And then there were 3 {I’M PREGNANT!!!} My First Trimester & More {BABY DIARIES}

That’s right – the most exciting blog post to ever ever EVER go live on Make It Rayne. I AM PREGNANT!!!

I have thought about starting to type up this blog post upwards of 20 times over the last while. Imagining what captions I would use for my Instagram and Facebook pregnancy announcements has taken up the better part of my brain power for the last two weeks. And while I am writing this, I still have NO IDEA what we (because Rayne, do not forget, Chris is also part of this journey. I have to stop saying I am pregnant and use more of WE are pregnant!) are going to say+. All I know for sure is that I currently feel well enough to type out a few lines without vomming**.

+ We have already made the announcement on our personal Facebook and IG accounts!

**Oh yes, there will be lots of mentioning of vomit, puking, mokking, whatever you want to call it, in this post. So potentially remove yourself early (now) is you are queasy.

So let’s start at the beginning, shall we? One day mommy and daddy decided to make a baby. No, sorry, scratch that. Mommy and daddy made a baby without realizing what they had done, and – bam – 8 weeks later mommy could just NOT understand why she was so unwell! That is pretty much the gist of it.

While I do plan on expanding Make It Rayne to be more of ‘Make It Rayne (and some Baby)’, for now, I am just going to briefly chat through my first trimester and sort of encapsulate it into a few short sentences. I have long been a lover of mommy blogs and absolutely ADORED the gory posts from my fave ladies such as Simone from An Ordinary Gal, Mariske from The Secret Board and so many others who are a little less gory (Maz, Chereen, Sarah and more). But my first trimester was INTENSE.

I am the first to admit that I can be… how do I put this? Slightly neurotic with just a touch of hypochondria? I may have allowed myself to fall into the trap of a placebo effect mindset because I was ALL GOOD. All good in the hood without a care in the world until I had confirmation of the pregnancy. Then I was man down for weeks upon weeks. I could not eat. I could not even walk around. Example: I went for a wax one day and the walk from the car to the spa (this was probably 200m), knocked me out to the point that the therapist had to get a cold, wet facecloth for my face and I proceeded to demand her to answer me: “WHY DOES THIS CHILD HATE ME?!”

Anyway, back to the not eating bit. I am NOT exaggerating this part. I had always heard of food aversions and the most common culprits; seafood, meat, chicken on the bone, etc. For me, it was anything and – this is the most important bit – EVERYTHING.

I am still slightly sickened at the thought of most food (I am writing this up at 10 1/2 weeks) so I will try and make this quick. But basically everything made me pale, queasy and sick to my stomach. I would get random bursts of cravings. And Chris, bless his beautiful soul, was perfect in the fact that he would go out at the drop of the hat for any random items (small list; fresh mango *in Winter? Forgeddaboudit*, Rolo ice-cream, Oreo McFlurry, peppermints, toasted cheese & tomatoes sandwiches). But by the time he got home with the items, the craving would have passed and said list would go into the fridge until it had to be thrown out. By the end of week 8, I had probably consumed less than 2000 calories that entire week. While still vomiting about 3 times a week. I am just extremely thankful that, while my perpetual nausea was/is horrible and downright depressing, I did not have the awful all-day vomiting. I can count my lucky stars for that. All in all I lost about 6KG in those first weeks, which is roughly 9% of my body weight. Yes yes, baba is all good. Baby gets the correct nutrients that it needs in the first three months, even if you are vomiting on the daily.

And do not get me, wrong guys, I tried and I TRIED all the remedies. If one more person suggests I drink Ginger Ale, I am going to throw the bottle at them. Ginger ale, ginger biscuits, fresh ginger in hot water, fresh ginger in cold water, eating before getting out of bed. The second you get morning sickness the rest of the world seems to assume that you cannot read or use Google. Because let me assure you, I researched, tried, and tested, ALL of the common remedies.

And the exhaustion. Oh my heavens. Fatigue is up there with nausea and morning sickness as one of the most intense pregnancy symptoms. And it truly is no joke. My sleeping patterns varied but I was always sleeping for ages at a time.

One night, in particular, went like this:

4.27PM: Arrive home from work. Briefly worship the ground that I end work at 4PM and have a less than 30-minute commute home.

4.30PM: Chris lists 74 items of food in the hopes that one will spark joy within me. They don’t.

5.30PM: Fall fast asleep.

8.30PM: Wake-up. Put on FRIENDS. Update the necessary people on how I am doing. Always my mom and bestie, and then one or two other kind souls who have checked in with me and who I can put up with replying to.

10PM: Fall asleep again and sleep soundlessly through to 7AM.

There was also one occasion where I seriously contemplated taking my work lunch-time to nap at my desk. But I didn’t. Hallelujah.

I also struggled with nose-bleeds, which I know is common but sits toward the bottom of the “Most Common” list. And wowzers. This would be GUSHING blood. Waterfall-esque, deep red blood, that made me think I had a leak in my brain. I had about four seriously bad ones and then many, many, many lighter ones. This seems to be the symptom that people would ask “but are you SURE”? As if I had made up that nose-bleeds were a symptom just to make myself feel better! Something to do with your body pumping +-40% more blood and the membranes in your nose not being able to handle the excess. Google it 🙂

I did have the cramping and pains in my stomach for weeks (before I knew I was pregnant I assumed this was a sign that my period was pitching up in the near future) and these scared the wits out of me. I am the worst when it comes to Googling worst-case scenarios but, as much as people tell you to NOT do it, we all know we cannot give it up. Each pull and tug is simply your uterus growing and stretching. But they resulted in many, many trips to the bathroom to check that all was good. And speaking of bathrooms, I did NOT get the constant peeing symptom that is also at the top of the list. I think this was mostly down to me not being able to keep anything (liquids included) down, therefore there was no urine to get rid of.

Neither did I have the insanely painful breasts that everyone talks about. Granted, my boobs were sensitive but none of this wanting to scream at people who walked within a meter of me.

All in all, I look EXTREMELY forward to this journey. I cannot quite articulate it or put it into the correct words to truly cover how freaking, phenomenally, over-the-moon thrilled we are for what’s to come! And I hope you will stick around… even if I may swap my foundations for formula and nail polish for nappies from time to time 😉

NOTE: This post was published before our social media announcement. Our incredible photographer had our images ready the same day that we took them!! We could not wait to post on the original day we had chosen (Chris’s birthday) but that means I would need to edit this entire post. The thought of doing so is just too exhausting. However, I do have to say that I have been BLOWN AWAY by all of the love on my social media platforms. Everyone always tells you that the outpouring of love you receive when announcing you are expecting a baby is next-level, but I have seriously been sitting on Cloud 9 the last few days. I am OVERWHELMED and blown away by all of the love!!!!!!!! THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!!

As always, be sure to post any questions you may have in the comment section below. Whether they are beauty or baby-related.. 🙂 

Rayne XX (AND BABY!!!!)