Before I got pregnant, I remember a coworker telling me to keep a journal throughout the whole thing and how helpful it was to look back for future pregnancies. My cousin even got me the cutest elephant baby journal. I also had big plans to take weekly photos of my growing belly. Then I got pregnant.

And all I wanted to do was forget that I was pregnant because I was SO miserable. I had no motivation do anything including cooking or crafting and least of all blogging or journaling! (As you can tell by how much I’ve updated this blog in the past 7 months).

Well finally at the start of the 3rd trimester, I am starting to feel a little bit normal again. At least mentally. Physically I’ve grown to an uncomfortable size and am really sleepy during the daytime since I can’t get a decent night’s sleep to save my life. BUT mentally…I have motivation again. I’ve actually been cooking and crafting again. It feels great! And I figured I should probably do a recap of this pregnancy while it’s still sort of fresh in my mind so I can look back on it in the future.

1st trimester symptoms:
– really sleepy and tired all of the time. I remember coming home from work and wanting to go straight to bed. Which is really weird because I am a night owl and usually go to bed at 12 or 1am every night!
– extremely hungry. I think I gained the most weight during this trimester. I wanted to eat ALL of the time and if I didn’t eat I felt horrible like I hadn’t eaten in days. It was a hunger I’ve never experienced before
– constant nausea and vomiting in the mornings (especially when brushing my teeth). I found that eating preggie pops helped (thanks Cheryl for introducing this to me!) but none of the other tricks in the book worked (crackers, ginger, etc…did nothing for me!)
– depression. I don’t really know if I was truly depressed but I remember staying home from work one day and laying on the couch ALL day and I couldn’t move. I was so miserable and when Minh came home I just cried. I physically felt like I could not do anything…leaving the house was out of the question. This feeling was the worst that day but I felt some of it a lot throughout the 1st and 2nd trimester. It was especially hard to go to work and I ended up blowing through my vacation days a lot. Good thing I had a lot saved up and have understanding coworkers!
– having to pee all of the time. Most people get this more near the end but I remember distinctly it was worst for me in this trimester. I would get up 2 times a night to pee!

2nd trimester symptoms
– I was really excited to enter into the 2nd trimester because I heard it was so much better…nope it wasn’t. I wasn’t as sleepy as the first but that just meant I was awake for more of the nausea which did not get any better. Somewhere during this trimester my nausea changed. It was a different type of nausea. Preggie pops no longer helped and I’m guessing it’s from the heartburn/acid reflux I got
– heartburn/acid reflux. Some days I feel the burning/pressure in my chest. Most days I have a horrible constant lump in my throat. I also get heart palpitations which I have read can be due to being pregnant/acid reflux. And probably the most ANNOYING symptom ever is the amount I burp. I literally burp 100s of times a day. It’s insane the amount of pressure I feel in my chest and throat. And burping will relieve the pressure for like 1 sec (totally not worth it) so it does not make me feel better at all. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night and burping. The first thing I do when I wake up is burp. OMG….i hate it so much!!!!
– being sick all of the time/the cough that never ends/cracked rib. I was also sick a lot in the 1st trimester and being sick and pregnant was the worst thing ever. And every time I got sick I developed a dry cough that took forever to get rid of. I would get sore stomach muscles from all of my coughing so that every time I coughed it felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach. One time I got in the car and heard a loud crack near where I had a strained muscle from coughing and I can only think it was a rib. It was so loud and painful. I couldn’t move. A month later it’s finally starting to feel better but if I press the area I still feel pain.
– this is also the trimester where I threw up in the car and had the worst pregnant day of my life!
– leg cramps/charley horse. Luckily this only happened a handful of times for me. They are the worst!
– started feeling the baby kick more which was exciting
– itchy stomach…It got so bad I had to buy some stretch oil. Not really sure if it helped much though
– slow hair growth. This was one of the few GOOD symptoms I got!

3rd trimester symptoms
– loss of sense of smell. Actually this might have started somewhere near the end of my 2nd trimester. Most women get a heightened sense of smell…nope of course I get the opposite. It’s actually starting to come back a little though. This also made certain foods taste really weird to me. I remember eating a lobster roll at my friend’s wedding and it tasted like toothpaste but everybody was saying how good it was! I was so sad.
– lump in throat. still have it and it’s worse as ever.
– restless leg syndrome. I wake up several times a night feeling like I have to move my legs. Which sucks because it’s so hard to move now that I am so big. Just flipping over is a really big ordeal for me. This has also made me more sleepy again during the day.
– got some of my motivation back! I’m cooking and crafting again…can’t wait to show you guys the stuff I made.
– overall this is definitely my favorite trimester. I remember getting my hair cut and the stylist was also pregnant and she was telling me the 3rd trimester was the best. Even though I am very uncomfortable physically…I feel mostly great inside. I still have nausea in the morning and sometimes during the day but so far I haven’t thrown up (knock on wood). And the nausea hasn’t been so constant…only about 50% of the days now I think…or maybe I am so used to it I forget. Speaking of…it’s been so long since I felt normal that I can’t imagine what it will feel like when I am no longer pregnant. My biggest fear is that this lump in my throat, the burping, and the nausea never go away…it just feels like it’s a part of me now! Ahh….I will be so sad! :(

Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I am starting to get excited about the baby arriving. I used to be scared of labor but now I can’t wait! I’m so curious to see what the baby will look like and what kind of personality it will have. I’m still nervous about the actual taking care of a little person but I know I will have lots of help. It’s so weird to think about adding another person to this family though. Sometimes when boyrobot and I are sitting around watching tv, I imagine how it would be different with a baby in the mix. Such a weird thought!!!!

The baby is also kicking so much and the kicks are so powerful. I can see my stomach bulging and shaking sometimes. I am also starting to already feel love for her. I find myself thinking “I love you Emma!” and hoping she is staying healthy in there. Sometimes boyrobot thinks that I am too lax with how I am treating this pregnancy since he is always paranoid about EVERYTHING but I worry too…I just don’t show it as much. I wonder if that is what parenthood is always going to be like…constant worry over your child about things you can’t control! I’m anxious for the baby to be out so I can physically see that it’s healthy…being pregnant and responsible for growing this person inside of you can be very nervewracking. Sometimes I look down at my huge tummy and I’m in disbelief that there is an actual person INSIDE of me!!! It’s going to be so surreal when she comes out and they place her in my arms!

Anyways, I think that pretty much covers my pregnancy although I am sure there are things I have left out or blocked from my memory hehe. Overall I hate being pregnant. Like seriously hate it. It is/was the worst time of my life but I know it will all be worth it in the end! The other day I finally met another person that hated being pregnant. She was telling me about how she had tmj/lockjaw during hers…wow….so glad I did not have that! Other than that I think everybody else loves being pregnant so I guess I am not the norm. I have about 7-10 more weeks to go!!!