Every pregnancy story is different. This is how mine begun.
As a soon to be first time mum, the journey towards becoming a parent has been quite the roller-coaster. A transition into a new phase in my life, it feels like everything I’ve done has been leading up to this moment. Though I know that really, it’s just the beginning of something special.
Pregnancy brings a whole new meaning to life. The feeling that you are actually creating a life inside of you is such a beautiful thing. You realise how your body can be so vulnerable, yet so strong and enduring. It truly is amazing.
Planning to have children for us was a choice. A choice we are fortunate to be able to make, as I know for some, the opportunity does not come so easily.
Before I knew I was pregnant, I was in the middle of doing Blogilates 100 ab challenge that my sister had enlisted me to do with her. This essentially involved me doing 100 reps of a different ab workout everyday for a month. So the first couple of weeks that I was technically pregnant I was doing some intense ab exercises. Little did I know that that was going to be the last I’ll be doing of those for awhile and I would be far from getting any abs.
One week in I had a feeling in my stomach like something was different. It wasn’t quite like cramps since it didn’t particularly ache, though I felt that something was definitely up with my body. At the time I may have passed it off as my body reacting to my workouts. I had expected that the road to getting pregnant was going to take awhile since the chances of conceiving was only about 20-30% each month. Expectations were low, but my heart was hopeful so had decided to by a box of 3 home pregnancy tests just in case. Could I really get pregnant so quickly?
The discovery
On the day that I had expected my cycle to start (since I have it all tracked) I thought I’d give a pregnancy test a go out of curiosity to see if my suspicions were correct. I had read that the best time to take the test was the first time you use the bathroom in the morning. For me, this was 4am since our dogs usually wake up and bark to be let out to do their business during the night.
Half asleep, I took a test out of the box and read the instructions. Pee on the stick. Easy enough.
One line appeared pretty much immediately. With eyes barely open, a few moments later I could make a second line faintly appear to make a plus sign. A positive. At this point I was way too tired to make sense of this or know how to feel so I just crawled back to bed and went to back to sleep.
When I woke at a more godly hour I thought I'd try again to confirm if the test was true. Was I dreaming? The second test turned out to be another positive. Nope, it was definitely real.
Two positives can’t be lying right?
Considering how much I wanted this and thinking of all the times I had cried thinking it wasn't going to happen, I thought I would have been more emotional at the discovery, but it was honestly difficult to register that it was actually happening.
I came out of the bathroom and told The Hubs straight away...
“I think I’m pregnant.”
His response?
"See strong swimmers dear, you had nothing to worry about".
Trust him to make a joke at any opportunity.
With an extra test left over, to triple confirm he suggested that he pee on it to make sure it didn't all go positive. It came out negative of course, so surely 3 tests wouldn't lie?
The fact that we got pregnant so soon was quite a surprise. I had heard that it could take months to conceive so I had mentally prepared myself for a long and arduous wait. I had taught myself to have low expectations on many things in life as to avoid disappointment. I hadn't prepared myself if we were actually to be successful.
First thing I did was download some pregnancy apps and to figure out when I would be due.
I knew that it was generally 40 weeks for a baby to develop but I thought it was from conception. Looks like I got my facts wrong and it's actually calculated from the first day of your last period. So really, by the time you find out you could be already 4 weeks in!
Week 5
I waited until the next weekend to see my local GP. I had thought I would have gotten some blood tests to confirm the pregnancy but that wasn't the case for me. He asked if we were looking at going public or private and with us choosing to go private he gave us some referrals, quickly told me what I should avoid eating and sent me on my way.
I guess by the time you go see the doctor you should already know if you're planning to go through the public system or private. It's a 12 month waiting period for pregnancy and birth with private health insurance and to be covered you have to be on one of the highest tier of hospital cover. So if you're planning to go private you have to plan at least 3 months in advance before trying to conceive.
I left the medical centre a bit dissatisfied because I went in thinking I could get confirmation that it was real and not just rely on an over the counter home pregnancy test. Perhaps since he may not specialise in prenatal care and that I was going private he'll leave it up to the specialist. With the result still unconfirmed I was still feeling a bit sceptical.
During this week I started to feel early signs. Mainly I experienced major fatigue. On some days I would feel completely drained by midday to the point of needing to take a nap during lunch. One day I literally had fell asleep sitting on a park bench.
Driving home was also precarious. It's about a half hour drive home on a good day, but on some days, by the end of the day I was mentally and physically wiped. I found myself finding difficulty concentrating, driving on auto pilot. Bumper to bumper peak hour traffic was extremely exhausting. In one instance I had felt so fatigued that I found myself micro sleeping at the wheel and nearly rear ended the car in front of me. That scare woke me up and I managed the last 5 minute leg back home safely. After that near miss I caught public transport a little more on days I wasn’t feeling the best, but bumpy buses aren’t that great either.
Ever since the discovery all my books and podcasts about finance and self development has been put aside and I've been consuming all I can about pregnancy. I've found that with doctor visits being very short and actually few and far between in the early stages so you don't actually get a lot of information out of them unless you have specific questions. A resource I have found very helpful has been The Pregnancy Podcast and it's corresponding 40 Weeks podcast which has 5 minute episodes to go through what you and your baby are going through, as well as tip for dad for each week of your pregnancy. Let me know if you are interested in all the different pregnancy resources that I found most useful.
Week 6
The first trimester is a very anxious period. Most miscarriages occur in the first few weeks so women are often weary about announcing the news so soon in case they have to go back and take it all back should something happen. It can be a very lonely experience having something so major but having to keep it a secret.
I had decided to tell my sister since she lived with me and needed to be aware of my changes in dietary requirements, as well as my two closest girlfriends since one was currently going through a pregnancy of her own, and the other had already had her first child. It was important for me to have a small network to share my experience and get their advice since they had both recently went through it themselves. It definitely made it a bit easier being able to talk with people who understands what you are going through.
I was told that morning sickness often kicks in around the 6 week period. For me this was not the case and besides the tiredness, I was doing OK.
Week 7
I had read that they your first prenatal appointment isn't usually until around week 8. Even as early as 6 weeks, it is possible to detect a heartbeat. Once the heartbeat is established the rate of miscarriage decreases substantially with the rate of loss about 5 percent.
I had booked my first prenatal appointment with an obstetrician at the end of week 7. I was only one day from being 8 weeks so I kind of figured it was close enough and I was anxious to confirm whether or not the pregnancy was legit. At my appointment, the doctor gave me a yellow card as a record to bring with me at each check up and did some basic tests. She got me to lay on the bed so that we could do an ultrasound...and there it was, amongst the shadows of my uterus there lied a little foetus at the size of a blueberry. What's more, we were lucky enough to even hear its little heartbeat! The baby was very real.
My first ultrasound that confirmed it all
To be honest, I again thought I would be been more emotional at this pivotal moment.
“I think because I had to wait so long to confirm it with a doctor, I was feeling rather numb as it was still difficult to believe something was actually in there. ”
Perhaps I was so afraid of being disappointed that I didn't want to get myself emotionally invested only to have it taken away should something have happened and the baby didn't make it. I guess for me, it was more a sense of relief knowing that it was real and that the baby had managed to survive up until this point.
I can say though that the nausea started to hit during week 7. Thankfully there was no actual vomiting but more queasiness and gagging reflux. Still it is no fun and warranted a day off work.
Week 10
Weeks 8 and 9 came and gone without anything noteworthy. I probably still had a bit of fatigue but still tried to go to the gym when I could. In week 10 though I had another bad day of nauseous and felt faint. This week, I had a scheduled 1 on 1 with my coordinator and had decided to tell her the news. Even though I wanted to hold out until I got past the 1st trimester I thought it would be easier to explain why I wasn't feeling too well. Luckily it made it easier she she is a woman so was very happy for me and at least would be able to sympathise on what I was going through.
At week 10 I was given the option to do a non-invasive prenatal test (Harmony or Generation test). Though it is not compulsory, this involved a blood test as well as an in-depth morphology scan at 12 weeks to check up on the baby's health and development. It is through this test that you will have a better indication if the baby is growing well and whether or not there may be any possible fetal aneuploidy or neural tube defects. Basically it's a screening test for chromosomal abnormalities, checking for chromosomes 21, 18, 13 and X and Y which can determine the risk of having a baby with downs syndrome as well as the sex of the baby.
Week 11
By week 11 I felt like I was starting to feel better. By this point as my bump started to show I started to wear more looser shirts rather than more form fitting outfits and skirts that I often wore during the summer. I was actually on my way out of work and and stood in the lift with 2 female colleagues when suddenly one of them asked if I was pregnant. I wasn't going to lie so confirmed that it was true.
"I knew it!" My team mate exclaimed, commenting that she was noticing my change in wardrobe and how I'm so tiny so it was going to show quicker.
Even with a baggy shirt it looks like I couldn't really be hiding it much longer.
Week 12
I had my morphology scan booked for week 12. As it was requested that we bring the NIPT blood results with us to the scan, we had dropped by the doctors to retrieve the results. There was a bit of confusion as I was told the results were ready to be picked up and then turning up with it not being in my file. Finally after getting it faxed over our doctor checked the results and confirmed that everything is looking good. That was a relief. One of the reasons to why many hold off telling the news before 12 weeks is also knowing whether or not you have a healthy baby and if not, you could decide whether or not you would want to proceed with the pregnancy.
After the doctor checked the results, the secretary asked us if we wanted to know the gender and to guess what it was. We both answered "Boy". We both had gut feelings that we would have a boy and was calling it "him" before we even knew. Males are very strong on my side of the family and all the recent births from my girl friends all happened to be boys. She handed us the paper report for us to decide whether or not to check it ourselves. I know many people like to keep it a surprise or do a whole gender reveal party, but I'm a planner and I prefer to know so that I could prepare appropriately. I unfolded the report in the car on our way to our scan appointment..."Results consistent with...two sex chromosomes (XY - consistent with a male fetus)".
“We are having a boy!”
The 12 week scan was very different to the first one. In just 5 weeks we could actually see what distinctively looked like a human in the ultrasound. The scan was very thorough, looking at the liquid behind the neck to check if it was normal (which may be able to determine whether or not the baby had down syndrome), showing us the legs, feet, hands, heart chambers and various organs. Unlike the first scan where I didn't emotionally feel anything, this time I felt so much warmth and love seeing that I am actually growing a life inside of me and that our baby boy was healthy and that I was healthy.
Another blood test was done after the scan to screen for the risk of preeclampsia. After hearing a friend was posed at being at risk and reading up on what that may entail, I was slightly worried. Luckily I was cleared of that too.
Week 13
With all tests giving us the all clear and having reached the end of the first trimester we decided that if was now safe to opening announce to our wider friends and colleagues of the happy news. Also, since we were going away on our trip for 3 weeks, I thought it best to tell them before hand so that it wouldn't be such a surprise coming back with a obvious baby bump. By the end of the first trimester I was feeling a lot better and much more energised. If they say that morning sickness generally eases by the end of the first trimester, I would say that overall I think I've gotten off pretty easy as far as pregnancy goes.
Overall I think I've generally gotten it pretty easy for my first trimester compared to some of the stories I have heard.
Fatigue was the biggest struggle for me with the occasional nausea. I've had no bad food aversions and still managed to fulfil most house duties like cooking without feeling sick from the smell, even if my sense of smell was a bit more sensitive. I haven't had any weird food cravings and really the only cravings I've had has been for chocolate and chocolate milk or more specifically Milo.
I can say though with all the hormones raging, it was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. From feeling numb and sceptical, to stressing and whether or not the baby would make it, from being happy that we were having a baby, to feeling upset over the smallest things.
There has been a lot of discomfort from bloating and needing to go to the bathroom all the time. Pregnancy brain is also very real and sometimes it has been difficult to concentrate.
Fitness wise, I managed to generally keep up my morning yoga most days and still go to gym when I'm not super fatigued but I have definitely eased up on my workouts. No more 20kg compound lifting, heavy squats or working on my pull ups. I have instead limited myself to 3 kg weights, yoga stretches and started to incorporate kegal exercises. Thankfully I found that the fitness influencer Kayla Itsines was also pregnant and posted up some pregnancy friendly workouts which I have been following.
I admit though that as I have started to show, going to the gym where everyone is so fit was starting to make me feel self conscious since my belly was growing rather than getting toned. But that hasn't deterred me from going yet and I want to continue to be healthy for my growing baby.
So that's the story of the start of my pregnancy journey. My first trimester ended on a positive note and I was very much looking forward for feeling healthy ready for our babymoon as I entered my second trimester.
