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Friday, June 28, 2013

My Pregnancy Journal - First Trimester

I consider myself as one of the first few from our high school batch mates who got married early. Therefore, I don't have much friends to discuss the issues and experiences related to pregnancy. I decided to search the internet to get as much information as possible, looking up the meaning of some medical terms, what will I be expecting on the early stages, do's and don'ts and even subscribed in the BabyCentre website. I am really watchful of myself that time. And because I'm a curious and meticulous person, I read up on how the tiny life inside my womb is growing on a weekly basis. I imagined it based on how BabyCentre describes and compares the growing life with the size of a particular fruit.


Taken Apr. 29, 2012 at Bagoong Club Resto. My first dine out as a pregnant woman at 6 weeks.

I was preparing myself for signs of nauseousness (morning sickness), food cravings or mood swings which are the common symptoms of early pregnancy but I didn't experience any of those. I just found that some food tasted metallic thus I got not much appetite to eat not until I reached second trimester. Since the time we got married, we never had any household helper (maid) until I was 7th month. We all did the cleaning, preparing of food and washing of dishes by ourselves except for the laundry. And since I don't know how to cook, I was worried on how I would get to eat a healthy balanced diet. We either ate easy-to-prepare dishes or ordered from fast food chains whenever we were lazy. Another thing that bothered me was my job. It would take me at least one hour to get to the far far away land of Libis via commuting with four shifts of public vehicles. Yes, I travel that far everyday and spend almost three hours on the road. But since I was pregnant, I don't think I can manage to do that or rather risk myself doing it. Did I resign? Luckily, no.



Maxifol Folic Acid and Vitamin B Complex
May 21 the day I started working at home, I was two months pregnant already. So far everything was fine. I got hungry easily thus I heeded the advice of my OB to have small frequent meals and to avoid oily and spicy food. I drank a glass of Anmum Materna once a day and took folic acid (Maxifol) and Vitamin B complex during my first two months when the central nervous system of the embryo is being developed. Folic acid intake is essential at this early stage to prevent birth defects.




Caltrate Plus, Mosvit and Trihemic
Then on my succeeding months until I gave birth, my prenatal vitamins included the following: a multivitamins (Mosvit), a calcium (Caltrate Plus) and an iron (Trihemic). It didn't burden me to abstain from drinking coffee, softdrinks and tea as I am not a fanatic of those. What I missed was eating junk food and sweets especially chocolates. In fact, I sometimes found myself still munching on those but on small portions once in a while. Bad mommy! Hehe! But can't help or else I'll get depressed.




You won't believe, I stepped on the weighing scale almost everyday and recorded my weight. I think I started from 124 lbs. and ended at 146 lbs., gaining 22 lbs.(10kg) or an average of 2 pounds a month. Yes, I'm very particular with my weight gain because I don't want to experience difficulty delivering a big baby. Before I went for my monthly check-up, I made sure to note down all my questions and conditions on a small notebook. My usual concern was having constipation and the usual remedy was to eat lots of vegetables and drink plenty of water. Constipation is said to be caused by the iron supplement that we are taking. Once, I had a slight fever but I tried to avoid taking any medications as much as possible. I just kept on drinking water and fruits rich in Vitamin C. Every check-up, my blood pressure and weight was being taken by the secretary, then the OB would measure my uterus (belly part) to get the fundal height and check on the fetal heart rate thru the use of a Doppler. My fundic height started from 8cm until 29cm while my fetal heart rate started at 166 bpm down to 130 bpm. We didn't hear the heart beat yet on my first and second check-up. We started hearing it by week 12 and it really gave us a sigh of relief!

There were three things that I watched out for during my entire pregnancy:
1. my weight gain
2. my baby's heart beat
3. no signs of spotting

July 8, 2012 at 16 weeks or 4 months.

Tip: Be careful in any way that you can. Eat healthy. Drink your vitamins everyday. Have your check-ups monthly.

You may continue reading the next post for my Second Trimester story.

Mommy Sally

1 comment:

  1. I sooo agree, me naman I had a lot of buntot ng dilis for folic acid supply. Pero syempre madami satin chosen lang ang food na kinakain lalo na pag preggo, so as added supply na healthy pa din ako I had Anmum, I like the taste! Check out what's best for you sa site nila: www.anmum.com.ph

    ReplyDelete