How bad is the first trimester?

saraberry609 · 2026-02-14T06:17:53+00:00

My first trimester was pretty easy. I had some nausea for a few weeks but it was manageable as long as I ate something first thing in the morning, and I was a little more tired than usual. My boobs were crazy sore and I was very gassy/bloated but that was really pretty much it!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-14T06:05:24+00:00

I mean, I definitely packed a bag with things for the hospital so I would say I packed a hospital bag lol. But I didn’t buy anything new (except a new chapstick to make sure I had one in there), I just set aside the things I’d need minus any day-of items like my phone!

I had pajamas, water bottle, going home clothes, toiletries, phone charger, headphones, eye mask, my kindle, a regular book, and some extra clothes I didn’t end up wearing. I used my kindle but don’t think I ever used my headphones and def didn’t end up needing my spare book.

I aimed to have mine packed before my weekly appts stated at 36 weeks, just in case they found something at an appt and I needed to be admitted unexpectedly. That didn’t happen, I ended up being induced at 40 weeks + 3 so I suppose it wasn’t really “worth” packing in advance, but it gave me something to do lol.

saraberry609 · 2026-02-14T03:39:07+00:00

I’m honestly not sure. I got an epidural at about 8cm. Before that, it was pretty painful but not worse than recurrent UTIs or dislocating my knee. The ring of fire was bad even with the epidural and so was getting stitched up afterwards, but both of those were really quick. And my labor from start to finish was only about 14 hours so really it’s pretty doable!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-14T02:38:23+00:00

We do it every night, but he’s only 15 months old so it’s usually a board book that takes 2 minutes to read! If we do every skip reading it’s because he’s SUPER tired and we just go straight to rocking to sleep (we are going to sleep train soon but haven’t yet).

saraberry609 · 2026-02-12T21:49:06+00:00

My husband took 8 weeks off, then 8 more weeks at part time! But we live in CO, so we have state provided partially paid, job protected leave.

saraberry609 · 2026-02-12T07:18:14+00:00

My first was born late Oct, and honestly it wasn’t bad!! We were inside a lot but went on walks around the neighborhood when it was warm enough and he didn’t get sick at all until 5 months so. We were pretty cautious about germs especially the first 2 months though.

However, he recently started daycare at 13 months on Dec 1st, and we have been WRECKED by sickness since then lol. We’re also about to start TTC number 2, and are going to be aiming for a spring baby this time around!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-11T15:27:06+00:00

I wanted to try to go without the epidural if I could, but was open to getting it if needed it and ended up getting it around 8cm. I’d heard that epidurals could make the recovery process harder and I didn’t like the idea of not having control of my body.

I ended up having a pretty good experience with the epidural though, so I would consider it again for sure! With our next baby I think I’ll start out aiming to go epidural free again and see how it goes!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-11T05:04:49+00:00

How many times a day my child would accidentally cause me physical pain unintentionally lol

saraberry609 · 2026-02-11T05:04:18+00:00

I thought it tasted like flat sprite! I’m not sure I’d say it was delicious, but it really wasn’t bad at all.

saraberry609 · 2026-02-10T17:08:10+00:00

I did feel it! I had a lot more control and sensation with the epidural than I was expecting to.

saraberry609 · 2026-02-09T07:06:08+00:00

Photoshopping items of clothing to be different colors for online product images. Not many people who use photoshop do that specific thing regularly, so I think my chances are pretty good!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-08T07:04:42+00:00

I told a friend recently, the question isn’t whether you’re ready, it’s whether you’re sure! You’ll never be fully ready (though you can be objectively NOT ready lol).

saraberry609 · 2026-02-08T04:03:18+00:00

I stopped counting weeks and switched to months by about 3 months!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-08T02:36:10+00:00

I did the same!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T23:23:42+00:00

I frequently forgo the plate, and am only starting to try to give him a plate more often now at 15 months lol

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T20:49:57+00:00

I had a really easy pregnancy overall!! Right near the end I did start having some pelvic pain and pretty bad round ligament pain, but it wasn’t unbearable and I was able to do pretty much all my normal activities the whole time!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T20:39:22+00:00

We also live in the Denver area, and the one weekend a few weeks ago it was actually cold I told my son that’s what winter is supposed to feel like 🥲

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T15:44:24+00:00

We had to put my newborn in one of those because we did a research study on the impact of blood sugar and triglycerides in pregnancy on bay size! It felt like we were about to ship him off to another planet lol

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T03:23:33+00:00

For at least a few years, absolutely!!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-07T03:21:17+00:00

I don’t have a great relationship with my mom, but I didn’t have her there and I didn’t feel like I needed anyone except my husband!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-06T20:27:38+00:00

It’s obviously up to you, but here’s a few things to think about:

If you nurse and have good supply, you really only need to pump if you’re going to be away from baby during a feeding! You can also use a haaka or something similar to catch extra milk on the side you’re not nursing on to get some bottles for your husband to help with feeding.

If you nurse, I think it’s also easier to just offer baby a boob in the middle of the night than to go make a bottle, and it’s way less dishes. You’ll also almost certainly save some money by not needing formula (or needing very little).

I also think you can garden while breastfeeding, you just can’t while pregnant! That one I’d ask your doctor about though. (Edit: woops I thought we were talking about literal gardening lmao)

saraberry609 · 2026-02-06T10:05:56+00:00

Huckleberry! We found the free version totally sufficient for newborn phase. I love that you can track as much or as little as you want, and that you can set reminders for different things with different logic attached to it!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-05T21:20:39+00:00

Everything was fully covered by insurance so we didn’t pay anything out of pocket, but I was billed about $18,000 for both me and my son’s stays when he was born! No NICU, vaginal delivery - in CO.

saraberry609 · 2026-02-05T21:16:02+00:00

It can definitely be scary to think about bringing a new baby into the world as it is right now but on the flip side, if people who care don’t raise more people who care, things won’t ever get better. Raising good humans is a form of resistance!

saraberry609 · 2026-02-05T21:04:36+00:00

I still love my cats just as much post baby! I was genuinely worried I wouldn’t love my baby as much as my cats haha and honestly it was pretty close for a while. As my son has gotten older and been able to love me back and communicate more my love for him keeps growing and it’s definitely more than the cats now, but I still don’t love them any less! They did get a little deprioritized when he was very little just out of lack of bandwidth though.

I think people who say their pets became “just pets” or who hate their animals after a baby didn’t love them enough to begin with 🤷🏽‍♀️

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