My Pregnancy Must-Haves

Although it’s been quite a while since the last time I was fully pregnant I honestly thought it would be a breeze since I kind of already knew what to expect.  I was wrong. This pregnancy has caught me by surprise! Our bodies change and every pregnancy is different. I heard a lot about how when you’re expecting a boy vs a girl everything is different, your belly looks different, the cravings are different etc. I honestly just think and like to believe that every pregnancy is JUST DIFFERENT. With that being said what worked for me almost 10 years ago didn’t work for me this time around. So let’s get right to it, these are My Pregnancy Must-Haves this time around:1.  The Fetal Doppler – Back then I didn’t even know these were available for purchase! Being that I previously miscarried, this time around getting a doppler was a must.  I was iffy about getting it in the beginning because although I bought it kind of calm me down and ease my worries I was still nervous to use it. I thought “What if I get it and I don’t hear anything? I’ll freak out and it’ll be worst!…” I got it anyway haha! At first I didn’t know what the heck I was doing!, I thought I’d just put the gel on my belly and put the little mic on my belly and boom there was the heartbeat but NO, that wasn’t the case. I didn’t hear anything! Which also scared the lights outta me! I googled some videos on it that were really helpful.  I eventually figured out that the actual babies heartbeat sounds like “horses running” don’t ask me how I came up with that haha, it was just what it sounded like to me, every other thump noise was either the placenta or my actual heartbeat.  There’s no limit as to how many times you can use it, it wont hurt the baby, trust me I asked my doctor.  I tried not to use it everyday, I used it maybe 2-3 times a week and just for my sanity. Overall it gave me a piece of mind. It calmed me when  I would overreact and thought something was wrong.  I personally bought it because I miscarried but I know lots of women that get it just because. I got mine off Amazon for around $40.

2.  Coca-Cola – Yes COCA-COLA! I know what you’re thinking “Caffeine is bad when you’re pregnant!” Truth is lots of things are bad for your body pregnant or not.  I know for a fact I drink a lot of soda period so I knew I had to cut down.  I asked my doctor and she stated I should cut down on the soda and sugar but she never said I couldn’t drink soda at all.  According to all the reading I do, I learned that pregnant women should only consume no more than 200 milligrams of caffeine per day.  If you sit down and calculate like I did….there’s about 71 milligrams in a 12-ounce serving (about 1 can of soda) , so I knew I couldn’t drink all the soda in the world but I was able to have a can here and there. I’m not a doctor so don’t quote me on any of this I’m just stating what I was told.  Anyway, caffeine does tend to help when your nauseous so I would always have a sip as soon as I would wake up to ease the morning sickness.  In my 1st trimester I also had a lot of headaches and I really mean A LOT! I felt like the Tylenol wasn’t helping as much so my doctor also recommended that whenever I get a headache and I take Tylenol I should have soda with it as well.  Might sound weird but it helped. When I was in highschool I used to get horrible migraines and I could have sworn it was from all the caffeine.  Again I was told to cut down from the soda but that it was ok to have some when I had a really strong migraine, apparently there’s something in the caffeine that helps relieve them.  Definitely consult with your doctor first, again this is just what seems to work for me.

3. Hair Ties – I’m a huge hair tie girl! I have hair ties by the bunch everywhere, not just when I’m pregnant! In my purse, in my car, in my bathroom, everywhere!  I always have them around since it’s so hot in Florida in case I need to tie my hair in a bun or a pony tail. Hair ties are also the reason I still wear my regular jeans while pregnant and I don’t have to buy maternity pants.  I think maternity pants are a waste of money, to buy $30-40 jeans that you’re no longer going to use after you give birth is bizarre to me. Yes you can use them again when you’re pregnant again but could you imagine me holding on to maternity jeans for almost 10 years? yep I can’t either. Hair ties just help keep my pants from falling when I can no longer button them.  I just put one end of the hair tie around the button and then the other end in the little loop, pull through and put the other end around the button and I’m done. It may not look too pretty but then again no one will ever know! As long as your shirt is covering it then it’s fine!

4. SweetTarts – Jaiden loves these candies, so I always tend to buy them for him to have around the house.  My last pregnancy I walked around with a jar of pickles to ease my nauseousness. The sourness of the pickle juice helped me a lot. Yeap, I would just drink the juice right out of the jar. This time around they didn’t help me at all.  I tried the preggo-pops, all the candies that supposedly helped but didn’t seem to help that much. I tried ginger-ale, I tried tea, anything I would read that was supposed to help I tried and none of it worked. I knew soda would help but I was feeling sick all day and I knew I couldn’t drink soda all day so that clearly wasn’t an option.  Then one day I was feeling so sick in the car I found myself looking for some sort of candy to just put in my mouth, to forget about how sick I was feeling.  I asked Jaiden for a SweetTart and the rest was history!!.  I didn’t chew it, I sucked on it (we are all adults haha get your mind out the gutter). It helped sooo much! Jaiden wasn’t too happy I was eating all his candy but I was just happy I found something that worked for me.

So there you have it ; My Pregnancy Must-Haves! Again these are just things that helped me along my pregnancy, if you try them let me know if they worked for you. If you have anything that you just couldn’t live without during your pregnancy please share and leave a comment below…. you never know if I might need more tips for the future 😉 !!