Nausea, Insomnia, Exhaustion, Heartburn, Headaches, and Diarrhea. It almost sounds like a commercial for Pepto-Bismol. However, these were the 6 “morning sickness” symptoms that made up my First Trimester.
After announcing last week, that my husband and I are expecting twins, I’ve received just an amazing outpouring of love and support. It’s been amazing to be cocooned by all the well wishes. I’ve received countless questions around “How are you feeling?” “Did you or do you have any morning sickness” so here’s the official blog post recap of the first three months!
On December 4th we found out we were pregnant. Three weeks later (the week of December 16th) I was thankfully off of work going into the Christmas holidays and was grateful for the time to rest because the exhaustion hit me so hard that week. I would get up at my normal time, make a decaf coffee (I’ve been off coffee since the Fall of 2019), meditate, journal and then went right back to bed. That was a week of epic naps.
On December 20th we found out we were expecting twins and then left the next day for a Christmas holiday vacation with Mike’s family. That week was one of the worst weeks for symptoms. I was so nauseous, puked a few times and had the worst headaches (including one gnarly migraine). We figured out how to keep the nausea at bay and had a pretty good routine while on holiday. I would have to eat immediately upon getting up and then walk. So we’d eat and walk multiple times a day to keep the pukey feeling away. I drank a ton of water that week and some soda water for the bubbles while lying on the beach.
After getting back, I packed up as much of my life as I needed for the first three months on Vancouver Island and my mom and I flew to Nanaimo on January 1st. I am so thankful I had my mom here with me for month 3 of the pregnancy. While I was a bit more of a functioning human the nausea would come back in the evenings. I would get home from work to a beautiful home-cooked meal (shout out to Mama Baldwin for spoiling me) and would sometimes sit there burping until I could slowly spoon-feed myself the deliciousness.
My energy during the day, while starting my new full-time job was incredible but the minute I got home around 5 pm I would crash hard. The other lovely symptom I experienced in January and am still experiencing is my old friend insomnia. I have shared openly that I experienced it a lot at the end of a toxic relationship in 2012 and as I was healing in 2013. But once I had figured out the sleep situation I was golden. I’ve been living in a delicious world of 7 – 8 hour sleeps for a few years so it’s been a bit of a shock to the system to wake up several times a night to pee (another fun pregnancy side effect) and then not being able to get back to sleep.
Granted, there were some nights, the rodent that was living in the ceiling tiles in our Airbnb would run across the ceiling above my bed and terrify me into alertness or my mind would just start racing post pee. And I have an arsenal of tools to combat insomnia. I’d turn on a guided meditation, a Yoga Nidra track, or a sleep hypnosis and would lie there listening to the complete track until I gave up and would just find a show on Netflix. So I’ve binged watched quite a few shows so far this year if you need any recommendations!
While I got frustrated a few times that all this downtime could’ve been spent working on my side hustles I just didn’t have the energy in me. I have literally felt drained of all my side hustle mojo. It was only as I neared the end of January and February that I felt inspired to start consistent blog posts again.
So I’m honouring exactly what my body is asking of me. I have to remember I’m growing 2 humans and that I cannot push the hustle. Does it frustrate me? Sure. Am I embracing my new normal and this season of life? DEFINITELY! Mike and I have wanted 2 kids to grow our family and we are getting the blessing of two kids all at once. This very well could be my one and only pregnancy so I’m conscious of soaking it all in and appreciating every moment. Including the tough days, where I feel exhausted and maybe fighting a headache.
I’ve thankfully had my oils with me for support. A swipe of digestzen on my wrists or a deep inhale for the nausea, a swipe of peppermint on my temples and across my hairline for headaches and citrus oils in the morning to get my energy up.
First trimester down 2 more to go!
With my daughter, only child that I had after being diagnosed with MS, my 1st trimester I had zero energy and was so sick. My natural path started doing acupuncture for the nausea and mood, something I didn’t have with my boys, and life became so much easier. 2nd trimester was good and in the 3rd it was like my MS had disappeared. Hard to explain but my body felt so good and had zero symptoms. After the birth I was good right till almost 3 months when I had a big relapse, only one since being diagnosed.
I wish you the best and hopefully everything continues to get better and better. Can wait to read more about it.