Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
Or girl? Oh girl oh girl oh girl!
We don’t know, you guys. We don’t even know! But there’s a tiny human about to really rock our lives in a few short months, and we are beyond excited to meet our little yumlette.
Sage, too. 👆🏼
Your responses – emails, comments, and messages – to our big news yesterday were just overwhelmingly sweet. I’ve been looking forward to the telling day for so long so I could actually share the real reason why all I want to eat right now is bread and cheese! and your kindness just made the day so special to me. And us. I’m sure Bjork and Sage read every comment, too. 😏
Before jumping back into the regular food-and-recipe thing, I am dyyyyyinggggg to catch you up on all the things that we haven’t had out in the open over the last three months.
Settle in, now, CAUSE THIS IS A LOT OF WORDS. I’ve got my water (boring) and you’ve probably got coffee (kinda glad I can’t smell it) and we’re hopefully both in very comfy clothes, and here we go.
The Baby Basics
Alright, here are the basics about this little bub.
Current bump size: somewhere between post-Thanksgiving-dinner-belly and she-might-be-pregnant-belly
Baby’s due date: April 26, 2017
Found out: end of August
First ultrasound: 9 weeks – the cutest jelly bean you’ve ever seen, TBH
Told family/friends: around 10 weeks
Told the internet: yesterday, which is about 14 weeks
Baby’s current size: a lemon
Boy/Girl: we don’t know yet, but we’re going to find out in December!
Plans for work: Both of us will probably take some time off when the baby’s born – maybe me a little longer than Bjork, and then we’ll take it step-by-step from there. The tentative plan is that Bjork will for sure get back to it full-time and I will probably see how I feel – maybe Bjork and baby and I will find a good balance (that ever elusive thing) of working a few days, being home a few days… we’ll see. It’s hard to know without actually knowing, know what I mean? It all just feels like a big blind guess.
Plans for our house: This is the big pressing issue. We would love to either finish our upstairs into another bedroom/bathroom for a little more space (currently living in 900 square feet of house) OR possibly… I hate to even say it… MOVE? before the baby comes. We don’t want to move, though. We hugely love our neighborhood and our house is pretty cute, too – it’s just a little on the small side and regardless of what we do with the upstairs, it doesn’t have a great bedroom layout (two bedrooms on the main floor, right next to the living and dining room). Perk: you can stand in one place and see into every room of the whole house! Downside: we might never be able to make any noise after 7pm ever again once we have a baby sleeping in one of those main floor rooms.
First Trimester Foods
Here’s the bummer thing about the first trimester: what would otherwise be a dream job (writing about / making / photographing / thinking about food all day) becomes a VERY BAD SITUATION when you are in the first trimester of pregnancy.
For me, the sick feelings started around week 6 and seemed to generally resolve by week 11-12, although I still have the occasional OMG-I’m-going-to-be-sick moments if I don’t eat often enough. It’s an okay problem to have.
If you take a look back through the recipe posts of September and October, you will notice some strong themes. Bread, Soup, Pizza. Pizza, Bread, Soup. Cheese, Cheese, Cheese, Bread, Soup, Pizza. Cereal. Bread, Soup, Pizza. Oh my word, I want to say I tried to branch out with the recipes, but honestly, the word TRY was literally nonexistent in my vocabulary for a while there. I was on a food lock down.
If I could have done a full post about all the best processed snack foods in the world, I most definitely would have, because processed snack foods and I became very familiar with each other. There were – er, are – snacks that I haven’t had in decades that have snuck their way back into my life (looking at you, Ritz Bits with the cheddar cheese).
In my hypothetical post about favorite processed foods, I also would have included the story about the time when literally the only thing that made me NOT feel like I was going to throw up right that very second was sprinting into a grocery store where I then busted open a can of Cheddar Cheese Pringles and ate at least three hundred of those thin, salty little crisps right there in the aisle before even paying for them, and then brushed the crumbs out of my hair and calmly paid and eventually found a nice spot for them in the cupholder of the borrowed pickup truck (hello I just said PICKUP TRUCK) that I was using to transport stuff to and from the studio.
Obviously it’s always been sort of a life goal of mine to drive an old pickup truck while eating Cheddar Cheese Pringles so as not to throw up all over myself.
Hello, first trimester. You sure are a glam girl, aren’t you?
On the less strange but equally as un-proud side of things, there was the ongoing loud and proud carb parade of the last three months.
Bread in all forms: Grilled cheese. Bagels, toast, English muffins. Cheesy bread. Homemade bread. (It is a zero percent coincidence that the Miracle No Knead Bread made its blog debut during this time.)
Juice – that sweet nectar of heaven – became a staple early on, like around week six. I would wake up in the morning and just need a glass of juice. NEED. Orange juice, grapefruit juice, and all these fancy blends that they have now? Gah, it’s amazing. I’ve jumped back on that juice train and I plan to ride it all the way till baby arrives.
There were also Daily Carb Categories in my life that have never before existed: like Salty-Crispy (ILYSB chips!!!!), and Sweet-Crispy (hi cereal), and the Tangy-Crispy (those super-flavored honey mustard pretzel pieces) – all of which provided a reliable safe zone for me in that 10am-12pm range when my appetite would totally just reject all of life. I always knew that if I could just get one bite of a honey mustard pretzel down, my body would remember that food was okay and then I’d be onto my staple food of the entire first trimester: PIZZA.
You guys.
Pizza. Is. Life.
I’ve always known it, but my appreciation for this food of the gods has gone deeper and wider than ever before.
Just to be clear, prissy is not an option when it comes to your precious pizza in the first trimester. We are not talking about cute pizza shops with artisan toppings and thin crusts that are baked just right in brick ovens. We are talking GIMME THE CHEAP DOMINOS. Pizza Hut cheesy breadsticks became life’s great delicacy to me. And frozen pizza? All over it. No shame. Never have I ever eaten more frozen pizza and milk (seriously favorite combo ever) in one short segment of my life than these last three months.
You know you’ve reached a pizza milestone when even your husband doesn’t want to eat frozen pizza with you anymore and you are forced to buy single serving frozen pizzas. I repeat: single serving. For just you and your pizza-loving self. So, yeah. Things are going THAT well.
Why does life work so that when you most need nutrients to GROW ANOTHER HUMAN, you literally cannot stomach a single nutritious thing? It doesn’t even make sense.
Thank goodness for those vitamins and Panera green smoothies (which grossed me out 100x less than my own green smoothies – go figure) and the occasional brussel sprout salad, which was weirdly the only type of salad I really could handle during those three months. Of course, served with pizza. I’m not joking.
First Trimester Moods
A photojournalistic summary of my mood during the entire first trimester:
I literally could not. With anything.
I don’t know if that’s normal or if I’m just overwhelmingly sensitive to life and all its things, but wows. I was Blah with a capital B. And sad. And tired. So, so tired. Just let me lay down for a minute or 90, okay?
Work became very difficult, and not just because of the food. I was just down and out to the max. Every day Bjork would ask me, how are you doing? and every day I’d sound like an Eeyore version of myself: fiiiine, I guess. The weird thing was that it had nothing to do with my feelings about the baby and everything to do with my work. Suddenly I just wanted to stop blogging. It felt like nothing mattered, and I didn’t enjoy it, and no one was reading, and blah blah blah, and WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LET ME LAY WITH SAGE ON THE COUCH IN A SLEEPING BAG FOREVER.
Combine lots of hormonal changes, the blahs of the first trimester, and a generally anxious personality with the unexpected loss of my grandma during those few weeks, and I think I was just a walking recipe for sad, life-is-hard, mopey couch-dwelling.
The good news: I am so grateful to have had a flexible schedule during these last few months. I literally do not know how I would have dragged myself up and into a normal job every day. HUGE RESPECT to those of you pregnant mamas who have done this and still found a way to function in normal society like a human while likely hiding it from your co-workers. I mean, honestly. I still had lots of work that I had to do, but to be able to choose when and how and where I would do the work (and whether or not I would wear sweatpants while doing it) was such a saving grace.
The other good news: I am feeling so much better, work-mood-wise. Like, I am writing this post and it is like nothing to me. My fingers are flying across the keyboard. I have energy, I’m excited to talk with you all, I can stay awake long enough to exercise aka walk when I’m done with work, and I am looking forward to things – like the fact that tonight is Halloween and we’re going to put Sage in her ghost costume. Eeeee!
First Trimester Things That Have Been Awesome
Glow Nurture app: I use this app every day for tracking things – like vitamin intake, macronutrient goals (hooked it up with My Fitness Pal so I can see a graphic representation of the fact that 90% of what I’m eating is carbs – super awesome), and other random symptoms. It’s easy to use and well-designed.
Bump app: I like this app for the concise week-by-week updates on baby’s growth.
Candles: Both Bjork and I are loving these candles from Farmhouse Pottery (we have/love the pine scent). They are made in the USA with soy wax and essential oils for fragrance. Small and a little spendy – yes – but honestly one of my most prized possessions right now. I carry it around the house with me all day, and lately, he might not want me to tell you, but even Bjork has been found carting this into his office for a little naturally fall-winter scented mood lighting.
Clean Makeup: I have a lot of things to learn and say about this, but in general I am slowly making swaps over to some clean makeup and beauty products. Brands that I’ve been liking include W3LL PEOPLE, Ere Perez, and EcoDiva Beauty for everything-in-one-spot. I’m planning to write a post about my favorites once I get my collection all set.
Books: Actually, TBH, during the early part of the first trimester, I had NO TIME for reading. Not actually no time, just no time like don’t you dare even bother me with a book right now. But as I’ve found my groove, I’ve been digging some mind candy reads and some more serious ones. Currently queued up is The Headspace Guide to a Mindful Pregnancy and Everything We Keep.
Sweatpants: I got these sweatpants (okay, “joggers”, psh whatever 🍕) at the blog retreat I went to a few weeks ago, and long story short, I want to live in them. End of story. You should get some.
New Phone: Kind of dorky, but I got the new iPhone 7 and I’m having a lot of fun playing with the new features, specifically the camera, from my permanent lounge spot on the couch.
Instagram: I finally did it – I made a personal Instagram account. I hardly ever post life updates on the Pinch of Yum Instagram account (it’s a wild and active food community! can’t slow that down with too many dog and baby pics) so I thought this might be just the time to transition over to a personal account. I would love to have you follow – it’s @lindsaymostrom because I’m so original like that.
How did you guys even read that? I’ve just got so much to get off my chest after 3 months of secrecy, I guess?
To you mamas who are also pregnant – I’m so glad you’re here! we can do this.
To you mamas who are still trying to get pregnant or recovering from loss – we see you, we love you, we’re cheering for you and your babies.
To you readers who are in a completely different life space altogether but still show up to be friends on the internet – umm, you’re the best. ❤️
So happy for you guys! The end had me in tears lol.
You’ve got this!
I really enjoyed reading this update… laughed out loud at the pringle part! I hope you continue posting pregnancy updates and finds as you go along! I’m excited to check out the clean makeup you mentioned. I also just loved seeing all of your pregnancy cravings 🙂
Thanks for giving a shout out to those of us who are trying to get pregnant or have experienced loss. Lots of other blogs don’t do this, and I’m really touched that you did. Congrats on your pregnancy and I’m excited to see how your adventure unfolds. 🙂
Very True! Congrats Lindsay and Bjork! I’m one week behind you two and sympathize with your food issues! How can you be a food blogger and be sick? I’ve kept nothing down but a few cheerios here and there the past 2 months. But one thing I do know – every pregnancy, every baby is so special, a real miracle straight from God. After 4 years in infertility treatments and 50 grand spent, I know this for sure. You two will be wonderful parents and make your child lots of yummy food =) Even in the sickness, enjoy each day of your miracle!!!
Both this post and yesterday’s post gave me happy chills! What a radiant, lovely little family you are going to be and I’m glad that the worst of the first trimester symptoms are behind you!!
Oh yes. It’s like you wrote about my first trimester experience right down to the pringles, cereal and juice. I would literally cry multiple times a week to my husband about how I couldn’t stomach anything nutritious for the baby. The only thing that made me feel better was my doctor telling me the most important thing is to keep food down and stay hydrated, so I focused on that. The second trimester is the best, I lovingly refer to it as the honeymoon trimester. Cute bump! Everyone knows! Normal appetite! Enjoy every minute.
Long time lurker, first time commenter – congratulations! Just had to say, I sent my husband a link to this post because of how you waxed poetic about pizza. I survived almost entirely on pizza in my first trimester, and only pumped the breaks a tiny bit throughout the rest of the pregnancy. I’m 36 weeks and it is still the only food that I would eat 100% of the time. So glad to know I’m not alone! Loved this post, so happy for you three (Hi Sage!), and can’t wait to hear more in the months to come!
Read this in complete detail even though I’ve got a loooooong way ’til babies (lettuce get through college first). I am so excited to read all about it!! Maybe little yumlette will come a day late and we’ll share a birthday. 🙂 April babies are the best!
Congratulations! I am 26 weeks pregnant (27 weeks tomorrow!) and your first trimester sounded exactly like mine, ha. All day nausea and just a general feeling of “bleh.” I too enjoyed all things carb (give me all the bread and pasta!) The second trimester you feel like a completely different woman. It’s crazy! Those sweatpants look amazing and I totally want a pair. Congratulations again! 🙂
Congratulations to you guys! Enjoy all that couch time and the snacks guilt free, you deserve it! Also, this made me laugh so many times. I think you described in nearly perfect detail my entire first trimester, too. So many frozen pizzas 🙂
So happy for you both! Take mental photos. The time will fly by!
Seriously I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS! Can’t wait to welcome the little bundle of joy to the world! As always, thank you for taking us on this journey with you. You are amazing! <3
Like the person who commented before me – I’m also a long time lurker, first time commentor. I love your blog, and your recipes (they are always a hit!), and I just had to break my usual silence to say congrats on your big news! My husband and I are due in March with our first as well. I was lucky to surpass any morning sickness…and unlike you I haven’t had any cravings as of yet (but then again I’m a regular carb/cheese/pizza indulger)… but we found out this past weekend we are having a boy – so my guess (solely based on all of the far from credible old wives tales out there) and your symptoms being the opposite from mine is that you may be carrying a little girl (I could be wrong…but i have about a 50% change of being correct, right? lol). Anyways, I know one of the major things recommended to do before giving birth is stalking your freezer with make ahead meals so you don’t have to worry about cooking while adjusting to life with a new baby – I was curious, as you too are expecting, that perhaps a series of delicious make ahead freezer meals could be in pinch of yums future??? I know there are a lot of make-ahead “freezer meals” out there…but most are lacking the delicious appeal that I think you can bring to the game! All the best!
Holly…I am 100% with you. A regular follower but a first time commentor. I am also due in March with my first and just like you was able to bypass any sickness and haven’t had any cravings. My husband and I will only find out what we’re having once the baby is here so this gives me hopes that maybe it’s a boy as well?! But I also agree that a great post would be for any make ahead, freezer friendly meals for that time after baby is born. Such exciting news! Congrats Lindsay and to everyone else who is expecting!
Lindsay. Thank you SO MUCH for this post. I am newly pregnant myself and had begun wondering what the heck was wrong with my crisp veggie loving self – seriously breakfast, lunch, dinner, vegetables were my jam. And ALL I want to eat is chips and bread and toast and pizza and CARBS. And apple juice. Bless your sweet soul for making me feel a little more normal during this weird unfamiliar body time. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever eat another carrot again. Maybe one day, but for now I’ll stay on the carb train with you. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!🎉🎉🎉
I first started reading blogs when I needed support for infertility and then pregnancy, and then baby, and then toddler, etc. As my kids have grown I’ve transitioned to A LOT of food blogs and fewer “mommy” blogs but it’s still my favorite when one of my food bloggers gets pregnant! My two favorite kinds of blogs in one! Congratulations, guys, and good luck!!!
Congratulations!! You guys are going to be the best parents! <3
I had a baby boy last August, and was LOL-ing as I read about your first trimester cravings. Cheese, bread, and milk were the only things I could handle during my first trimester too, and I remember thinking the same thing: "I'm supposed to be eating extra nutritiously for this baby, but everything makes me nauseous??" Good for you drinking green juice from Panera though! Just the sight of a green veggie would make me sick to my stomach. I had to dash past the produce section at the grocery store — on the rare occasions I could summon up the energy to even GO to the grocery store. (I can laugh about this now that I'm not pregnant 😉
I hope your second trimester is a breeze! 🙂
Congratulations, you two! That’s so awesome. I’m due April 25th with my third girl!!! Yay for spring babies! Hope all is going well, mama 🙂
Congratulations! I’m so excited for you guys!!
I had a little girl at the end of May and reading your story makes me want to be pregnant again. Even with all the tiredness, food cravings, heartburt, blah blah blah it was such an awesome feeling knowing a little one was growing inside. Yay you!
Can’t wait to hear more about it. 🙂
So excited for you guys! Just so you know, a small fan/white noise machine makes it completely possible to have loud dinner parties while the baby sleeps in the next room. Get that babe used to noise from the beginning, and you won’t have to worry! 🙂 Works like a charm.
Congratulations & thank you so much for sharing all of this! I am due May 12th and have been feeling so many of those same things! I may print this post out and put it in my baby book with the word “ditto” written across the top! Its really nice to know that I’m not the only one totally unable to stomach salads & craving Panera soup & grilled cheese, pizza, and juice. Its a weird combo but grapefruit juice or kiwis for breakfast at least made me feel like I was getting some nutrition in! I’m slowly starting to feel better, but putting pants on and going into the office has felt like moving mountains. They should have maternity leave for the first trimester!
OMG… It’s been months since I’ve been waiting, rather looking forward to reading this post. I can’t even begin to say how happy I am for you two (and of course for him/her) that this little angel will soon join your lovely family. I wish you the best in this 9-month adventure that will change the rest of your lives. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and feelings! You guys are a lovely couple and you deserve this bundle of joy, congratulations 1 million times!!!
Congrats!!! I’m five weeks behind you and totally on the carb-loading train. I hadn’t eaten a bagel years and the other week I had one every single day. And I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit I wolfed down an entire pizza for lunch one day and was still hungry! This post made me laugh as I thankfully realized it’s not just me.
I’m so stinking excited for you! I was living every moment of this post with you, especially the Pizza part! I’m currently 18 weeks and due April 2nd and as a fellow MN blogger I can’t wait to follow along with your journey!!!
Oh mama, I feel ya! Everything you said took me right back to memories of my pregnancies. First trimester blahs is no joke! And yes, carbs were definitely my happy place too. And I loved potatoes, in any form. Congrats again! I’m seriously so excited for you guys.
As I sit here on the floor playing with my 8 month old my heart is so full and happy for you! I stressed about figuring out a work balance while pregnant, but it all works out. And life is so much more fun! And you get to watch a mini version of you and your hubby roll around on the floor and become best friends with your dog and throw cheerios everywhere! If you are interested in breastfeeding, the book “The womanly art of breastfeeding” is amazing. Something I wish I had read up on more before my girl arrived. Enjoy the ride, mama!
Hi Lindsey and Bjork! Congratulations guys! Wonderful news. I’m currently pregnant with my second boy due in February. I work full time regular job, have 3 year old toddler who has plenty of energy and try to blog whenever I have a spare hour (like at 5am;)). Thanks for feeling for us working moms. The first trimester was brutal, but I made it:). Anyways, I wanted to touch base regarding: CARBS! I only wanted to eat carbs in first trimester and like you I ate all the chips and other bad stuff and couldn’t look at anything healthy. I convinced my husband that there is a scientific proof why we need carbs in first trimester. First, they provide boost of energy right away and our body goes through such a transformation of creating a new human being that the carbs are simply what the body needs for energy. Also during the first trimester body needs to store extra fat for feeding the baby later and carbs can do it the fastest way. Not great for someone who watches their figure. But baby’s health is much more important. So cheers to carbs! Take care 🙂 Edyta