I’ve been MIA on here for quite some time, but I’ve got some news - I’m pregnant! I’m a little over 15 weeks at the time of writing this, and now that I’m officially out of the first trimester, it’s starting to feel a lot more real. We are so excited for this new chapter - I love our life as a couple + 2 dogs, but I feel like it’s time for the next step. I was feeling so sick for most of the summer that I was really hunkering down at home and not posting much, so now that I’m back I wanted to do a Q+A (I collected some questions on my Instagram after announcing) about my experience so far!
How did you know you were ready for kids?
To be honest, we (or at least I) didn’t have an “aha” moment. I always knew vaguely that I wanted kids “someday,” but I didn’t know when I would ever feel ready. It’s just such a hard thing to conceptualize - like I know it’s going to be a huge change, and difficult but worth it, but how?? It wasn’t until a couple of our close friends got pregnant that we really were able to visualize what it would be like for us, and we were like, “Yeah, we’d like to do that soon.” I saw The Anna Edit answer this question on Instagram when she first announced her pregnancy as saying it felt like “there was an empty spot at their dining table for someone new,” and that feels like a good analogy to me, too. Like I’m so comfortable and happy with and full of love for our life together, it almost feels like I want another vessel to pour that excess love into.
Did you have any symptoms before finding out?
The only thing I specifically took notice of was that normally I get pretty bad mood swings/feel really low and anxious for about a week before my period is supposed to start, but I didn’t get that at all. So I kind of had a gut feeling I wasn’t going to get my period, and when it was a few days late, I took a test. I remember actually feeling really relaxed and at peace the night before I got the positive test - totally unlike me for a weeknight. It was a few days after Olive had gotten her second ACL surgery, so I couldn’t let her be off-leash outside. It was a really nice night, so I just laid a towel out and sat next to her in the grass reading a book.
How did you tell your husband?
Looking back I wish I had set up something cute, but I was just so shocked that I immediately woke him up to tell him - I had gotten up at 4:45am to pee and decided to just take the test then, and I couldn’t believe it when the faintest positive line showed up. Since the line was so faint (I know now that I was somehow only about 3.5 weeks pregnant when I got the positive - it was an early response test), I wanted him to confirm that there really was a line there! It also happened to be our 3rd wedding anniversary that day, so that felt really special and made the dinner date we had that night even more exciting and fun. If you want to see how we told our parents and a few close friends, check out this Reel on my Instagram.
Have you had any morning sickness or other symptoms?
The first trimester was a doozy - people aren’t exaggerating about those first trimester symptoms! I know some people have it way worse than I did, but I’m so happy I’m past that point now. Around week 5 some queasiness and nausea started kicking in, and for weeks 6-13 I was throwing up as soon as I woke up about every other morning. I was so nauseous all day every day, and it was a bit of a struggle to find food that I wanted to eat. I don’t think I cooked an actual meal from the beginning of June until the end of July. Luckily, I didn’t ever have any problems keeping food or water down after the initial vomiting session in the morning, I just constantly felt sick. And for the most part, now that I’m almost at 16 weeks, it’s gone away. I still have days here and there where I throw up in the morning or feel a little nauseous in the afternoon, but it’s usually not an all-day thing anymore.
I also had the most insane fatigue - for most of June I could barely drag myself off the couch. It felt like my limbs were full of sand, and it was a struggle to do any activity for more than 5 minutes. Those days are also mostly behind me, although I find the fatigue is lingering a bit more than the nausea. I still have to sit down while I fold laundry and sometimes drag a chair by the stove while I’m cooking. But I did finally make it back to my beloved kickboxing class last night!
What was one food/item/show that made you feel better when you were feeling sick?
When the nausea first kicked in, I had heard for a lot of people it isn’t so bad if you can keep food in your stomach at all times, so I constantly carried a bag of Life cereal with me to snack on, and that helped a lot. I also would feel a lot better after drinking ice cold Gatorade - my husband was buying huge bottles of the Glacier Freeze kind every week for awhile!
I also got really into Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron movies while I was pretty much camped out on the couch (I’m pretty sure the only Instagram stories I posted during June were showing that I was watching Father of the Bride or It’s Complicated for the 20th time) - I love me a cheesy, but not-too-cheesy romcom when I’m not feeling well. Right now I’m on a big Meg Ryan kick and watch either When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, or You’ve Got Mail when I’m having a day where I’m not feeling well.
Have you had any cravings?
I haven’t had anything too crazy, but a few weeks ago I kept craving desserts like cheesecake, ice cream, and the most extreme one was graham crackers dipped in vanilla Funfetti frosting. But lately I’ve been wanting to eat a lot of cheddar & sour cream chips dipped in cottage cheese (I went through two bags of chips and two tubs of cottage cheese just from Tuesday to Friday last week), this very specific brand of cheddar broccoli macaroni and cheese, and peaches.
Are you worried about the weight gain?
I’m actually not at all - now that I’m feeling better I’m planning on getting back into the swing of exercising more regularly (I’m going to do a weekly kickboxing class, some prenatal yoga from the Down Dog app, and still walk the dogs 1.5 miles most days) and hoping I can stomach cooking healthier meals soon. I want to be as healthy as I can be, not for aesthetics, but to hopefully have a healthy baby and complication-free labor.
Even in this stage where my bump looks more like a bit of bloat, I feel so much more comfortable in my body than I was pre-pregnancy already. I think it’s because my stomach was the area I was most self-conscious about before, but now I have an excuse for it to not be flat! I’m already so amazed with what my body has been capable of, so it’s been easier than it was before for me to give myself grace and be grateful for it.
What has excited you most during pregnancy?
I’m just so excited to meet this little person who's going to be part me, part my husband. Seeing them (singular them, I just don’t want to say “it”!) in the ultrasounds and hearing their heartbeat has been wild and exciting, too. I couldn’t believe how much they were moving around at the 12-week ultrasound. While trying to get measurements at my last ultrasound, the baby actually seemed to look right at us and flexed their little arms - it was crazy!
Are you going to find out the sex or be surprised?
We already know what we’re having! We’re just not sharing it online until we have the chance to tell a few more people in person. I could never wait until birth to find out, and my husband wanted to know as soon as possible, too - finding out made it feel so much more real and made it easier to visualize this next phase of life. I don’t think I want to do anything too specifically-gendered in terms of nursery decorations, but it’s also been easier to come up with some ideas for that now that we know, too.
Will baby sleep in the makeup room?
I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this on the blog, but when we moved into our house a few years ago one of our spare bedrooms became my “makeup room" and yes, it’s going to be the baby’s room. We have two spare bedrooms, and our plan is to turn the bigger one into a proper guest room (mostly for when we have visitors after the baby is born), and the smaller one, currently my makeup room, will be the nursery. I’ve already been downsizing my makeup a lot and will be relocating it along with my desk into the guest room!