The 1st Trimester; 1st Time Around.

The first trimester.

There is so much joy in announcing your pregnancy with your first child. The grandparents are thrilled. Really, I didn't feel all that much different for the first month or so... but I was getting tired more often. Not a big deal... I was always tired anyway. But now I was realllly tired.

Then the puking began. I always hear about women who "never get sick at all" during their pregnancies. Unfortunately I wasn't one of those blessed few. Nearly every second or possibily third morning I had a little session with the bathroom sink. The thought of bending over the toilet made me feel even worse and since I was doing alot of my vomiting in the morning not alot came out except bile. Frequently I just dry heaved.

Now this makes breakfast a bit of a sticky wicket. I was never a big breakfast eater to begin with…. But I felt worse if I didn’t eat. What I remember settling upon is waiting until the dry heaves finished… then settling down to a hearty morning meal of two or three soda crackers. They helped settle the stomach if only for a little bit.

A note from personal experience…. Avoid dairy in the mornings until the bulk of your morning sickness has passed. Freshly curdled milk is one of the most unpleasant things to send back up your throat.

I started the practice of cleaning my toilet everyday so vomiting would become less vile. I got one of those toilet brushes that stands in its own vase and filled it with soap. Each morning begins with a soapy swish around the toilet bowl and I’m ready to face the day with a sparkling, clean porcelain friend to throw up in. It’s a practice I still do each morning and it only takes a minute. Nothing says “I love my family” like a mom who keeps the toilet clean.

Some of my first trimester memories when pregnant with my little Longlegs….

- Feeling incredibly green whenever someone at work drove up to my booth smoking. I sprayed air freshener whenever they left.

- Feeling more tired and run down than usual.

- Urge to eat junk food dissipated… actually, the urge to eat much of anything dissipated.

- Going through several boxes of soda crackers. Those stayed down, put something in my stomach and had next to no taste, so they were easy to eat.

- Getting ready to go to work, telling my ride to “wait just one moment”… ran to the bathroom sink, threw up… wiped my face off and returned to the car.

- Bat-Hubs delivered to me a McDonalds BLT bagel (my favourite on their morning menu), which was awfully nice of him. I felt so bad when I threw it up twenty minutes later.

- The garbage pail at work became my good puke buddy. I was so incredibly relieved that I escaped the entirety of my pregnancy nausea without any of my tenants seeing me hurl into the outside garbage can. I was completely ready to come up with excuses should I get caught but thankfully I didn’t have to.

Most of my first trimester recollections here have to do with work, crackers and puking. :) Such is the magic of pregnancy.

But there was joy. Overwhelming joy. I was so ready to become a mother. It was one of the things in life I had set out to do before I turned thirty. The grandparents were all thrilled as were the friends of the family. Bat-Hubs had worked out an ingenious way to tell the prospective grandparent. “So…” we said casually one day. “Do you want mugs or T-Shirts?” Perplexed looks follow. “Mugs or T-Shirts?” “Yes, do you want a mug or T-Shirt that says ‘World’s Greatest Grandparents’?” There is a moment’s hesitation as that sinks in. Then hugs. And happiness.

There are a few things I know with absolute and unfailing certainty that I was meant to accomplish in this lifetime. Being a mommy is one of them.

I had lots of time to read at work so I took many a “so you’re pregnant” book to work… “What to Expect when you’re Expecting” was only one of them. Knowledge is power and I wanted to know everything I possibly could about what I was in for.

To be continued with the second trimester.