Welcome to the pregnancy series! I decided to do a series of articles of the different trimesters of (human) pregnancy on a homestead because that is exactly what I have been/am going through myself. Welcome to the first trimester of my pregnancy!
Please keep in mind, these articles are based off my pregnancy experiences and are not true for everyone.
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I didn’t even have a clue this was happening to me! I found out around week 6 by pulling up my period app and realizing I was a couple weeks late. That never happens to me! I secretly ran to Target and bought a pregnancy test. I waited until the following morning to test because I heard that was the best time. Something about concentrated hormones or something.
Surprise! It came back positive.
Now I had to tell Greg…and I was scared. He has 3 (wonderful) children already, and was not wanting anymore. I didn’t want any children! I wanted to have kids before I turned 30. Well, I was 35 at this time. This would be my first kid.
Greg happened to be out of town dealing with the passing of his mother. What a time to break this on him!
My mother was super happy as she has been asking for grandkids for years! My younger sister found out she was pregnant that same year. Her pregnancy was 5 months ahead of mine. My mother is getting bomb-barded with grandchildren all at once it seems!
Timeline
A pregnancy is broken into 3 trimesters. Each trimester is made up of 13-14 weeks. This is the general breakdown of trimesters:
First Trimester:
- Months: 1-3
- Weeks: 1-13
Second Trimester:
- Months: 4-6
- Weeks: 14-27
Third Trimester:
- Months: 7-9+
- Weeks: 28-40+
If you notice, the weeks and months at the end of the third trimester have a “+” added to indicate that your time can go longer than the expected 9 months and/or 40 weeks. Some babies are born early, some on-time, and some come late. It’s ok.
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Changes
As soon as you find out that you are pregnant, you should start a prenatal vitamin. I chose the Garden of Life Prenatal Multi + DHA softgels. I wanted something more natural than lab created vitamins and minerals. This vitamin gets its good stuff from real foods, and is Non-GMO.
During the last half of the first trimester, I was drinking so much water that had to pee none stop. I was up every couple hours all through the night too. I’ve heard this does decrease in the second trimester though.
This was also the time that I noticed our dogs spending a LOT more time with me than normal. One just wouldn’t leave me alone. I couldn’t take a nap without at least one cuddled up next to me.
Weight and Diet
During this trimester, I did not need maternity pants, but my regular pants were a bit tight around the middle. Instead I bought a couple pairs of sweatpants (they lasted a while for me). Between sweatpants and stretchy yoga-type pants, I was set. Luckily, I work from home so there was no need to get dressed up fancy everyday.
My appetite increased during this time as well. I was a constant customer at Wendy’s. Hamburgers and French fries just sounded good all the time. Although I was eating a lot of Wendy’s, I don’t count it as a craving. It just sounded good to get some meat, protein, and veggies all together. Actually, I didn’t really have any strong cravings during the first trimester.
Speaking of what I ate during this time, try to remember to eat healthy. I don’t know about you, but this was very hard for me as a have a huge sweet tooth. I did try to make some changes in my diet. While I didn’t want to deny myself all the sweet treats, I did decrease my intake (by a lot). I also added in some more veggies and fruits.
There were a couple days were my appetite was just lacking because my tummy didn’t feel so good. I would say a very mild case of morning sickness was around for maybe a month.
During the first trimester, I also noticed crazy emotions. I would get worked up over the little things. That was hard to combat, but went away quickly for me.
Sleep
Towards the end of the first trimester, I was tired all the time. The lack of sleep at night probably did not help this at all. I took a nice midday nap most days.
I should have bought my pregnancy pillow during this trimester. My back pain was horrible and I had the worst time trying to find a comfortable sleeping position. I finally bought one in the second trimester, but in my opinion, buy one now.
Homestead Life
Being on a (small) homestead, there are thing that need to get done everyday: animals need feeding and watering, yard clean up, minor maintenance around here, normal house cleaning/care. Since Greg works outside of the house fulltime, those items fall under my chore list. Yay…
At first, my routine didn’t change too much, but as time went on, things slowed down a bit.
Animal Care
During the summer, the animals need watering twice a day and feeding once a day. The feeding wasn’t too hard as the bags of feed were kept in the back of my “ranch” car. I would drive this down to the animals and feed right out of the car. No bending or carrying. Easy! The watering was different story. Twice a day was a bit much for me to handle at the end of the first trimester. Thankfully, as it cooled down, the watering goes down to once a day. When the kids were here, I had one water, one feed, and the youngest collect eggs. It worked out fantastically! When they were not here, it took me at about an 45 minutes-1 hour to complete. Something that used to take me about 10-15 minutes.
The oldest kid really likes helping out with the animals. Sometimes, she will even ask to do it alone! She even helps with the hatching, and any injured animals. It was a blessing!
Yard Care
Yard clean up became minimal as time went on. If I happened to walk past a piece of trash, of course I would pick it up and throw it in the trash. If there was a bucket that the wind blew across the yard…it would sit there a while. When the kids were here, I would have them help out with this.
I have to admit, the garden did not get the attention it needed. Usually, I did remember to water it. But I definitely did not pick all the ripe produce when needed. A lot got fed to the pigs. During the weeks the kids were here, things got picked much more frequently!
Maintenance
Usually, there is minimal maintenance around here. Unfortunately, we had a few hoses bust a hole, and the dogs dug up some plants, and the pigs were getting through the fence. I taught the oldest kid to fix the hoses. All the kids helped put the live plants back and reinforce the fencing around them. Greg was able to weld the fence to keep the pigs in. I cannot imagine doing all this alone!
House Care
The house cleaning/care got done less and less. Laundry and dishes were done when needed. Indoor plants were watered when they drooped or started turning brown. Cleaning about stopped unless absolutely necessary. Honestly, I was felling like crap when I looked around the house, but just didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. Thankfully, my mom came by a couple days to help me get it back in order. She was a huge help!
Healthcare
Being this was an unexpected event, I did not have medical insurance. Once I found out the positive test and realized what was going to happen, I applied for medical insurance. Unfortunately, I was unable to get approved or see a doctor during this first trimester. I felt like I was always contacting the company to figure it all out. It was a headache. Any medical advice I got was from people I knew and the FB groups I joined.
Second Trimester Around the Corner
With a lot of help, I was able to make it through this first trimester! It was definitely something to experience. With this being my first pregnancy, I came into this completely not knowing a single thing. After asking around and joining some FB groups, I learned quite a bit but still am not “all-knowing”. I survived this trimester. Now it’s on to a new one!
