Hi Everyone! I have been MIA for a while because I got pregnant, had a baby, and I am now finally feeling like myself again. Having a baby has been life changing and I want to share what helped me through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and what I do now for my son. I will start off with things that really helped me stay healthy throughout my pregnancy.
Drink 2-3 litres of Water
Staying hydrated was key for me to feel good. A lot of fluids go to your baby and to creating new blood so it is important to stay hydrated. I drank 3 litres of water everyday. Before getting pregnant, I drank at least 2 litres a day. It is important to drink more water than you did prior to getting pregnant. I found drinking lots of water really helped with keeping my skin moisturized, giving me energy, and helped me eat healthier.
Exercise Regularly
Before getting pregnant, I exercised 5 days a week. After I got pregnant, I continued to work out (taking classes, pilates, and weightlifting) until I was around 36 weeks and then I decreased the exercises to 2-3 days a week and then to just walking as I got closer to my due date. Make sure to check with your doctor or midwife before exercising. I did check with mine and they said exercising was completely safe as I was already working out before.
Take your vitamins
I never took vitamins regularly but once I got pregnant, I knew the importance of ensuring I had all the vitamins and minerals needed to ensure my baby was as healthy as possible. Of course eating lots of healthy nutritious foods is the best way to get all your nutrients but sometimes life gets busy and you just can’t eat well all the time. I did a lot of research in finding clean, vegan vitamins and you should do your own research. Every day I took a prenatal vitamin, folic acid (crucial for your baby’s development), calcium (this is super important because pregnancy is the only time you can rebuild your calcium stores which will get depleted if you breast feed and as you age), iron, and an Omega 3 supplement. My favourite brand of supplements are MyKind organics but I also like Whole Earth Even though I am currently not pregnant, I am still taking the MyKind Organics one a day prenatal vitamins and their calcium. I just love how they use real food ingredients with no chemicals.
Avoid toxins/chemicals
Everyone always tells you to avoid certain things when pregnant including soft cheeses, raw fish, bagged salads etc. But I think it is also important to avoid as many toxins and chemicals as possible. Our skin is the largest organ and it absorbs so many chemicals from the products we use daily so I switched as many products as a could to non toxic versions. For makeup, I switched to products that had the “clean at sephora” label, I changed my soap to organic castile soap, and for body lotion, I made sure to use ones with the least amount of chemicals as possible. I will have another post up shortly about which body lotions I used to help with stretch marks.
Relaxation
Being pregnant while working full time was extremely stressful so I made sure to take time at the end of the day to relax. I wanted my baby to be as calm as possible so every night I took a warm bath with epsom salt and baking soda. I found this made my skin extremely soft and helped with achy muscles. After getting out of the bath, I would slather myself with lotion then go to bed. I found this was the best way to relax just before bed.
Hope you all enjoyed this post. Look out for my next post in Pregnancy series.
xoxo
-D
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