A little birdie told me a good friend is expecting and is due a few months after me. Since she will be the first friend to be pregnant after me, I finally have someone to share my pregnancy advice with. I’ve been waiting for this day for months. I already told her to just let me know when I’m being annoying, but I couldn’t help but share my top 10 early pregnancy tips with her (and you).
1- Take belly pics NOW. Like right now this minute before you forget and two months pass. I am so thankful to have pics from those early days so I can compare each week’s current belly with the early ones. I thought I was so big early on, but I really wasn’t.
2- Write in a pregnancy journal. Every time a thought comes to you related to your pregnancy, whether it’s good or bad, write it down. I just have a simple Word document where I write my random thoughts. I draw from that for these blog posts and I love going back to read my earlier thoughts. It’s amazing how quickly you forget things.
3- Invest in good bras as soon as you need them. I forced myself to wear too-tight bras for weeks and I dreaded leaving my house. I did two steps with pregnancy bra buying- first I bought my favorite underwire bras in a bigger size. Then, when I outgrew those, I switched to the Bravado nursing bras on the recommendation of a friend. You can buy them from Target. They are inexpensive, don’t have underwire, are super comfortable and have some give so you can wear them even if you grow a bit more.
4- Invest in good clothes as soon as you need them. I was too embarrassed to buy maternity clothes too early on, but I should have. I would have been a lot more comfortable and would have had a greater range of outfits to wear to church and out with friends. It is important to feel beautiful!
5- If you don’t have any complications, get monthly prenatal massages. For my mother-to-be day present my husband bought me 5 gift certificates for prenatal massages. I was so grateful I cried. Prenatal massage feels so great on a sore pregnant body, and it is worth the splurge if you can make it work.
6- Join your Babycenter birth club. Babycenter has a great community, and the birth clubs are a personal favorite. The women in your club are going through the same things you are, so there is a built in group there who can relate to exactly what is going on with you in that moment. It is especially great for those first 3 months where not everyone knows you are pregnant but you have lots of questions. I am on my birth club daily.
7- Schedule in a daily nap. I didn’t think I’d need naps early on, but every couple of days I would suddenly feel so tired I’d begin to fall asleep wherever I was. I started scheduling in an hour of down time when I could, and knowing that nap time was around the corner helped me stay productive.
8- Don’t be afraid to say NO. I had a tough time with this and still do. It is ok to decline social invitations if you need rest or are feeling nauseous. Your friends and family will understand.
9- Spend a little time each day talking about life’s upcoming changes with your partner. My husband and I would naturally spend about 10 minutes each night talking about the baby and how things would be different and how excited we are. It helped us to bond early with our baby (I already feel like he is part of the family). It also helped us grow stronger as a couple.
10- Confide in at least one person in the first three months. If you choose to wait until the first trimester is over to share your news with the world, I highly recommend telling at least one person early on. My husband had to go through the crazies with me, and it would have been a lot easier to have a veteran mom to talk to about pregnancy worries/strangeness/etc.
