Here’s our list of useful little tips that we’ve discovered either by complete accident, those around us or from reading the many many books to guide you through those nerve wracking, exciting and maybe a little bit sicky 9 months…
Self – Help Books – So you pee on that little stick, (not as easy as it sounds believe it or not) that little word pops up and you look at each other, excitement and anxiety flood your veins and then suddenly it dawns on you…oh crap, what now?
Your first instinct is to rush out and buy every single self help book possible, i mean thats practically what we did but DON’T! Trust us, there will be someone around you that has one that they can lend you, you can use a pregnancy tracker app (we used Sprout Pregnancy App) and if you really do need to go and get one, try and stick to just a couple because as we found out having too many can confuse and overwhelm you, this is because there can occasionally be conflicting advice and opinions. Remember that you don’t need to follow these books religiously, because even though we found ones we really liked we may have only used certain sections of advice. (The best books we used were “What to expect when you’re expecting” and “The baby book: How to enjoy year one”) We also noticed that unfortunately a lot of them are geared towards the mother, which frustrated us because we BOTH wanted to know what was coming for us!
Morning sickness – One of the first signs that youry growing a tiny human…unless of course your one of the lucky ones and this skips you completely! I certainly wasn’t, morning sickness hit me hard and it didn’t have to be the morning either. Yep, thats right, morning sickness can strike whenever it pleases, morning sickness doesn’t play by the rules and can even make you avoid certain foods completely because even the tiniest scrap could cause the entire contents of your stomach to revolt and evacuate its fleshy prison. I would strongly advise you have a bucket / bin tucked away in every room in the house just in case of emergencies…morning sickness and clearing up the aftermath does not go well!
My list of foods that i couldn’t eat just kept getting longer and longer, there would even be days where i couldn’t eat or drink anything and i had it on and off throughout the whole pregnancy, so i really had to get inventive and desperate with the sort of things i could consume. Some of the best solutions were Calippo’s, Lucozade and Peanut butter on toast. The traditional things like Ginger biscuits and crackers did nothing for me, but no matter how bad it was the end result is totally worth it and i promise you it does get easier, just stay strong and puke through it!!
Stretch Marks – Or Tiger stripes if you’d prefer, the first place they arrive is your boobs, which i didn’t realise until it was too late! So get that lotion on the girls as soon as possible (your partner may want to help with this one *wink wink*) and then get that growing bump smothered too, making sure to get round onto your sides and onto your hips. I would recommend doing this at least twice a day to try and help reduce the chances of them appearing, however it is very likely that they will creep across your skin anyway and unfortunately thats just the way it is for some of us but the lotions and potions may help them be less harsh and will aid in fading them later on.
Your Changing Body – Love your body! It’s doing something remarkably beautiful and you should be proud, i felt my most beautiful and sexy when i was carrying my daughter. Being big didn’t bother me and once you can let go of that it’s so freeing and you get a huge wave of confidence.
Birth Plan – If you’re like me, i had no idea what this meant and definitely had no idea what i would put in one. So i researched it and found a good example, i didn’t realise there were so many things to consider! It’s not just where you want to have your baby and who you want with you, it covers things like a water birth option, do you want an epidural? do you want music? who cuts the cord? do you want the jab to help deliver the placenta? Birthing positions? You can basically tailor it to exactly what you want BUT i will say that if you do decide to create a birth plan please remember that anything can happen in that delivery room, so i would definitely try to be flexible with it because even though the midwives will gladly try and stick to your plan, they will ultimately always have you and your babies health as their main priority.
Breast or Formula – This folks is completely your own choice, i’m not going to lecture you about whats ‘best’ because at the end of the day its whatever is best for you and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! You stick to your guns and don’t feel obligated one way or the other, only you know what is best for you and your family!
Hip Pain – Unfortunately i suffered with Pelvic Girdle pain in the later stages of pregnancy, I would definitely recommend getting a belly band and just taking it easy as much as possible, when getting in a car sit down and then swivel yourself in and try not to overstretch your legs when climbing stairs. I also found that my Pelvic Pain was at its worst at night, so don’t be afraid to take painkillers and make the most of those body pillows/wedges, making sure to place it between your knees to help take the pressure off of your pelvis.
Classes – I’m going to be honest here, we didn’t go to any ante-natal classes because money was tight and unfortunately there wasn’t any free ones close to us, so i would advise that if you can get to one, give it a go but if not its not the end of the world because you can still have access to plenty of information.
However because of this we did get advised to go to a free class called Early days as it would go over the first few days after your baby is born and basically how to look after them, great we thought, this would be a great one for us to go to and both get educated at the same time….we were there for two hours and for at least 1 hour and 30 mins we were taught about breast feeding and everything else linked to it. Now it was a very informative two hours if you had decided to breast feed your baby, but for us it just felt like a wasted journey because we had decided that aside from the first feed when she was born, we were going to formula feed.
Also Will was the only father that was there and he felt so awkward and wanted to leave, i didn’t understand why there was such a weird atmosphere about a father being present and involved in the whole process! Are dad’s not allowed to want to be involved and know everything they can to help both mum and baby? I say hell yes! Neither parent should feel excluded from this magical journey into parenthood, besides the more dad knows the more he can support mum.
Prep / Packing – I cannot stress this enough, when getting a hospital bag prepared, make sure you pack some comfy clothes for yourself, stick with those maternity leggings and loose tops, you’ll need them! Bring yourself and the person coming with you something to do, labour is a long process and it can get pretty boring! Following on from this bring snacks for both of you, hospital food can be quite limited especially if you’re in over night, i would also bring some change for the vending machines (we had many late night vending machine picnics)
Make sure you have all the essentials, for example a couple of outfits for baby, don’t worry about mittens they NEVER stay on! Plenty of Breast pads and Maternity pads for yourself, nappies and wipes for your little treasure, a blanket and depending on your own personal preference bottles and dummies.
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