We were on Orcas Island for our three year anniversary when we took the home pregnancy test.

We didn’t think a microscopic being would affect our adventures the first trimester but oh boy did it!

Emotions

Super excited, we paddled off within an hour of taking the pregnancy test from Orcas to the Wasp Islands, where I started to get really upset at the windy weather and waves during the crossing.

 I’ve never liked crossings but this was not my usual, and I wasn’t just hangry (had a power bar and it didn’t work… unlike a later tri pictured below wher it worked well!).

Apparently I despite being 100% excited I still had some processing to do. We’re going to have a baby!

While walking around town later on Orcas we bought a little jellyfish to celebrate and plan on putting it over the crib. It’s blue but has a tutu so I figure it will cover either gender.

The nausea was not so fun (no pics here!).

I’ve never been seasick in a kayak until pregnancy and I’ll tell you the curve of the kayak makes puking off the side difficult when it’s wavy.

After the ferry I spent 10 minutes on the side of the winding road scrubbing peaches off the side (at least I got the window down in time!).

Planning last second while driving to our destination was no longer an option

One thing I really didn’t expect was the fatigue.

Paddling to our campsite on Ozette Lake was exhausting. I managed to keep paddling through the exhaustion but I slept well that night.

After paddling to Sucia Island I got so tired from the paddle Alex had to paddle the last bit after we found our campsite while I rested, then after we hauled gear up to the campsite, including our kayak, I had to take a multi hour nap.

There’s there’s the loosened ligaments from darn hormones

Then as we hiked around Sucia (or possibly from hauling the gear) I tweaked my back, making it difficult to get in and out of the tent and difficult to haul our gear (though thankfully not too difficult to paddle). Hiking was more of a slow shuffle, but at least we got to see everything!

We also were more careful about water filtration, including double filtering all the water while in Desolation Sound (once with a steripen and once through the charcoal / filter everything water bottle).

For the most part we didn’t let our little paddler affect our planning for the summer, except for the fact we scheduled a TON of paddling in fear of losing our freedom next summer (which we plan on prioritizing – forget getting family to babysit for dinner and a movie, we’re taking the kayak out!).

One plan we did change was not going to the Broken Group Islands. The crossing seemed too much for how much fatigue I was experiencing and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to bring enough water in our 15′ tandem.

Milestones

Baby’s first kayaking must have been trying everything out at the NW Paddle Fest though we didn’t know it at the time.

Since then he or she has come along for the ride kayaking in three countries (The U.S. of course, Canada, and Norway). Baby has also been to London but no paddling was done there.
Another fun milestone was calling his parents to tell them about the baby while driving into Hoh Rainforest and (the same day but later to deal with the different time zones) video calling my parents to tell them while stuck in traffic on our way back into Seattle.

On sucia we began to notice the beginnings of a baby bump

An awesome milestone was… getting to the second trimester where I could paddle like normal!