When you hear the expression "sleep like a baby," you might imagine a slumbering little one frozen in time for a brief, blissful moment. In reality, a sleeping baby is a dynamic organism. A baby sleeps so it can grow and change, and the same is true of pregnant mothers during the first trimester.
First trimester fatigue is your body's way of letting you know that significant physical changes are coming. Sleep is a time of radical cell renewal. Your body has to do a lot of work to make your womb cushy enough for its new VIP occupant.
Moms-to-be have a lot of work to do, too, and first trimester exhaustion can take a lot out of them. We know you're eager to see the pep return to your step during this exciting time. We've created this first trimester guide to help you understand why you're so tired during the early weeks of pregnancy.
Read on to explore our first trimester pregnancy guide and better understand why you're so bone-weary before you even have a bump to show for it.
What Happens During the First Trimester of Pregnancy?
The average pregnancy lasts approximately forty weeks, split into three trimesters. The first trimester is the first thirteen weeks of your pregnancy, beginning from the date of your last menstrual period.
By the end of the first trimester, your baby will go from the size of a poppy seed to the size of a juicy peach. On the first day of your first trimester, your baby is a bundle of just thirty-two tiny cells. On the last day, it will have all major organs and systems in place and resemble a fully-formed tiny human.
Here's what's happening in your body to facilitate these rapid changes.
Increased Blood Volume
Making a human from scratch is a lot of work, but so is preparing the perfect environment where that baby can grow. Your body is physically rerouting blood to your womb to provide your sweet baby with nutrients. The blood volume in your body must double to meet this demand, causing your heart to work harder.
The only other time your heart works that hard is during exercise. This extra effort impacts your blood pressure, blood sugar level, and overall metabolism. That can take a lot out of you, even if you love to exercise.
A Surge of Hormones
All the extra blood in your system does more than carry nutrients to the baby. It's also carrying pregnancy hormones. These chemical messengers are helping your body prepare for the demands of the second and third trimesters.
One of the hormones is progesterone, which helps prepare the uterus during pregnancy. Its job is to prevent your uterus from contracting before it's time to give birth. Unfortunately, it also makes many women feel exhausted.
Likewise, you'll have more estrogen in your body during pregnancy than during the rest of your life combined. Estrogen helps your baby's organs develop appropriately. When you have more estrogen in your system than usual, you are more likely to experience fatigue.
Physical Changes
As your baby swells, your uterus will grow to accommodate the growth. This may cause your organs to shift around to compensate for the changes. Often, this means added pressure on your bladder, which can lead to urinary urgency.
If you wake up to urinate at night, you'll be experiencing a less restful night of sleep. Naturally, lighter sleep will leave you exhausted. When combined with the other factors, it's no wonder you're swaying on your feet.
Coping With First Trimester Exhaustion
The good news is that the first trimester tends to go quickly. Many women don't know they're pregnant until week four and don't begin experiencing physical symptoms until week six.
With that in mind, a few weeks is still a long time to feel like a living zombie. Here are a few strategies many women use to get through those sleepy early weeks.
Say Yes to Naps
Now that you're pregnant, you have a great excuse to make time for a daily nap. Even a quick thirty-minute cat nap can help some women feel rejuvenated during the first trimester. Consider it a type of self-care and embrace it.
Shift Your Position
If you lay on your left side, you might experience a more restful night of sleep. This position takes the pressure off of your hard-working blood vessels. Many women find sleeping with a pillow between their knees helpful in the early days, too.
Focus on Food
Low blood sugar will make anyone droop during the day, and pregnant women tend to have trouble maintaining theirs. The first trimester is the perfect time to pay careful attention to nutrition and ensure you meet your dietary needs. If your blood sugar is stable, you'll be able to make it through the day without collapsing.
Figuring Out First Trimester Fatigue
Your body knows what it needs and will tell you in the only way it knows how through cues and chemical signals that change how you walk through the world. First trimester fatigue is your body asking you to slow down and rest to prepare for the incredible changes to come. Listen to your body, get plenty of sleep, and before long, you'll be welcoming a healthy, happy baby.
Once your baby arrives, the fatigue will transform into a different type of exhaustion, and you'll need an extra set of eyes to keep track of your busy, wiggly baby. The Pixsee smart baby monitor is an award-winning parenting companion that can help you keep an eye on your little one, day or night.
Visit our Amazon online store and Pixsee Shop to see why tired new moms trust Pixsee to keep their babies safe and document their growth at the same time.
