Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Pregnancy tips & ideas

I realize that all my "little things" have been baby related.  So, here's a few "little things" that are pregnancy specific. =) 

* make a "maternity bag" to keep all your paperwork together.  You're going to have a lot of brochures, papers, doctors notes, etc that you will want to keep together and ready at hand.  My bag went with me everywhere, I always had it in the car incase I needed it.  Now that T man is here, I have a "baby bag" with all of his paper work and doctors papers etc.

* Do you kegels!!! Absolutely 100% do them!!! Every day, all the time, do them!  You will regret it if you don't (trust me) Once you push that baby out, you have NO control over your vaginal muscles for a period of time post partum.  The amount of time it takes to recover that muscle controls depends on your kegels.

* Buy a suction cup shaving mirror for the shower.  One day you will look down and realize that you can no longer shave below your belly! =)  A little $5 mirror makes all the difference in the world =)

* speaking of shaving ... once you hit the third trimester you will very likely begin to bleed every time you shave "down south".  It's just superficial bleeding due to the increased blood flow you've got going on down there.  It didn't matter for me if I used shaving cream or not, new blade or old blade, I bled every single time.  It's really just bothersome, not painful at all.

* Some prego's use a body pillow or a special maternity sleeping pillow, but I found those to be bulky and cumbersome.  I preferred to sleep with 5 regular pillows.  That way I could rearrange them differently every night to suit my needs. 

*  Sleep on the outside side of the bed.  Don't sleep against the wall.  You will be getting out of bed frequently and trying to crawl out of bed or (in my bedroom) squeeze out the "skinny" side of bed is just plain impossible.

* Stock up on panty liners.  Even with kegels, there will come a time that every cough, laugh or sneeze makes you pee "just a little".  It eventually goes away, some time after the 4th trimester (sorry!)

* Stretch marks are something every mom-to-be dreads.  There's a few things you can do to try and reduce or delay their appearance, but honestly, if it's in your genes, there's not much you can do to avoid them completely. BUT! here's what I did and my marks didn't appear until 36 weeks and they are small & light (yay!)
  • first & most importantly, gain weight slowly.  I'm not saying to avoid weight gain (you need to gain a healthy amount of weight for the baby's development) but gain it slowly so your body & your skin can adjust to the changes going on.
  • water water water!  Drink loads of water to keep your body hydrated.  Also, you may notice in the early months that you feel dehydrated (I had crazy severe cotton mouth) so drinking a lot of water should come easy to you
  • moisturize your skin as often as possible.  I used baby oil after every shower and a good heavy lotion the rest of the day.  I usually lotioned up at least 3 times a day and I continue to lotion my marks so that they will hopefully fade away ... far far away!
* Take belly profile pictures every couple of weeks even if you never show them to another living soul.  You will want to look back on these months and remember what it was like to carry your darling baby inside your belly.

* And when you take your pictures, pick one shirt to wear at 3 months 6 months and 9 months.  It will be fun to see exactly how your belly grew thru the pregnancy. 

* Create a new email account for all things pregnancy, maternity, medical and eventually, baby related.  It will make keeping all that medical info organized and easy to find.

* Doing prenatal exercises and yoga (with your doctors permission) will help relieve a lot of the pregnancy aches and pains.  My doctor gave me this sheet of simple, basic stretches that proved to  be a life saver for my during my 2nd & 3rd trimesters. 

 

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