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Thank you for all your sweet messages and well wishes on the announcement of Baby J! I am overwhelmed by all the love surrounding the news and feel so lucky for this wonderful community.

I feel like we have a lot to catch up on!

First Trimester Q&A

When are you due?

July 2, 2021

What do you think the sex of the baby is?

Tim thought it was a girl from the beginning and I thought it was a boy! I didn’t really have any strong feelings one way or another, but one night I had a dream I opened a gender envelope and it said boy. What do you think Baby J is??

Do you want it to be a boy or girl?

God willing I would love to have both one day!

Will you find out the sex?

We actually already know 🙂 I’ll be announcing that after we confirm on the ultrasound soon! Tim and I found out by logging into my online chart.. I couldn’t wait for a reveal to find out! Plus, I’m not super comfortable with all eyes on me (I’m sure that’s surprising to most of you considering what my job is lol) and I didn’t want to feel any pressure to react a certain way in front of people as weird as that sounds. We told our family on Christmas with a little surprise gender reveal present under the tree 🙂

You can click here to watch us go through the old wives tales to predict the gender!

How long were you trying to conceive?

I’m hesitant to answer this question because I don’t want anyone to compare. Conceiving looks different for everyone and I don’t want to contribute to any negative comparison. But other than the gender it was the most asked question from my Instagram question box.

I started tracking my cycle with the Flo app when I went off birth control in 2018, not because we wanted to start trying but I made a personal decision to stop (you can read more on that topic here). My overall sense of time is very skewed, so I needed the app to tell me when my period was coming haha. We made the decision to start trying in September and were very fortunate to get pregnant in October. I was honestly not expecting it to happen so quickly because I have many friends struggling with infertility, but we are very grateful.

What were your initial symptoms?

I didn’t have any symptoms when I initially found out because I took a test very early..about 6 days before my missed cycle. I didn’t experience any implantation symptoms or the typical early pregnancy symptoms until week 5/6 when the morning sickness started.

Did you have morning sickness?

During week 5 I definitely noticed progressive queasiness on an empty stomach and intense hunger. My “morning” sickness was at its peak between weeks 6-10 where I felt like a dry heaving cat all day and could barely stomach any food. I was really picky with what I ate and would get really full quickly. I lost some weight during my first trimester because of the sickness, but it wasn’t ever severe enough to where I got dehydrated. I put morning sickness in quotations because I had all day nausea that was worse at night. I’m not sure why it’s so commonly referred to as morning sicknes.

I’ll be 15 weeks tomorrow and I wouldn’t say I’m completely free of nausea, but it’s definitely much better. I still feel a little sick on an empty stomach, but I haven’t thrown up in a few weeks and I’m able to eat more. YAY!

What helped your morning sickness?

I’ll probably share more in a first-trimester favorites post, but I’ve tried so many things! I was desperate at Target one day and bought all the ginger candies, tea, ginger ale, peppermints, etc.

I think the biggest thing that helped make nausea more manageable was a unisom and B6 combo at night. Once I started that I noticed less intensity throughout the day, but come night time it was back again. If you’re not familiar with this combo, it’s the same combination used in the prescription doctors prescribe for morning sickness but is much more affordable if your insurance doesn’t cover it. Most of the time I cut the Unisom pills in half, but talk to your doctor to see what they recommend.

I preferred the peppermint candies over ginger candies, and I didn’t care for the flavor of the tea I bought. Snacking on chips or eating something every 2 hours also helped, even though the last thing I wanted was food. I honestly feel sick if I go too long between meals, even before I was pregnant.. but this was much more intense and every 2 hours or so. So if you’re struggling, just keep snacks on deck at all times. I never leave the house without a few snacks to keep in the car and peppermint essential oil to sniff on if I need it. I’ve also heard you can try Ovaltine for morning sickness because it helps coat your stomach, but by the time I was recommended that I was starting to feel better.

It was also helpful to read that morning sickness was a good indicator that things are progressing well with pregnancy. Although also important to note that just because you don’t have it doesn’t mean anything is wrong, either! I bought this book early on and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn and form their own opinions on common pregnancy questions based on evidence-based research.

What was something you didn’t expect with pregnancy?

I wasn’t really expecting a complete lack of motivation or desire to be creative. I felt so BLAH and like a shell of myself from weeks 6-10. I absolutely love my job, but most days I just wanted to lay around. Not to mention, it felt awkward to get on stories and pretend nothing was going on and fake a smile. I could imagine those of you working in an office around people would feel the same way! At times, I struggled with guilt over this, especially since it was during the busiest time of the year for my business. But I know my body was adjusting to a lot and needed to rest. Just wanted to mention that in case you experience the same thing.. don’t be too hard on yourself during this time.

It does get better once nausea calms down, and honestly announcing to everyone gave me so much relief! The first trimester can feel isolating when you have to tiptoe around feeling unwell and you just want to shout the news.

How did you hide the bump?

So up until now, there really hasn’t been much to hide. Even in the pictures above, the bump looks a little more pronounced because of the tulle in the skirt and the placement of my hand, and honestly, I look like this after I eat on a normal day lol. But some days it’s more noticeable than others based on what I ate. I thought last week it finally popped, but it was gone the next day. But when there is anything to hide, I’ve been living in leggings and oversized tunic sweaters, which is usual for me this time of year anyway.

Also, whenever I wore my Spanx leather leggings or the booty boost leggings they sucked it all right in and I could lift up my shirt during try-on hauls (you can see in recent try-on hauls here and here).

Have you had any cravings or aversions?

I wouldn’t say I’ve had any major cravings yet, but I was definitely very picky and stuck with the same things most days. In the beginning, I could barely eat anything before I felt extremely full. I loved bread, cheese and crackers or quesadillas, cheerios, and tacos. Oh, and I also got Waffle House hash browns on a regular basis lol. I definitely miss/crave spicy tuna avocado rolls and roast beef sandwiches on the daily. I think I crave them because I know I’m not supposed to have them.

My main aversion so far has been my prenatal vitamins lol. I tried switching to gummies and I dreaded taking them at night. I found it a little easier to take them with ginger ale versus water, but I still felt sick after. I also no longer wanted my usual CFA and overall didn’t really want to eat anything even though I needed to every 1-2 hours to fight nausea. We’ll see if the cravings come on stronger in the second trimester!

How much weight did you gain in the first trimester?

I actually lost weight during the first trimester because of nausea and I would feel full after a very small portion of my meal. I think I’m almost back to my normal weight now, but I know that won’t last for long 🙂

How long did you wait to tell family and friends?

I found out so early, so I wanted to see the doctor before we told anyone to confirm everything. Although I actually told a few friends around week 6 because we had a cabin trip planned together and I didn’t want to just bail on the trip without telling them the truth!

We waited to tell family in person so they found out on Thanksgiving (around 9 weeks). I recorded a few of their reactions in the video here and I’ll re-share on stories. My Mom is a big wine lover, so I got her a customized label that said “Drink this for me I’m a mommy to be” – her reaction was priceless.

What vitamins are you taking?

I’m taking the Thorne Basic Prenatal. I know it’s a very clean vitamin I can trust, but like I mentioned above I don’t have the easiest time taking them. I’ve also taken a drugstore gummy vitamin when I couldn’t get these down, but I try to stick with the Thorne if I can. I hear a lot of people rave about the Ritual vitamins because of their ingredient claims and they taste like lemon, but in all honesty, I don’t want to spend $40 for a month supply.

Have you been working out?

I honestly haven’t felt up to it until recently. I could barely motivate myself to get ready for the day or work, let alone workout. Tim and I went on walks frequently when the weather was nice. After week 12 I started taking Obe barre and yoga classes that I hope to continue throughout the rest of my pregnancy. I started to notice some sacrum popping/pressure on our walks or when I sit for too long and I want to try and get ahead of that with some stabilization exercises. If you want to try Obe you can use code AMANDA30 for 30% off your first month (plus a 7-day free trial).

I was also surprised that my Doctor recommended to keep my HR below 140, which seems super low to me. I’m an all or nothing type of person, so when I work out I’m usually close to my max HR or it’s not worth my time, haha. I feel like my HR naturally gets pretty high too, so I’m not sure if I’ll even try to do cardio because of that, well see. We just got our Peloton a month before I got pregnant, so I would like to add that in 1-2 times a week but it depends on my HR situation. I think they have prenatal classes but I haven’t looked into it yet.

How many kids do y’all want?

Ha, let’s start with one, first 😉 But Tim and I have always said 2, mayyyybe 3 if we have two of the same gender first 🙂 I have a brother 10 years younger than me, and Tim is the youngest of 5, so who knows what God has in store for us!

Have you started planning the nursery?

Not at all. We honestly don’t even know where to put a baby in the house right now. We both work from home and have our own offices in the extra bedrooms, so we will have to get creative and move some things around. I’m not even sure I want to go all out for a nursery anyway.. we’ll see if my blogger/creativeness gets in the way of that or not 🙂

Are you afraid of labor and delivery?

I always have been nervous about it. Right now I just try not to think about it and try to avoid hearing other peoples labor experiences for now. I will do more research down the road on prepping for labor, but for now I try to keep it in the back of my head lol. I know I’ll get through whatever unfolds that day, but I just don’t want to think about it right now. I don’t have my heart set of a specific birth plan or anything, I just pray for a healthy Mom and baby when that time comes.

Has your skin routine changed?

I would say it’s changed quite a bit, because I’ve been progressively lazier with it. If I’m lucky I wash my face one a day with Tula cleanser (STRAWBERRYCHIC for 15% off) and moisturize at night. I don’t wear makeup most days because I don’t want to have to wash it off at night (when my nausea is at its worst).

I need to get back into my routine of vitamin C morning/night because I know I want to protect my skin from melasma, which can be common in pregnancy. I exfoliate 1-2 times a week because my skin feels more textured and dry. The only thing I cut out right away was retinol, latisse, and any intense acne treatments (salicylic acid > 2%).

• Wanted to share a resource I came across if you’re interested in safe pregnancy beauty product recommendations – Check out 15minutebeauty. She lists out very conservative recommendations from common brands, and some may surprise you (like Bio oil, which I see commonly recommended and geared towards pregnant women)! Keep in mind with most pregnancy safe recommendations, everything is super conservative because it’s not ethical to test a lot of ingredients for further research. Always ask your doctor if you have any concern about your products.

How has a COVID pregnancy been?

Because this is my first pregnancy I don’t really know anything different, but it definitely has its differences from what I always imagined my pregnancy to be. Tim was able to come to my initial appointment, but he hasn’t been able to come to any others. I’m more so bummed he can’t come to my next ultrasound for the anatomy scan, because at my first appointment there was a sign saying you could have one visitor for that appointment, but I guess things have changed. Right now we plan to facetime each other so he can see baby J.

We plan to do some sort of babymoon and a baby shower later this year but we’ll see how that looks when the time comes. I guess telling my friends and family was a little different than I imagined too because most of my friends I told over the phone. But at the end of the day, these are all very minor things and I’m just thankful to have a healthy pregnancy thus far.

Do you have any names picked out?

We have a long general list but nothing we’re set on right now. We probably won’t officially share the name until baby J is here. I’m not even sure if we’ll be set on a name until that time comes either! If you have any suggestions, please send them my way!

Have you started buying anything yet?

Initially, I just bought the Expecting Better book and this belly oil that I need to get better about using. Now that we know the gender I bought something to reveal it to our family on Christmas. I was gifted the next size up of my favorite leggings for Christmas (this pair on Amazon feels similar if you’re looking for something under $30) and I have a pair of Spanx maternity leggings and jeggings coming in the mail. Other than that, I’ve just saved things I come across for now that I’ll link below!

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Again, thank you so much for all the love! I’m so excited to dress a bump and share this next chapter.