Pregnancy

Considering this is my first pregnancy, I had/have absolutely NO idea what to expect. Everything feels like it has flown by completely. Now that it's almost over, I feel like I have just a small amount of wisdom to pass down. I suffered through morning sickness for the first 18 weeks. I've had stretch marks that feel like they are ripping open sometimes. I've had heart burn that wakes me from a dead sleep. Layla is SO low that my back feels like it's going to break in two...so yeah, I feel like it's ok for me to impart a bit of wisdom onto women who may be in the early stages of pregnancy or, even just considering getting pregnant. Trust me when I say- even though all of the things listed above sound really terrible (and there are other things I haven't mentioned yet), you WILL love every second of your pregnancy, you will love to feel your baby move- even when it hurts, and, you'll fall in love with the small peanut on the screen the first time you see it. Even while pulled over on the side of the road, losing your breakfast all over the place (maybe even in the car a little bit) you'll think to yourself "man, I must really love this baby". Every single second of this has been worth it for me- and Layla isn't even here yet! It's such a learning experience and I've been begging Matt to have another baby with me since before we even found out that Layla was a girl. 

- My first recommendation is to find a place to sit down the day you take your pregnancy test. Obviously you probably won't look as relaxed (or face it, quite as put together) as Heather here, but it's hard to find a decent picture of a woman, fully clothed sitting on a toilette seat (what has been seen, cannot be unseen). So anyways, sit down. I made the mistake of standing up when I read my results and almost fell over. SO many emotions run through you when you see the positive sign that it can be quite overwhelming. You may feel scared, excited, nervous, happy, sad...there were a SLEW of emotions that ran through me all at once and I could barely breathe. I always say, you could have blew me over that morning, and honestly- you could have. I'll never forget that feeling. It was the absolute best. It's as if, almost immediately, your life becomes about something else. EVERYTHING you do revolves around the small bean floating around in your belly. What you eat, what you drink, what you buy, where you live, the air you breathe (I found myself using other entrances to stores if smokers decided to light up closer to one door than another), how you clean your house...it all changes. Life becomes about someone else entirely. And the most amazing part of all of this? You've never even met the person you're changing everything for, but you're more than willing to do it. It sometimes shocks me what I'm willing to do for my sweet girl. I mean, I haven't had a caffeine free diet pepsi (in a can only please) in 8 months. I must really love her because I was addicted to that stuff before!

- A decent pregnancy test. A pregnancy test, is a pregnancy test. There really isn't much to them. What makes them show up positive or negative is their measurement of HCG in your urine. I DEFINITELY recommend taking the test with your first morning urine (FMU) as it will contain a more concentrated amount of HCG in it. When I was peeing on sticks every week (ovulation tests and pregnancy tests. Although, ovulation tests should NOT be taken with FMU and should be taken at the same time every day, preferably in the afternoon- even if you're at work!), I always used to spend more money on ovulation tests than pregnancy tests. Pregnancy tests all measure the same thing at the same sensitivity. The tests that tell you they can detect pregnancy so many days before your missed period are WRONG. Trust me- when we were trying to get pregnant, I tried EVERYTHING to get a positive test. I researched several brands of pregnancy tests and, when I learned they all tested the same thing at the same level, I realized it didn't matter what I bought or how much I spent, I was either pregnant or not.

- keep plenty of what you crave on hand. In the very early stages of my pregnancy, I could barely keep ANYTHING down. But what I could keep down was Strawberry cream rolls. I ate close to my weight in those things. I would eat anywhere from 2-5 boxes of them a week. I loved them. I talked to my doctor about it at the very beginning because I was obviously concerned about the amount of nutrition I was getting. He said, eat what you can. Worry about what you can't eat later. So, I settled in to a pretty steady diet of cream rolls. Until I started feeling better and then I started to eat a healthier diet. I'm proud to say that I haven't eaten a strawberry cream roll since my morning sickness went away...however, I do have a sweet tooth that is very hard to fight off and I HAVE eaten a lot of ice cream, rootbeer floats, popsicles (see more on these below!), cupcakes...I can't get enough. They say if you crave sweets it's a girl, salt/sour it's a boy. Let me just say- Layla must DEFINITELY be a girl because I have never wanted sweets as much as I have wanted them while pregnant. Holy smokes!

-Full Panel Maternity Pants. I ALWAYS recommend these over the demi panel. I have a few reasons. The main one being that my belly popped SUPER early and I needed the support. I have been HUGE and showing noticeably since about 9-10 weeks. The full panel provided support without the muffin top...which brings me to my second reason for recommending full panel. Demi panel gives me HUGE muffin top! I don't know why. I have one pair of demi panel and they are SUPER uncomfortable. I bought them later in my pregnancy and when I sit down, the panel rolls underneath my belly and my belly then rubs against the denim. And let me just say- that HURTS if you have painful stretch marks (like me!). So yes, I definitely recommend the full panel! If you try it and you hate it, you'd be one of the first people I've ever heard that from. With all of this said, I recommend trying a few types of pants and shirts on at once. My personal favorite in the shirt department are shirts that hug my belly to show it off...now that I'm late into my third trimester, I've been looking at getting myself one or two more flowy tops so they don't rub against my belly as much and hurt it. While we're on the clothes subject, my favorite place to shop maternity (and baby!) is Old Navy. They have some GREAT prices and my clothes have lasted the entire pregnancy! I bought one shirt at Kohls that had holes in it within a week- Old Navy has stood the test of time and I'll be using them with my next pregnancy as well!

- Palmers Cocoa Butter. I recommend this NOT because it helped prevent stretch marks (because it didn't and stretch marks are mostly a genetics thing. If your mom had them, you will likely have them. If your skin isn't very elastic-y, you will likely have them. They aren't a big deal and feeling your baby move is SO worth it!), but because it helped prevent itching! Scratching your itchy belly is definitely NOT something you should do because it makes your stretch marks worse. I will admit, I've scratched it twice, until I read that it breaks them open and can cause them to bleed. I don't want my belly bleeding everywhere so, I apply a healthy dose of lotion 2-3 times per day to help avoid feeling itchy. It has REALLY helped a LOT!

- BANANAS. I HIGHLY recommend eating at least 1-3 of these puppies a week. Why, you ask? If you're like me and a lot of other women, you'll likely develop RLS at some point in your pregnancy. RLS is one of the most uncomfortable (and sometimes, downright painful), and annoying things I have ever dealt with. Imagine this, you're laying your exhausted body down for the night, you're all curled up around your maternity pillow and you're on the brink of falling asleep and suddenly- you're legs start violently twitching and there's nothing you can do to stop it unless you get up and walk around. You can try to prevent them from moving by really focusing on NOT moving your legs, but that only makes the pain, and urge to move them worse. The good news is that the potassium in banana's helps make the urge to move go away. When I had my glucose test done, they discovered my hemoglobin was low and put me on a Feosol regiment. I've been pretty diligent with taking the pills but ONLY because they help with my RLS at night. Low iron=RLS for me apparently. There have been nights where I have literally only slept an hour and part of that is because of my RLS. I'm really, REALLY hoping it goes away after Layla is born so I can start getting into more regular sleep patterns!

- A Snoogle! Oh man, there are SO many reasons I love my Snoogle and can't live without it. The main reason being belly and back support. Because my belly popped so early, I have had an aching back for the last 9 months. It has recently gotten a lot worse and sometimes, I can barely walk. So let me be the first to tell you how effing amazing it feels to slip in bed at night and have this pillow to rest my back on. Another great thing about it is that, if you flip it over, you also have belly support. This is great in the later months when your belly is so big that you have a hard time carrying it around. The pillow bends and you can create a TON of different sitting/laying down positions for the pillow that are all super comfy. Sometimes, I find that a chair simply doesn't provide enough support. So, I'll bring out my pillow, fold it into the shape of the support I need and where I need it and- VOILA! Instant comfort! I'm about to get pretty real with you in this section so brace yourself- with pregnancy often comes hemorrhoids. They can be super painful and uncomfortable to deal with. One great thing this pillow does is turn INTO a doughnut type shape on the bottom and you can wrap the rest of the pillow into back or belly support for yourself. It's hard to explain but, seriously, if I could post a demo video for you, I SO would. So many good things about this pillow. SO many.

-Popsicles were a GOD send when I was going through morning sickness. I've never been entirely sure why I craved them so bad or why they helped with morning sickness for me, but they did. I think partially because I was going through morning sickness during the summer (and we all know how heat feels when you're puking your guts up!) and they helped cool me down and made the nausea a little easier to deal with. I couldn't buy boxes of them fast enough. I'd bring them home and eat 2 or 3 within the first hour. I LOVED them. Something about the icy coldness of them- they just did it for me. I was even making my own popsicles with crapri suns, juices- anything I could think of- just so I could have a little more sugar water to help me get through the day. I can't say I never threw a popsicle up...but I blame that on the chinese food I ate. Even if you're skeptical of trying popsicles to help with nausea, I recommend opening your mind up and trying them. They might help you as much as they helped me and trust me- you will LOVE it if they do!

-Pepcid AC. I recommend this VERY very highly. I started getting the kind of heart burn that wakes you up in the middle of the night and makes you feel like you're going to puke probably half way through my 2nd trimester and it only got worse. I chewed on mint flavored TUMS for WEEKKKSSS- to the point where if I chew on one now, I gag because the taste is just awful. I finally got to the point where I just couldn't take it anymore. EVERYTHING gave me heartburn- even water! I called my Doctor and he said to take Pepcid. What a lifesaver! I've always been more of an "OTC" kinda girl rather than prescriptions (except when it comes to Antibiotics...which is a whole different story) so this was just perfect. I can take Pepcid knowing Layla is safe and that I'll be able to sleep through the night. Before I had Pepcid, I was waking up every 1-2 hours with heartburn/nausea/vomiting. It was truly terrible. The heartburn accompanied with RLS and a bunch of other things (including anxiety) is why I hardly slept for weeks. I'm finally sleeping a lot better now- I sleep a consistent 2-3 hours at a time and only wake up to go pee or have a drink of water (i.e. chew on ice chips!). 

- TISSUES. I don't care what brand- just get some. Some that are soft. One side effect of pregnancy is often a stuffy/runny nose. If you're lucky, it will turn into a sinus infection and then a double ear infection that you can't get rid of after 3 rounds of antibiotics and have to be referred to an ENT who can't get you an appointment for 2 months...but I digress. I have done nothing but sneeze, cough and blow my nose for the past 8 months. It's not uncomfortable or painful (well, except for the sinus/double ear infection that I've had for 2+ months) it's just annoying. And trust me when I say, people look at you funny if you carry around a roll of toilette paper. So yeah, get some tissues. You will thank yourself. 

- Tylenol. Considering you can't take ibuprofen while pregnant (which was a huge disappointment to me), you'll want to invest in some Tylenol. Before pregnancy, I had migraines ALL the time. Cluster migraines which are super painful. I'd have them for days at a time sometimes and nothing helped. Luckily, pregnancy has seemed to take those away so I don't need to take a ton of Tylenol. In fact, I've rarely taken it. However, in the first trimester, I had a headache frequently. Not a migraine, just a regular headache. It was because I was throwing up constantly and straining while doing so and it caused headaches. I'll be the first to admit, Tylenol doesn't really help with much, but the reason I recommend it is because of this: One day I went to work and ended up getting a migraine. Lights hurt, sound hurt, smell hurt, moving hurt, breathing hurt- you know, a migraine. I asked EVERYONE if they had Tylenol and all they had was Ibuprofen. I had left my Tylenol at home. I suffered through the day and was extremely ill by the time I got home. The Tylenol may not have made the headache go away completely, but it would have at least helped to dull it. So yes, get some Tylenol.