I’m currently 12 weeks pregnant with our first baby! It has been an amazing journey full of tears and struggles, but we couldn’t be happier. Reality is slowly setting in that in six months we’re going to be parents, but it’s still a hard concept to grasp. We planned for and prayed for this baby for years, and now that our time has finally come it’s still hard for me to believe that I’m really going to be a mama!

While this was a planned pregnancy, our little bean came as a huge surprise for us. After struggling with infertility for years and having gone through several unsuccessful rounds of fertility treatments, I couldn’t help but feel defeated. Within a few weeks time, there were 8 pregnancy announcements on Facebook and it felt like we would never have a child of our own. In January we had our first-ever successful response to the fertility treatments, and I saw those two pink lines on February 14^th. Yes, on Valentine’s Day! It was the perfect gift.

Since I’ve kept this a secret for such a long time, I wanted to give a little update to the last twelve weeks of my life:

Day to Day Life: My normal routine was completely turned upside down before I even found out we were pregnant. I learned to give into my heavy eyes and listen to my body when it said it was tired. I am normally a night owl – late to bed, early to rise – but beginning in early February I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 7pm. This was my first clue that I could possibly be pregnant, but I also felt like maybe I was reading into symptoms since I knew we could be pregnant. And while my nausea is finally starting to ease up, I found myself struggling to keep up with routine tasks during the early weeks of my pregnancy. Simply driving in a car was making me sick to the stomach. I couldn’t stand the smell of certain foods, and couldn’t even look at others. Other days, it was a struggle to even get off the couch. I spent the majority of my first trimester either on the couch or sleeping in bed (or falling asleep on the couch!).

Weight: I lost two pounds early on in my pregnancy, but gained 1lb in the 11^th week… then lost it in the 12th. I’m not a thin person to begin with, and have had a constant struggle maintaining my weight. I have PCOS, which is what lead to our fertility troubles, so I’m constantly monitoring my weight and what I eat. My OB and I have discussed weight gain goals and while I feel as though they’re reasonable and attainable goals, it was truly hard for me to see the scale go up after I’d worked so hard for it to go down.

Fashion: Like I said, I’m not a very thin girl to begin with. It was maybe around week 6 that I noticed my pants were beginning to feel a bit more snug. I was certainly bloated (and still am) so I gave the bella band a try. It’s definitely not for me, so I caved and bought maternity pants a few weeks later.

Sleep: This insomniac now sleeps around the clock! My 7pm bedtime is slowly turning into 9pm, but it’s still much earlier than I’m used to! Sleep is intermittent, though, and I wake several times throughout the night to go to the bathroom. Oddly enough, I no longer seem to need an alarm clock. I’m up at 6:00 on the dot, seven days a week!

Cravings: For awhile there, my appetite was nonexistent. Like I said, I couldn’t even stomach the sight (and smell) of certain foods… but Chinese food? Boy, that was at the top of my list! I craved anything and everything super spicy. I drove my husband crazy by requesting general tsos chicken (something I never liked before!) for dinner every night for an entire two weeks straight. General tsos turned into extra banana peppers on cheese pizza. Toward my 10^th week, spicy foods starting giving me extreme heartburn (um, obviously!) which was OK since I was now craving fruits. I can’t seem to keep enough bananas and strawberries in my house, and I’m really looking forward to watermelon being in season!

Movement: Nope, none yet!

Milestones: We’ve chosen a name for our son or daughter, but haven’t found out the sex of the baby yet. I’ve also decided upon maternity leave and my goals for Blush. We’re busy preparing our house for baby and while we won’t be preparing the nursery until this summer, it’s so much fun looking at furniture and bedding!

While I certainly do not intend on this becoming a baby blog, I do hope to share a few photos and updates about our progress along the way. You can expect to see more parties featured, like birthday parties and baby showers, though.

Thanks for reading my (very!) long update and allowing me to share this joy with you all!! 🙂

12week bean