1st trimester

Everyone tells me about "mommy amnesia." Someday I'll want to look back and enjoy remembering these little details...

I always thought I would feel ok while pregnant. My mom said she never really felt too bad, I thought I could expect the same. I was very wrong. My 1st trimester misery came on very suddenly at about 6 weeks. This happened to fall in my last 2 weeks of my Fall semester in PT school. This means I was sick during practicals and finals. These two weeks were hard but I'm still in the program!

Nausea: The term "morning sickness" is entirely misleading. I stayed in a constant state of queasiness for about 6 weeks straight. The question everyone wants to ask is "oh so have you been throwing up a lot?" I don't feel like I had it any easier than those pregnant ladies that do vomit a lot. I spent a lot of time in the state of hanging out in the bathroom with the watery mouth knowing its about to happen and it never does... I would just be in there wishing that I would either feel little better so I could leave or throw up so that I could at least have some temporary relief.

Food Aversions: I love food, probably more than I should. But in this time, every thought of food grossed me out. I had NO cravings and everything grossed me out. Even foods I usually LOVE would make me gag when trying to eat them. I was able to make myself eat a few things (mostly just bread). I lost 8lbs in 1st trimester because of this.

Crazy Hormones: Cody met the crazy hormones one day after telling me that I didn't feel that bad and that I was "just milking it". I won't say exactly how this played out, but it wont be said again. Normally I don't get set off that easily but that's the funny thing about the crazy hormones--you never know when they'll show up. It's rare, unexpected, and not pretty.

Sensitivity to smell: Almost any smell grossed me out. It was so bad one day that I threw away ALL the candles and wall plug-ins that I bought for Cody's house because they bothered me so much. Irrational? Absolutely, and Cody let me know it. Certain smells bothered me so much that even now just thinking about them makes me want to gag.

Fatigue: I can't even put into words how extreme this was. I slept every bit of 12 hours/day and laid around for most of the rest of the day. I tried to take Bailey for a walk sometimes but that never seemed to help. Fatigue is common in pregnancy but I think I made mine worse because I wasn't able to eat much (or well). After Christmas shopping one day for about an hour I actually got back in my car and had to lay my seat back and rest for about 10 minutes before driving off.

Emotional: I'm usually not very emotional, especially for a female. I try so hard to have it together all the time, so if I do cry I try everything I can not to let anyone see that. (Something I learned from my dad--ever heard the song by Brooks & Dunn 'Cowgirls Don't Cry'--it makes me think of me and dad). Anyway, there were a few days where I would cry for no reason at all (in the bathroom so Cody never knew).

My parents would probably disagree (I saw them a lot during this time) but I really tried to appear to everyone else that I didn't feel that bad. Overall I was miserable for 6 weeks. I actually told Cody that I didn't think we could have more children because "I can't do this again".

It's amazing to me that Cody still loves me after all that. We actually had a month to live together and I never once cooked, didn't clean at all, sometimes never even got out of my pajamas, showering became more of an occasional thing, make-up was even more rare, and shaving my legs was out of the question. I wasn't my usual happy-go-lucky self and I know that's one of the things he loves most. Not only was Cody taking care of me and treating me great, he actually still wanted to be around me and go out of his way to make me happy. How did I get this guy?

What everyone has told me is holding true--Now that i'm feeling great, i'm starting to forget how bad I felt. Looking back it seems like it flew by. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.