Pregnancy tips:
I loved reading these early on. At 37.3 weeks, here's a nice long write up about what I wish I could have known from the start:
Don't compare yourself too much. You'll naturally compare your pregnancy to other pregnant women you know and people will overload you with information. You'll probably also try to learn what you can about pregnancy. At the end of the day though, your pregnancy is unique and all your own. All that information might not even apply to you. Mine hardly followed the pregnancy apps at all. My nausea lasted till week 20, I never got an increased sex drive or a spike in energy in the second trimester. That being said, my pregnancy was pretty similar to my mom and my sister's pregnancies, though there were still some big differences.
Don't accept information blindly, critically examine it and determine if it actually applies to your situation. Ignore the rest, expect maybe your OB or midwife.
2. If something doesn't feel right, trust your gut. By my third trimester I was beyond exhausted, had insane cravings for meat and I was sure something was hella wrong. My OB and the medical internist were so focused on my brewing preeclampsia and managing my asthma, they totally missed iron deficiency anemia. When I demanded to see my bloodwork, the diagnosis was staring me right in the face. I required IV iron infusions! Your healthcare team is smart, but only human. At the end of the day, you know your body better than anyone. Advocate for yourself.
2. Nausea sucks. The medications and vitamin B6 only helped to a point. Again, everyone is different. Do what works for you. Ginger and sour fruit did little for me. I found I was at my worst when I didn't rest enough and it seemed I needed to rest all the time. I also listened to my aversions. I couldn't handle a dirty kitchen sink, coffee, or greasy food. Even an untidy or dusty home could be a trigger. Sometimes the nausea was worse because I was constipated or my acid reflux was acting up or I was hungry or dehydrated. Club soda and sparkling water kept me hydrated without all the sugar. It's also great for acid reflux.
My doctor also told me not to worry too much about nutrition in the first trimester, that the baby doesn't need a whole lot so early on. She told me to do what I had to do to manage the nausea and to be sure to take my folic acid every day. Verify this with your own doctor, of course. In the second trimester, I really started to focus on nutrition and taking my prenatal vitamins.
3. Watch for companies taking advantage of your anxiety over being a good parent. I guarantee you won't need all the equipment and gadgets they label as essential. Not every baby will take to every product. A lot of baby products are barely used before they're outgrown. You can get a lot of what you need secondhand or buy it used. Your baby wants to be loved and fed and clean and to feel safe. It won't care what colour you painted the nursery. And if say, you do wind up with a baby who needs to be rocked all hours of the day, you've probably saved enough money that you can order a swing off amazon if you find you really need it at the last minute.
4. I found staying reasonably fit and gaining the recommended weight helped prevent and manage hip and back pain later on. On the days I wasn't active, the pain would act up more. Eating protein with every meal and snack kept the weight gain in check and helped manage the hunger. Carry some sort of nuts with you in your purse for emergencies. Junk food made me feel terrible anyways and I stopped missing it after a while. Cooking healthy, fresh food at home made all the difference to my wellbeing.
5. Sometimes partners just don't get it and you need to spell out what you need. I've had a really hard pregnancy. My husband's sister had seven great pregnancies--seven! She made it sound so easy, it didn't compute for him when I was struggling. We had to communicate a lot about what I needed. Slowly things got better and now he's become my rock, but it was a big adjustment at first. Actually this holds true for anyone supporting me. I've had similar conversations with my mother and my sister.
6. If you're trying to conceive, use this time to get your life organized. You don't have to be ready for a baby necessarily, but finish up any work you want to do on your home or any other big projects you need to get done. I got pregnant really quickly and never got this opportunity.
7. This advice may be a bit of a trigger for some so read ahead with caution. My family doctor and my grandmother warned me about getting too excited about the pregnancy early on. Many early pregnancies miscarry no matter what you do. Sometimes it just comes down to luck. Of course this doesn't apply for women who have known fertility issues.
I had to have an amniocentesis to rule out Down's syndrome. I was so petrified even though everything turned out okay. If you do need to have one, know that it wasn't near as painful as I'd imagined--I've had IV's inserted that were more traumatic, LOL. And the piece of mind once I got the results was totally worth all of it 😀
8. On managing stress: if anyone tells you that your problem is you're too stressed and you're hurting your baby's long term mental health, please go ahead and punch them in the face! Seriously, this is the most useless thing to say. Not only did it stress me out more to hear this, but why did people assume I didn't want the best for my baby? Every knows stress isn't ideal. They're usually people who want to give advice but won't do anything to actually help.
9. Baby kicks are the best thing in the world. It's amazing when they start responding to your partner's voice or music or whatever. They are also very reassuring that everything is okay.
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Edited by Evana267013 - 16 April 2021 at 8:08am
Pregnancy
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