The First Trimester In a Nutshell

Before I begin, let me say EVERY pregnancy is different and EVERY woman is different. I'm going to try to recollect and compress how I felt physically, mentally and emotionally during the first trimester. I found out that I was pregnant when I was 5 1/2 weeks along. I experienced a few things those first few weeks that are common among some women:

• Implantation bleeding: It was faint, pink and really only noticeable when I went to the bathroom and wiped.


• Sharp pains and cramps: Probably from implantation, I felt some sharp pains in the very beginning.

One day after my first missed period, I took a test. There was a faint pink line, so I took another one. Another faint pink line. Two more pink-line version tests later, I finally decided to go digital and took one of those Pregnant/Not Pregnant tests. It said pregnant, so I went to an OB/GYN group and took a test for them so that they could confirm the pregnancy. Five tests total, and it finally sank in.

When we went for our first real appointment, I was so excited and nervous. I had this fear that it wasn't really happening and that something was wrong.

(Side note: Negativity is a horrible thing to envelope yourself in. If you have a habit of doing this, work on it now before it gets worse. Thinking that the worst is always going to happen when the best is just as likely to happen is a worrisome, anxious, painful and sinful place to be. I'll have more on how I've handled anxiety during this pregnancy in a few posts.)

The first appointment included a general physical and an attempt to find the heartbeat. The midwife was unable to find a heartbeat with the Doppler, so she performed a vaginal ultrasound. A few maneuvers and our little peanut popped up on the screen and the heartbeat was recognizable. It amazed Lee and I both that though he was so small, he already looked like a baby. See!

The first trimester for me went relatively smoothly; however, there were a few things that plagued me.

• Bitter Taste: I walked around for pretty much the whole trimester with a bitter taste in my mouth. While probably a good thing, the taste kept me from wanting chocolate and coffee.


• Fatigue: I cannot put into words how unbelievably tired I was. My days would often go something like this: get up, go to work, come home, nap until Lee finished dinner, eat, lay back down on the couch and sleep until bedtime and then go to bed. I could sleep and sleep and never feel completely rested.


• Anxiety: I worried and worried and worried that I was going to do something or something was going to happen sporatically that would affect the pregnancy. Each doctor's appointment and hearing the heartbeat helped with that.


• Breast Tenderness: Fairly self-explanatory, but more painful than you might think.

Luckily, I never struggled with morning sickness, which for me would have been pure torture. At the end of the first trimester, I lost the bad taste in my mouth and the fatigue began to ease. The anxiety, however, is something that I struggle with every day. And that, my friends, was my first trimester in a nutshell!