What the First Trimester Was Like

Today, I am officially at 16 weeks, and ze bebe is supposedly the size of an avocado! I can't believe I have something that big in my tummy. People keep telling me that I don't look pregnant at all, but the avocado bit explains why it was a major struggle getting into a pair of high-waist pants the other day. (Hmm. Probably the last time I'll be wearing those pants til next year...)

At 15 and a half weeks. More on my Downton Abbey-inspired look in a future post.

I've heard horror stories of women throwing up all day, every day (morning sickness is a misnomer) and breaking out (made more annoying by the fact that you can't really put gunk on your face when you're preggers). So I thank my lucky stars that I took after my mom and had near-zero symptoms! What the first trimester was like for me:

• I didn't throw up! Not a single time. I did have the urge to hurl a few times, but that was it.
• My "breakout" consisted of three pimples appearing at the same time. I hardly ever get zits so maybe in my case, that was a breakout?
• I now have a weird aversion to olives. No cravings or anything, but I suddenly cannot stand olives.
• I was (and still am) hungry ALL THE FRICKIN' TIME. I don't eat as much as I used to (meaning, if you took me to a buffet, I would only go once versus going back three times before) but I get hungry every two hours or less. I never thought I would get tired of eating. The act of eating so often gets really old, really fast, plus you have to think about what you're putting in your mouth. If I could snack on chips and ice cream and fast food all day long, I would, but I have to think about what's best for the little monster. This is made harder by the fact that I'm not really allowed to eat salad (anything raw is a no-no--no sushi, no mayo even!), so I have to get creative when it comes to my healthy choices. Did I tell you I'm not a big fan of vegetables?
• I was sleepy ALL THE FRICKIN' TIME. Thankfully, I think my energy has picked up, but for the first few weeks, all I wanted to do was stay in bed. Getting to work required a huge amount of effort. The reason? My body was supposedly working "as hard as a mountain climber's" even at rest. I likened the feeling to a day after a tournament where we played three intense games, except there was no soreness. It was hard feeling that way, like my body was just so heavy and drained, especially since I used to be all go go go.
• One word: bewbs. There's a symptom I can live with.
• My spidey senses were heightened. I can smell the weirdest things that other people can't smell. A couple of weeks ago, there was a group of beefy male models chatting by our workstations, and I was so distracted, not because of the hunkiness but because of the smell! They didn't smell bad, but it was a mix of cologne and testosterone that apparently no one else in the area detected. Weird.
• I lost then gained back some weight. You're apparently supposed to lose weight in the first trimester. Check. But you're not supposed to gain it back til after. Unfortunately, I gained it all back on my 12th week, so now I'm under strict one-pound-a-week-only orders from the doc. She asked me, "Did you cut back significantly on your physical activity?" Boy, did I! Which leads me to...
• The hardest thing about this pregnancy is not being able to play disc or do anything physically intense. Everyone and their mother has told me "But my friend was running until her ninth month!" or "My friend's wife joined a marathon in her third trimester!" That's awesome for your friends, but my doc limited me to brisk walking.:( Yes, she knew that I was playing disc competitively. She's just being safe and I totally respect that (and I wish other people would respect that their friends' doctors are not my doctor). I still go to disc training, but mostly so I could still hang out with my friends. I have been relegated to timer-and-whistle duties during circuit training, and my heart fills with envy whenever I see my teammates collapsing from exhaustion after they complete 30 minutes of boot camp torture. Gawd I miss that.
• I had to lie. And it was horrible. I'm really sorry. Please believe me when I say it was very difficult to just not come right out and say, "I'm pregnant!!!" Since we decided not to tell anyone til the end of first trimester, I had to come up with some excuse for not being able to play, so I just said that we were trying to have a baby. That opened me up to all sorts of questions, from "Does playing really affect your chances of conceiving?" to "So, do you have a sex schedule?" (I'm not kidding.) That taught me to answer "I'm injured" when someone would ask why I was sitting on the sidelines.  

What was the first trimester like for all the other pregnant ladies out there?