I struggled a lot in my first trimester (read here if you haven’t: https://welochiro.com/blog/pregnant-chiropractor/). I tried looking for help from my gynae, but unfortunately couldn’t get what I wanted. I then began searching for other sources of help instead of allowing myself to drown in a helpless spiral.
After Week 10, I started going on a strict meal routine – I stuck to eating small but regular meals. Since I could not eat much due to my nausea, I looked for ways around it. I would share meals with a colleague or friend, or I would prepare snacks to munch on in between work. It meant that during each “meal time” I would only have two bites of noodles, or a handful of nuts, or just 2 pieces of crackers. I stuck to doing that consistently 3-4 times a day. It may sound like I was undereating but trust me, it was all that I could manage. I lost my joy of eating, and the smell or even the thought of food made me feel sick.
I still regularly experienced nausea and vomiting up until Week 12, but I could embrace myself better by then. There were some points where I would not experience any vomiting for 2-3 days. What a nice feeling! I would hope that my morning sickness has finally come to an end, but it usually ended up a false alarm. Even though it was frustrating that I couldn’t identify any pattern to my symptoms, I was still glad that I felt better.
Overall, I threw up a lot less compared to the first trimester (HOORAY!), but I unfortunately started getting a lot of headaches and lower back aches (a lot earlier than I expected – sad). I also started experiencing dips in my emotions. I would randomly feel sad and cry over small things or for no particular reason.
Once again – I started my search of SELF HELP. I looked to Mr Google and Meagan, another Chiro friend who was 3 months ahead of me in her pregnancy.
From my own personal searching, these were the things that I discovered could cause my new symptoms. (All based on my own experience – please don’t hold me accountable for anything!)
HEADACHE: Dehydration and insufficient rest.
Although I slept an average of 10-12 hours a day, it never felt enough. I was frustrated over how tired I felt despite how much I slept, especially because it affected my productivity and contributed to some tension/stress headaches. However, I realised that the amount of rest needed differs from person to person and it is important to get enough according to what my body needs.
LOWER BACK ACHE: The surge of a ligament relaxing hormone (relaxin) + the nature of my work.
My joints (pelvic, hip, and knee) felt loose and started cracking a lot. Even though my baby bump hadn’t even started showing, my body was still going through a lot of changes. My work, which can be quite physical, was probably too much for my body to accommodate. I learnt that hormonal changes do not tally with physical changes. What can’t be seen doesn’t mean that it was not happening.
EMOTIONAL MELTDOWN: Once again, thank you hormones.
Incidence no 1: I couldn’t deliver a so-called “good” adjustment, I cried.
Incidence no 2: I couldn’t understand why a person did things a certain way, I cried.
Incidence no 3: I needed to pump petrol, I cried.
Incidence no 4: My husband breathed next to me, I cried.
I had to take more time off work, mainly to really sleep and cry when I needed to. Unfortunately no one could provide me full comfort, but at that point I knew that it was a matter of time till it got better.
TRUE ENOUGH
At week 15/16, I felt like a human again!!!
I no longer threw up, and I ate like a beast. All I could think of was what to eat next HAHAHA.
Of course, I didn’t feel the same as I did before pregnancy. I was still tired, I still questioned why I was so weak, I still had my body aches. But I was glad that at least I was no longer hugging the toilet bowl! I also decided to visit another gynae (a female doctor, this time around). She was more empathetic towards me and gave me an idea of what may happen down the road in a roadmap:
By the time I saw her, I already missed the timing for the First Trimester Scan (FTS). The NIPT scan was 7x more expensive than the FTS. I had the option of not doing any of those scans since I did not fall in the high-risk group, but my husband insisted that I do something about it, so we went for the NIPT scan and found out the gender of our baby!
I also started feeling the baby’s kicks around week 18, and started outgrowing my clothes. I could no longer fit into all my pants. It was at this point that I finally felt that I AM PREGNANT.