I found a couple of things very useful for my second pregnancy that I didn’t discover for my first — and thought I should blog them in case they’re useful to anybody else. I’m sure any readers with other ideas will add them — I’ll do another post in a bit about some early babyhood stuff that I found useful.
The biggest problems I had with the second pregnancy were simply due to the size of the belly. I can highly recommend doing Pilates, or yoga, or finding some other way of getting somebody to help you figure out how to sit, stand, and walk as the belly grows. I stuck out in front which made the potential for lower back pain (which I had for my first, when I didn’t do Pilates) worse than for those women for whom the weight is more evenly distributed. I was in a coffee shop in the last couple of weeks and chatted to the barista about this; she thought sticking out in front and not being noticeably pregnant from behind was good until I pointed out it makes doing up your shoes difficult. You do get somewhat adept at twisting your legs around so you can get at your feet sideways — I found a long shoehorn was very useful at this stage.
A body pillow was useful for sleeping as you are meant to sleep only on your side, and the ligaments in your hips start to stretch and hurt, so you need all the support you can get. You can get by with lots of pillows, but a body pillow is easier to deal with. I didn’t bother with one of those fancy shaped body pillows, the basic straight version did just fine and was a lot less expensive. I also found regular massages from a registered massage therapist (make sure they have pregnancy pillows for support and have experience in prenatal massage) to be well worth the money — all those muscles that are being stretched and overloaded in unfamiliar ways really enjoyed being put back into place.
And of course you want to get as much done as possible before the baby arrives, while getting as much sleep as possible. No matter how tired you are before the baby arrives, and how little energy you have, you will be more tired and have less energy afterwards! Mind you, if you live anywhere like Vancouver and need any renovations done, you won’t have much choice in when things get done. They will get done when the contractor can fit them in, if you can find a contractor to do anything. And the rest will get done when you have some energy. Having a baby is a good lesson in what doesn’t need to be done.
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That is really funny, the comment about not being able to tie your shoes. I delivered my 3rd son on Aug 6, 2006 at 40 years of age..Was looking really good, at least I was told I looked really good, but let me say that pregnancy at 40, no matter how ‘good’ everyone says you look, is quite difficult, tiring and uncomfortable in general, and I was overjoyed when Noah made his appearance and I could finally ‘tie’ my shoes again!
I also found that a pregnancy pillow can help a lot when trying to sleep with a big belly.About the massages there are awesome and can help you to comfort yourself.
This is great advice — especially getting things ready before the baby arrives. You will really appreciate having the hard chores out of the way in those first few weeks postpartum.
Yeah a pregnancy pillow is great, but they are hard to get here, do you have the same problem elsewhere? (i’m from australia)
I just got a body pillow; I’m sure Myer or David Jones would carry them in Australia.
Excellent post Lauren, great advice. When I was pregnant, my body pillow soon became my irreplaceable best friend. Highly recommended.
–Jennifer
Wow thanks for a great post. When I was pregnant I enrolled in Pilates classes. It certainly helped with posture and made me more supple. I like to think it helped me through labor and I also made some great friends that I still see today…
I AM HAVING MY FOURTH CHILD BUT I AM EXPERIENCING FOR THE FIRST TIME WAT THEY CALL PREGNANCY DEPRESSION. IT SEEMS I DON’T KNOW RATHER I WANT TO BE HAPPY OR SAD AND MY SPOUSE HUSBAND AND I ARE ALWAYS AT IT. I FEEL HIM DISTANTING HIS\MSELF FROM ME BUT WE’VE BEEN THROUGH 7YEARS OF MARRIAGE AND 3 1/2 CHILDREN I DON’T WANT TO JUST THROW IT AWAY. HOW CAN I HELP MYSELF TO SAVE MY RELATIONSHIP.
Nico, I didn’t suffer from pregnancy depression, but I can imagine it’s a horrible thing to have to deal with. The only thing I can think of is to talk to your doctor about it. You need to get help and your doctor is a good place to start. Good luck!
im preg for the first time and and went to the doctor to find out how far i am,and i was told that its too early to tell.i am so desperate to know how many weeks i am
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