This is the other loose end i wanted to tie up at the end of my pregnancy that i never got to. This is my completely biased advice for women out there who are not pregnant yet but who may plan to become pregnant one day. i do have some friends who read this who might just fall into that category. hopefully you will have kids one day that sabine can be friends with (how fun will that be?)
so this is my advice, things that helped me or worked well for the whole pregnancy thing, or things i wish i'd done or known .. in no particular order.
1. Get your eating habits where you want them. nancy told me that the fetus fed off of my pre-pregnancy nutrition for the first three months, which was good because i couldn't eat anything good for me in that first trimester. then later i only wanted to get back to eating well so that was helpful. but i also let pregnancy be an excuse to eat a lot more naughty things which is NOT good. so the better you're starting with your eating habits, the better off you'll be.
2. Challenge your Body. especially if you think you'd like to try natural childbirth. you have to learn through doing that your body has a lot more energy than your brain thinks it does, that your body can do a lot more than your brain thinks. you have to learn to trust your body. it just makes both the pregnancy and the birth so much easier if you can just hand it over to your body instead of having your brain involved (because, duh, you don't know how to grow or birth a baby with your brain, but your body knows just what to do). i do yoga to challenge my body and mind, but you could run long distances... longer than you think you can go, you could do any endurance sport, anything.. but challenge yourself.
3. along those same lines Get into regular exercise. it's so important for keeping yourself and your baby healthy, and it sets you up well for the birth and for losing the weight afterwards. but it's hard to START an exercise program when you feel vunerable, sick, tired, or fat all the time. so if you're already in the habit then you'll MISS it if you're not doing it instead of feeling like it's a chore to start doing it.
4. find ways to Reduce Stress. Pregnancy is stressful, labor is stressful, being a new mom is STRESSFUL. so if you can work on knowing ways that help you de-stress and practicing those before you even get pregnant then again you're way ahead of the game. plus, it creates a lower stress environment for your baby to grow in and a lower stress environment for you as you start the baby making party
5. Enjoy the Baby making part. because that will never be the same i'm sure.
6. Plan but don't Obsess much easier said than done, even for me and i'm chronically chilled out. planning is fun and joyful. obsessing invites a lot of anxiety which is not what you want in your womb when the baby does get started there. it should all be fun, not stressful.
7. If possible, get pregnant about 3 to 4 months before your birthday or a holiday then you can get maternity clothes as gifts. that was really fun for me. : )
8. Be ready to SLOW down. pregnancy is an earthy lethargic state of being. you are heavier, things take longer, you are tired. so you want to be prepared for this and invite pregnancy in a time in your life when you can move a little slower, be reflective. not to mention, living on babytime is like being in a slow motion time warp. EVERYthing takes longer (like this post has taken me two days to finish up). it's better to prepare yourself now for it and know life will be different in that way too.
9. Take a fun vacation first because again, nothing will ever be the same. go with the girls or go with your guy and HAVE FUN!
10. Read this depends on your personality. when i was first pregnant i realized i really knew nothing about it so i immediately bought some books and then felt so much better. same thing when i became a mother. about a thousand books arrived here last week and they make me feel MUCH better (haven't gotten near reading them yet of course). but if i'd read some in advance i might have felt even more prepared.
Enjoy! enjoy your life as it is, enjoy your life as a pregnant woman, enjoy your life as a new mom. just be in the moment and enjoy. that's all i can say. it is all fleeting so it isn't worth it to be upset or anxious for your whole life, teach yourself to look for the good in everything and the world is a much better place! how's that for a positive attitude?
(in a side note, Sabine's november pics are up and i do plan to blog soon about how yoga and meditation help with anxiety/life during pregnancy... i promise it's coming!)
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