Pregnancy, Overcoming First Trimester

Yes, I am back into writing!  Its been a while since my last update.  I must say, I regained the will power to do the things that I usually do before becoming pregnant.  Speaking of our pregnancy (I obviously referred "our pregnancy" implying that it takes a team of two heads in this 9 months journey which are my husband, me and of course God's guidance).  

Today we are celebrating the 15 weeks of our pregnancy, the first two weeks of our 2nd trimester (the next 3 months of the entire child bearing).  With the grace of God, Joshua and I overcome the first trimester of tough times experiences as first timer expectant parents.  We were able to calmed ourselves and sort all the necessary first to-do-list and be done with it.  The changes that we noticed and occurs in our first trimester were generally the same with those parents but somewhat different in some ways.  
During our first month, the first three pregnancy symptoms that we noticed were:  Implantation bleeding, morning sickness (nausea and vomiting) and fatigue. 

Implantation bleeding or spotting, according to Baby Med is one of several typical pregnancy symptoms and signs that happens around the time of implantation.  The spotting does not usually look like a regular menstrual period but is scanty and usually a pinkish or brownish discharge.  It usually happens around 6-12 days after ovulation and fertilization, within 1-2 days after arrival of the blastocyst in the uterus, usually around 9 days after ovulation.   

Implantation bleeding is just one of several typical pregnancy symptoms and happens around the time of implantation. Implantation bleeding is often also called implantation spotting. Implantation bleeding or spotting does not usually look like a regular menstrual period but is scanty and usually a pinkish or brownish discharge. and it usually happens around 6-12 days after ovulation and fertilization, within 1-2 days after arrival of the blastocyst in the uterus, usually around 9 days after ovulation (dpo), with a range of 6-12 days. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/implantation-bleeding-and-spotting-and-symptoms#sthash.yIMEt17S.dpuf

Implantation bleeding is just one of several typical pregnancy symptoms and happens around the time of implantation. Implantation bleeding is often also called implantation spotting. Implantation bleeding or spotting does not usually look like a regular menstrual period but is scanty and usually a pinkish or brownish discharge. and it usually happens around 6-12 days after ovulation and fertilization, within 1-2 days after arrival of the blastocyst in the uterus, usually around 9 days after ovulation (dpo), with a range of 6-12 days. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/implantation-bleeding-and-spotting-and-symptoms#sthash.yIMEt17S.dpuf

On our case, I had it weeks before we found out that we are pregnant.  So we were not sure if it happened during 6-12 days or what.  But one thing that we were sure about, it was light and pinkish spot.  We just wondered that it was too soon for a monthly period but not suspecting that it was already an early sign of pregnancy.

Morning sickness, according to Babycenter.com is a common condition of pregnancy-in fact, about three quarters of pregnant women suffer from nausea and vomiting during their first trimester-but that doesn't mean it's any less unpleasant when it strikes you.  Morning sickness is a misnomer (In fact, the technical medical term is "nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.")  For some pregnant women, the symptoms are worse in the morning and ease over the course of the day, but they can strike any time and, for most women, last all day long.  The intensity of symptoms can vary from woman to woman too.  

Aside of the probable physical changes taking place in a pregnant woman body, Baby Center.com mentioned that Nausea and vomiting has some possible causes including: 

• Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). This hormone rises rapidly during early pregnancy. No one knows how hCG contributes to nausea, but it's a prime suspect because the timing is right: Nausea tends to peak around the same time as levels of hCG. What's more, conditions in which women have higher levels of hCG, such as carrying multiples, are associated with higher rates of nausea and vomiting.
• Estrogen. This hormone, which also rises rapidly in early pregnancy, is another suspect. (It's possible that other hormones play a role as well.)
• An enhanced sense of smell and sensitivity to odors. It's not uncommon for a newly pregnant woman to feel overwhelmed by the smell of a bologna sandwich from four cubicles away, for example. Certain aromas instantly trigger the gag reflex. (Some researchers think this may be a result of higher levels of estrogen, but no one knows for sure.)
• A sensitive stomach. Some women's gastrointestinal tracts are simply more sensitive to the changes of early pregnancy. Also, some research suggests that women with a stomach bacterium called Helicobacter pylori are more likely to have nausea and vomiting. Not all studies confirm this link, though.
• Stress. Some researchers have proposed that certain women are psychologically predisposed to having nausea and vomiting during pregnancy as an abnormal response to stress. However, there's no conclusive evidence to support this theory. (Of course, if you're constantly nauseated or vomiting a lot, you certainly may begin to feel more stressed!).  For more visit www.babycenter.com/morning-sickness.

Our personal experience,  as I wrote in my blog "We are pregnant" records showed that June 24 was when I started to experience an easiness in my stomach.  "I thought I was just being hungry, and I assumed that my stomach produced acids for it was a meal time for me.  What a relief, when I puked in the comfort room of the gasoline station."  But nausea and vomiting became more visible and severe after we went to Department of Human Services and confirmed that we were 4 weeks and 4 days on our pregnancy.  I must say, the awareness added some sort of stirred emotions.  Since then, every morning I need to rush myself to the comfort room just to vomit or if no time for me to walk fast, I just asked my husband to brought near the trash can.  Our first-time pregnancy has a lot to say about why we experienced severe nausea and vomiting.  

Most of my mom's friends says that eating crackers early in the morning lessen nausea and vomiting-but not for me.  Our early stage of pregnancy was so food picky, there were times that my husband needed to take me out to the lunch buffet at Chinese restaurant.  But most of the times, I preferred cereals and milk.  There were couple of times that I woke up in the middle of the night, craving and literally crying out for Sinigang na Baboy (Filipino Delicacy whose ingredients are not available in our place) and my husband doesn't know what to do for my impossible requests.  Joshua experience being like a peace negotiator just to pacify me for a couple of days.  I am so thankful to God for his patience, care, support and mostly love and prayers for us.

Nausea and vomiting incorporated with all the physical changes due to pregnancy are really draining and causes fatigue mostly to the novice pregnant body just like me.

Our personal experience has a lot to say about this.  The second month of our pregnancy made me a bed lover and I rarely did physical task.  I couldn't even make breakfast for ourselves nor a simple task like watering plants, and blogging.  My husband took over and became more sensitive with all my needs.  I also became anti-social to the point of staying in the room the whole day without talking with anyone aside of my husband.  Joshua even  concluded that I had a social anxiety which was so far from my character of being a social person.  For a month, we skipped Sunday physical worship and login to watched online live streaming Sunday Service of our Church in the Phillipines and stayed in bed.


I had emotional hang ups and a bunch of laziness, craziness, weirdness, worriness and all the "ness"  in those days.  Without God's sufficient grace, husband's encouraging words and our family's and friends support we will not be able to overcome all of the new things brought by our pregnancy.  On top of all of these we are so great full to God for all the miracle after miracle and all the answered prayers resulting to establishing our faith greater to Him.  

US federal government automatically covers and insures pregnant women with unquestionable citizenship status.  Because of the processing issue of my citizenship, my identity as a resident of Tennessee was not fully establish resulting in denial of our pregnancy Insurance coverage.  But God's ways is different in all earthly ways and bigger than what we can expect.  Our pregnancy is a blessing from God, our baby's are heritage and reward from Him.  They are His children, and as a Father He will provide all their needs, our needs according to His glorious riches.  Every worry turns into a blessing mostly when we lift our concerns to Him.  What we did, we acted on faith.  The moment we were declined in our application, we saw a flyer of the Cover Kids which is a separate Government Institution that provides maternity insurance from prenatal up to child birth to those with immigration status in processing.  Currently, we are insured.  Our Identity is not an issue anymore, our identity is in Christ Jesus.