Let me preface this by saying, being pregnant is the biggest blessing that I could ever have imagined to experience. That being said, there are some things that I’ve encountered that are less than joyous. So here’s to being honest about what the first trimester was like 
[Some graphic TMI items below – you’ve now been warned!]
The Good
- We’re having a baby! Nothing gets better than that!
- Seeing the heartbeat
- Hearing the heartbeat
- Seeing the little nugget wiggle and move on the ultrasounds
- Feeling closer than ever to my hubby
- I have a great excuse not to eat sushi and lunchmeat (because I’m not a fan of either)
- Motivation to eat ridiculous amounts of protein (70+ grams per day). It’s super hard, but I like having to focus on this element of my diet that often gets overlooked.
- No morning sickness for this girl!
- Ridiculous amounts of sleep. Sleep is my happy time so I’ll gladly take more.
- Sharing the news…especially sharing stories with pregnant friends!
- Fantasizing about the nursery
The Bad
- Spotting. Talk about anxiety / fear / worry. I happened to spot about a total of 10 times in my first trimester and while none of it was particularly heavy (or accompanied by cramps), it was scary thinking I was possibly miscarrying.
- Tender ta-ta’s. Who knew that they’d hurt so bad? Sheesh!
- Being cold. All.The.Time. I run hot by nature, so being cold is foreign to me and I don’t like it. It drops to low 60’s in the evening in NorCal and I’m about ready to bust out my snowsuit.
- No more Bikram. It’s undecided if Bikram is good or bad for prego women, but my doctor recommended I not go. Sigh.
- Knowing all the rules! What can I eat? Can’t I eat? What meds are okay / not okay? Can I sit in a hot tub or not? Yay or nay to massages? So many rules!
- Feeling alone in this process. All family members are thousands of miles away and I can’t help but wonder how this experience would be different (better) with them closer.
- Picking a name that isn’t already one of top ten most popular names (dangit, Twilight, I liked Isabella!)
- Severe cramps when working out sometimes: I went for a run and stopped to take a breath and was doubled over in pain. The cause? My uterine ligaments stretching to accommodate my shifting uterus. Awesome.
The Ugly
- Getting blood drawn. This is worse than bad because I get the look of death when this happens. I’ve been pricked 4 times in 8 weeks – that’s more than 10 years worth of blood draws for me!
- Acne. Ugh. My skin looks like a 14 year old. Yick. I can’t seem to stay ahead of the lovely friends that keep popping up on my face.
- Miscarriage statistics. It’s scary to read that ~30% of women miscarry, and that number could be higher due to the number of unreported incidents of women who don’t know they are pregnant, but miscarry.
- The lack of vino makes the world an ugly, ugly place
- My super duper cranky pants that I wore 90% of the time over the last several weeks. Dang hormones.
- Bloat…there is nothing sexy about bloating up.
And now I’m safely in the 2nd trimester – here’s a shot of me at 15 weeks (my face is getting fuller and confession: I am wearing my pants unbuttoned and keeping them up with a belt…here comes the bump!)
If you’re pregnant or have been pregnant, any “Good, Bad, Ugly” you want to share?
