Like most pregnant mamas, the first trimester (conception – 13 weeks) was definitely my hardest. But the physical changes weren’t the rough part for me. It was my mental state that our big news took the biggest toll on.
Physically, I was actually very lucky. I had no nausea or morning sickness at all. I honestly would not have known I was pregnant if I didn’t realize I missed my period. My biggest issue was just tiredness. I would hit a wall at noon every day and had to take a nap or I seriously could not function. I was beyond thankful that I worked from home during this time!
Mentally, there were quite a few realizations that hit me pretty hard:
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LIFESTYLE CHANGES My life instantly altered once I found out. It’s not like that for the baby daddies! I suddenly couldn’t go out with my girlfriends to our boozy brunches, I couldn’t have that glass of red wine on Bachelor Mondays, I couldn’t drink coffee (!!!), and I suddenly felt like I had to check if every food, medication, cleaning product, etc were safe for me to consume, take or breathe in! It was a lot to take in to say the least.
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BODY CHANGES What was this major change going to do my body? How was I going to look? Would I be able to continue working out? I know that what a woman’s body can do is so beautiful and amazing, but if I’m being real, I was terrified that I was going to gain too much weight, get stretch marks and never snap back to a size or shape that I felt good in. It was freaking me out, honestly.
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FRIENDSHIPS I have a couple, and I actually mean two, close friends who had kids, but overall, I was the first of my friends to go through this huge life change. I instantly couldn’t completely relate to my best friends anymore and they couldn’t relate to me either. I was worried that this would change the state of my friendships forever.
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LABOR & DELIVERY Do I even need to explain this one!?
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LIFE AFTER PREGNANCY I mean, if I was having a hard time with the lifestyle changes I needed to make because I was pregnant, I couldn’t even wrap my head around the additional changes that would come with caring for a newborn, infant, toddler, etc… Would I be a good mom? What if I suffer from post-partum? What if I don’t connect with my baby? The questions were endless. And I wouldn’t get answers for a solid nine months.
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MY RELATIONSHIP Thor and I were in such a good, solid place in our relationship, which is why we decided to stop being careful and “see what happens”, but at the same time I was worried a new baby would throw us off or cause major riffs. I also didn’t think getting pregnant wouldn’t be as easy as it was for us… didn’t take long at all, so the whole thing was just (understandably) a big shock!
The shock and crazy emotions let up around halfway into my second trimester at about 19 weeks. Needless to say, my experience finding out we were pregnant with our first baby was a trip! It was hardly the perfectly happy reaction you see in movies or lame ass preg test commercials ha. Obviously, knowing what I know now, I am so grateful to have had no issues with conception, no nausea or other early pregnancy symptoms, and of course, I am beyond grateful for my beautiful, healthy baby boy <3
PHOTOS BY THE LAUREN STYLE PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW I FOUND OUT I WAS PREGNANT
I literally was just going about my day like normal on April 6, 2018 when it just occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten my period yet—I was about two weeks late at this point. Like HELLOOO WAKE UP. I went to CVS and picked up a few different types of pregnancy tests. The first one I took was Clearblue and the second line was so faint that I didn’t trust that it was accurate. ***PRO TIP: No matter how faint the second line is, if you can see even just a tiny bit of it, it’s positive.
I took it in the late afternoon hours when the hormone that spikes when you’re pregnant is the least prominent in your body. So, I waited until the next morning to take a First Response pregnancy test when the hormone is at its highest level. Oddly enough, I had no anxiety or anything because for whatever reason I just didn’t believe I was pregnant.
Next morning comes (it was a Thursday)… and I take two First Response tests. Both are so freaking positive there was no denying that I was pregnant. Echoing my feelings described above about the first trimester, I had super mixed emotions and was very freaked out! To make matters worse, Thor was busy with work events that entire day and night so I essentially had to keep the information to myself for 48 hours. I wanted to die. It was the worst.
Thor came home from work that Friday night and I was SHAKING. Literally shaking. I was so nervous to tell him the news because for whatever reason I wasn’t sure how he would react (even though we both decided that were going to stop not trying to get pregnant).
I was so lame with my delivery haha. I put the tests in a gift bag with tissue paper and came out to the kitchen while he was making dinner and basically threw the bag at him and said “I got you a gift today!” His reaction was so typical Thor and he said, “OMG why did you spend money buying me something.” Insert [hand slapping head emoji] here. He opened it and studied one of the tests for awhile. When he realized what it said, his face lit up with huge eyes and huge smile and I never felt more relieved in that moment. He screamed, “YOU’RE PREGNANT?!” I just nodded and he picked me up and gave me the biggest hug. I felt so much better and we spent the rest of the night sitting on the floor and talking about the very near future that we were about to experience.
HOW WE ANNOUNCED THE NEWS
We told my parents right away. I couldn’t wait.
They had asked us to meet them for a drink at a bar and we made it a point to get there super early before they would so we could talk to the bartender about making me a vodka soda sans the vodka so it looked like I was drinking. They walked in, sat down, caught up for a minute and then Thor went into a spiel about how we had something to tell them. Their faces dropped and they turned white like they had just seen a ghost.
We shared the news, my mom instantly started crying and my stepdad was confused why I had a drink in front of me haha. It was a great rest of the day telling them how we found out and all that.
With the rest of family and friends, we went to lunches and made FaceTime calls so they knew before the rest of the world.
For the rest of the world, we just kept it simple and took a cute pic (see below) when we were on a trip with friends down in Tucson. I posted it a few days on Instagram, because that’s what we millennials do, duh. We received amazing congratulations and well wishes and it was a beautiful, overwhelming feeling.
FUNNY THING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE WE SHARED THE NEWS
Our really good friends / neighbors / Thor’s coworker and his wife invited us over for dinner at their house and to see their two month old baby. I was going stir crazy so I wanted to go but created a stupid, lame plan to tell them I wasn’t feeling the greatest and didn’t want to drink when they offered me a drink. K… these people are like our really good friends and I don’t know what made me think they would believe me when I’d pass up a glass of wine. I NEVER do that normally.
So… they’re very perceptive and instantly knew something was up so when we left their house that night. We had no idea they even had the slightest idea we were pregnant. But low and behold, they knew! Check out the video below. They sent it to us after we told them the news and it was the cutest thing ever!! I think I cried.
