Lately, I’ve been seeing so many people I know announce that they are pregnant with their first child. I always love seeing this, because it wasn’t long ago I was in their shoes. It brings back a lot of memories and emotions about my own experience. I was so excited for the future, yet so scared of the unknown. Today, with Mother’s Day being at the end of the week, I wanted to share my personal experience of being pregnant as a first time mom.
I had a difficult beginning to my pregnancy. I learned that I was pregnant not long after experiencing my second miscarriage. I never thought that I would go through anything like that when the time came to have a baby, so it caught me off guard and left me with a very distraught feeling that wouldn’t go away. The first time I miscarried, I was very disappointed, but also hopeful. The second time that it happened, I felt very alone. We had only been living in Las Vegas for a couple months and I hadn’t told anyone that I was pregnant. I was so saddened by the whole experience, that I was afraid to try again. It wasn’t long after that second miscarriage, that I felt like something was off. I kept waiting for my period to start, but nothing happened. I decided to take a pregnancy test and sure enough, it was true. I kept it to myself, in fear of it being too soon to tell, so I took one more test later in the week. Sure enough, it showed I was pregnant. The next morning I threw up and knew it had to be true.
 |
| 18-week baby bump |
My first trimester was long and miserable. I threw up almost every day. I was so tired and sick. I remember feeling so sad because I thought pregnancy was supposed to be an exciting and happy time in my life. I was worried all the time because I thought that something bad was going to happen to the baby. The one thing that saved me during this time, surprisingly, was going to work every day. As sick as I was, I never called in and I never threw up at work. It kept me busy and kept my mind off how yucky I felt. When I hit 12 weeks and was still sick I got concerned that the morning sickness would never go away. Then one day, probably around 15 or 16 weeks I didn’t throw up my breakfast. After that, I magically started to feel like a human again.
Once I got over my morning sickness, I started getting excited about my pregnancy. My ultrasound at 18 weeks was definitely a high light. I found out that I was having a boy and that everything was developing well. I was able to worry less and start to enjoy myself a little more. My belly popped out right around 20 weeks and that’s when I got really excited about styling my bump. I started my weekly maternity post on my blog which I really enjoyed. (You can check those out here) I felt good in my second trimester, for the most part. I did start to feel very uncomfortable around 22 weeks. As the baby grew, my body grew and stretched in ways it never had before, making it very uncomfortable.
 |
| 28-week bump |
By my third trimester, I had the perfect size bump and I felt as good as I could feel. I do remember feeling extremely anxious. I started watching people’s birth stories on youtube and reading lots of other blogger’s birth stories. I prepared myself for the worse. I was ready to get my little guy out, it didn’t matter how. Despite all my research, when the time came and I went into labor, I didn’t believe it. I had to google “water breaking” over and over again. It wasn’t until I started having strong contractions that I believed I was in labor.
It was a really weird feeling when I finally got to hold my little man in my arms. I was in awe of him and couldn’t stop thinking about the whole experience. As much as I was ready to get him out, I immediately missed feeling him inside me. I wanted to be pregnant again….if that made any sense?
 |
| Snuggling with my newborn |
I would love to have another baby someday, but I’m not in a rush. I’m enjoying all the moments I can with Jack right now and our little family of 3. I do miss that feeling of being pregnant at times, and I look forward to experiencing it again one day. It makes me a little sad to think that nothing will be like the first time, but it does excite me to know that the next time I am pregnant, I will be sharing it with Jack too. I look forward to the day that I can make him a big brother.
What was your first pregnancy experience like? How was it different from your others?
I know exactly how you feel, I SO missed being pregnant as soon as I had my baby girl. I loved being a cute little pregnant lady; it made me feel uber important and special. During pregnancy, my body took care of the baby on its own, but then when the baby came out, there was so much to do and worry about! Anwyho, thanks for sharing. I'm so happy that you were able to overcome your miscarriages and have a healthy baby at last!
We tried for a year and a half to get pregnant with our first and when we finally got the positive test, I couldn't believe it! I did have some morning sickness but it wasn't too bad and I really didn't mind being pregnant. My second pregnancy was almost identical to the first except the last couple of weeks were a lot worse. Since then I've have 3 miscarriages so I can definitely identify with what you said about being nervous that things weren't going the way they should be.
Sorry to hear of your struggle to get pregnant (but thank you for sharing it). My pregnancy were all pretty easy, so I am thankful for that 🙂
I totally miss pregnancy afterwards too!! I love having them inside!! 🙂 But it's totally different now with two toddlers!!
I miss pregnancy at times too. It saddens me because we are done having kids and I'll never experience it again. I felt pretty nauseous with my pregnancies too and it lasted all day.
Thanks for reading! It is really cool how your body takes care of your baby on it's own for 9 months. It seemed a lot harder taking care of him once he was born.
I'm sorry to hear about your miscarriage. I'm glad we can relate! Thanks for reading!
My struggles were small compared to what could of been. I'm just happy to have had a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby in the end. Thanks for reading 🙂
It has to be so different when you have little ones to look after.
Feeling nauseous was the worst! I'm sure I'll be sad after I'm done having kids too.