall how I had an insatiable thirst… filling up my jug multiple times for the evening. We laughed at how “thirsty” I was not knowing I was pregnant. At night time I would also have a jug of water that kept me satisfied for a short while before I’d have to go fill it up again…and again to keep up with my demand! The thirst was SO real!

What Helped: 

• 1 Gallon Water Jug – Large Gallon Water Bottle with Straw from Amazon, this was good to have around the house and working from home as it is fairly large and heavy to carry around on-the-go.

• Insulated Water Bottle – MANA Stainless Steel Water Bottle | Double Walled Vacuum Insulated, this was great at keeping water cool throughout the days and night

Bloating and Constipation

During pregnancy, your body produces more progesterone to support your pregnancy which relaxes the muscles in your body (including the muscles of your intestine). This slows down digestion and allows gas to build up, which in turn leads to bloating. I felt that I only looked pregnant during the first trimester because of bloating, not because “I was showing”. The constipation was another ordeal, absolute ordeal. Ensuring I maintained a fibre-rich diet, drinking lots of water and walking was essential for keeping it under control.

What Helped: 

• Stretching and Walking 
• Eating Smaller Portions more Frequently 
• Fibre Rich Diet
• Tea – Lemon, Ginger, Peppermint tea, all day, everyday
• Squatty Potty – Squatty Potty Stool, Single Pack, Foldable

Nausea and Morning Sickness

Like many my “morning sickness” was actually “all day sickness” and started almost immediately. However, as mentioned, having H. Pylori nausea was something I learned to cope with prior to going on my first round of antibiotics to heal from it. I never threw up, not once, however my gag reflex was on overdrive and would constantly have the urge to throw up, but never did (how fun!). 

What Helped: 

• Eating – small meals, frequently throughout the day with snacks in-between
• Ice Cold Water
• Tea – Lemon, Ginger, Peppermint tea, all day, everyday
• Ginger – from Ginger Tea and Chimes Gourmet Ginger Chews to slices of Raw Ginger and Gravol Ginger Chewable Lozenges

First Trimester Pregnancy Recap: Food Aversions, Nutrition, Vitamins and Supplements

It’s funny because as a food blogger, one would assume I LOVE food and love to eat! Although I enjoy a good plate, I’m not necessarily a foodie (eat to live vs. live to eat). During my entire pregnancy I rarely had an appetite, food just wasn’t something I wanted. I felt nauseous if I didn’t eat, and nauseous if I did – it was a damned if I do, damned if I don’t situation. I didn’t have any food aversions or cravings at first, I just simply hated all food plus my sense of taste was completely off. My only aim was to eat enough nutritious food to support both myself and baby. 

Here are a list of Vitamins and Supplements I took: 

• Prenatal Vitamins – Prenatal Pro by Designs for Health & PregVit by Duchesnay (initially, then switched)
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids – Omegavail Liquid by Designs for Health & DHA Omega-3 Prenatal by Platinum Naturals (initially, then switched)
• Probiotics – Bifido Maximus Probiotic Powder (Dairy Free) 250 Billion CFUs per Gram, purchased from Bosnar Health Clinic
• Vitamin D – SunVitamin D3 2500IU by Natural Factors
• Multivitamin – Perfect Prenatal Multivitamin by New Chapter

What We Did To Prepare During the First Trimester

Operation Install the Staircase Railing

When we moved into our home, we completely gutted it from top to bottom. It was quite the undertaking but it was such a labour of love and we can’t wait to do it all over again in our next home! The final “major” part of our renovation was installing the railing for our staircase. We were in no hurry to get it installed, however once my husband found out I was pregnant it went from 10% urgency to 110% urgency to have it installed (LOL).

Operation Purchase a New Family SUV

The next large purchase we knew we wanted to make was a new family sized SUV. We both still had our individual cars and had talked about trading one of them in once a child came into the picture. Vehicle shopping was quite fun, especially because we both had similar taste and hubby did 90% of the hard work. Safety was the top priority for us, then the design (sleek sexiness) and ability to hold value. We ended up purchasing a Mazda CX-9 and it’s absolutely perfect for us!

For more pregnancy-related content check out my posts below:

Second Trimester Pregnancy Recap – Pregnancy Essentials & Helpful Tips for First Time Mom (FTM)

Third Trimester Pregnancy Recap – Pregnancy Essentials & Helpful Tips for First Time Mom (FTM)

If you have any questions about anything in this blog post or pregnancy related, feel free to leave a comment below!