I'm Pregnant! The First Trimester

In this post, I share all the details of my first trimester of pregnancy including my food cravings (Chinese food!) the story of how I told Brett, how we told our families, my due date, symptoms, food aversions, and my exercise regime.

Yep. It's true!

I'm 4 months along on Friday and I've been dying to tell you! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you already know the news, but it's so nice to openly talk about it on this space now too. In my last post I said I would be MIA for a while due to travel and that was definitely true, but being in the first trimester also had a lot to do with my absence. But we'll get to more details about those three months down below. 

Jump To

• How I Found Out
• How I Told Brett
• How Far Along am I?
• When Am I Due?
• Will We Find Out the Sex?
• Where Will We Have the Baby?
• Do I Have A Bump?
• Did I Feel Nauseous
• Symptoms
• Food Aversions
• (Chinese) Food Cravings During First Trimester
• Exercise
• How We Told Our Family

To be honest, it's still surreal to me that I have a tiny life growing inside of me...who is already the size of an apple! I was so grateful that while we were in America we were able to have an ultrasound and see our baby and hear the heartbeat. That definitely made it more real.

I know this is a food blog, but I really want to share about my pregnancy along the way as a way to document and keep you guys in the loop. I killed me to not talk about how I was feeling during the past three months or to write about the details of my day in regards to pregnancy. But thankfully now I can be as open as I want!

So let's look back at what the first trimester was like for me and some other fun details!

How I Found Out

We had been trying to get pregnant so it wasn't a complete surprise. I took a test on the day my period was suppose to come and didn't see a second line appear so I threw it away and figured we would just try again next month. But the next time I went to the bathroom I became curious and pulled the strip out of the trash just to double check. There was an ever so faint second line that hadn't been there before. I told Brett that I might be pregnant, but we should probably buy a more legit pregnancy test and try again the next morning. 

The next morning, probably due to excitement and nerves, I woke up really early and went to take another test. Not long after, two lines appeared! It was such a weird feeling to know I was pregnant and entering a completely new phase of life, but to also not feel any different physically. 

This is a picture I took to document my excitement the day I found out:)

How I Told Brett

After I took the second test, I went back and laid down for a few minutes before excitement forced me to wake Brett up to tell him the good news. He was super groggy, but excited that my suspicions from the day before were confirmed. We laid in bed for a while talking about random pregnancy stuff and the future and prayed for a healthy baby and pregnancy for me. 

How Far Along am I?

As of today I am 15 weeks and 4 days along. The baby is the size of an apple!

When Am I Due?

January 21st.

Will We Find Out the Sex?

Yes. We hope that we'll be able to find out here in China, even though it's illegal for doctors to tell parents what sex their baby is (many people want boys, so when they find out they're having a girl, they're more likely to have an abortion). We're hoping that because we're foreigners, they'll tell us. If not, well find out in Thailand at the beginning of October. 

Where Will We Have the Baby?

I'm not up for giving birth in China--at least not for my first pregnancy--so in October we'll be flying back to America and we'll be there for about ⅚ months total. We'll mainly be staying at Brett's parent's house in Nashville where we'll have the baby, but before the baby comes, we'll be traveling a lot from there to see friends and family.

Do I Have A Bump?

I've been taking "bump" photos every few weeks, but honestly I still don't look very pregnant, especially in the mornings when the photos below were taken. After a few meals, though, you better believe the belly is popping!

While most people wouldn't be able to tell I'm pregnant, I noticed a change in my body fairly early. My stomach just looked different and around month 2-3 my waist was a little thicker. I'm excited to actually start popping soon!

And sorry if you're seeing more of my bare belly than you wanted to see! I took the first few photos with my shirt lifted and felt like I should just continue for comparison.

 

Did I Feel Nauseous

The first few weeks after finding out I was pregnant I felt completely normal. I was able to cook, eat all my normal foods and go shopping at the market. But after we got back from our trip to Japan, I remember I was eating my usual chocolate oatmeal and about half way through I started to hate the thought of eating another bite.

From that morning on, the more intense symptoms (exhaustion, nausea, and food aversions) lasted until about week 12/13. I never threw up, but often felt like I could. 

Symptoms

All the symptoms below came and went at different times throughout the first trimester. While I remember saying to Brett early on, "I don't really like being pregnant," I don't think my pregnancy has been too bad so far. I'm just not a fan of not feeling like myself or having a lower capacity to get stuff done during the day. 

• I had diarrhea the first few weeks after finding out I was pregnant.
• Diarrhea then turned to poor digestion/stomach aches.
• Exhaustion during the mornings.
• Sore boobs.
• Food aversions
• Trouble sleeping some nights.

Food Aversions

Everyone tells you it's gonna happen, but until it does, it's hard to believe that during pregnancy you might start to hate the foods you usually love. I went into pregnancy with an open mind about what I'd eat and nutrition, but I hoped that I would be able to eat my usual whole food, colorful, veggie-filled meals. Well, that lasted for about a month and then the aversions kicked in. I'll be writing a post on my thoughts on intuitive eating/nutrition during pregnancy soon!

But for now, here are some of the foods I had aversions to during the first trimester:

• chocolate
• anything that I had to cook, especially vegetables
• hot, sweet foods (like oatmeal, hot chocolate)
• cereal
• broccoli
• most desserts
• coffee

(Chinese) Food Cravings During First Trimester

Every day and every week was different, but below are some of the foods that I loved during the first trimester!

• Anything cheesy (grilled cheese, mac and cheese, pizza--all these things I had to wait and eat until we were in America)
• cold drinks (ice water, lemonade)
• overnight oats
• toast (avocado toast, pb & J toast, hummus toast)
• white rice
• hummus
• chickpeas
• anything marinara (pizza, pasta, etc.)
• anything crunchy and salty (chips, crackers, pretzels, etc.)
• Frosted mini-wheats (one of the only sweet foods I liked)
• Chinese food (which I basically ate for a week straight, when nothing else sounded good)
• Thai curry
• FRUIT!

Basically I loved anything salty, spicy and rich with lots of juicy fruit on the side! Sweets definitely haven't sounded good most of my pregnancy, and that's so strange for me as I used to eat 2 sweet meals a day!

Exercise

I've continued to exercise throughout my pregnancy and it makes me feel so good. During the more intense period of nausea and exhaustion, I just moved my body when I felt up for it and rested when I needed to.

Since then I've found that running with walking breaks every 4 minutes is my jam! I feel like I could run for miles when I run/walk. I'm actually thinking of run/walking a half marathon in November if my body feels up for it. 

I also love lifting weights, doing side planks to strengthen my core, and walking.

How We Told Our Family

We were so happy that we were able to go to America for my cousins wedding during the end of my first trimester, because that meant we could tell our families in person. I actually thought I was 7 weeks along when we got to America, but after my doctor's appointment they told me I was 10 weeks!

We told Brett's family, who are in the picture above, first. We actually had a doctors appointment before we arrived at Brett's sister's house and the doctor accidentally called Brett's sister to schedule our ultrasound instead of me. So she found out on accident before anyone else. We told the rest of Brett's family at the dinner table the first night we arrived. Brett started to play a game with our niece and nephews and asked them counting questions like, "How may glasses are on the table?" Then he asked how many people were at the table. They said nine and Brett said, "Nope! You forgot to count Faith twice!" The kids didn't understand at first and neither did Brett's Dad, but the rest of the adults knew what was going on. Once it clicked for Brett's Dad, everyone understood and they were so excited!

We told my family (pictured above) the week after. We had to wait a day and a half until everyone had arrived and then at our first breakfast together I told them I had a present for them. I had them close their eyes and then put our ultrasound pictures in their hands. My sister knew what she was about to see and it was so fun to see everyone's excitement once they saw the photos. It will be my parent's 8th grandchild!

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Sorry this was a long post! I've been dying to share more details and now that the word is out, I'm excited to keep you guys updated on how I'm feeling throughout my pregnancy.

I'm finally excited to cook again and have been whipping up a storm ever since we got back from America and our babymoon in Europe. I'll be sharing recaps of all the cities we went to in Europe and hopefully lots more recipes posts in the near future. 

Thanks so much for your patience while I've been away!