Oorah for the Second Trimester!

 So, I have taken a couple of weeks off for the holidays. This will be just a short post, but I have had a few requests for a new belly picture.

I intentionally wore the same outfit to better compare to the last picture. This is 17 weeks!

I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to wear the same outfit, but here's hoping.

I feel like a normal person again, so I am getting to the gym and doing more workouts!! Yay! Finally! It was actually like a switch was flipped in week 15. Amazing how different. I had completely forgotten what it was like to not feel nauseas. I'm very much looking forward to getting back some of the muscle tone I lost while being sick for three straight months.

Ad nausea

As I have previously written a little bit, I have felt nauseated quite a lot for this whole first trimester. I felt it some the first few weeks, but then week six started into the all-day, every day sickness that has been this pregnancy.  I have only really vomited once. I have vomited in my mouth about five or six times. Completely gross, I know, but it’s the ugly truth. There are small windows of time that I feel ok, but they were very few and far between, especially weeks 6-10. The past few weeks, I have started to feel a little better. I am hoping that as I am starting into my second trimester this trend continues.

The nausea has been so consistent that I have not been able to make it to the gym in about 6 weeks. This makes me incredibly sad. For those of you who do not know, I completed my second triathlon on September 10. Working out makes me feel good. I especially like working out in the morning; hence the creation of a huge issue of being able to get myself to workout. I have only run 3 times since I found out I am pregnant. I have walked some, biked some, and done yoga and pilates a little. Another goal of my second trimester is to get back into the gym on a regular basis. I hate feeling out of shape.

Another side effect of feeling so sick is that I had to stop taking my prenatal vitamins in about week 8. I have since found a gummy vitamin with 100% daily folic acid, so I have started taking that the past two weeks. I felt really guilty not taking a vitamin, but it was just making the nausea so much worse. I’m pretty certain it was due to not having enough food in my stomach, but it is really hard to eat a lot when feeling so sick all the time.

Thankfully I have stayed at my pre-pregnancy weight (no loss or gain) through the first trimester. My pants are starting to feel a little snug, but I can still wear them. I think my belly shows, but it is still at the point of looking like it could just be extra fat. Here is a picture of the belly at week 13. (Sorry the only mirror in my house is in the bathroom)

Thought it was supposed to be a pregnancy glow not an acnepelago

I had just started to feel like I was getting to an ok place with my adult acne. I honestly had heard of some people getting acne during pregnancy, but I was hoping against hope that mine would stay away.

My background with acne is that I really didn’t have any until grad school. Granted I would get a zit or two occasionally through high school and college (often right in between my eyebrows on my forehead … hott, I know!), but never ongoing acne. This all changed when I started grad school and was working full time. I also happened to get bangs that same fall. Chicken or the egg … I’m not sure. This summer, after graduating grad school, I finally was getting the acne to be under control. This has all changed.

I know it has to do with all the extra hormones. It is also coupled with the fact that you can’t use any acne treatment medication. It is better when I am very regular with my morning and evening facial cleansing routine. If I fall asleep at night before washing my face, I can tell the next day. I’m still hoping that it gets even better once I am in the second trimester. – Everything should get better then, right?

Week 4

Friday, October 7, 2011

Feeling exhausted today. I took a two hour nap in the middle of the day. I am just feeling like I have not slept in ages. Still ‘jonesing’ (as my brother-in-law says) for fruit and glad I am at their house where there is lots of it.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

I am extremely exhausted again. So much that I took another two and a half hour nap today. Thankfully my mom was here to help with my nephew. She let me sleep when he woke up. I will definitely have to plan for our second child to be when my husband will be home the whole time. I’m glad taking care of another child is not necessary for me right now. I feel so tired and I doubt I could do it by myself. Definitely increased respect for single moms and military moms that are pregnant again.

I also could not finish my breakfast this morning. I had cereal, but it was just not sitting right. I did not feel like I was going to throw up, but it just did not feel right. It is difficult to describe, but I just could not eat much of it.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

My breasts are definitely growing already. They are barely fitting in my bra and are denser. When I lay down on my side, I could not cross my arms like normal. There was too much in the way! Hahaha … Such a strange thing for a girl that has always been pretty small chested. They are sensitive (have been for about 2 weeks) but thankfully don’t hurt.

Monday, October 10, 2011

I got to sleep in since my sister and brother-in-law got back last night. I still took a nap this afternoon. I went to watch The Help with my mom and sister. I’m sure I would have cried anyway, but geez. I cried for probably half the movie. It is a bad idea to go to a tear jerker when a commercial can bring me to tears these days. Yeah. Literally a commercial. This happened a few days before I took the pregnancy test. The commercial had a baby in it. That’s all it took.

Pregnancy Week 3

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

I flew to visit my sister. This trip had already been planned, so I waited to tell her when I got there. I have never gotten motion sickness on a plane until today. I started looking around for a bag even. Thankfully I did not throw up. I had to get food as soon as I got off the first plane and soon after my second flight landed. Being hungry is no longer just a background thought… it makes itself well known with nausea. It is such a strange reversal of previous experiences. Normally when you start to feel sick, it is an aversion to food and not the need to eat something.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Today I noticed a stronger than normal desire to eat fruit. I have always liked fruit, but I usually don’t go out of my way to include it in my diet (terrible habit, I know). I was helping take care of my nephew and all of the fruit he was eating looked so good. I could not resist getting some for myself. I will have to buy more at the grocery when I get home.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Felt fantastic today. No nausea or anything. Almost a little worried that I should be feeling sick or something, but I won’t dwell on that. Need to keep thinking positive. Got one of the baby apps on my phone today!

The Reveal

Monday, October 3, 2011

I woke up feeling a little nausea this morning. It was almost like the feeling you get when you haven't eaten all day. I thought it could be that I was just extremely hungry, but I decided to try a pregnancy test just to see.

When the pregnant result came up, I almost couldn't believe it. I was so excited. In a true reflection in the life of a military wife, my husband was away in the desert training. I called and left him a message and texted him the picture of the test read out. I called a couple of my close friends to share the news. It was incredibly difficult to keep from telling the whole world. For now, I will outlet it in this blog (to be published later).

Intro

The first thing both of my best friends said when I told them I was pregnant ... "You need to write a blog." I am the first of our group of close girlfriends to get pregnant, so it is all a very novel thing for us. Since I now live several states away from my girlfriends, they don't get to see the day to day changes they would if we were still living in the same city.
My reason that I now live states away is that I am married to a Marine. He is deployed to Afghanistan and will likely miss the birth of our first child. He had also just left for training in the desert when the pregnancy test came back positive. My husband only got to be here with me for a little over two weeks of this pregnancy. He did, however, get to be present for the first ultrasound to see our tiny one inch baby. I know this is a common experience for many military wives.
For me, this will be somewhat of my own personal and very informal case study. I actually have my Masters in early childhood development. I have scholarly studied prenatal and infant development, but people always say it is all so different when you have your own. Part of me doesn't want it to be any different. There is always a certain level of disregard that professionals in early childhood are sometimes given when they don't have any of their own children. I have encountered so many different personalities of children in my professional experience. I'm looking forward to finding out what my baby will be like.
So, I guess I am basically saying that I am starting this blog for several reasons. I want to keep my friends, family, and especially my husband up to date on what is happening with this baby belly. I also feel that if my experiences can mean something to any other pregnant mommas (or anyone thinking about getting pregnant) - even better!