My Pregnancy Journey: The First Trimester

Expecting during a pandemic never paints a rosy picture. Aside from worrying about raising a little human being, paranoia with germs and viruses is at an all-time high. But it's those tiny kicks at night that assure you that things will be okay. 

Hello, Motherhood.

I have to be honest. I was never the type who planned out my life. I wasn't the girl who had a dream wedding or a timeline on when to have a family and raise kids. I want my life to be more spontaneous.

But I guess at some point you'd want to slow down and plan for the future. 

It wasn't until last year when R and I were getting more serious with the idea of having our little bundle of joy. We even considered having my eggs frozen as Plan B. (Though a descriptive article on harvesting one's eggs scared me a lot!)

I was embracing the idea of being a mom late last year when I had some false pregnancy symptoms. And I have to admit... I was sad when my monthly visitor arrived.

Our little bean arrived at an unexpected moment. I even had my hair dyed a week before knowing we're finally expecting. (No wonder my hair color turned weird.)

We were in Japan when I realized that I'm a few days delayed. Some early symptoms were kicking in. I was in denial as I was in the land of sushi and sashimi! But R insisted that I look for a pregnancy test kit for us to confirm. I got two different brands of pregnancy test kit to confirm. And both came out positive. 

It was an emotional roller coaster ride. We were happy and excited. Then worry and fear suddenly hit us upon realizing that we're living in a pandemic. But it quickly bounced back to being thrilled as we are finally having a little one. 

We had to push back our trip to the OB as we were heading to Baguio the day after we arrived from Japan. We had a planned trip to climb Mount Pulag then. I was worried about it as I never climbed a mountain before. And now that I'm expecting, the more I was scared to slip.

But I managed to climb despite the nonstop rain and cold weather. I was so proud of my little bean for being brave for me!

The next few weeks were tough for me as my morning sickness just got worse. I often get dizzy and had severe acid reflux. I barely had any food craving but had several food aversions.

I was lucky enough to have two prenatal checkups before Manila's lockdown. Many moms who found out that they were expecting during the lockdown made them extremely paranoid as they had no access to an OB to check their baby's well-being. I was too when I had spotting after my transvaginal scan (TVS). It lasted for a week. Google made it sound serious that I ended up crying for days. It didn't help too that my OB was not as responsive as I hoped. I later found out that many moms encountered the same problem.

One thing I learned from expecting during a pandemic is that being in touch with fellow moms helps a lot. I'm so glad that there are several mommy communities on Viber and Facebook willing to help each other. And there are a handful of friendly OBs and Pediatricians who would gladly answer our never-ending questions. If you're a first-time mom too, send me a DM on Instagram and Facebook so that I could send you links to the groups I joined. 

I'm now five months into my pregnancy journey. And I am so excited to shop for my little one! I was not expecting it to be overwhelming with the number of baby brands and products in the market today. 

To be continued.