The First Trimester

My first trimester started off great. I found out I was pregnant very early on, at about 3 weeks. From weeks 3-5, I felt sleepy, but otherwise great. I could exercise without any problems and my appetite was normal. I was craving salty things (like drinking straight chicken broth and eating dill pickles), but I wasn't sick at all. I gave my stomach props and thought, Maybe I will be one of the lucky ones who don't get sick at all.

Then week 6 came.

It was like a someone flicked a switch. One day, I was happily munching on veggies and cup-o-noodles, the very next morning the sight of cup-o-noodles in my pantry looked like death. All food looked disgusting and I felt like total crap. I tried to convince myself that it was all in my head. I did the ultimate test- I bought and cooked an artichoke. I have NEVER met an artichoke that I didn't like....until this one. I chocked it down and kept trying to convince myself to like it. No such luck. That's when I knew that this was the real deal.

All I ate for weeks was graham crackers and milk. I would try to force feed myself healthy things, but usually would end up gagging. One day I remember I held up an apple and declared, "I'm gonna eat this!!" I only was able to get down about 4 bites and I surrendered. What was odd is I only threw up a handful of times, but when I did it was always after eating some type of fruit.

Though it sucked to hate the sight of food (going on pinterest and seeing meals was dreadful, and grocery shopping was overwhelming. Ew!), I tried to stay positive. I often reminded myself that I would rather feel miserable and be pregnant than feel great and not be pregnant. My friend gave me good advice too. She said, "Every day that I was sick, I felt like it was my baby telling me that it was still in there and alive." I held onto that as well.

Another weird thing that bothered me was textures. When we visited Jordan's parents in Tulsa for a weekend, my mother-in-law had just shampooed her carpets. Her carpets were nice and clean, but because they were slightly damp, they made feel sick. I vomited once just from the carpet, and then wore shoes the rest of the weekend.

When I was about 9 weeks along, we decided to share the news with Jordan's family. We gave Jordan's father a birthday present (it was at a party for him) that said: "Coupon good for one grandchild. Valid in March 2014." (Don't worry, we got him a real present, too.) The following week, we went to St. George for a family reunion with MY family, and when we were all in the same room, I came into the room wearing THIS shirt:

It was so fun to tell everyone! My nieces were excited. My 5 year old niece told me matter of factly, "When your baby is born, I hope it doesn't die." Me too, kid, me too.

Here are 2 tummy shots of the first trimester. I started to show toward the end....it's only going to get bigger, huh?