Diary of a First Time Mom

Posts Tagged ‘cliches’

I have officially become the victim of what I had always heard would eventually happen. Women, usually older women, keep telling me to really enjoy my pregnancy and how it was the best time of their lives. They speak of how their hair, skin and nails were never as good as when they were pregnant. They tell me they never felt better! I usually smile. Through clenched teeth. Not because I was annoyed. But because I was walking around feeling perpetually nauseous.

And now it has happened to me. And I am not complaining! But I feel… good! In fact, I had almost completely forgotten all the strange and unusual side-effects of the first trimester, until last night, as I was drifting off, it all came back to me.

In case I did not properly chronicle it in a prior post, here are some of the things that came up during my first three months of pregnancy (in no particular order):

• Nausea – really bad nausea.
• Skin rash across my whole face, probably due to the floods of hormones.  My skin literally went “AHHHHHHHHHH!” and broke out from forehead to chin.
• The need to have something in my stomach at all times.  ALL times.  It was especially strange how much relief one little cracker and a glass of water could bring.
• Emotional outbursts.  More than the usual…
• Feeling miserable, mentally.  Almost like a mild depression.  I actually wonder if this is due to the amount of vitamins that were being used for the baby and I had not caught up by taking enough for me too.
• Fatigue.  As in sudden whole body shut down.  One time, I was folding laundry and had two more sheets to fold.  You know how when you are folding sheets by yourself, you hold your arms up high and grab the corners?  I literally could not lift my arms.  I had to drop the sheets where I stood, and lay down.  I think I passed out for about two hours.
• Food aversions / cravings.  Bananas were my best friend.  I ate one right before bed and then in the middle of the night.  Suddenly, bananas made me sick.  Even the mention of them set me off into a serious case of the burps.  Scott loved the power, and would frequently whisper “ba-na-nas” in my ear, and then laugh as I would burp for the next five minutes.  Yuck.
• Hating food.  It was such a chore to eat.  Nothing tasted good.  But it was a necessity.

I am sure there are others, but these are the only ones I can think of now.  And for how long?  Sneaky Nature has already started flooding my brain with the happy hormones and I am starting to feel really great!  I went on a Subway kick.  Got my hair done.  Cleaned out my office.  Sold a bunch of stuff on eBay.  And started to eat for pleasure again.

But I wanted to log my observations (not complaints!) of the first trimester, before the second really kicks in, I get my serious energy boost and Nature sends a Will Smith-esque guy to my door to flash the bad memories away.  Tricky Nature.  I’m on to you…

I think this time I really did forget to rinse the conditioner out of my hair.  But I’m not sure…

I just realized that I am literally bare-foot and pregnant…  in the kitchen.