1st Trimester Recap

Even though I found out that I was pregnant pretty early on, at 4 weeks, we decided to keep the news secret from absolutely everyone until the end of the first trimester.  Being a labor and delivery nurse, I am blessed and cursed with a lot of knowledge.  So we proceeded with caution.  At 8 weeks I had my first prenatal appointment and both VABeau and I were incredibly relieved to see a heart beat on the ultrasound.  Once we saw the heartbeat we began to relax a bit and decided to share the big news with both of our families over the holidays around 9 weeks.  We just couldn't let an opportunity pass to share the big news with our parents and siblings in person.

This baby will be the first grandchild on both sides so I wanted to share the news with the grandparents-to-be in a fun and memorable way.  My search for the perfect grandparent Christmas ornament began.  I finally found the perfect one and personalized it with 2013 since that would be the year that they all four would officially become grandparents.

I then wrapped the ornament in a box with an 8 week ultrasound photo of Baby "C."

My parents unwrapped their "gift" first since we celebrated Christmas with them in Virginia one weekend early.  They and my brother were completely and utterly shocked.  There were definitely a few tears shed and everyone was ecstatic.  Next up were my in-laws.  We ended up giving them their "gift" almost immediately after arriving at their house in Indiana for Christmas.  It was just so hard to wait a second longer when we had already kept it secret for over a whole month at that point.  They were equally shocked and incredibly excited.  As VABeau's siblings arrived hours later, we got to tell them the news by showing them the ornament on my in-laws tree.  I no longer had to worry about concealing my nonexistent alcohol consumption!  I am also so grateful that we got to share the news with our amazing families in person.

After Christmas we agreed to keep the secret from our friends until at least 12 weeks, at which point we would start spreading the news.  12 weeks ended up being the ideal time to share with our friends and coworkers because I really started to "pop" around 13 weeks:

I was incredibly lucky to not have any nausea for those first 12 weeks.  My only complaints were horrible heartburn and extreme exhaustion.  I have never been so tired in my entire life.  I definitely spent most of the holiday season laying down.  This was incredibility frustrating because I don't like to sit still for long.  Fortunately, around the same time that my belly began growing, I started to feel better.  Workouts started again and I finally started to contribute more around the house.  Despite the shocking change between my 12 and 13 week bumps, I only gained 1 pound during the first trimester.  Still, the first trimester wasn't easy but I know it could have been a lot worse.

Now that I'm halfway through the second trimester, I can officially say that I'm loving the second trimester so far, it really is the honeymoon period of pregnancy!  After those first 12 weeks of exhaustion, I'm soaking up every second of the energy filled second trimester.

Despite my plan to not make my blog 100% baby focused, I  plan to do weekly bump dates from here on out so stay tuned.