First trimester in your later 30s

First trimester in your later 30s

• 7.30.2026

It is surreal and so happy to be sharing about my third pregnancy at 38, six and eight years later after my first two and after divorce and losses of other kinds. I’ve always wanted three kids, but a couple years ago I was pretty sure it was never going to happen, and I accepted how lucky I am to have two wonderful kids already. But then I met Micah, and we both wanted the same things… Get married, have another baby, accept all the changes that come with such a big lifestyle shift at this point in life.

But all that to say, I knew going into it that pregnancy is not a walk in the park, but also, things change as you get older. This pregnancy has a few differences from the last two, and I seriously enjoyed reading back to those posts when I was seven weeks in and feeling awful… So here’s this post for documenting this incredible and very weird time. 

The kids are so sweet and excited

First Trimester, Third (Successful) Pregnancy

In my last two, I felt basically carsick or hungover from week 7 to 16. I never threw up, but felt pretty awful and had to keep snacks handy all the time to keep my blood sugar study, despite nothing sounding good. I had food aversions, like meat and leftovers, very biologically appropriate, but very inconvenient for my protein needs.

With my first pregnancy, I remember feeling so completely wiped out and awful after my workday that there was no way I could do a workout like I was used to. I remember trying to at least do some yoga, like some cat/cow, on the floor by my bed in our second fixer-upper house when I was very early on pregnant with Otto… I couldn’t even do that. Too exhausted and yucky. 

So I am incredibly proud and happy that this pregnancy, I have been able to keep working out three days a week almost every single week, on my regular schedule, despite feeling so yucky. I’ve learned that the best immediate cure for the motion, sickness feeling, besides keeping my blood sugar stable, is distraction. So I figure, I’ll feel disgusting whether I’m working out or not, so I might as well do something productive for my body.

It's a small bump, but none of my jeans fit anymore. Lots of dresses and loose clothes.

The symptoms of early pregnancy are extremely annoying at best, and negatively affect your life at worst. It’s amazing what impact hormones have.

Had to make note… while there are so many potential weird symptoms of early pregnancy, everyone is different… But here are the ones I’ve experienced lately.

1. Sore boobs (especially in the beginning), also itchy this time
2. Have to pee all the time, including getting up once at night
3. Easily winded, even just from talking really fast!
4. Stopped losing hair in the shower
5. Constipated
6. Mild headaches, particularly when I wake up. Hoping to start getting some massages soon and hopefully that helps because I imagine it’s in part due to neck tightness. 
7. Around 6.5 weeks, just like last time or a little earlier... low level nausea all the time, worst with low blood sugar and worst at night.
8. Food doesn't sound good. Except maybe Ben & Jerry’s or tater tots. Carbs are definitely easier to stomach than anything else. So I end up eating a lot higher carb and lower protein than I’m used to, but have a hard time finishing meals and meat. Except sometimes sushi still sounds good! So inconvenient. I also wouldn’t mind a nice glass of Oregon Pinot. Sigh.
9. Using my phone makes it feel worse. Most of the time I feel like I do when I’m in a car and I’ve been looking at a screen too long, so looking at screens… worse. I’m also really tired and not motivated and feeling creative, so I haven’t been creating content the way I normally would. Instead, I took to reading. I did this with my second successful pregnancy too, but this time I’m choosing much more cheerful books like girly beach reads.
10. This time, as I write this at 13 weeks, the extra veins have started already! More spider veins, particularly on my left ankle, and this morning I realized my ankles were starting to get puffy already, so I had to pull out the compression socks. Already! I haven’t even gained any weight yet. I needed them in both of my other pregnancies too, and with Lucy, I needed thigh-high compression socks toward the end for veins behind my knees! 😭 Such a bummer and doesn’t help you feel cute when you already don’t thanks to the awkwardly sized belly and occasional hormonal zit.

I started taking Unisom Sleep Tabs at night and B6 2 to 3 times a day, which apparently is a safe treatment that has been shown to help with morning sickness symptoms, Around week 10.5 or 11. I think it helps a little. Takes the edge off maybe. And I had a little pregnancy insomnia early on there so I don’t think the Unisom component hurts at night. I like to take as little medicine as possible, though, so I hope I can stop soon.

I’m keeping my eye on 16 weeks… 3 more weeks as I write this. But I think it’s getting slightly better already, and weeks 8-11 were worst like they say. We got married around week 11 so that was a little rough, but very distracting so I made it through!

I can often be found on the floor of the kitchen eating whatever sounds somewhat palatable, too tired to stand.

But, trying to remember I’m so grateful I get to do this again and my body can do all this work for me and my family. Already so excited to meet our baby and going to try to enjoy lots of things about the next 6 months to make the time pass in a fun way.