First-time pregnancy? Welcome to the club or, the ride. Being pregnant for the first time can come with so many emotions. Emotions that you expect to have, and emotions that no one tells you about. In this post, I’ll give you ten tips I wish I knew in early pregnancy as a new mom.
Now let’s dive in with the first thing I wish I knew in my first few weeks of being pregnant.
Feeling not pregnant is completely normal! For the first few weeks after finding out I was pregnant I felt absolutely nothing.
Emotionally and physically, I felt exactly the same but for some reason, I always assumed that pregnancy came with instant emotions.
Especially for a woman’s first pregnancy? I took at least three pregnancy tests, spoke with my OB and got a blood test, and all the results remained the same. I was fo sho pregnant and regardless of how I felt, life was growing inside me.
Tip number one (your complimentary starter tip), enjoy those few weeks of feeling physically normal! For me, by week 7, that morning sickness was knocking on my door and then kicking it in!
But let’s talk emotions! After years of unprotected sex with my husband, I honestly thought that the day I found out I was pregnant I would be in the mirror taking pics of my 5-second pregnant body. But instead, I felt strange.
My first-time pregnancy consisted of me having a conversation in my mind. Once the dust settled and I accepted that I indeed was pregnant, there were a few things I learnt very quickly that I knew I needed to share with you all. Let’s get into these first-time pregnancy tips.
1. First-time pregnancy tip one: Take Naps, naps are your friend!
Working full-time can make taking naps hard! But the only good thing that came from the pandemic for me was working from home and having the ability to plan out my day and use lunch as my nap time! In the first trimester, one of the most common symptoms is fatigue. Growing a baby is tiring! So adding scheduling extra sleeping hours into your day is essential for your growing baby and for your new momma. But what if you work full-time and have an overly crazy schedule?
Anything less than 6 hours of sleep is harmful to your body, believe it or not getting excessive sleep (10 hours or more) doesn’t do you any good. The recommended number of hours you should sleep during pregnancy is 8-9 hours.
When it’s your first pregnancy, the changes that your body goes through can be wild. It’s essential to listen to your body, especially when it’s telling you that you’re tired. But napping isn’t for everyone and as stated above, excessive sleep is not the answer! So what is the answer to days when your schedule is crazy?
Create a schedule and make bed time a priority.
If napping isn’t possible make sure you at least have a schedule that allows you to go to bed in time to get the necessary amount of sleep and rest required for you and your baby. Trust me, your body will thank you and have the fuel to assist you throughout your hectic days.
2. First-time pregnancy tip two: Morning Sickness is a Lie
Morning sickness includes everything from nausea to vomiting to loose stool. And just a side note. To the person who made there term “morning sickness”: You clearly wasn’t thinking about women that were sick throughout the day.
First-time mommas if you haven’t realized it already, morning sickness is not just in the morning but can definitely last throughout the day or some parts of the day in comparison to others. I was lucky to discover multiple natural remedies to overcome morning sickness, especially while at work, but personally on days that it was too bad, I worked from home or took a sick day. This led me to having to tell my boss I was pregnant from a very early stage, but it was definitely worth it! Even though you may want to wait until you are at least 12 weeks before telling anyone, letting your employer know can have a lot more advantages than disadvantages. Especially if your morning sickness really is in the morning, you may need a few extra minutes in the bathroom before heading into work.
3. First-time pregnancy tip three: Drink Water, another new a friend
If you’re already a lover of H20 skip this part and keep up the good work! But if you’re like me, hello and welcome.
Switching to water as my main source of liquid intake was hard! But it became easier with discipline.
The Institute of Medicine recommends that pregnant women drink about 10 8-ounce cups of water every day.
To make sure I was hitting this goal I made the life of drinking water more fun and less gross. So I started my journey with a cute drinking flask.
For some reason, having a cute glass to drink out of made drinking water so much easier, I know it sounds crazy but don’t knock it until you try it! Side note: If the flask is transparent here’s another tip:
Add fruit to give it that spa feels and to add to the taste! In my first trimester, lemons were the only fruit I could add to my water and it actually helped with the “morning sickness”.
4.First-time pregnancy tip four: Google is not always right
Whether it is your first pregnancy or your second or third, all women find themselves on the google train at some point, and I can definitely speak of the spiral that can send you on. But for us first-time mommas, its essential to know that Google is not always right!
Although google is enriched with so much great information, it is so easy to get confused by symptom comparing and random facts that google can give you.
What has helped me a lot throughout my pregnancy is using Google as a search engine to find pregnancy groups. I’ve also used it to find awesome apps such as the Nurture Glow, to help give me a daily guide on what to expect throughout my pregnancy and knowing when something is normal from not normal.
Another great use of google is finding certifed medical pages that can also be a great assistance in helping to give you the low down on what to expect and when to call you OB, and on that note let’s move to tip number 5.
5. First-time pregnancy tip five: Never feel afraid to contact your OB & your doula
No question is a stupid question! My ego consistently made me feel like I was a hassle and a bother to my OB, especially during the early stages of my pregnancy.
I had so many questions because of the consistent changes my body was going through wasn’t normal. I was finally able to jump off the anxiety train when I realized that, my OB was there to help!
And if you have a doula, more power to ya! Use the resources that you have and never feel afraid to reach out when something does quite feel right.
If your OB or doula ever makes you feel anything other than special during your pregnancy. Change your OB or doula.
Its essential to make sure you surround yourself with women who make your feel comfortable to ask whatever question your beautiful intuition can’t quite figure out.
Never forget. If this is your first pregnancy, be kind to yourself. You won’t have all the answers and that is what your midwife and doula are there for.
6. First-time pregnancy tip six: Trust your intuition
We as women have that deep gut feeling of when something isn’t quite right. That gut feeling in the pit of your stomach that will let you know what your emotions and mind sometimes refuse to accept.
That is your intuition.
Your intuition has the powerful ability to acquire knowledge without recrourse to conscious reasoning, giving us direct access to unconscious knowlegde.
For a first-time pregnancy, this is great news. It basically means that you don’t necessarily need all the experience in the world in the field of pregnancy to know when something isn’t right. When a gut feeling persists and your body is telling you something, always, always listen!
When learning how to trust your intuition during your first pregnancy, follow these steps and make them apart of your daily routine for best results throughout your pregnancy:
- How long have you been feeling this particular way? Take notes of what you feel and try to time stamp how you are feeling and what your gut is saying.
- Pay attention to the way your body is reacting to the situation.
- As you go through your day, notice the signals, and twinges your gut tries to send you.- Iused this to figure out the gender of our baby.
- Spend as much time as possible with people who reinforce you and as little time as possible with people who bring you down.
- Be aware of the tapes in your head that will tell you to leave your body out of the decision-making process and listen only to your busy brain. Practice telling the voice in your head to step aside because you want to get your body’s guidance, too.
- When you have free time, don’t rush to the To-Do list that could otherwise rule your every waking hour. Sit quietly and ask your body “What should I do now? ” The answer might be something you and your baby need that you haven’t provided yet.
- Stop and attend when your body signals you. Let no squeak or twinge go unaddressed. Pause and reflect on the message your intuition sent you.
7. First-time pregnancy tip seven: Take Your Prenatals Vitamins!
For women experiencing their first-time pregnancy, the world of what vitamins to take is so broad and so wide that it can really get confusing. But you have to choose a vitamin that works for you. There are a few essential supplements that you and your baby will need throughout your pregnancy and most of these you will want to be included in your prenatal vitamin.
Here’s the low down of what you want included in your daily prental:
8. First-time pregnancy tip eight: Your Body is changing. Fast!
Skin, Hair & Nails
Eventhough it may take a few weeks before seeing a difference in your physical appearance, especially for women’s first-time pregnancy, the changes on the inside will soon enough, begin to reflect on the outside.
From skin changes to your nails and hair, pregnancy affects your physical appearence for the better and sometimes for the worse. Though most women experience the beautiful glow of pregnancy, it is not uncommon for many women to feel like they have skipped that and gone straight to pregnancy acne.
I was lucky to experience beautfiul growth in my hair and glowing skin on my face, but for some reason, pregnancy ache came knocking on my backs door. Yes my literal back door. I had acne from the top of my shoulders to my stomach and right back around to my butt.
It lasted for at least 3 weeks and I had no idea what was causing it. Until I learned how hormones affect our skin as well as its sensitivity.
If you are experiencing acne try and change up your skin routine, go for more natural products, and avoid harsh chemicals at all costs-this is for both your benefit and the baby. After changing my routine and switching bath soaps the glow felt slightly more real at about 15-20 weeks pregnant.
That small change made a world of a difference. As your skin stretches you will experience a lot of changes to your body, including potential stretch marks and itching, but again, this is all preventable with the right skincare guidance.
Weight gain.
It is absolutely natural to fear the changes your body will go through throughout your pregnancy, but one of the first things to remember is that you are changing because you are carrying life! Whether the changes that are happening are happening at the speed you want or slower or faster.
Always be kind to yourself.
Positive affirmations are so essential in this time! They will help you remember the goal and why these changes are happening . Having this thought process was a life-saver for me. I let go of the things I couldn’t control and made sure I stayed on top of the things I could, like how much I was eating and the types of food I put in my body during my pregnancy.
Diet is a big part of making sure you look and feel healthy while also keeping your baby strong and healthy.
9.First-time pregnancy tip nine: Not all foods are your friend
Not all food is your friend but there were days that Mc Donalds felt like the only friend I needed and wanted. A nutritious diet is so important to the way your body will deal with pregnancy as well as for your health and the baby’s health.
I definitely did not always stick to my plan of how I wanted to diet but I trusted my intuition and when my body wanted carbs or protein I took that as a signal that this was something my baby needed that my body was lacking.
Throughout the ending of my second trimester, I tried so hard to stay away from processed food. As hard as it was, I tried my best to eat nutritiously and have small cheat days when the cravings became real!
Try and get as much nutrition as you can, because, between nausea and vomiting or loose stool, it’s easy for your body to lack the essentials that it needs. By your second trimester when you start to feel brand new, use that time to create some form of a schedule of when and what you will eat. Doing that can make a big difference with how much you eat and keeping track of what you’re eating.
