Bridget’s First Trimester Q&A


Answering Reader Questions About My First TrimesterBridget's First Trimester - learn all about how things are going in the first three months!

How Are You Feeling?

I’m feeling really great and so grateful for a happy, healthy experience so far. I was extra tired my first trimester and had some serious heartburn, but I realize that is NOTHING compared to some of the tough challenges other pregnant women experience. I can’t even imagine how hard that must be so I’m feeling very thankful that heartburn was my only side effect.

Bridget sharing her ultrasound from the first trimester. How Far Along Are You?

We are due on February 14th, which makes me just over 18 weeks pregnant as of today.

When Did You Find Out? How did you tell Matt? How did you tell your family?

We found out very quickly (together), which was at the beginning of June. Because we found out together, I didn’t have to “tell” Matt. After that we decided to keep it secret from our extended family and friends until we hit the 12 week mark, with a few exceptions (like telling Casey!!). Keeping this huge secret for the entire summer has been the hardest part so far.

When it did come time to tell my sisters, I bought colorful valentine’s day cookies from the bakery, wrapped them up in cute baggies with a tag that said, “Aunt __________, will you be my Valentine? xo, Baby Mac”. It was nothing over-the-top but it was a simple yet special way to share our exciting news!

How Was Your First Trimester?

Like I said, I was extremely blessed with a happy, healthy first trimester. I was also lucky to be off from work during this time because I was able to rest and go to bed extra early when I was exhausted or not feeling 100%. This was such an unexpected blessing. I admire all you pregnant ladies out there who have to push through their work schedules, all while feeling crappy/exhausted. Not to mention having to do all that without being able to tell your co-workers why! You ladies are AMAZING!We are so excited about Baby Mac! Bridget shares her news about the first trimester of her first pregnancy.

ย How’s Matt Taking the News?

Matt has been living on Cloud 9 since we got the news… literally. The guy is ecstatic and already counting down the days until February! He’s been at my side for every appointment and has been doing SO much around the house to help in anyway that he can. He’s already gone above and beyond. This baby and I are very, very lucky to have him!!Matt has been so supportive and soooo excited about our pregnancy! He just can't wait for the baby to get here.

Do You Plan on Finding Out the Gender? Have you picked out any names yet?

YES!! I know this decision is not the right one for everyone (and I love that everyone can do their own thing) but it’s definitely the right one for us. For me, half of the fun of any exciting upcoming event is planning for it. What can I say, I’m a planner?! ย And preparing for this baby is no different. We can’t wait to find out the gender, in October (!!), and do everything we can to prepare for this little boy or girl. Of course we will share this news on the blog too, so stay tuned.

And since we are finding out the gender, we decided that we aren’t going to start chatting about names until we know the gender. So we definitely do not have names picked out yet. When we do eventually decide on the name, we have decided to keep that part secret (even from our families) until the baby arrives.

What are the nursery plans?!!

We’re also waiting to make any nursery decisions until after we find out the gender. After that, I can’t wait to start planning, DIY-ing, and sharing the whole process with all of you. But speaking of nursery plans, we do have a few other updates pertaining to where Baby Mac’s room will be coming very, very soon. I can’t spill the beans just yet (although I really wish I could!), but be sure to check the blog next week for the full details. ๐Ÿ˜‰

How Did you Tell Casey?

Funny story actually. Like I mentioned, keeping this a secret was the hardest part of my first trimester. Thank goodness I didn’t wait the full 12 weeks to tell Casey because I don’t think I would have made it. Talking everyday, making plans for future posts/trips, and just being my best friend made keeping the news from her for even a month hard (and very stressful!).

Bridget and Matt's baby is due on Valentine's day! How sweet is that!?One day very early in my pregnancy, she came over for a day of projects. Not five minutes into the day she turned to me and said, “I had a dream you were pregnant last night!”. She had no idea at the time that I was actually pregnant, but I was caught so off-guard, I had no idea what to say! I think I awkwardly giggled and tried to change the subject as soon as I could. I wanted to spill the beans and tell her right then and there, but I promised Matt that we would wait until our trip to Iceland to tell Casey and Finn together. It was definitely a close call.

Fast forward about a month and we were at the airport waiting for the Finn’s to arrive so we could board our flight to Iceland. Our plan was to wait until we arrived in Iceland to announce the big news HOWEVER, I was just too anxious to wait (and so was Matt). So at the most inopportune time, while we were rushing to eat and get to our gate, Matt spilled the beans. As you can imagine both Finn and Casey were SO excited for us (insert the happy tears from both sides here) and SO shocked that we were not only pregnant but blind-siding them with this news amidst the chaos of catching our flight. Although it was not what we had planned, I’m so glad we were able to tell them so we didn’t have to go a second more of keeping this secret. Needless to say the 6 hour flight was far more relaxing after the cat was out of the bag.

Does This Mean Casey will get Pregnant Too?!

Bridget: Casey… I’ll let you take this one. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Casey: Doesn’t every girl dream of having her children be the same age as her best friend’s children?! How awesome would it be to have our families grow up together! I have to admit that when Bridget told me the news, it did make me want to speed up our family planning timeline. For now, there is no baby Finn. But we are definitely discussing the future…Bridget and Matt, super thrilled about how well Bridget's first trimester has gone. They can't wait to be parents.

Are you going to take time off from teaching?

If everything goes as planned, I will be off teaching almost the entire second semester with my maternity leave. Then I’ll obviously be off through the summer but after that, I do plan on going back full time.

Did you tell your students yet?

Not yet. Of course I’ll tell them eventually but I don’t want to cause any unnecessary stress on them too early in the process.

Where is your shirt from?

It’s a non-maternity shirt and you can get it right here! Also, these stretchy (high-waisted) black jeans are still my favorite… even with this new bump!

Did you use any pregnancy apps to help get pregnant or now that you are pregnant?

I don’t want to give you too much information (yikes… my dad is reading!) but I did use the app “MyDaysX”, which is a free period/ovulation tracker. The app is extremely basic, but I liked the simplicity. I tracked my period with that app for about a year before trying to get pregnant so that the app had a chance to “learn” my cycle and predict my period/ovulation more accurately over time. Even outside pregnancy I really liked the app so I knew when to expect my period each month.

Since being pregnant, I’ve very casually been using the BabyCenter app for pregnancy fun facts, tips and other resources.

The happy parents-to-be. We're sharing the news of Bridget's first trimester on the blog today!Are You Turning “Mommy Blogger”? What are your thoughts on sharing your baby on the internet?

No, the DIY Playbook is NOT turning into a Mommy Blog. We still plan to focus on DIY, home decor, and dabbling into style each Wednesday like usual. However now that this baby will be a part of my life, it only seems natural that he or she will be a small part of this blog as well. And I’m sure this baby will also impact what my home looks like, so that will definitely be a component of what’s to come.

As for sharing the details about this baby’s life, I still have A LOT to think about when it comes to figuring out how I feel about my child online (I learned a lot from this podcast where they discussed this exact topic). What I do know is that this blog means so much to me and I want it to continue to be an organic part of me, my life, my house and my family… just like it’s been from day one. I’m not exactly sure what that will look like but I’m excited to find out!

Thank YOU for all of your questions and all of your love and support this week! To say I’m overwhelmed by the love is an understand, you all made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I tried to answer the questions I saw most often, but if I missed yours, don’t hesitate to leave it in the comments below. Before then though, I have to let you know one more time how amazing you are for making me feel so loved. I feel so honored to share this journey with all of you and I can’t wait to hear all of your advice over the next months (and years!!). To all the moms out there, I admire you and can’t wait to learn from your amazing example.

Bridget

 


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.