Bump Edition: What I Experienced My First Trimester

Dress: Amazon // Shoes: Vince Camuto // Glasses: Ray-Ban // Purse: Michael Kors

First and foremost, I wanted to begin by thanking all of you for your sweet comments and encouragement. Each DM and comment you leave has truly filled my heart and I’m so thankful for you. The past couple of months have been beautiful and have also been a little bit of a roller coaster. We found out very early on in July that we were pregnant and it was a true shock for both Marshall and I. We are in our late thirties (I am 38 years old) and I did not see this coming. You can read more about our pregnancy announcement in this post but I wanted to share more insights for what I’ve actually been going through. It wasn’t easy. This is now my second pregnancy (I have a beautiful 14-year-old daughter) and it has been drastically different than the first time around.

Let’s begin with the emotional roller coaster I’ve felt these past few months. I am unmedicated at this point out of choice, but have been diagnosed in the past with the following: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, PTSD, OCD, and have gone through periods of depression from time to time. The first few months of pregnancy brought up all of the toughest emotions including EXTREME anxiety and PTSD. I would feel like something was constantly wrong all day long. Lots of anxiousness and we had just undergone moving homes. On top of that, my brother passed away at the end of June so I was in a period of grieving. All of the changes hit me at once and I felt like each day was a struggle. Creating content was a struggle. Photographing was a struggle. Managing my emotions was a struggle. On top of all that I’ve been going through inner child therapy which digs up really deep wounds that need to be healed. All of these things combined made for a tough few months.

I’ve learned in therapy to give myself extra grace and self-care. I’ve also learned how important it is for me to take my time and go slower. I needed more rest over the past few months and I’ve grown to accept that my to-do list has to be a little shorter each day. If you are pregnant and experiencing the same things, drop a comment! I would love to hear what you’ve been going through. When my emotions were out of whack I took time away to calm down.

The final thing that really shifted was my diet. I’ve opted to go the natural birth route with a midwife instead of a hospital birth and the first thing we discussed was a high protein, low sugar diet. I usually eat very plant-based with little gluten and little dairy or meat but my body literally craved so much dairy it was unbelievable! I’ll be sharing more about my pregnancy diet and vitamins in a future post but getting to each cheese again was such a blessing in disguise. I noticed I felt significantly less nausea when I ate every 2-3 hours and protein at each meal. Drinking tons of water has also helped! I will be sharing more updates and struggles along the way with you guys so make sure you sign up for my newsletter for exclusive content!

-All my love, Crystal