Pregnancy from the Beginning: Weeks 5-13

This post is just a little bit out of chronological order, but I wanted to make sure to document my first trimester. It was a fun secret to have for so many weeks!

We started taking weekly bump pictures pretty much right after we found out I was pregnant - which was on the morning of New Year's Eve: 12/31/14 (approx. 5 weeks pregnant).

After almost a year of trying, we were both over the moon excited when we got the test results:

Like seriously excited:

So it was the morning of 12/31 and we had plans to ring in the new year with our best friends, Hayden and David.

Just for a little background, we have a standing Friday night pizza dinner date with H&D, and so Taylor and I knew we wouldn't be able to keep our secret from them very long. Add in the fact that it was NYE (hello, champagne!) and we knew we'd be busted in a heartbeat.

Well fortunately for us, Hayden is also pregnant (11 weeks ahead of me), so we had a great opportunity to share our news. H&D came over and we all started filling our plates with cheese & cracker appetizers (we love our friends, they love cheese as much as we do!). The guys set out to get the champagne bottles cooling, and per the usual, David offered Hayden a glass of champagne (cruel joker). She declined, saying that she'd have a tiny sip of his champagne at midnight to celebrate but that was it.

Cue Taylor's line: using the same verbiage as David, he offered me a glass. I gave the exact same response as Hayden and then we waited. Silence for a moment or two and then lots and lots of hugging (and maybe even a few tears) as they registered what we were trying to tell them.

It was an incredibly memorable NYE for sure.

The 6 week picture below marked the first official day I started feeling sick, ha! The night before we were out at dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Moth, with Taylor's family celebrating his 30th birthday. I had felt fine up until that point, but then just when dinner was about halfway through it hit me - hard. Little did I know that it was the start of almost 8 weeks of nausea!

As I mentioned before, we decided right away that we wanted to try to take pictures every week (in the same spot, wearing the same top) so that we could document my changes during pregnancy. Pay no attention to the fact that at week 12 I decided we didn't need a regular picture for some reason!

Our first appointment & sonogram was at 8 weeks and we got to see our little jellybean for the first time. She wasn't more than a blob and a heartbeat, but she was absolutely amazing to us!

A few days after our appointment, Taylor and I took a trip to Half Priced Books and I stocked up on pregnancy books. This is just a small stack of the many I left with that day.

Around this time a sweet friend, Aimee (who is currently pregnant with her 4th baby!) sent me home one Sunday after church with a little care package. No picture, but trust me when I say that it was filled goodies to help ease nausea, and I was so appreciative!

Around 9 weeks, I went back to the doctor's office for routine blood-work, including a draw for the Verifi test we opted to do which would tell us the sex of the baby (as well as let us know if the baby was at risk for a handful of other genetic disorders - thankfully all came back negative!). Can I just tell you how genius I think this test is? It's non-invasive (blood draw only) and can tell so much so early. How it works is that around 9-11 weeks, the baby's blood is mixed in with the mom's blood and so when they take a sample, it contains both sets of DNA. The sample is sent to a lab and they can separate and analyze the chromosomes for mom + baby. This lets them look at the baby's chromosomes individually and see if there are any abnormalities. Because of the process, they can also determine the sex of the baby at the same time.

Weeks 10/11 were particularly exciting because we got a call from the doctor with the sex of the baby: it's a girl!! I remember being on pins and needles for the days leading up to that call. Funny story: I actually missed the first call from the doctor late in the afternoon on a Wednesday and had to wait until Thursday morning when the office was open again to call them back!

The nurse on the phone walked me through the results of my blood tests (all negative for chromosomal abnormalities) and then asked if I wanted to know the sex. Taylor and I had talked about it previously and decided that we were fine with me finding out first, but I had strict instructions to call him immediately after. I'll never forget the nurse saying "You're going to have a little girl!" I was speechless, overwhelmed, and oh-so-happy. And I may have cried a little, right there in a corner of my office.

Taylor had been convinced we were going to have a boy. I kept waffling back and forth but was starting to feel like a boy was in our future - at the same time I just kept finding myself hoping that it would be a girl.

I called Taylor right away and he was thrilled too.

Did I mention that my BFF is also having a little girl??

Speaking of, Hayden surprised me with this "pregnancy survival" box a week or two before, filled to the brim with useful first trimester things like mac & cheese (yum), maternity yoga pants (so comfy), and Tylenol & tissues (only a fellow preggo would know!).

So the next day after we found out we were having a girl, we got to have a mini gender reveal party and share the news with both of our parents. It was a blast!

Also during this time, a sweet and dear friend from college (who is also pregnant and just around 14 weeks ahead of me), sent me this book - I so appreciate the advice and suggestions from friends who are going through (or have already gone through) pregnancy!

I think week 12 was the turning point for me in terms of morning-sickness easing up. To be totally honest, it was a pretty crummy 6-8 weeks. I was nauseated most of the day, everyday. I tried a mix of things including zofran (prescribed by my doctor), b6 vitamins, and even and papaya enzymes. They all helped a little, but it was still rough.

I lived in a pair of Sea-Bands. They are amazing and seriously work.

Bayley surprised me with this sweet care package (yeaaaa Sea-Bands!):

I felt particularly bad very first thing in the mornings when I woke up, so Taylor got into a routine of making me a piece of (mostly) dry toast every morning. I found that if I ate something immediately (and I do mean immediately), that I was able to function and get ready for the day. We went through quite a bit of toast during those early weeks!

Strong food smells were terrible. I ate a lot of french fries, dumplings, and rice (totally not my normal eating style). Cereal became a regular dinner. Mac & cheese was a favorite snack. Gold fish kept me going at work. Asian food was particularly appealing. Anything on the menu dipped in soy sauce? Delicious. We did also stock up on pickles and olives. It's so cliche, but they were just so good. I've always had a particular fondness for pickles and olives though, so it wasn't quite that odd for me, but I think I was really just craving salty things.

I should also mention that somewhere in the middle of all this, my agency moved into a new office building. Being in a new, hip Dallas location was incredible, but man was it tough feeling so crummy when everyone around me was so excited to see the new space and try out all the new restaurants in the area. I ended up becoming a french fry expert, as a lot of stuff on the various menus sounded terrible! I'll never forget the time a sweet coworker was concerned that I hadn't eaten very much at lunch and she kept offering me half of her sandwich - I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to keep my fries down if she kept waving that darn sandwich in my face, but I couldn't say anything other than "no thank you!"

Eventually though, as the weeks went on and the sickness eased up, I was able to work healthier foods back into my diet. Right around week 12 I started slowly feeling less sick each day, and by around week 14, I was feeling almost back to normal.

However, I'm definitely still pregnant though, and sometimes our shopping trips still look like this!