Baby #4 Pregnancy, Weeks 1-12, Part 2

Now that I'm almost in week 18 of this pregnancy (WHOA. Time is flying!) let's finish up talking about the first trimester, shall we?

(You can read part 1 here.)

How/when did you tell the girls?  How did they react?

We told them after we saw the heartbeat at my very first ultrasound when I was 9 weeks along.  They had been with Grandma for the day, and we all met at a restaurant for pizza afterwards.  We brought the ultrasound pictures along and told the girls that the doctors found a baby in Mommy's belly!

The reaction: extreme excitement and pure joy.  Far beyond what I anticipated, actually.  I sort of expected the typical ambivalent kid reaction, but not this time.  They were all overjoyed, even C, who was patting my belly and giving hugs and kisses to the baby every five minutes for the rest of the evening and the next few days.  She obviously completely understands the situation, and her excitement matches her big sisters'.  If anything, I think we told them a bit early, because they already feel like they've been waiting forever for the baby to come, and we're not even halfway there!  They ask at least a few times a week if the baby is coming out today.  Hah.

I do think we will need some preparation about the reality of a baby coming, and how much of Mommy's attention it will require, and how babies sleep a lot at first and aren't too much fun, etc. etc.  I think the bigger girls will really get that, though, and I'm pretty sure that they will be on board with helping as much as possible.  I've already had volunteers to help with changing diapers.  :)

What have you been craving?  Any aversions?

For a while in my first trimester, very early on (between about 6-8 weeks), I was craving red meat-- steaks and burgers.  We even braved a snowstorm while the girls were at Grandma's before my first ultrasound so that we could go down the road to a local restaurant and get me a steak:

 

It was fantastic.

As far as other cravings, I had some cravings for sweets, although that's pretty normal for me... don't know if I can blame that one on pregnancy.  At one point I was craving roasted brussels sprouts (the one and only vegetable that sounded good to me in the first trimester, sadly), and in the past month I have been ALL ABOUT the fresh pineapple.  They have been on sale at our local grocery store and I have been purchasing one pretty much every week.  I have been known to consume an entire pineapple by myself in one sitting, with very little help from the girls!!

As for aversions, there were a lot of them in the first twelve weeks.  When I initially found out that I was pregnant I really wanted to commit to eating super healthy-- lots of vegetables, fruits, and not too much sugar.  And then nausea hit.  Salads became revolting.  Even smoothies, which are usually my fave, and I use them to sneak in extra veggies when I'm not feeling it... no go during the first trimester.  I made many a smoothie only to gag on it and not finish.  Luckily my hubby will always finish a smoothie, so they didn't go to waste.

So I'm sad to report that there was about a 4-5 week period in the first trimester in which I lived mostly on carbs... crackers, toast, those little Keebler peanut butter cracker sandwiches... and eggs.  I could usually stomach eggs.  And I would have a serving of whatever we were eating for supper, usually, but I had to be really wary of overeating.  I would try to stop eating before I felt really finished just to make sure I didn't get that awful heartburn bubbly-throat sort of feeling.

Any mood swings?

Ummm, yes.  Rage was the theme of the first trimester.  It was probably mostly that I was feeling yucky all the time and just not a happy camper, but I know that hormones had something to do with it too.  I was extremely irritable with the girls... not proud of that.  You must all know by now, dear readers, that I am head over heels lovey dovey for M most of the time, but there were plenty of times in that first trimester when I would feel irrational fury over the smallest blunder from him.  Again, it was usually because I was feeling barfy or having a hot flash or just plain exhausted, but I also felt the moodiness surge a bit more this time around.  Sort of unlike me.  I think.  Anyway, I'm glad that's all behind me now; I seem to be back to normal with my happy face on much more often.

How is exercise going?

I'm happy to report that it's still going, just at a slower pace.  In fact, before I had even gotten a positive pregnancy test, running felt more difficult.  I remember getting on the treadmill one Saturday and wondering why a 10:45 pace felt so hard.  A few days later, I got the positive test.

Since then my comfortable pace has gone down between an 11:30 and 12-minute mile, but I'm still plugging away at it.  My blood volume has doubled, so it makes sense that my heart and breathing are working a bit harder, and I'm just rolling with the easier paces.

Unfortunately, in the first trimester, running was not the cure-all for nausea that it seemed to be when I was pregnant with C.  I think some of that had to do with the fact that ALL of my runs since November have been on the treadmill, in the stuffy basement.  In the last two weeks I've finally started running outside again-- before that the snowbanks were so huge and the roads so narrow that it was unsafe to run around our neighborhood.  Usually the cold doesn't bother me and I brave those winter runs, but this year it was just brutally cold for so long, and I really wimped out.  The snow is now finally all melted and I definitely have a new appreciation for running outside this spring.  The fresh air probably would have helped me feel better in the first trimester, I think, but oh well.  I'm enjoying it now.  And I feel good that I was pretty consistent with it, albeit on the treadmill, through the dreary winter months.

My typical workout schedule is 10-15 miles of running per week, interspersed with pilates and body weight exercises on non-running days.  My belly is getting a bit big for many of the pilates exercises now, but I love the strength and flexibility it provides, so I'm looking around for a good pregnancy pilates workout.  Any suggestions?

I may throw in some weekly workout recaps with meal plan posts, just to keep track of what I'm doing and what my paces are for future reference.  Fun for me, boring for you, I know.  :)

And I think that about wraps up the first trimester, folks!  If time stops going so quickly, I hope to do more second trimester updates soon, hopefully before it's over!

A quick 18-week belly pic, hastily snapped in the fingerprinted mirror before I crashed into my bed the other night.  :)