Surviving the First Trimester

First trimester is indeed all about survival and finding ways to manage your symptoms as well as you can. My symptoms were fatigue, nausea, heartburn, constipation, increased thirst and scent aversions.

1. I feel like fatigue is a very common symptom that you hear about in pregnancy but I did not realize until I experienced it first hand how powerful the fatigue would really be. The second I got home from work my eyes would just slam shut I could no longer be a functional person and had to go right to sleep.

That being said two items we updated in our house during this time was moving from a queen mattress to a king mattress which is life changing by the way and new comfy pillows. We decided on the casper mattress one because it shows up right on your doorstep and is easy to bring up the stairs unlike traditional mattresses and two because the casper mattress is incredibly comfortable. We also went with the casper pillows and have been so happy with both.

2. My second symptom was nausea and I tried a wide variety of items to help sooth my nausea during this time. I immediately switched to drinking lemon ginger teas as drinking coffee or regular teas during this window was a solid no go for me. I also had to switch to a chewable prenatal for a little while as I just could not keep pills down. Another little trick I figured out was never let yourself get hungry and try to keep quick snacks around your house, car and purse. If you feel nausea starting to creep in a few bites usually would make a world of a difference. I also always had hard candies on hand for my commute because something about the car would always make me ill.

3. My third symptom was heartburn and to combat this issue I tried to avoid caffeine and chocolate which were too things that made my heartburn worse and I stocked up on TUMS . I found it so hard to lay down at night during this window of heartburn that i would basically have to stack up pillows and sleep as upright as possible.

4. Another fun symptom that happened in first trimester was constipation and honestly with the foods I managed to eat I was not surprised to find myself constipated. I basically lived off bread products and cheese for a few weeks because it was all my body seemed to want. My doctor recommendation I add Benefiber into my routine and this did give some relief until I started eating a well balanced diet once again.

5. My next symptom was increased thirst that I just could never quench. I would drink so much water cold or hot and just always feel thirsty. Not sure if this is common, a few of my friends had the exact opposite where the idea of drinking water in the first trimester would make them feel ill. I was just that lady who showed up to work with multiple insulated mugs and water bottles to house all my tea, hot and cold water! The Yeti is a bit pricey but it stays in perfect condition forever, never holds smells, keeps your drink hot for hours and ice frozen for over 24hrs it's amazing .

6. Now my sixth and worst symptom was hyper scent and scent aversions. My husband 100% thought I was making up this symptom and would call me dramatic but seriously it was awful. being in my kitchen was difficult because it had so many scents and I would gag or throw up every time I went in my kitchen. The smell of foods especially leftovers, bananas or broccoli were just too much and opening the fridge was nearly impossible. I ended up plugging in our diffuser in the kitchen and carried around essential oil rollers to smell throughout my house.