First Trimester Update:
Thanks for all of your kind words and excitement about baby #4! I’m not sure anyone is as excited as Lincoln (age 7) but as I start coming out of survival mode I’m getting back to feeling some of that excitement I had at 4-5 weeks.
Here are a few questions from IG and a little first trimester update.
How far along are you?
Baby should be coming sometime toward the end of August. I’m trying to shy away from embracing actual due dates this time around. With Westley they gave me a due date that was a bit earlier than I thought and then I went 11 days over. It was hard psychologically to be planning on being done sometime around August 2 and still be pregnant come August 12. I similalrly hav ea due date this time that is a week or two earlier than I thought (I blame the fact that I have big babies and didn’t get an ultrasound until closer to 11 weeks).
But about 11-13 weeks right now 🙂
How did you tell Ben?
Ben was right there while we waited for the test to change together this time. It was very early on and the line was so faint we didn’t see anything at first.
How did you tell the kids?
We waited until Christmas eve to tell the kids and it has been my favorite part of pregnancy so far! I’ll put together the video we took but I put some pacifiers, a new Promptly Baby Journal, and some “baby sized” goldfish in a gift bag for the kids to open. I told them we had been working on one of their Christmas presents but it wouldn’t be ready to play with until this summer. I told them there were a few clues in the bag and let them figure it out.
How do the kids feel about it?
Lincoln and Adelaide (but mostly Lincoln) have been asking for another kid in our family since Westley was one. Their excitement has carried me through this hard first trimester. They are pumped.
On days when I feel a little bit bad about being such a lame version of myself (I am a fun, engaged, calm, attentive mom…just not while I am in a first trimester), I remind myself that the benefit of a new sibling far outweighs any setback of having a lame mom for a few months.
How are you feeling?
I am starting to come out of the worst of it which is SO encouraging. It has been a really hard 6 weeks of throwing up, nausea, and just exhaustion. I don’t realize how much I do until I can’t do it anymore.
I am now on a good regiment of Unisom + B6 which seems to really be helping the worst of the nausea. i still throw up at random times (in random parking lots) and the evenings are the hardest but I think we’re on the up and up.
How is this the same/ different than other pregnancies?
This reminds me a lot of my pregnancy with Westley because I just feel so yucky all the time. I throw up less than I did with my first two (I think?) but it feels like I have the stomach flu for about two months which is very similar to Westley.
What are you craving?
I just re-read my first trimester update with Westley and it talked about craving salad and meat which I have avoided like the plague for the last two months. Vegetables don’t sound appetizing at all.
With Adelaide, all I wanted was bread and butter which seems about right so maybe this is another girl?
Like all my pregnancies, sweets don’t sound very good in the first trimester but I’m starting to come out of that phase, too.
Are you going to find out the gender during pregnancy?
This one is still up for debate. I found out at the 20 week anatomy scan with all three of my other kids. I was not even interested in waiting another couple of hours for a fun gender reveal. We always just found out together in the room during the ultrasound.
Since having Westley (my third) 2.5 years ago I have heard so many stories about people who have waited to find out the sex at delivery and have LOVED that experience. With this almost certainly being my last baby, I’m feeling a desire to experience a lot of parts of pregnancy and childbirth I haven’t yet. Part of me says that birth is already exciting! You get a baby! Why do you need more excitement? Pregnancy, on the other hand, far less exciting. So why not spread the love a little bit? But the other part want to see what all this hype is about.
Also, I am just not very interested in if this baby is a boy or a girl right now. I know I’ll love either. I have a preference but I don’t have any dying need to know like I did in previous pregnancies. That said, Ben is a planner and he would like to know. So we’ll see.
How are you staying fit this pregnancy?
This is a pretty irrelevant question for me coming out of my first trimester. Weeks 6-14 are pure survival mode for me. It is a good day if I wash my face and brush my teeth. It is an average day if I put my clothes on more than 24 hours ago.
With my last two pregnancies I was at the gym 4-5 days a week throughout pregnancy but I haven’t been back to a gym since Covid or this move to California. I’m starting to get back into some light body weight exercises as my energy comes back and the nausea starts to settle. I’ll add in some light weights and lots of walking in the next few weeks. I went back to my first high fitness class last week and hopefully will continue that once a week through the third trimester. But we’ll see. I’m not feeling super dedicated or worried about it
Are you taking anything for nausea? What do your recommend for morning sickness?
Yes! This time around I’m taking b6 and Unisom tablets before bed each night and they help with nausea throughout the next day. I didn’t start them until about 9-10 weeks and wish I’d had them earlier.
I also have a handful of these products (19 products that real moms say work for morning sickness) and sucking on Preggo pops helps a bit. I also will take a bath with these epsom salts at the end of the night if it is particularly bad and it seems to help. I eat a lot of toast and cereal. I throw up in random parking lots (but only once since starting the unisom + b6 and it was late afternoon / early evening when the dose was starting to wear off).
Will this be your last kid? How did you decide when you are done?
This is almost certainly our last (but, never say never, right?).
I grew up as the oldest of four so whenever I imagined a future family it had about 4 kids in it. We thought about being done with three, which probably would have been fine, but I am feeling really good now about having our fourth and being 100% okay being done (with three I think I might have always wondered “what if”). I don’t think there is a right or wrong number. I am SO excited to have a tiny newborn. I am also very excited to never be 10 weeks pregnant ever again. With my third I was a bit excited about the prospect of maybe being done but I had a lot of mixed feelings. This time around there are no mixed feelings.
Previous First Trimester Updates
First Trimester Update with Lincoln (baby #1)
