Today I am sharing all about my first trimester experiences. I remember when I did the shoot that the picture above was taken and my photographer mentioning that I looked like I had lost weight. I had not been working on losing weight even though I had been trying to shed some pounds for months. What I didn’t know at the time was that I was approximately 6 weeks pregnant at the time. When I got the pictures back I remember specifically looking at the pictures of me in this blue dress and mentioning to my sister that my pooch looked bad and I needed to start working out. We laughed it off and I went about my business.
The pregnancy was planned, however, right when I got pregnant I was starting to think that maybe we should wait. Becoming a parent freaked me out and I always found myself constantly changing my mind. Well, it was too late to change my mind.
I was approximately three days late and texted my sister to tell her aunt flow was nowhere to be found. Her response “Really, just 3 days. Call me when its been a week or so.” typical nurse response. I took a pregnancy test while my husband was at work and figured it would be another negative test considering the month prior I had wasted a bunch of tests. For a month I obsessed over being pregnant and thought I was pregnant when I was not. I took a step back and decided to just relax and not obsess over it. When the test came back positive every possible scenario ran through my head. What if it was a false positive and I was getting excited over nothing. I waited for my husband to get back home and I shared the news with him. I decided to wait a few more days and retake the test. That didn’t happen. I woke up the next morning and took another test and sure enough it was positive. I made an appointment to go see my doctor and talk about all things pregnancy. I jotted down questions that I had.
What I did not realize was how hard being pregnant truly is. It takes a toll on your body to grow a human being inside of you. I was exhausted all the time and the morning sickness set in right around week 8. I was as sick as a dog starting from around 430pm till I went to bed. I could not stand meat for a few weeks and my sense of smell was heightened. Everything smelled awful. The only food I could stomach was oatmeal, honey bunches of oats and cottage cheese.
I would not trade any of these experiences for anything else in this world.
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All Photos: Catherine Truman Photo