First Trimester

There are several posts in my head that I want to get written out, to serve as a journal of my memories, before my life gets too crazy and I forget everything. So the next several posts will be about stuff that I've wanted to write, but just haven't gotten around to yet.

Even though I've blogged a little bit here and there, I really haven't blogged a bunch about my pregnancy, especially since nine months is a VERY VERY LONG time, as I'm feeling it right now. So here's a recap of some of the highlights of the first trimester -

My morning sickness was mild to moderate, but near constant. I don't think I ever threw up, but I did feel nauseous most of the time. With my first 2 babies, I didn't really feel like eating much, but the funny thing with this baby, even though I was nauseous and didn't want to eat, I felt worse on an empty stomach, so I actually did eat anyway. I don't get over-obsessed about weight gain during pregnancy because I've realized that my body gains weight no matter how much I exercise (and I like to eat, and I eat moderately healthy, but I'm not ready to make any more major changes in that area), but I usually counted on a negative start to the weight gain in the first trimester to counteract the surplus gain in the following trimesters. But since I needed to eat to be less queasy, I didn't get this negative head start in the weight gain battle this time. Oh well.

And I was super tired. I tried to rest or take a nap every day, but with 2 other kids, that was really hard to do. If I laid down on the couch, they would climb all over me and sit on me. The boys got to watch a lot of TV for those months, mostly Phineas and Ferb, a cartoon on Disney Channel. It's actually really funny and Casey and I enjoy it as much as the boys do.

I never had any real cravings for odd foods, but my relationship with caffeine took a u-turn. I'm not a coffee drinker, all the tea and coke in our home is always decaf or caffeine-free, so the only time I had caffeine was when I ate out at a restaurant. But during my first trimester, I started to get headaches every afternoon, except on days when I had a caffeinated drink for lunch. My doctor agreed with me that it was better to have a drink of caffeine everyday instead of taking Tylenol everyday, and thus started my "craving" for McDs sweet tea. For those of you not in the South, McDonalds has the best sweet tea! (Best marketing move ever, because before I realized that they had the best tea, I never went to McDonalds, but since then, I have often chosen to eat there just because of their tea, despite the food) And you can get a large sweet tea for just a $1. So about 4-5 times a week, I managed to find myself passing a McDs sometime during the morning, by either taking the long way home after taking Charlie to preschool, or swinging by after working out at the Y (those were dangerous stops, because they often came with french fries...) About once a month, I would test the caffeine fix, to see if my addiction had stopped as mysteriously as it had begun, but alas, the headache would continue. The addiction persisted through the 1st, 2nd and into the 3rd trimesters, but about 2 weeks ago, the addiction disappeared. I can now stick with my decaf tea without afternoon headaches. I don't know why my body wanted caffeine suddenly and now it doesn't need it? But I really enjoyed my McDs sweet tea indulgence while I needed it.