This is much more than just an update. I wanted to make this a resourceful blog post for women of all stages, so it’s a be a bit lengthy. Please feel free to skip around as you wish. 🙂

Leading Up To Pregnancy

I’ve always wanted to be a mom some day. John and I knew we were going to wait a while before trying. 7 years (after we got married) ended up passing before we tried for the first time. I definitely was not the type of girl that said, “if it happens, it happens.” NO – we had waaay too much going on after we got married, we were barely able to keep up with everything as it was, and then we both felt so young. Getting pregnant just didn’t feel “like the right time” to us prior to recent. We had to get our ducks in order if you will.

Also, I never knew if I was fertile or if I would still be fertile by the time I “got around to it” (I’m 33 now). So I always thought to myself, that at best, it was going to take me a few months to possibly a few years to get pregnant.

I don’t know why. Maybe because of movies, maybe because of hearing the tribulations of so many, that I just told myself years and years ago, that chances were, it wasn’t going to be easy for me either. Maybe I was going to be infertile. I chose to mentally accept all possibilities of what God has in plan for my future. Whatever the turnout, I was going to be happy.

I made peace with the thought that I might not be able to have children of my own, long before even trying to conceive.

Years ago, I decided that I was going to get myself in the best physical and mental shape I could, and that I was going to make it become part of my daily lifestyle (not just something I did for 30 days or 3 months), I followed The Whole 30 in 2012 and haven’t looked back since. I consider my diet Paleo for the most part. I thought, if I did this that it might give myself better chances of conceiving later on. This might sound super silly given that I never tested my fertility at the doctors (I just didn’t want to know – I knew that would add extra stress on me mentally). I also didn’t want to try just to try. I wanted to feel “ready” in my own way that made me feel like I had done my part to best prepare myself.

At some point last year, I was finally feeling ready to start trying in the fall (2018). However, John and I were going through soooo much at the time. We sold our first home, then we moved, we were trying to figure out if CA could provide us with what we were looking for or if we needed to move states. We then found and bought our next home in CA, which we completely tore up to the core, and I was swamped with work around the holidays. By late December I was eager to start trying – my entire life I’ve wanted to have my first baby by age 33 – the very latest.

End of last year, I was feeling more calm than ever. Life, even though we had changed everything (town, new puppy, totally new adventure of living in an airstream while we rebuild, etc.), brought us so much comfort and joy. I told John, “I’m ready to get the process started, it will take us awhile probably, let’s see how this goes, what do we have to lose?!” The answer was, nothing.

The Logistics of Getting Pregnant

Over the years I’ve become really in-tune with my body and I’m much better at being able to tell when I ovulate, especially with the help of my Flo app. Every month I would enter in the date of my first period and that’s it! It would then calculate my estimated day of ovulation. It’s really all you need to know. For me, it’s about 10 days after the first day of my period. So 2 days before my estimated ovulation date, I was supposed to go to a local wine tasting with girls – it totally slipped my mind, I was so late realizing I was late, lol, that I had to cancel. John and I spent time together that Saturday instead. We also made sure we kept trying for the next 2-3 days leading up and passing my ovulation date. We wanted give it our best shot first-try around.

Later that week, we both forgot we even tried for a baby. We were so busy with the house and our jobs, we had ZERO expectations of the first try working. I was getting new shipments of winter outfits, jeans, skirts, etc. Life went on.

I’m PREGNANT!!

It was the start to the new year, so we took the pups and went on a little one-night trip to Santa Barbara end of that week to just get away from the chaos of our home project. I had such a bad lower backache sitting in the car. I get that way sometimes when I’m under a lot of stress from work or when I’ve been sitting down working overtime (which I was at the time). We went out to dinner, had a few drinks, and crashed. The next day, we both felt a little off. Eating out isn’t always as healthy as you might think and I might have had one margarita too many.

My breasts felt tender that morning. I thought I was super run down, or that my body was just out of whack. We went to shoot photos with John and I was wearing a leather mini skirt. It felt unusually tight on me. Given the night we had, I was feeling a little bloated. John kept telling me to suck in my belly. I was half laughing, half offended!!! Lol, I couldn’t suck it in!!

Few more days passed and I was feeling unusually bloated with lower back pain still. I started eating more yogurt/taking probiotics, but I thought I had a stomach bug or something. I kept asking John if he was feeling as bloated as me about 10x a day, and so he made a box for me to put $1 into it each time I asked him that question. What a dork! He did make some money though! hahah!

I was making sure I was taking it easy because I just felt “off.” After a few more days of not feeling like myself, I decided to google “symptoms of pregnancy.” I shared them with John, and right there an then I decided I was FOR SURE PREGNANT. John was skeptical, and so was I like 5%. The 5% for me was all “there’s no way I got pregnant on the first-try!!”

Fast forward to 2 days before my next period, and my First Response pregnancy stick came out with one bold line and one faint pink line. EEK!!! I was PREGNANT!! I shared the news with John, he couldn’t believe it!!! I told him, “let me retake it again in a few days after I miss my period and see what happens to the second faint pink line, just to confirm”. And oh did it confirm, PREGNANT FOR REAL!!!! On the first-try. I was in shock!!!!!

First Trimester

I had NO clue what to expect aside from what I had heard from other women and google. One thing I knew is that I LOVED every second of being pregnant, no matter the symptom! I’m growing a human, WHAT?!?! <<Insert heart eyes>> With that said, I had my fair share of symptoms: tender breasts, I slept like a rock, had to take 1-2 hour naps during the day everyday (woot woot, fatigue!!) I still have to wake up and pee once in the middle of the night every night, bloating, constipation and an overwhelming sense of calm.

Somehow I managed to get away with no nausea or vomiting. When I say somehow, I think it was all diet related. More on that below. I clearly remember thinking around week 8-9 that maybe I should buy some ginger supplies in the event nausea decided to kick in – it never really did.

My food aversion was beef. One night we were hosting my mom and I had made beef meatball & veggie soup for dinner. We all sat down to eat and I couldn’t for the life of me, eat it!! It smelled like ANIMAL SO STRONG. At this time, I was 4 weeks pregnant (had just found out 2 days prior for sure, for sure) and wasn’t ready to share with my mom just yet. It was hysterical if you had to watch me try to eat those meatballs. I was laugh-crying the entire time. Tossing a meatball every now and then into Johns soup bowl when my mom wasn’t looking. I had to pretend like I was fine, and I kept laugh-crying over my soup!! My mom thought I was on drugs. 🙁 Her saying that was a joke, but I certainly acted VERY kooky and not like myself. I definitely left her suspicious.

At week 5, I couldn’t fit into any of my new or old jeans. I kept asking myself why I went shopping for all new jeans and skirts just weeks before, knowing that I might be pregnant anytime. That’s how little I thought about all of this.

My energy zapped out much quicker in my first trimester, so I quickly learned to give myself grace without feeling guilty about it. I stopped lifting heavy things (over 10-15 lbs). If my body was asking for a nap, I would make it a priority. I would eat all throughout the day as my body needed. I kept my snacks balanced in fat/protein/carbs (if I didn’t, I would get sugar crashes sometimes). I accepted the fact that my pregnant-self required more love, more time, more rest, and that it’s completely ok!

At this time it was end of January, early February and all I wanted to do was cook, eat and sleep still. The weather was shit grey, shit muddy, and just shitty cold and wet for what felt like forever. We were falling behind on our house because of the weather and I remember I could have cared less. Progesterone mellowed me out completely. I had not a worry in the world, until about week 10.

Around week 10-11, I dove into how we’ve been doing with our budget for this project and I got stressed out to see we had already gone quite a bit over. The problem was that we called it a “remodel” when we first started, but because of the poor condition of the house, nearly everything needed to be torn and “rebuilt.” Ugh. I blamed myself for not being more on top of the budget during the first 2 months of my pregnancy. But even if I had, we wouldn’t have saved much because of the bones of the house. So bad!!

My motivation in my first trimester was so low! I struggled with SAD and desperately needed sunshine to feel better. On days we had sun, which weren’t much at all, I felt instantly happier, more energized, and overall better. Those were my most productive days!

Pregnancy Priorities

I’m huge on nutrition in general. I started studying on my own time and doing my own research since 2012. I’ve come a long way since, I feel like I should write a book one day. And I might! But I have not shared much of this with you guys on IG and it’s been killing me! I made myself a promise that I will start sharing what I know with you guys this year. Some of you already know that I loooove to cook! I can cook 6 meals a day from scratch with the biggest smile on my face. A lot of the advice I have to share is health & wellness related. I just wouldn’t be myself If I didn’t share this side of me with you guys (it’s all I talk about sometimes)!! 🙂

I knew I wanted to have a natural healthy pregnancy. What that meant to me, was that I was going to cook and prepare as many fresh-from-scratch meals (yep – given the capabilities of an airstream) each day as possible. We have a small 15 inch. single rack propane oven, 3 burners and one 15 inch. round kitchen sink. We also have a small fridge, slightly larger than the small undercounted ones. Tiny freezer, no dishwasher. The kitchen actually has been really great! Though, I do have to run to the grocery every other day.

The part that pushes me overboard is the washing-by-hand, every single little bowl, pan, cup, utensil… We use paper plates when we can, but everything else is porcelain, glass, steel. I’m against plastic, so for my average time over the sink per day is about 1 hour 30 minutes. I’m a human dishwasher! LOL. That doesn’t include cooking/prepping time. Nearly half of my day goes into clean eating, but it’s a decision/sacrifice I made for our health and the wellbeing of the baby.

Here’s a book I picked up, that I can’t recommend enough: Real Food For Pregnancy. YOU NEED IT!!!! It covers everything from foods that build a healthy baby, to foods to avoid and why, meal planning, essential supplements, toxins, pregnancy expectations and complaints, stress and mental health, exercise and even dives into postpartum healing/breastfeeding. I also bought a few other books but they’re geared more for second/third trimester. I’ll share them as soon as I read through them 🙂 Aside from Real Food For Pregnancy and a few apps (The Bump, Pregnancy+, Ovia), it’s been enough to help get me through my first trimester. I knew noothingggg about pregnancy before I got pregnant! So if you’re in that boat, don’t worry!!! Just take action and start learning when you’re ready.

My Struggle With Prenatal Vitamins

Is it just me or has anyone else experienced bad abdominal pain with pregnancy? To be more specific, I was feeling major pain in my intestines (so much pain that I nearly fainted from it once – I’ve never fainted in my life!). I was also getting way too much bloating – I looked “larger” to everyone, and at one point before my first prenatal appt (around week 8) I had myself convinced I was carrying 6 embryos! Twins at the very least!! I also had unusual constipation, pain around my belly button, etc.

By week 10, I had tried at least 4 different prenatal vitamins. I knew it was them causing me all the discomfort. I tried ones without iron, farm to table with healthy ingredients and raw ones with iron. One brand that I really liked without iron was actually making me dizzy, almost nauseous. Two days of that and I was done with them. It wasn’t until I asked my mom to find me some in Europe without Iron, with just the basic ingredients necessary, that I started to feel like myself again (around week 13-14). The brand is called Femibion by Merck, and she bought them in Germany, but you can order them here. Same brand but these are for the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. The only prenatal vitamins that don’t give me any side effects! YAY!

Trip To The ER

First day of 13 weeks and I had such severe abdominal pain, I didn’t feel ok or normal. My belly button was protruding and hurt like a B**CH. By 6pm I couldn’t take the discomfort any longer and headed to the ER. There they ran some tests and did an ultrasound. They ruled out some major things such as UTI and Appendicitis. Baby was doing amazing, moving around so much, and I was able to see its tiny little fingers and toes!! It was a beautiful moment and all worth the trip, just for that.

Though they did find that I have a small umbilical hernia which was being pushed on not by the baby, but by the tremendous amounts of bloating I was having. Doctors sent me home telling me to drink more water – nothing about my prenatal vitamins. If anyone knows me, I drink so much water, even before pregnancy. I wasn’t dehydrated that day because my urine was clear. It is even more important to stay hydrated when pregnant. The next day my mom arrived and I switched over to Femibion and haven’t had an issue since (going on 2 weeks now). Feels so good to feel like myself again!

Why I Cancelled My Trip To Dallas

This was a last minute call you guys. Just an hour before I left, I was all packed and ready to have an amazing week with my girls for #rSTheCon with Reward Style/LikeToKnow.it team. Well, I found out that I’ve never been vaccinated for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chickenpox and others when I was a kid (like whaaat!?) and since there’s active measles outbreaks in CA and TX, 4 doctors advised me not to fly. It all happened last minute as I got my results back.

Some might think it’s silly, but of course I would take caution for my baby even if my chances of exposure were just 1%. I’ve never had chickenpox or measles or anything and I’ve traveled my whole life internationally and nationally. But this time it was different. There was no way I was going to take the risk.

Q & A

• Are you wearing maternity clothes yet? No, not yet. 🙂 So far I’ve been going up a few sizes in jeans/shorts and one size up to Medium in some dresses. I’m still wearing my normal size in tops. As soon as I start wearing maternity clothes, I will let you guys know.
• How do you feel? Have you been feeling sick? I feel amazing! Getting myself on a healthy diet thanks to The Whole 30, 8 years ago I think is the reason why I wasn’t feeling sick. I haven’t gotten sick (cold/flu) once so far in my pregnancy.
• What have you been eating while pregnant? I’ve been making lots of bone broth soups, lots of crock pot meals, roasted dishes, risottos, salads, baked salmon/white fish with veggie sides, avocado toasts, egg wraps, lots of yogurt, berries, nuts and seeds. I also eat olives everyday, and have been enjoying GF pizza’s, bunless burgers, fries, pasta and smoothies.
• Are you gonna show a house tour when it’s all done? Absolutely!! We’re actually working with WayFair on our guest bathroom renovation! Stay tuned for the first blog post going live this month! 🙂
• Did you have bad morning sickness? No nausea and no vomiting. I’m convinced it has all to do with my diet/lifestyle.
• Are you nervous about your pregnancy? I was nervous in the beginning for sure. I had very light spotting around week 3-4. It’s considered normal, but I was nervous until I got my lab results back which confirmed that baby and I are healthy.
• Does John speak any other languages and will baby be bi/tri lingual? John understands Bulgarian better than he can speak it, but overall he’s doing so well with it, it leaves me and others in awe! We also remember a little bit of Italian from when we lived there for a year. Baby will definitely be bi-lingual at the very least!
• Do you know the gender yet? When will you find out? We have the gender tucked away in an envelope and we will open it this month with family to reveal. We have something really cute planned, so stay tuned for that too!

PHOTOS

xx Adelina