Hi Dolls! It’s a big relief to finally have announced our big secret to everyone and I don’t have to hide my bump in photos anymore—phew! While I’ve been sucking it in for the camera in some situations, I’ve also been taking a monthly photo to document the growing bump each month and we finally have the first trimester complete!
Dress/Forever 21, Shoes/Shoe Mint
Month One: I found out I was pregnant when I was 4 weeks along (more on that story and how I told Todd later) but it was quite a whirlwind of a week to make sure it was true, tell Todd, and already be touring hospitals and birth centers to see what felt right for us—talk about an out-of-body experience! The first few weeks of knowing involved no nausea, some insomnia in the morning (waking up way earlier than usual!), and just an odd outward pressure in my belly I hadn’t felt before. Not too bad as far as symptoms go! I still felt scared at times hoping Baby was healthy, but it mostly just felt surreal overall.
Romper/Nasty Gal, Shoes/Shoe Mint
Month Two: Oh man, this is where all the nausea kicked in! All the sudden I was throwing up out of car doors, barely making it home from stores to be sick, and just feeling generally miserable with intense nausea for 14 hours a day. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, and even though I felt like crying most of the time, you’d be surprised how much crying moves your stomach so even that made me feel worse! Also, all the sudden I could smell everything and 99.9% of the smells I could suddenly detect were not pleasant to me. It’s funny now but there were days when just the smell of my own body nauseated me but my deodorant made me more sick, so what’s a girl to do?? Sigh. I also swore that even the freezer suddenly smelled (which Todd said was impossible), but I put baking soda in there anyways since I had to hold my breath when I opened the door. The insomnia switched from the morning to late-night when I was trying to fall asleep (usually a pretty easy task for me) so I spent 1-2 hours per night laying awake, feeling terrible, just waiting to doze off. I have to admit that there were lots of nights spent wondering if I could do it all again the next day, but I’d usually look at Todd and ask “Is this forever?!?” and he would assure me it was a limited time deal. Also, I tried to remember that while it was so much tougher than I ever imagined it being, it was for a pretty great cause and I wanted to remain grateful for that.
Dress/Forever 21, Shoes/Public Desire
Month Three: While the intense ability to smell calmed down a bit, the nausea and puking still hung around but my midwives finally found me a medicine that helps a lot some days and that’s been a welcome relief!! It’s tough not knowing when you’ll have a good or bad day (even minute to minute I can swing the opposite direction pretty quickly!) but I just felt grateful for any hours I felt more like myself. This was also the month we heard the heartbeat for the first time and saw a sonogram at 12 weeks so that was a pretty special feeling as well. I had some light spotting a few times in my second month so I actually cried more once we left the sonogram than during just out of sheer relief to see Baby moving around so much—tears of thankfulness for sure! Due to the all-day nausea in the second month (and my new bloodhound smelling abilities) I was eating way worse than I normally would just to find anything I could eat and keep down, so I tried in the third month to get in more salads and healthy options when I could stomach it. I’ve learned to not beat myself up too much for a dinner of buttered noodles and toast—it’s not forever and at least I ate something!!
There are some fun parts to keeping such a sweet secret to yourself in the beginning of a pregnancy, but overall I’m glad that everyone knows now and we can share our joy with family and friends. Here’s hoping the tough symptoms of the first trimester continue to ease up as we move into the second!
xo. Laura
The smell of cold cardboard boxes from the freezer was enough to have me gagging up a storm. Oh, happy times! I’m currently growing our third ☺️
I love this idea for a series. I’m not a mama, myself, but I’m deeply interested in the whole process. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear the story of how you found out and told people!
Thanks Libby!
Laura 🙂
Second trimester is the BEST! Many symptoms ease up and you are still small enough that you can look cute pregnant (instead of huge pregnant…haha). I’m 34.5 weeks now and feeling like a whale. I fully recommend chiropractic care paired with a massage therapist. SO helpful when all of your ones start moving around, and for keeping your hips and pelvis aligned. Good luck to you and Gummerbeeb ?
Bones*
Yes, good ideas!! I’ll have to look into that, thanks!
Laura 🙂
So excited for you and to follow your journey on the blog! I am so so sorry about the extreme nausea. I am 23 weeks now, and had extreme nausea as well from week 3 til about 18. Feeling much better now at 23 weeks! Zofran worked really well for me to make it feel less horrible. But I 100% relate to your description of how horrible it feels, day in and day out. You are doing a great job though and I promise it will get better!
Thanks Morgan! So glad you are feeling better now!
Laura 🙂
Congrats! I just had my second baby girl so I’ve been following along with Stacy and now you! My little bump got to go to two MM shows at 4 months and again at 7 months. I’m pretty sure I saw you at the first (the echo in LA) but I didn’t want to be that weirdo stranger that asks for a pic on the sidewalk. Anyway, best of luck with the morning sickness. They’re all different. My first had minimal nausea. The second was pretty much all the way through with about a month break at the second trimester. Chiro and yoga helped me so much but you’ll hear all sorts of what works. You do you and enjoy the nesting. As much as it sucked physically, I do miss pregnancy just a little and my new baby is now 5 months old.
Thanks Monica! And it may be a good thing you didn’t say hi to me because I wasn’t at that show! I guess I have a Cali look alike 🙂
Thanks for the tips!
Laura 🙂
Congratulations Laura & Todd on a new Gummerman coming. When is your baby’s due date to arrive?
Thank you Verma and Kent!! It’s May 3rd 🙂
Laura
Hooray! Congratulations, Laura!
I’ll be 14 weeks tomorrow and have literally gone through the exact same symptoms/emotions as you. Not being able to eat as healthy has made me feel guilty too, but you’re right it’s such a short period of time! The biggest help for my nausea has been eating something small as soon as I wake up before I even get out of bed even if it’s just crackers or pretzels. Looking forward to seeing your updates!
Thanks Dayna! Hope you start to feel better soon, it’s the worst!
Laura 🙂
I read your blog and a ABM so I just wanted to say congrats! I had a very similar experience when I was pregnant, and finally started feeling a bit better by 20 weeks. And you are SO right…freezers smell horrible when you’re pregnant! Salads and healthy food can suddenly seem really offensive tasting as well. I had to remind myself to go easy on myself too when all I could stomach were white carbs. It does get easier! I hope the nausea goes away soon and you’re able to rest more!
Thanks Julie! Toast is such a weakness at the moment…and I’m so glad you confirm the freezer smell, I swear it’s there!!
Laura 🙂
They say when you’re nauseous it’s a girl 😉
Ha! Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
Laura 🙂
I was very nauseous during my pregnancy, and… it was a boy, and he couldn’t be any cutter 🙂 I felt pretty miserable, specially in the evening, till week 24 or so, but then had the most amazing birth experience and the easiest baby ever. He’s three months old now, and he is such a good sleeper that I’m sleeping more than ever (specially than during pregnancy… ah, the insomnia…) I wish you all the best!
Oh man, I hope mine means they are a good sleeper too! Congrats!
Laura 🙂
Oooh I am going to hope for this too! My nausea-inducing baby bump is a boy too!
I know the insomnia sucks! But sleep when you can, your body is amazing, it’s just getting you ready to be up all hours of the night with Baby. You’ll be great! Women are incredible.
Oh man, I love sleep so much, it’s going to be rough for sure!
Laura 🙂