First Trimester recap
here are a few videos i’ve made since announcing i’m pregnant!
first trimester recap — first coffee — finding out we’re pregnant after miscarriage
What a weird, fun, hard & surreal whirlwind this has already been!
In case you weren’t aware - I found out I was pregnant on the 4th of July and Miscarried on the 8th. I never got my period back and found out I was pregnant, AGAIN, on August 21st. So sometime between (let’s say) July 16th - the beginning of August we conceived again!!
I didn’t put two and two together with not having my period back until I googled not getting my period back yet after a miscarriage and on one of the posts it mentioned you could be pregnant again and that was my lightbulb moment of “duh, you can still ovulate without a period”.
I also found out that the first three months after a miscarriage you are more likely to conceive!
wild! wild! wild!
Quick real talk before getting into the symptoms
Before we dive into symptoms and whatnot, i wanted to address how surreal & how different your pregnancy can become after going through a miscarriage. I will be the first to say that my miscarriage wasn’t the worst-case scenario. What I mean by that is i didn’t need to have surgery. it lasted 4 days altogether, and then as quickly as i found out we were pregnant, the womb was empty again. i passed it at home while my Daughter played happily in the room next to me.
To be 100% honest with you, i wasn’t attached to the baby yet. I had only known for 4 days and was still processing the craziness that is finding out you’re having a baby! Nobody knew besides the three of us(Jake, Rehn, and me), well, not until i needed encouragement from my SILs, so the whole process was very intimate and quick.
So while i wasn’t necessarily mourning the loss of my baby,(i was also around 5 or 6 weeks at the time, so I wasn’t very far along) I did, however, mourn what i had been dreaming about for the last 2 years. We had been trying to conceive another little since January of 2021 - so the healing process of being given something & then it being gone so quickly was something i didn’t really process until a couple of weeks later. It was isolating to be so out of touch with my own emotions. I also fell into a depression because i had been so disciplined and intentional about my nutrition & movement according to my cycle(cycle-syncing changed my life & honestly something i contributed to conceiving BOTH times), and not having a period for 6 weeks after my miscarriage REALLY impacted so much! i was confused about what to eat, and how to move, i was even just lost on what I liked to eat. it was wild how it much it blurred my vision and confused me.
So, finding out i was pregnant after weeks of confusion and sadness, i FINALLY felt this weight lifted and felt that i could move forward.
Another way miscarriage has impacted THIS pregnancy is the lingering anxiety, whether it’s small or vast, that is just always there. Feeling cramping, or hearing others talk about how they made it to 23 weeks with a healthy heartbeat, only to go in and no longer find one. The joy aspect wasn’t there until i hit 12/13 weeks, but even still, i am remaining, subconsciously, distant from it all. Reminding myself this could be temporary, or this could be the real deal. It’s sad really, to not fully and naively go through your pregnancy joyful and without fear of loss. But, i am doing what i can to remain joyful! To remain hopeful! I’m not letting the anxiety dictate my mood or how i live, it’s just something that hits randomly and I really just have to sit in full surrender to the Lord and process those thoughts and feelings and then take a big breath and walk away from it!
As much as this is a sad way to start this trimester recap, i think things like this aren’t talked about much. The mental aspects of loss, and I wanted to provide my honest experience with it so that if you’re feeling this way too, you know you’re not alone in it! But we ARE able to combat the anxiety. we are not tied to depression. it takes work, it takes discipline, but by taking things one day at a time, and allowing ourselves to process how we feel & then letting them go, we will soon make it all the way to the other end!
W E E K S
9 - 14
Symptoms that lead to the test :
my boobs became super tender again — because i had just miscarried, i had already started feeling the symptoms of the first trimester, and both then and my first pregnancy i had very sore/tender boobs. it was honestly my first “tell” all three times.
i had an aversion to coffee — which, again, all three times i have NO desire for coffee.
piggy-backing off of that, i craved water sooooooo much more than anything else.
lastly, i was wanting(the word “want” is honestly an understatement)chocolate every single night before bed. i’d have a bite and then immediately crave something salty, like an olive lol it was weird
Symptoms that popped up after my positive tests :
N A U S E A - so much nausea. all day.
I started using progesterone oil every morning and every night, topically, to help elevate my progesterone levels to see if that would help. i heard from many people & my midwife that your testosterone is super high in the first trimester & most often leads to nausea until the progesterone is leveled back out! I’m not a DR. and would recommend you talk to your care-provider before doing so, but when my blood test came back they said my progesterone levels were incredible lol
I also started using “calm” every day because my Midwife also said the lack of magnesium during pregnancy is wild, and getting that under control can contribute to aiding your nausea - again, ask about this before you do it, but i really have seen an improvement after implementing these two things!
aversions to almost everything - i have not enjoyed a cup of coffee in 10 weeks. Pretty much anything i’m not “hungry” for( i say that in quotations because my body is hungry and can tolerate some things, but there’s very little joy in what i’m eating)i have a strong aversion to. it’s actually been really hard to eat anything these days.
so much fatigue — i don’t want to do anything. i have to pep myself up to start a project like the dishes, or vacuum, or start laundry, but once i start i do feel okay and can accomplish at least one of those things.
cramping — this part has sort of scared me a little. i think just because of the recent miscarriage, every time i cramp i’m aware fo what COULD happen and i just have to take a breath and prepare my heart for the worst while being grateful for where i am at in this moment.
Things i’ve been eating/craving
bagels with cream cheese
corn flake cereal(every morning)
feta and pretzels together
lemon rice soup