Having been through the first and second trimester, I’d love to share what I learnt and how it could help you. I know that throughout my pregnancy trimesters I found it so helpful to read other peoples blog posts on pregnancy symptoms week by week and how they felt during the different stages of pregnancy, so hopefully this post can help you too.
First trimester
The first thing I would say about the first trimester is that it can be a really tricky time and is completely different for everyone. What I found the hardest was not being able to tell anyone. We wanted to wait until around 6 weeks before telling anyone and those first few weeks can feel quite lonely.
It was around 6 weeks when my morning sickness started and peaked until the end of my 10th week. I found dry food really helped with morning sickness though, dry crackers, dry biscuits, bread, pasta, that kind of thing. I would keep dry crackers in my coat pockets! I think mainly though, you just have to ride it out and know it will pass.
A lot of people want to know when does pregnancy tiredness start. For me this was quite early on, I found that it would peak around 2/3pm everyday but this went by the 12 week mark. The last week of my first trimester was over Christmas which was great because it meant I could really relax and sleep whenever I wanted, which was the majority of the time.
I also found my emotions during the first trimester were out of control, I would cry all the time at almost anything and everything. I once could not stop crying because I had burnt my toast. Yeah, the pregnancy emotions are crazy, but like all symptoms, they do pass.
Second Trimester
Moving into the second trimester and things definitely started to get easier, especially around the 13/14 week mark. This was also around the time we started to tell everyone else which was such an exciting time.
Around the 14/15 week mark I started to feel the first teeny tiny butterfly/bubble kicks which was absolutely incredible to think we would soon start feeling our little one kick and move around! I would also say around this time is when I really started to get a little belly, which I think made things so much more real!
I’ve experienced round ligament pain from pretty early on along with hip pain, things that helped with this were trying to rest as much as possible and pregnancy yoga.
I also started using a pregnancy pillow at 16 weeks, which really helped. I went for the BBHugMe pregnancy pillow from JoJo Maman Bebe (gifted) and it has honestly been my number 1 pregnancy must haves throughout my whole pregnancy. I cannot tell you how comfortable it is. It’s filled with lots of tiny little beads so kind of moulds to your body when you sleep, and it looks lovely too so works with our bed.
It was around the 15/16 week mark when I got into what people call the honeymoon phase of pregnancy, basically all of my 1st trimester symptoms were gone, I was developing a lovely little bump and was feeling pretty well in myself. Around 19 weeks is when we felt the first proper kick, which was the most amazing feeling ever! Our little one has been pretty active and since then hasn’t really stopped moving, hopefully this doesn’t mean they’re going to be a nightmare when they arrive!
Then for the rest of my second trimester it kind of feels like a blur, I started rapidly growing a large bump and grew out of my non-maternity clothes very quickly, but I’ll do a whole other post on maternity clothes.
To finish up, I’d say I think I’ve probably had a fairly easy pregnancy with only a few aches and pains (sometimes super painful but they do go).
If you’re currently in the middle of a tricky 1st trimester just know that it will get better and things will ease off a little bit and if you’re in your 2nd trimester and starting to feel better try and embrace it! My final message would be to try and enjoy pregnancy as much as you can, it’s such an incredible time and you’re growing a little human!
