Pregnancy Journey - 8 Weeks

I wrote this post on January 3, 2014 when I was 8 weeks 3 days along in my pregnancy.

...

How am I feeling at 8 weeks?  A lot of things!  I can hardly wait for my next appointment in two weeks, which is my first full checkup, because then I will be close to 12 weeks and we plan to tell people (parents, friends, work, extended family) at that time.  At this point, my husband and I still have not shared with family.  It is SO HARD to have this secret, but we made the decision to wait to share until I was farther along.  Also, we don’t live right by our family and we definitely want to share with them in person.  That being said, I am so excited to share our baby news in another few weeks.

My nausea hasn’t been horrible, but it’s definitely been enough that I have not been running.  It’s hard to imagine running right now, but at the same time, I am so incredibly anxious to get out there!  It’s negative degrees out there right now, so not exactly the best timing.  I need to get moving!  I’m missing running.  I haven’t been running a lot since I was injured (August 31^st) at the end of my marathon training.  I plan to take it easy with pace for sure.  Not trying to break any records, just want to get moving.  I've been power walking with my dogs and I definitely feel good after doing that.  I figure an easy run isn’t that different.

Let’s talk about food!  Oh wow has this been the most noticeable change for me.

Breakfast - I used to be the type (we’re talking 8 weeks ago) that woke up with an appetite for all wonderful breakfast foods – toast, cereal, pancakes, oatmeal – you name it.  However, every morning now I wake up and think “what could I eat that won’t make me feel like I’m going to get sick?”.  One morning I made the mistake of pouring myself a bowl of cereal with soy milk and took one bite – YUCK!  I cannot stand soy milk right now.  I gave that bowl of cereal to my dog and poured myself a fresh bowl with almond milk.  Much better.  Although, it’s strange because if I eat cereal (which seems to be the best thing I can handle right now) at 7AM, by 8:30AM when I get to work I feel nauseous.  The kind of nauseous that I need to eat ASAP.  So I’ve been then having a sprouted grain bagel with Tofutti or peanut butter and I feel much better after that.  But then again by like 10:30AM I get that first wave of nausea that I need to eat something.  Often it’s been an orange, crackers with peanut butter, or granola bites.

Lunch has been tougher.  The reason being that often the items I bring for lunch no longer are appealing by 12:30PM.  Today I got a crispy BBQ tofu burrito for lunch that tasted great.  Now I am typically a woman with a strong appetite.  I can consume a massive burrito like it’s my job, but today I could only eat half.  I notice that I get full quicker, but then hungry again sooner.  So eating more frequently is definitely best for me right now.  Not necessarily more, just more often.  The other day I had lentil soup and a chickpea bulgar salad for lunch and that sat well.

Dinners – Last night we had sesame tofu over baked sweet potato and brown rice with a side of sauteed kale and spinach.  One of my favorite meals ever and I’ve had it twice this week.  The night before was breaded baked eggplant with a side of organic whole wheat spaghetti and veggie meat balls on top.  The night before that was grilled cheese with provolone daiya (my first experience with the daiya slices and they melt fantastically) with tomato soup on the side.

Food aversions right now:  soy milk, black beans, and other things depending on the moment

Likes:  cereal, bagels, pasta, burritos, rice noodles

Another thing I wanted to address because I think I’ll get questions about it is whether I plan to continue eating vegan while pregnant.  My answer is absolutely.  However, this answer requires more explanation.  Due to my lack of appetite lately, I have had organic eggs twice  since finding out I was pregnant.  They were in the French Toast at Christmas and my husband made me an omelet with kale and daiya last weekend.  Sounded good, so I went with it.  

Therefore, I can't say it's a vegan pregnancy, so I guess I'll call it vegetarian.  I definitely do not plan on incorporating meat back in my life.  When my doctor asked about my diet at my 7 week appointment, she was very happy with it, which in turn made me very happy.  I do want to incorporate more veggies, but I’m hoping that will be easier once the nausea subsides (which I’m optimistically hoping eventually it will).

Overall, it’s been a very good week.  I know how to handle the nausea and as long as I bring snacks wherever I go, I’m good to go.  Also, we started a baby registry at Target this week which was so fun!  I know it’s kind of early, but I couldn’t resist.  Of course we don’t know the sex of the baby yet so everything we picked out is neutral at this point.

Lastly, my clothes still fit just the same at this point, but all I can say is THANK GOODNESS for my Nike sports bras.  I have been thinking of going and getting some legging type pants though because I’m not as comfortable in my work clothes.  I’m used to wearing tight pencil skirts with cute tops and lately I’ve been wanting leggings and more flowing tops.  So not maternity clothes, but yeah, maternity clothes I suppose.

More updates to come... 

Other Pregnancy Posts:

Announcement