How to Survive the First Trimester Tips & Tricks

For many people, myself included, the first trimester is the hardest part of pregnancy. However, there are a number of ways to make this often difficult, though exciting, time much easier. Here are my favorite natural tips on how to survive the first trimester!

Why is the First Trimester So Hard?

It would be easy to assume that the first trimester is the easiest, but it’s often just the opposite. The moment you get pregnant, hormones begin to surge and your body begins to work extremely hard to begin growing your baby. Once you get into the second trimester, the hardest work for your body is done and hormones begin to level out. At this point, most women begin to feel more like themselves again.

Which week is the hardest?

For most women, first trimester symptoms peak around week nine. Usually, it’s a gradual increase of symptoms up until somewhere around that point and then a gradual decrease until you are feeling relatively normal again. Even though it seems like a long time when you’re in the middle of it, before you know it, you’ll likely be feeling great again! In the meantime, here are some practical tips to help you survive the first trimester.

Sleep (or Rest) as Much as Possible

Pregnancy exhaustion is often at its peak during the first trimester. The best way to deal with this is just to embrace it, and sleep as much as possible. Your body needs it! If you have time to sneak in a nap, go for it! But if not, try to find a way to still get some extra sleep. Maybe you can go to bed early or sleep in a little bit. Even just 20-30 minutes can do wonders!

Sometimes it just doesn’t fit into the schedule to get extra sleep, but you can often still find a way to relax more. Maybe just eat dinner on the couch with your feet up! While I was in my first trimester this current pregnancy, I was working full-time from home while also caring for my one year old. One of the biggest things that helped me survive the first trimester was doing my computer work on the couch with my feet up while my daughter napped.

Stay Active

This probably sounds like about the last thing you want to hear. But trust me, it’ll make you feel better! I don’t mean do a high intensity workout or push yourself much, but relaxing walks, stretching, and similar activities help you to survive the first trimester feeling the best you can. These types of activities are also extremely beneficial to your health and can help set you up for a wonderful pregnancy and labor!

If you work all day at a desk, sitting on an exercise ball can be helpful! Being able to rock and move slightly can help you deal with exhaustion and even make the nausea easier to get through.

I remember during my first pregnancy, I felt the worst during the work week when I was at a desk. On the weekends, I would stay more active and busier which reduced and sometimes made me almost forget the uncomfortable symptoms I was experiencing!

Prioritize Eating Well

Surviving the first trimester often comes down to eating enough to have energy while not triggering nausea. I’ve often heard that women should eat whatever they can stomach at this time and think about health later. But I think this advice can be balanced. Of course, always follow the advice of your care provider, and, if you can’t eat anything super healthy, eat what you can. Here are some of the best ways to get the nutrition your body needs during the first trimester.

Tips & Tricks

• If your nauseas, try cold foods such as smoothies, fruit juice popsicles with no added sugar or artificial ingredients, yogurt, and frozen fruit. Cold foods often reduce morning sickness, and there are many healthier options than eating ice cream every day!
• Prioritize nutrient dense, high fat, high protein foods such as whole milk, hard cheese, coconut oil, nuts and nut butters, yogurt, and meat (if you can stomach it). Be creative; there are lots of options!
• If you’re struggling to eat get enough calories from healthy sources, try sneaking them into foods that sound good. Use lots of coconut oil or butter on toast, eat apples or bananas with nut butter, and add chia seeds to anything you can think of (granola, shakes, yogurt, etc.). You can also hide so many nutrient dense, high calorie foods in a good fruit smoothie! A couple of my favorite first trimester foods have been Ezekiel bread toast with peanut butter, bananas, and honey and smoothies made with frozen fruit, whole milk, coconut oil, chia seeds, collagen powder, and greek yogurt topped with shredded coconut.
• Try to limit or avoid foods that provide no benefit to you or your baby such as candy or soda. These foods not only have no benefit, but they have a negative effect on your body.

During my first pregnancy, I avoided most unhealthy foods, but I didn’t prioritize getting protein and calories during my first trimester. Because of this, I ended up losing weight I didn’t need to lose. While it wasn’t a cause for concern, I likely robbed myself of energy I needed. During my second pregnancy, I was breastfeeding during my first trimester and wanted to make sure I stayed at a healthy weight. Even though I struggled to eat a lot of the foods I normally would, because I focused on eating any nutrient dense, high calorie, high protein food I could, I was able to gain a normal amount of weight my first trimester. I even needed less sleep than I had with my first pregnancy!

Reduce Morning Sickness Naturally

When you think of how to survive the first trimester, handling nausea is likely the first thing that comes to mind. Thankfully there are a number of natural remedies that can do wonders!

Tips & Tricks

• Eat citrus fruit (or drink citrus juice). It’s amazing what just eating an orange or drinking lemon water can do to settle your stomach!
• Try sucking on frozen foods such as fruit juice popsicles.
• Focus on eating bland foods. While there are many healthy bland food options, saltine crackers are always great to keep around since they can settle your stomach almost instantly.
• Don’t let yourself get too hungry. Eat small meals often!
• Diffuse peppermint essential oil. At one point, I had an empty bottle of peppermint essential oil I kept on my desk. Since it still retained the smell, anytime I started to feel really bad, I would open it and smell it. The nausea instantly lifted (though not always for very long)!
• Drink ginger tea or eat crystalized ginger candy.
• Eat foods high in B6. This vitamin is shown to reduce the symptoms of morning sickness, and it’s in lots of healthy foods.

Take Your Pregnancy Supplements

It can be hard to get (and keep) pills down during the first trimester, but try to take them daily. Not only do they provide you with important nutrients, they usually include vitamins that can reduce morning sickness! Experiment with taking them at different times of day! For me, even if I can’t take them in the morning, I usually can in the evening. Taking a women’s probiotic can also be extremely helpful to keep your gut functioning at its best. For more information on probiotic strains to look for, click here.

Lower Your Expectations of Yourself

Pregnancy is a good time to take a step back from all the commitments that you usually have. Accept help when it’s offered, and lower the expectations you usually hold yourself to. There are certain things you will likely not have a choice but to continue to do. Working, cooking, or taking care of kids can often be the big ones. However, there’s lots of other things that you can often take a break from.

For a little while you can usually let the house go a bit. I don’t think the bed got made or the bathroom got cleaned either time I was in the middle of my first trimesters. Don’t worry about putting yourself together quite as much each day and get takeout more often than usual or buy premade foods. There’s lots of ways you can take a short step back from your normal life! Don’t worry, you’ll feel more like yourself again before you know it!

Announce Your Pregnancy to Anyone You’re Comfortable With

While many people understandably wait until the second trimester to announce their pregnancy, annoucing it early can be a big help. You may find some helpful support you wouldn’t have had otherwise. During one of my pregnancies, one of my husband’s coworkers even brought us a meal to save me from cooking one night! It’s also nice to not always have to hide all of your symptoms around certain close friends or family members.

Meal Prep and Grocery Shop Before the Symptoms Get Too Severe

If you’re reading this early in your first trimester, now’s the time to prepare! Prepping freezer meals can be an amazing way to help yourself to survive the first trimester! While some people dedicate full days to prepping freezer meals, I prefer just to make bigger batches of anything I’m already making that will freeze well. That way, it doesn’t feel like much extra work. Now you have a meal you can pull out of the freezer anytime! Due to health and our budget, my family isn’t able to get takeout or buy premade meals often, so this helped me to survive the first trimester! I recommend starting to freeze meals as soon as you get that positive pregnancy test.

Stocking up on groceries is another great way to prepare! Try to have a couple months of shelf-safe staples on hand. It’s also a good idea to buy lots of healthy snacks and anything that’s healthy and easy to prepare. Potatoes are a great option since they keep a long time, are easy to cook, and can be eaten with a variety of toppings!

How to Survive the First Trimester – Conclusion

There are so many ideas to help make your first trimester easier, and I know you’ll find some that will help you! Even though it can be difficult, growing a new baby is such an exciting time. The first trimester won’t last forever, and before you know it, you’ll likely be feeling much more like yourself! Even if symptoms persist throughout your entire pregnancy, it will be completely worth it in end. In the meantime, try to find few things that will relieve the symptoms and some ways to distract yourself too.

Find More Pregnancy and Motherhood Tips

How to Have a Homebirth for Your First Baby

How to Make Your Own Natural Baby Skin Balm with Tallow

What about you? What are your favorite remedies for the first-trimester symptoms you’ve experienced? Leave a comment and let me know!