Pregnancy journey. My experience & my tips

Such wonderful news to know that soon you will be experiencing the journey of motherhood. But before that, there is always the journey of trying to conceive or adopt a child. In some cases, these processes can be smooth and uncomplicated, in some other cases it requires time, patience, faith, courage, and beyond.

Our son is now the new member of our family and I couldn't be happier. Love has been multiplied to infinity but sleepless nights too (at least during the first year with a baby).

Throughout my pregnancy, I learned a lot about myself and realized how strong a woman's body is. At this point, I would like to share with you what this journey has taught me. Hopefully something useful for you too.

So let's get started!

Every pregnancy is different, every woman is different.

I have heard lots of stories about pregnancies, I have been a friend to many moms and there is one thing I can tell you for sure. Comparing yourself to another woman and her pregnancy experience is not necessary. Our bodies are different, our minds are different. Prepare yourself for this journey and have faith that everything will work out well. It is not easy to say that, I know, but it is being said by someone with a high-risk pregnancy during the Covid explosion, without her family around, while being in a new country. It was just me and my husband and nothing came easy.

Nutrition

Some foods and drinks should not be consumed during pregnancy such as raw meat, seafood, unpasteurized cheese, alcohol, coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. I followed a specific diet, adjusted by my nutritionist with the right foods for me and my baby. This helped me also not to gain too much weight, which is very important not only for you and your baby's health but also for the time of the labor. Furthermore, drink lots of water! I was drinking a minimum of 3 L per day. Your body needs it!

Nausea

A few weeks after announcing the news to my hubby, I started feeling my stomach sick day & night.

The feeling of nausea 24/7 for the first 4 months, was not fun at all. Luckily, a colleague of my husband who was also pregnant at the time gave us a tip. The answer to nausea is cold water with some fresh lemon juice. I still cannot thank this lady enough! It was the only thing that made me leave the bed and I was able to enjoy the first months of my pregnancy a bit more.

Exercise

ALWAYS trust your body! If you feel tired, take a break or go to bed. If you don't feel like exercising, then don't. There are plenty of training classes for pregnant women and I was planning to start prenatal Pilates classes. However, exercising just didn't work for my body while being pregnant. Nevertheless, I did start with post-natal Pilates 4 months after I had delivered my baby. It helped me and relieved me from upper and lower back pain. Pelvic floor exercises helped me too and I personally consider them a must after delivering a baby.

Dear Men...

Your attention, please :) No need to talk much about our hormones... during pregnancy they affect every organ in our body. Our body is working hard for having this baby... we just need your patience, support, and your deep love. Maybe from time to time, a small piece of chocolate too.

Talking to my baby

Talk to your baby as much as you can. I remember my baby responding with a kick every time I was talking to him, even at 25 weeks pregnant. It was highly recommended by my doctor too and I called it ''our bonding time''. Babies can recognize your voice even from inside the womb. Imagine the feeling of a newborn, hearing the voice of his mom or his dad the moment he or she is out of the womb. The baby knows your voice already and feels safe.

No stress

It is very important to be in a calm state because your baby in the womb gets affected too. For instance, stress hormones go through the placenta to the growing baby and this can hurt the baby's development. During my high-risk pregnancy, I had to force myself not to freak out. The power is in our minds! Stay calm and maintain your inner peace.

Music

I love classical music and I used to listen to Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi etc, a lot during these 9 months. Babies in the womb are stimulated by classical music and studies have shown that music may have a part to play in brain development before birth.

Preparations

The baby room, the baby clothes, other baby essentials, and my hospital bag were all ready before week 30. Normally, by week 40, you are in labor. However, after the 30th week, I noticed that I started feeling much more tired than before, and moving around was not that easy anymore. Plus you never know when your baby will decide to join this world so better be ready early enough.

Pregnancy pillow and sleep

I started using the pregnancy pillow after the 25th week. It improved my night sleep drastically and it was great to support my big belly and my back. I recommended it if you are facing sleeping problems. A month before the labor, my sleep was often interrupted but I found out that this is normal. Nature is preparing you for the sleepless nights that are approaching after having your baby.

Inform yourself

Unfortunately due to Covid, we didn't have the chance to attend prenatal classes but we did talk extensively with my midwife regarding labor time and also about breastfeeding. I would highly recommend being informed about breastfeeding with a lactation consultant because it can be a bit complicated (at least in my case, with severe breast engorgement for which I had no idea). You could read my post about Breast Engorgement.

Pregnancy clothes

Last but not least, let's talk about pregnancy clothes. As I did not gain much weight till the 30th week, I bought my first pregnancy clothes around that time. So my advice to you would be not to rush into buying pregnancy clothes in advance.

I was wearing mainly dresses during my pregnancy because of three reasons. I live in Dubai and here we have summer all year long, I love dresses in general and I felt very comfortable in them compared to wearing a pair of trousers.

As this post is coming to its end, I hope that some of the above points will be helpful to you too and even if you are not pregnant at the moment, maybe this post will be useful to you in the future or you could suggest it to a friend.

May we all be blessed for every new journey in our life and thank you for taking the time to read my very first post :)

All the best!

Clio