The first trimester - to be honest a whole month of it you do not even know you are pregnant. When we found out, first with an at-home pregnancy test on April 1st 2020 (but not an April fool!), then confirmed by a doctor we felt such a range of emotion (also because of Covid)! Definitely excited, but also in disbelief, scared and seeing our life change right in front of us.
We decided to stop birth control in April 2019 and never put any kind of pressure on ourselves. I truly believed that if this is meant to be for us, if our family is supposed to grow, it will happen whenever the right time comes. I guess a world pandemic, and lock down was the right time for us, one year after stopping birth control! I am grateful it happened this way, because our 2020 schedule was already very packed with multiple trips on the horizon, new home purchase with some renos/update plans. We are always very ambitious when it comes to juggling many things at the same time (multiple business, family, friendships, travel etc) and we always do everything but it can be draining. The lockdown earlier this year allowed us to settle into our home, FULLY unpack and picture a little baby in our life. I also realized we may have never gotten pregnant if the world would not have come to a halt because of our schedule, travel and so on. Keep in mind, this is my story, and it is different for everyone!
Thankfully my pregnancy symptoms were very minimal, I did not restrain from heavy lifting yet (even moved furniture around), did my workouts and had close to no morning sickness, did not gain weight. Some days we joked that "are we even pregnant"?! I guess all the stories about pregnancy we had heard really worried us for how this journey will go. The truth is, it is different for everyone and it does not matter the gender whether you will feel a certain way. The first Ultrasound established that I was just 6 weeks then (we thought I was 8 weeks) and little bebe was less than 1cm and I was told to come back in another 2 weeks to get proper measurements and data. The Ultrasound made things very real, the sound of the heartbeat is just precious and we realized we had a big secret to keep for a few weeks before we could reveal to our friends and family (but covid helped!). The day after the 12 week Ultrasound we shot our announcement pictures and announced 2 days later on social media.
During the First trimester my breasts were sore, my tummy felt a little bloated, but other than that really nothing changed. I was pleasantly surprised and only thought all of these symptoms and "pregnancy side effects" must be coming soon.
Then the 12 week Ultrasound, or the highlight of the First Trimester - Jeremiah could not attend this appointment because of Covid restrictions. It was a nerve wrecking one. Everyone keeps this benchmark of 12 weeks in mind for the baby's viability but truth is, this Ultrasound is all about checking for any genetic defects - I was so thrown off by this terminology when I arrived at the clinic. We have to keep in mind that we (the parents) look at these Ultrasounds as being able to see the baby, hearing the heartbeat and getting a picture at the end of it all but truly these are for medical reasons and way more than what we think! To me, if there was ever anything not 100% as it should be, I would want to know about it - but this is different for everyone!
All in all, the first trimester went by so quickly (also because you don't really know for about 4 weeks that you are actually pregnant!), and without much of a hitch. The best part was telling our families and friends, this little bebe has already brought so much joy to us and those around you, I feel like this will be a wild ride.
