When I first announced my pregnancy and then clarified that my blog would not be just pregnancy talk, many of you made sure to point out you want to hear about the details on occasion. You know I’m not one to sugar coat things and hide from the truth, so in this post I will give you what you asked for - some of the pregnancy symptoms I’m currently facing. Before I begin I feel the need to place one of these on this post:

Warning: The following statements are in no way intended to frighten, gross out, or act as a form of birth control by preventing you from ever wanting to go through a pregnancy. The first trimester is a bumpy road. Proceed with caution. 😉

Weeks 6-13 of most pregnancies are the roughest part. Although the last few weeks before delivery could give them a run for their money. I have just reached week 6 and like Emeril Lagasse…BAM! I’ve been hit with the brunt of it.

FATIGUE – This doesn’t sound so bad, does it? How does narcolepsy sound? A little more problematic I’m guessing. Well, first trimester fatigue is basically adopting a case of narcolepsy for a couple of months. You can be going merrily through your day, when suddenly stapling your eyelids open would do nothing to help. It becomes almost physically impossible to not crash on the couch and take a nap mid-afternoon. If napping doesn’t happen, go ahead and adopt the nickname “Grandma,” because if you have any say in the matter, you will be in bed by 8:00 pm at the latest and happy about it.

MORNING SICKNESS – Hold on a second while I pee my pants laughing on that one. Not too hard to do mind you (see below). “Morning sickness” is very misleading and a joke of a name. It should be renamed to the “Hangover from Hades that doesn’t stop for 2 months straight”. I’m not exaggerating. Women out there who deal with it longer than the first trimester are my hero. I don’t know how they do it. An intense hangover is the best way to describe this feeling. You feel like you could get sick any moment, but even if you do there is no relief. Eating has the same appeal as taking a shot of Everclear would during a true hangover (*cough cough* thank God my past is not my present). Your mouth tastes like metal. All you want to do is crawl in bed and pop some medicine for your pounding headache. Oh, wait…you can’t…you’re pregnant and Tylenol just doesn’t cut it.

EXTRA POTTY TIME – Thanks to your kidneys being extra effective at ridding the body of waste during pregnancy, the toilet becomes your new best friend. After all, the at least once per hour visit I was already taking wasn’t enough. My love for guzzling water combined with PG hormones have me running to the pot at least twice an hour. Once, I went before getting in the shower and had to scramble out of the shower and dry off FAST to make it in time to go again. I might as well go ahead and move my residence to 123 Bathroom Lane, Town in GA, 01020 because I know from experience it only gets worse.

FOOD AVERSIONS – Remember the whole hangover feeling? Well, you typically want to eat like you’re hung over too. Greasy, carby, and salty all sound sooooo good. It is a tricky battle to get in vegetables, some fruits, and lean proteins. A balanced diet can easily go out the window during this time and it’s okay. I still try to do my best and eat the healthiest choices out of things that sound good, or sneak in veggies in Green Monsters or cooked in with foods, but there are some things that I simply cannot stomach. I’m not going to force myself to eat them either. During the first trimester it is better to focus on actually getting food into your system than not allowing yourself to eat enough because the only thing you can actually swallow is a tortilla with refried beans and cheese (something I ate a lot of during my pregnancy with M) or Morningstar Farms “buffalo wings” (my current it-still-is-edible food).

TOOT TOOT – That’s not the sound of me tooting my own horn, either. More like the sound of my horn tooting itself. I’ve already shared pictures of the beautiful side of bloating in pregnancy. Where does it come from? An unbelievable amount of gas. You will easily put your husband to shame. Or shame yourself during the squat track of Power class.

You know what, though? It is ALL worth it. Undeniably. Because all of those symptoms mean this is happening inside of me right now…

I have a little baby the size of a sweet pea doing all sorts of amazing things already. The facial features are just beginning to form, as well as the limbs. The heart is already beating, the blood is circulating, and the spinal cord is taking shape. It’s just a true testament to the miracles God works. And as terrible as I made all those symptoms above sound, I’m not frustrated by a single one of them. They all are simply part of something amazing. And I embrace them, just as I embrace the toilet bowl.

• If you’ve been pregnant before, what shocked you the most about pregnancy? If you haven’t experienced it, did anything surprise you about the symptoms I mentioned today?
• What is one food you would be sad to have a sudden aversion to? Mine is actually meat + veggies. It makes it very hard to come up with ideas for dinner when absolutely nothing sounds the least bit appealing.

Sometimes things that aren’t the most attractive have a wonderful side to them as well. It’s never good to judge a book by it's cover, after all. Which is why I’m okay with the below unattractive, yet wonderful things.

Numero uno: the bloating I currently am experiencing by the end of each day. I wake up with a fairly flat stomach. Sure it doesn’t start off as lean and defined as I like because of the extra weight I had to put on for conceiving, but I still am happy with it and believe I look good enough. But by 5:00 pm that all changes when my stomach seems to explode. I look like I put on 10 lbs over the course of a day and get even more soft and poochy looking. It’s not attractive, but since it’s part of those crazy pregnancy things that happen early on I will not complain. Oh, I cannot believe I am posting these! This is pure honesty and love for showing you guys everything right here!

Numero dos: food that looks like puppy chow but tastes like heaven. I made the recipe for Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes that Katie posted on her blog the other night. Soooooo good! They taste just like sloppy joes, but have veggies, beans, and other good stuff in them. They are hearty, healthy, and tasty. I enjoyed leftovers for lunch today. Not too easy on the eyes, but very easy on the palate.

Numero tres: our kitchen. Right now it is in disarray and I am not loving it. The house came with this huge block of cabinets that just made the kitchen and dinette area feel extremely small. Peter decided enough was enough and took them down today. We have some cleaning and organizing left to do, but it already feels so much more open and I love it. Now I just have to wait for the hideous tile to leave.

Numero cuatro: begging. Begging and whining are two things I find horribly unattractive…which is why I am hoping you won’t make me do them. I will be heading out of town a lot during the month of June – to Indianapolis June 10-13 and then to Daytona Beach June 18-26. I am hoping that some of you wonderful ladies would be willing to do guest posts for me during that time. I don’t need anything long or fancy, unless you have a more thorough topic you want to discuss here on Faith, Fitness, & Fun. I was thinking guest posts with things like the following:

• a favorite recipe
• a favorite workout
• a quick Q & A about you and your blog (I will send you questions if you want)
• a favorite book
• your music playlist
• any topic you want to discuss (well, that I approve…I won’t have you talking about your granny’s panties on here!)

I was also thinking of putting together a few motivational pieces that just have inspiring quotes, song lyrics, pictures, etc in them. If you don’t want to do an entire post, but have a quote you love or some other inspirational picture/song/etc you want to share shoot me an email with it please! Okay…I’m going to get unattractive now. Please please please please please please please please please please!!!!!!! But see, it’s wonderful too because it is helping a blogger friend out! And I’m even giving you a few weeks to decide and get something to me. How can you say no to that kind of thoughtfulness? 😉 Sooo...drop me an email if you're interested!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the shenanigans from tonight. A wedding, engagement, heck I don’t even know but some kind of shower for my friend. She is having like 10 so I don’t know what this one is called. It should be a good enough time though. Peace!