First Trimester Troubles

Many caring people ask me how my pregnancy is going, and how I feel during my first trimester. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a lot worse than this! As of now, I am 12+ weeks along, and I haven't gotten "sick" once (knocks on wood)!! The first few weeks before I "knew" that I was pregnant I had a huge appetite. I was so hungry all day long, even though I was eating more snacks throughout the day than usual. Starting at probably week 6 or 7 weeks, I started feeling like I needed to munch constantly or I'd feel a bit queasy all day. Plus, I couldn't eat as big of meals as I used to to hold me over longer. That hasn't really been all the bad though. I haven't really been rushing to the bathroom as often as the books tell me I would, but I'm ok with that. I try to drink more water, but that's always been difficult for me because I don't really like water.

At 12 weeks now, I notice that my appetite has become ravenous again. The little snacks throughout the day don't seem to cut it anymore. I think I'm finally starting to understand the difference (and necessity) between snacks and "small meals." I figured that if I were eating more than one food group, it would feel like a "small meal" to my stomach and I could switch to other food groups for the next snack. So far, I still feel starving and I just need to plan extra hard for what I eat throughout the day.

I've also noticed that I am pretty tired...I know, that's expected when expecting! But recently, I've made an effort to go to bed earlier so that I can have more hours of sleep by the time I get up in the morning, and it just doesn't seem to help. I don't really fall asleep any faster, and I'm so exhausted through the next day at work. For example, last night I went to bed around 10:30pm, hoping that it would give me 9 1/2 hours of sleep. I didn't fall asleep until after Mark came to bed at midnight. He thought he might have woken me up, but I was actually still awake. As for other sleeping symptoms like waking in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (around 2:45am like clockwork) and crazy dreams and all that, there's not really much to tell. Who knows, maybe later in the pregnancy I'll get some wild dreams that I just can't hold back.

So far the only thing that was troubling me about my pregnancy was figuring out when to tell my boss. Most advice I read online mention that you don't need to tell your employer until it's absolutely necessary...like when you just can't hide your belly any longer, but they give the time frame of around 16-20 weeks. Well, when I was 8 weeks along, I saw a doctor and she told me to come back for a follow-up in 3 weeks. So when I requested time off for the next appointment, my boss got suspicious...but she played it off like it was just concern. She brought me into the conference room for a confidential meeting asking if everything was alright. I knew I wasn't ready to tell her yet, but I didn't want to lie to her. I felt very awkward during the whole conversation, and since it was my boss I was a little intimidated to mention that I thought she didn't have a right to ask those questions. At one point she actually said, "Sounds to me like you're prgnant." I was shocked, but tried not to let the truth out just yet. Instead, I just told her that I wasn't planning on having this conversation until I had gotten my test results back and that I knew whether it was something that they would even need to be concerned about. That seemed to appease her at the moment. Then, 3 weeks later at my follow-up appointment, the doctor asked me to come back in 1-2 weeks for the ultrasound, and then also in 4 weeks for the follow-up appointment. (I was upset that I didn't get the ultrasound at that appointment because that meant I had to get yet another day off of work. I would've scheduled that appointment later had I known she'd ask me to come back.) I knew that if I tried scheduling more appointments than I anticipated (3 weeks, then 2 1/2 weeks, then 2 1/2 weeks), that it was probably time that I told my boss out of courtesy sake. So at 11 weeks, I told her.

To tell you the truth, I'm really glad that I did!! I've told my family and friends, and I'm not embarrassed about it or anything. I was nervous about her reaction, but now I feel relieved that I don't really have to hide it from her anymore. She's already discussed this with Tracy (her superior in the corporate office) and with John Black (who is the senior managing director in this office), so it's not like it really needs to be kept as a secret anymore. That's why I decided to finally post it on the blog. Even if by some chance someone at work has found or follows my blog, I won't have to worry that I didn't tell them at work. Now that work knows, I can feel free to tell anyone at work at any time I choose, when I feel comfortable about it...or I can just hold it in and see the shocked faces on my co-workers that I didn't tell them earlier. Who knows?

Here's to hoping for a happy ending to my first trimester! :)