Belated Baby – the First Trimester Diary

Welcome 2021!! Finally we made it through 2020 and we are so happy to share the news that we are expecting our first baby in April 2021! Here are some of my thoughts, feelings and of course cooking summarized for the first trimester.

We have been hiding this for a while but we were just so blessed to receive your DM congratulations on our Instagram story! Thank you for the community!! If you are a new mommy-to-be, congratulations to you! Hope you will find this blog post helpful, or at least let you know you are not alone on this miraculous journey!

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What were the first thoughts when you find out?

I was excited yet feeling pretty nervous when seeing the faint second line appeared on the strip!! It was like… what? This is it? We are going to be parents so soon just as what we have been talking, dreaming and planning about? Should I hold my excitement and observe first?

There were obviously concerns if baby would stick plus numerous things that I was curious about. Despite kind advice on try not to google too much, I was constantly googling since I found out I was pregnant: Is ____ safe for pregnancy? Is ____ an early pregnancy symptom? What happens at _____ week pregnancy?

As we tried to limit the amount of ultrasound scans, we waited until the 12th week to hear baby’s heartbeat and see the cute picture of the little one! Our hearts melted and we just felt so blessed.

Any morning sickness? How did you cope with it?

I did feel constantly nauseous from around week 9 to week 13. However, thankfully I never actually threw up.

You might have heard that morning sickness is actually more like all day sickness. I coped with my nausea with a range of different snacks and drinks. In the earlier stages of first trimester, I found Chinese strong ginger tea and lemon water helped. (Plain water actually caused more nausea!) Later, it was any hot liquid from soups to hot water. Any beverage that was lukewarm or cold would make me feel sick.

After seeing all the suggestions having crackers for pregnancy nausea, I jumped on it around week 10 too. It was like weeks of mindlessly snacking on rice crackers and gluten-free crackers. It even got to a point that my throat hurt, along with canker core and acne from all the dry crackers. Well, at least it helped my nausea.

Motion in car was definitely not helping my nausea at all. Out of desperation, we got these acupuncture wrist bands in hope that it will do something. I would say it does take the edge off, but do not expect all the nausea to magically go away.

BUT!! We later stumbled across the classical music station on radio in the car and the calming effect was AMAZING!! When the music plays, I just tap my feet with the rhythm and get my mind off the nausea. Once the commercials were on, I was like SHUT UP I WANT MY MUSIC BACK!!!

The other two ways of coping of pregnancy nausea that worked for me were walking and sleeping! They could take my focus away from my upset stomach. As a mommy-to-be, we ought to walk more and rest more anyways!

Did you have any other early pregnancy symptoms?

Apart from nausea, I only had some hot flashes at night, and maybe some stretchy pain in the abdomen and sore back that felt like period pain.

Also my hubby said he found me being extra clingy even before we could take the test to find out. Oh well, I am not sure about that. 😀

What did I cook in the first trimester?

Cooking was quite a pain in the first trimester from all the smell in the kitchen. Or I would say even looking at food pictures would make me sick!!

As mentioned, I basically lived by anything warm and soupy when I felt the pregnancy nausea. Sour foods like tomato based soups seemed to help my appetite at first. However from more research, foods like tomato and bell pepper may cause heartburn in pregnancy. Argh… okay I would just stick with something REALLY simple and not smelly at all. Like these good old “green and white” bowls is how I like to call them.

Seems boring? I ventured into some adventurous tastes from time to time to keep my hubby happy too. Yet, I often ended up not having the appetite to eat them since I have been smelling the food from the slowcooker for hours. Check out the Belated recipe collection for more slowcooker recipes!

Of course, there were also a lot of use of the rice cooker and some other quick throw-together dinners! Check out the Belated recipe collection for more rice cooker recipes and quick stovetop recipes!

Eating out in the first trimester

Eating out was an interesting exception for me. While I hardly had much appetite at home after dreadful cooking, eating out somehow lifts my spirit and gave me much better appetite.

I also tried introducing a bit of gluten, dairy and soy that I usually do not eat at home now. Hopefully baby will develop tolerance to them in moderate amounts!

I couldn’t ask for a better first trimester, will keep you guys updated for the rest of our pregnancy and parenthood journey!