First Trimester – the Lowdown

The past three months have been hard. Hard for so many reasons, and made harder still by the fact that I thought I was supposed to be ecstatically happy; instead I just felt nauseous, tired and was super-moody and in constant fear of miscarrying.

From December 15 to February 8, my poor husband had to cajole me into life every morning in order to get me to my desk and do some work. My routine consisted of waking up at 10(ish), working till lunch and then taking a nap from 1.00pm until 3.00pm. Then it was reading from 3.00pm till 6.00pm, and another nap. After waking up for dinner, and then back to bed to watch Come Dine with Me, I fell asleep, only to start the routine again the next morning.

I know I was lucky as a) I work from home so didn’t have to do this in front of anyone at an office, and b) I was only sick a few times when I ate really strong-flavoured foods, but I became a different, totally unmotivated person who I didn’t recognise.

Christmas was the start of the low period, which was a shame as we had so many good friends around to share the festivities with. Our friend O came from London and spent the whole of Christmas with us. New friends S and T hosted Christmas Day at their apartment and we had a delicious German Christmas Eve dinner for 10 at our home the previous night. It was really magical despite my zero alcohol consumption.

Leading up to Christmas many friends hosted drinks parties, and as a bookseller I am known for my love of red wine. Some people guessed there was no vodka in my orange juice but most were discrete about this.

New Year's Eve was a fantastic evening, but a real test of my strength to resist my favourite foods (and drink). We invited seven people, including E and A from London, to indulge in a gluttonous feast — a backwards dinner, including wine matching:

Brandy
Cheese board with a selection from Neal’s Yard, port
Poached pears and ricotta cake
Pork fillet with mustard crust and borlotti beans
Squid ink risotto with baby octopus
Field salad with potato-infused dressing and fried duck strips
Champagne and canapés:
Tomato sorbet shots with mint
Avocado and tomato canapés
Mini-brioches with truffle

The evening was a great success and I even coped with cranberry juice to drink. At the stroke of midnight the sky lit up with a dramatic fireworks display provided by the Wedding locals. Somewhat reminiscent of an evening in a war zone, the erratic display was nonetheless great fun to watch.

Once the celebrations were over I went back to my normal routine of eating plain foods and sleeping. Although I couldn’t feel our baby, I had to console myself with the thoughts that my body was adjusting to having two hearts, an extra set of lungs, two brains, and more kidneys and livers than it knew what to do with. Now it seems my body is getting used to having the baby, and as the foetus seems to have comfortably embedded itself in my womb, my mood changed, my energy levels rose, I am smiling a lot more, and looking forward to my bump getting bigger and watching our child develop. Yesterday we had the monthly scan just to check the heartbeat, and we saw the baby jumping around in the womb and waving its arms. Amazing! We have created a life and I am so excited to see it develop within a world of its own.