My 1st Trimester of Pregnancy Week by Week Recap

My first trimester as a first-time mom has officially come and gone. Based off of the app I follow they have the first trimester as weeks 1-13. Here’s my experience in the first 13 weeks of my current pregnancy.

1st Trimester of Pregnancy Week by Week

3 weeks

• I found out I was pregnant at 3 weeks 2 days. So early! I actually thought I found out on 4 weeks 2 days, but later found out I was a week behind what I originally thought by my ultrasound. This kind of bummed me out at first and I found myself always thinking “I could’ve been this far along” As time went on that thought disappeared.
• Weird dreams! This is what had me test actually. I normally have very vivid dreams, but these were crazy, off-the-wall dreams. They were almost nightmares or just dark.
• Downloaded What to Expect app right away. This is what I use to track my pregnancy and I get to see how the baby is growing each week. I am excited every week to watch the current week’s video.
• Told family and close friends asap:) We decided to share the news the same day we found out since we were going to see them. We then told the rest of our family a few days after when we planned on seeing them. This was definitely the right choice for us. I was able to ask questions and ask for advice and just celebrate the news with my close one which was really special.
• Dry skin! It’s so dry and flakey no matter how much lotion I put on.

4 weeks

• Started wanting salsa so badly. This was the one thing in the beginning that just always sounded good. I ate it until my mouth couldn’t take the acidity any longer.
• Feeling so stuffed, but starving. This was tough, I felt violently stuffed. I couldn’t take more than a few bites of food, but also was so hungry.
• Exhaustion set in. Cue the long days of just having zero energy in every way. This was the start of feeling like a zombie.
• Nausea set in but not too strongly. Felt like I was sick to my stomach.
• Loss of sleep and body aches. I started waking up really early and waking constantly throughout the night for no obvious reason. My muscles also started to ache throughout the night.
• Acne and bacne have come. It’s unlike any acne I’ve had prior to pregnancy. It’s deep and painful.

5 weeks

• Started crying over random things. This didn’t last too long, but I felt overly emotional about people’s feelings or food.
• Started tasting a metallic taste in my mouth. This was gross and made me feel nauseous. I would suck on a mint constantly when this came.
• The first ultrasound saw basically nothing. Like I said earlier, I thought I was a week further along. I went to a women’s center to get an ultrasound to confirm my pregnancy and since it was so early all I saw was an itty bitty sac and like a dot of a blob. Felt extremely underwhelming.

6 weeks

• Started to be able to get lots of food down, but so bloated and other times stuffed. I never knew what type of food day I’d have. Honestly, both are uncomfortable in their own ways, but I’d take being able to eat any day even if it is uncomfortable.

7 weeks

• Sick. This was my only week of actually being sick. Threw up all week and felt very nauseous the whole time. I also got very anxious about feeling like this for 5 more weeks like so many do and it made me feel trapped. I was very fortunate for that not being my experience.

8 weeks

• Feeling better. It’s more waves of nausea and less consistent than last week. Still did not feel good, just was thankful for it to have eased up a little bit.
• First ultrasound with midwife office. Heard the heartbeat and saw baby. It was cool to see how much baby and the sac grew within 3 weeks. I didn’t really feel anything when I saw and heard the baby like I expected to. It was cool to see, but it didn’t feel like it was mine or inside me. The idea just feels so foreign that that could be happening in my body. I remember actually feeling weird about hearing a different heartbeat in me that wasn’t mine. We all process things differently and I haven’t seen this perspective often so I wanted to tell my experience.
• Short of breath. I notice I’d start breathing harder, needing to get more air, or just feeling winded.

9 weeks

• Made my baby registry. I wanted to feel like I was preparing in some way and it was so fun to make the list.
• Reflux is bad! Gagging or throwing up while brushing teeth which has happened for weeks but is now very strong.
• Feeling emotional that I’ll be in double digits for the rest of my pregnancy. I feel like it’s going so fast!
• Lower stomach started to hard. (where the baby actually is)
• I want one kind of food and everything else makes me want to throw up. Sadly, everything I have that I want doesn’t taste as good as it does in my head. This makes me feel very disappointed almost every time I eat.
• Got sick this week with a cold, and was miserable.

10 weeks

• No longer sick, but the congestion stayed. This has stayed for every week to come so far.
• Foods first bites starting to make me nauseous. Like a deep nausea feeling and grossed out. I normally couldn’t continue to eat after this.
• I had lots of anxiety early on I think after my 1st appointment that I’m now realizing slowly went away.
• I still do not feel super connected to the baby probably because I still don’t feel like it’s real. I am wanting to prep and get things for them, but the concept of the baby being in me is not fully there or there really at all.
• Randomly started to gag throughout the day. I’d gag at nothing, but also foods were making me gag. Not because I thought the food was gross just felt like a reflex or something.

11 weeks

• Constipation. This is not fun.
• Dizzy spells. I have POTS and that probably has to do with this symptom.
• Brain fog. I feel like a zombie and like I’m living on autopilot so having to think of anything is hard.

12 weeks

• Abdominal pain all over very tight. This happened once at night. It was what I imagine as a contraction, but I’ve never been pregnant so I’m not completely sure.

13 weeks

• Started having blood sugar or blood pressure issues. This was pretty intense and had to call my doctor because of it.
• Sneezed and had stabbing pain in my side stomach that lasted a few seconds after. I believe this was round ligament pain
• Back muscle pain while sleeping. This was far more intense than in the beginning. I’d wake up feeling so sore.
• Lots of stabbing pains near the uterus lasting a few seconds then would come back a minute later. This lasted for about 10 minutes.
• Headaches! These were so intense for this week. Tylenol did not help, nor did sleeping. I had one 5 days out of the 7 this week.
• Worrying about being overwhelmed and having no clue what to do to take care of a newborn. This has been a random thought that has popped up often this week. I am well experienced in taking care of a baby, but for some reason, a newborn seems like a whole different ballpark.
• Heartburn…and so it starts. I’m sure it’s only going to get worse from here.

Things to mention

Sometimes I didn’t realize a symptom was going away or that one came. It can be a gradual thing so here are things that happened in those 13 weeks that I’m not sure which week it occurred on.

• My husband’s smell disgusted me. Seriously this was so strong! He could shower a million times and I still couldn’t take it. This is slowly starting to go away, thankfully.
• I started to feel better and have less food aversions. Within the last week, I realized I could eat things that were harder to eat easily now. I have also felt less nauseous and have more stomach pains.
• Less random gagging. Still gagging but, it is a lot less often.
• My skin is still so dry and still breaking out. This symptom has not gone away just yet. We’ll see if and when it does.
• No bump:( This one bums me out. I’ve been excited about one since I found out. Bumps come at different times for everyone and each pregnancy so I am excited to see when I will begin to show.

This was my 1st Trimester of Pregnancy Week by Week recap:)

I am so excited to be entering my 2nd trimester. This 1st trimester has truly flown by! As the 1st trimester symptoms subside and others come I will be documenting my experience. I will follow up with a second-trimester blog post when the time comes! If you’d like to see my other motherhood blogs click here:)