5 things I was not expecting with my pregnancy during my first trimester.

I am so glad that I can finally announce my next life adventure with y’all. Michael and I are expecting our first child. We will be welcoming our daughter, Magnolia Ruth Smith, in August 2020!

As excited as I am about welcoming this sweet baby girl into the world, I. AM. MISERABLE. No one told me how terrible pregnancy can be. Here are the things I wasn’t expecting about expecting during my first trimester.

1. The all-day vomiting. I cannot tell you why they call it morning sickness, because for me it happens all day long. When I first started getting sick, around the 5-6-week mark, I would wake up in the middle of the night nauseous, throwing up. Then after a bit it was all day sickness. I would find something that would relieve my symptoms for a while but then it would come right back. 

• • Here are some of the things that have given me some relief:
    • Pregnancy candies: you can get this at the pharmacy or order them off the internet, but they do ease my symptoms some of the time. Who knows, they make work every time for you.
    • Prescriptions from your doctor: Zofran, Phenergan, or others even. Zofran doesn’t work as well for me because the taste makes me gag and then vomit. Phenergan helped some but it does make me sleepy so I can only take it at night. There are probably others you can ask your doctor about but the first two are what I have tried.
    • Eat what stays down: This philosophy worked A LOT in the beginning stages of my sickness. If a food made me sick, I would stay away from it, if it didn’t, I would add it to my list of eat items. My list of eat items was very small at chicken nuggets and a specific brand of pickles. That was until this week when everything started making me sick. Now I have no way to not be sick, so I just eat something expecting to throw it up afterward.

2. The pure exhaustion. In the days before I found out I was pregnant, I would get home from work and take a three-hour nap not knowing why. It became pretty clear when we had a positive pregnancy test in hand. The tiredness has never subsided. I feel rundown and I look rundown. I am so tired everyday that I don’t have the energy to put on makeup or fix my hair. I am lucky to be surrounded by a support system that understands and tries to help me in anyway they can. The only fix I can find to mend the tiredness is sleeping when I can and do my best not to overexert myself.
3. This next one is a bit unpleasant and a tad unladylike, but I am here to be honest. Constipation. Absolutely no one told me that constipation can be a struggle while you are pregnant. My Registered Dietitian friend, Julian, suggested a probiotic so that is what I did. She suggested I take them at night before I go to sleep. After a few days, the probiotic worked like magic. 
4. Breathing and sinus issues. This symptom was really scary because I had never heard about breathing issues being a side effect of pregnancy and I could not catch my breath. I went to my primary care provider and she informed me that the breathing issues were happening because of sinus problems caused by the pregnancy. She prescribed me a Zyrtec-D and the symptoms cleared up in a few days.
5. There is NO glow. I am not glowing. My skin does not look radiant. Maybe that will change in the later part of my pregnancy but for now my skin is breaking out and even dry in some parts.

As I was complaining to a friend about feeling like dirt, she said, “no one tells you how terrible pregnancy can be.” At this point, I couldn’t agree more. I wish someone would have told me just how bad it can be. Even though I do feel dreadful on a normal basis, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Magnolia on her way. I will say that everyone’s pregnancy is different and not everyone is as miserable as I am. I will also say that some have it far worse.

What do you wish you would have known about your pregnancy?

P.S. Some of you are probably thinking that it is way too early for Michael and me to know that we are having a girl, but we took a blood test through our doctor’s office that is 99.1% accurate. Luckily, if they are wrong, we will get our money back.