At the start of the week we shared that we have been keeping a big secret! If you haven’t read that post, you can check that one out first HERE. Not only was it surreal to write and share but I’m also incredibly grateful to be sitting here writing this one.

As I was in the midst of the first trimester (and even when I was not pregnant), I enjoyed reading other mama’s accounts on how the first few months of pregnancy were treating them. I find it extremely fascinating how each woman’s experience can vary greatly from one another and also with each pregnancy. Maybe you’re like me and feel the same way about these types of posts! If so, I hope you enjoy this one too.

How did you find out you were pregnant?

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On a Monday in early December I woke up, went to CrossFit, struggled through the workout a bit, came home, and received a FaceTime call from a friend of mine that was deployed at the time. She knew that was around the time I would’ve been delivering Tupta Tot #1 so she was asking how I was feeling. I told her that emotionally I was okay but I just felt so sick to my stomach. She gave me a look and said, “Jordaannnnnn” and I said, “There’s no way! It’s way too early.” We got off the phone and I figured, “Eh… Let’s just get this over with.” I’ve gone through this scenario dozens of times at this point. I have some unusual symptoms, I decide to take a test, the test says negative and I’d move on. For the second time ever, this test was different.

How did you tell Stephen?

I shared in our announcement post all about my emotions and how I was feeling. I’m the type that loves to put together fun surprises and such but I was a bit scarred from doing that with the first baby and going through what we went through. When I saw the positive show up I unexpectedly felt like I was drowning in fear. Stephen wasn’t home at the time and he was night flying that day to boot. All I wanted in that moment was to just talk to him. I didn’t want to think about getting balloons or coming up with something clever and cute. Needless to say, I called him 13 times. I also called the Ops Desk and they couldn’t find him. He eventually called me back and I made him guess what it was (random fact: his first guess was that I had been awarded first place in a Young Living contest I was working hard for).

How far along are you?

13 weeks and 3 days!

When is your due date?

The most amazing part about this baby is that we found out I was pregnant the week of our first baby’s due date and this baby’s due date is (and has remained that way throughout all of our scans so far) MY BIRTHDAY! August 12, 2020.

How did you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally?

The first trimester was quite tough for me emotionally and mentally. I shared all about it in great detail in THIS POST.

Physically I had “morning sickness” I’d say about 75% of the days. For me it was basically just nausea, some instances were worse than others. I know this can vary tremendously for women! There was one time in particular I had to walk out of church because I felt like I was about to toss my cookies but overall I avoided any sort of vomiting like it was the plague. Ginger of some sort (ginger ale, ginger chews, crystallized ginger from Trader Joe’s, etc.) helped me a lot in times when I was getting too close for comfort.

In the first 4-6 weeks of pregnancy I had a very strong aversion to my phone and computer. I wanted to have nothing to do with it whatsoever. I think a big part of that was due to the emotional stuff I was going through. I didn’t really want to socialize or interact with people and being away from my phone helped with that a bit. The other part of me just believes that’s a pregnancy symptom of mine because I also experienced the exact same thing with our first baby and I was not dealing with the same emotional battle at that time.

The biggest symptom I had (and one I think pretty much every pregnant woman experiences) was a lack of energy. I felt like I couldn’t sleep enough. Along with that, my motivation to do absolutely anything went through the floor. It was like all I wanted to do was hunker down and protect the little life the best I could.

When did your symptoms start?

I guess technically they started the couple of days before I took the test at 3 weeks 5 days because I felt abnormally sick. But then I think the nausea subsided weeks 4-5 and week 6 is when it started to make its appearance again. The phone/computer aversion, low energy, and lack of motivation started around 4ish weeks.

Did you continue doing CrossFit? If so, how often?

In the last 9 weeks I stayed active (going for 30+ min walks mostly) maybe 8 times? Aka not a lot at all. There are a few reasons for that:

1. I didn’t feel well physically, emotionally, or mentally, and quite frankly, I didn’t feel like doing it. I know that you’ll read in magazines “It’ll help with the nausea! The endorphins will make you feel so much better!” blah blah blah. I don’t deny that but I just didn’t feel like moving much at all… So I didn’t.
2. For all of my pregnancies I will be on a blood thinner that I inject daily from the day I see that positive until the day I deliver because of a gene mutation that I have (basically I’m more prone to clotting than the average Joe/Jane, especially while pregnant). I don’t have horrible symptoms from it or anything (really it’s hard to tell because I’ve never taken it while not pregnant) but I did want to give my system time to adapt to it through the first trimester before working out again, especially this time around.
3. I worked out quite a bit with the first pregnancy and felt great. While I know that is not what caused us to lose that baby, I had a lot of fear with it this time around. Even typing out those words I’m thinking, “Jordan! You could’ve done it and it would’ve been fine! AND you would’ve felt better!” Hindsight is 20/20.
4. HA! Having these thoughts sound bonkers and just plain stupid now that I’m typing them out but piggybacking off the last post… Something I really struggled with the first pregnancy was just staying “comfortable” while working out. I basically treated the workouts as normal because I felt fine doing them. Aka my heart rate was not as low as it “should’ve” been. “They” say you should be able to carry on a casual conversation while working out (although, I have read conflicting opinions on this). Yeah… I wasn’t doing that. I was really listening to my body but I didn’t scale much at that time because again… I felt perfectly fine. This time around I knew I’d be better at toning down the competitiveness but I didn’t feel like answering questions about why I was scaling things I normally wouldn’t, etc. I felt like I was hiding something. It’s REALLY SILLY my mind went there anyway or that I even cared. Even more ridiculous that I didn’t just push through it. I don’t disagree with you whatever. Package my silly reasonings/thoughts, fear(s), lack of motivation and nausea all together with a pretty bow and that why I wasn’t very active in the past 9 weeks.

Once I started to get a more clear minded towards the end of the first trimester, I began to get excited at the thought of going to CrossFit in the mornings again. The past couple of times that I’ve gone I have been able to get past any sort of competitive mindset and just scale where needed. I was proud of myself for that. Ultimately, I’m not trying to gain anything. Just remain active and healthy for myself and this Tot.

Did you have any cravings or aversions?

CARBS + CHEESE + PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING UNHEALTHY

I would’ve been fine if I ate a bagel with cream cheese every single day with a grapefruit and pasta with butter and cheese for dinner. I’m not even kidding.

Every now and then I craved specific things like pizza, chips and dip, macaroni and cheese (specifically my Mom’s), and muffins (so random considering I’m not a huge muffin person).

Aversions… WOOF. This makes me so sad to even write out but you guys… I couldn’t really deal with anything that smelled whatsoever. Needless to say, essential oils have not been my BFF these past 9 weeks. I miss them so much! “You never know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Goodness gracious. Isn’t that the truth? I’m hoping that aversion quickly subsides in the second trimester.

Did you gain weight?

I actually lost 6+ pounds. That’s not something I’m proud of. I think that it was mostly because of my lack of working out aka muscle loss and because I was nauseas a lot of the time so I wasn’t consuming nearly as many calories as I normally do.

Will you be finding out the gender?

Nope!!! It’ll be like opening the greatest birthday present EVER!

If you have any other questions, send them my way and I’ll get them answered! I’m also going to put together a post with all of my first trimester essentials because I know I received quite a few questions that were product related. Be on the lookout for that one!

Thank you so much for being here and for your support!