Congrats, you’re pregnant! So am I! This will be my 3rd and last baby and I can’t tell you how excited I am! I’d like to think I have a bit of experience with this whole pregnancy thing and I have this brief memory in the back of my head going “hey, you might want to do x, y and z.” But I remember feeling so lost when I found out the first time and still kind of lost my second time but maybe I have my stuff together enough this time to help someone else out in the future with the “next steps after the test”.
If you know early like I do, congrats and take a deep breath. Today I’m almost 4 weeks along. I know early because I use the Ava watch and a little voice in my head said go take a test after I was studying my Ava data.
First thing first, pregnancy is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re a first time mama, you especially have some time and you do not need to go out and buy all the things right at this moment, but there are some things you need to consider right now.
Now, my doctor won’t see me until I’m 8 weeks, but I can go ahead and get an appointment scheduled with my OBGYN. Don’t have an OBGYN? Now is the time to find an OBGYN. There’s a lot to consider when picking out an OBGYN. Figure out what is most important to you in a physician; hospital privileges (where their patients can give birth), bedside manner, male or female, are they part of a practice or an independent practitioner. I’ll see if I can find some good articles about selecting an OBGYN for pregnancy and add them here if I do.
If you aren’t already, get on a prenatal vitamin. I’m not a physician and will not recommend vitamins but I am on the Rainbow Lite Prenatal and Prenatal DHA vitamins. I took these my first pregnancy and my second pregnancy my doctor was able to prescribe me a prenatal.
Think about your beauty products… I’ve actually just messaged my dermatologist for help on this and will have to report back. I know that retinols need to be stopped and a few other ingredients but I’ll be working with my derm to give me help because according to google, everything is bad. This was one of the hardest things for me in the past.
Think about your diet… talk to your doctor about this first of all. But don’t go all donuts, pizza and milkshakes all day everyday. From past conversations with my doctor, I should really only add 300 calories to my diet but I really don’t need to do this right this minute.
Think about your workout routine… Now is not the time to go all gung-ho. I think one of the most disappointing things I’ve found over the years is the lack of prenatal programs available to expecting mamas. I like to work out from home and I’m actually good about doing it. My apps I will use will be Move Your Bump by Nancy Anderson and Tone It Up. I’ve been a member of Tone It up since 2016 and really like their programs. I’ll veer more towards their prenatal workout if I’m needing an easier day. I found Nancy Anderson back in July when I signed up for her Ab Rehab program. I have not done her Move The Bump program yet and literally just signed up for it 2 days ago so I’m still getting acquainted with the app. But if her Move The Bump program is anything like her Ab Rehab, I know I’ll really enjoy the work outs.
Lastly, and this is probably just a me thing, anything I’ve bought clothing wise that still has tags on it, return immediately! Those aren’t going to fit soon and it’s essentially wasted money just sitting in my closet no matter how cute it is… In fact, I’ve had clothes sitting up in our storage room that I put away after my last pregnancy that still don’t fit and I decided to get rid of them this past weekend.
Be kind to yourself during the process! Give yourself grace! Enjoy yourself! We have a long road to go but let’s make it fun!
That’s it for now! I’m excited to bring you along on my journey and hope that some of this helps you too!