12 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE PREGNANCY IN 2023

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Hello Pretty!!!! Today I want to tell you 12 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Pregnancy. All about my experience in pregnancy and everything that I have been able to experience in this process!

First of all, I want you to know that this is my experience and each woman lives it in a completely different way. But what I can say is that my baby is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Sooooo, Let’s get started!

Before being pregnant, you can hear how other moms talk about how beautiful and magical is to be pregnant! I can say that they were 50% right! BECAUSE! It is true! you are forming a human being within yourself and I think that that is something incredible! no doubt it. 

But, nobody, nobody girl! tells you what you’re going to go through.

When I was young, I thought Pregnancy was about having a big belly, getting fat, having vomiting and dizziness, and pain in childbirth. For me, that was being pregnant! 

But I was super duper wrong! Ladies and gentlemen! Let me tell you! That’s not the only thing about being pregnant.

Being pregnant is much more tan vomiting and dizziness. And many moms out there don’t tell you otherwise, for fear of what other people could say about them, because they don’t want to feel judged for not being grateful. 

I have to be honest with you, apart from being a blessing, it also brings a lot of pain and illness. And you have to be prepared because every time you have any sort of pain your doctor will tell you that everything is normal and they can’t prescribe you ANYTHING!

Now I am going to summarize 12 Things that I Wish I would Know Before Pregnancy and how to overcome most of them:

1. Breast Pain: 

For the First 3 months, the pain in the breast is horrible. It seems that you are going to explode! For that, I used warm water compresses to relieve the pain and it worked!  The breasts felt lighter after putting on the pads.

2. Dizziness and Vomit in Pregnancy:

Dizziness and vomiting are hard but are so common in pregnancy. When you brush your teeth in the morning you think you are going to throw up everything! 

For this problem, I can recommend to you the following products that helped me a lot:

Pink Stork Nausea Support: Morning Sickness Relief for Pregnant Women

3. Sleepy and tired:

That is super normal. Feeling exhausted and fatigued while pregnant is okay because your body is working so hard to create a baby! Just cheer up and continue with your activities even if you look like a zombie! lol

4. Frequent Urination: 

The constant urge to urinate is incredible and increases even more in the last months due to the pressure of the baby.

5. Risk of urinary infection or Cystitis in Pregnancy:

I got this infection when I was 5 months old. it was 3 am and I had so much pain. I went to the bathroom and I couldn’t pee. it was so painful, I can’t describe it. My husband went to CVS at that time to buy me Cranberry Juice because I knew I could drink that and it will help me. I invite you to read my post about How to Deal with Cystitis while Pregnant, which has more tips on how to overcome this infection. 

6. The Sciatic Nerve in Pregnancy:

Something called the Sciatic Nerve! If you are not a mom (yet) and don’t have anything to do with the Health Industry, this term will surprise you as much as it did to me. I have never heard of it! And it’s called SCIATIC NERVE! It is a pain that starts in the hip, and sometimes it does not even let you move, it is like an intense cramp.

7. Cramps:

Talking about cramps, this one is very famous in pregnancy. Foot cramps in the middle of the night. You have never felt a cramp-like this, I swear!. The muscle contracts horribly. It happened to me every time I stretched!! Well, I knew when it was going to happen to me, so didn’t feel the satisfaction of stretching for 5 months of pregnancy lol 

The best tip for this problem is to give a massage in the affected area and it will ease. AND ALSO try to eat a lot of bananas! it is a good source of potassium and also contains magnesium and calcium. And basically, you need those nutrients to ease muscle cramps.

Funny Note: The first time it happened to me, I yelled super loud and my husband was super scared. lol. He did a little massage and it was over.

8. Rib Pain:

As time goes by, the baby needs more and more space and the uterus has to grow. Because of that, I got a hurtful pain in a rib! You have no idea! It felt like a broken rib without having suffered a blow. You can’t even take a deep breath. It was so painful.

9.The way you sleep changes in Pregnancy:

That would never be the same! At least for the upcoming two years (if you are going to breastfeed) The more advanced in the pregnancy, the more difficult it becomes! 

For example, I heard:

• that you can’t sleep on the right side because the oxygen does not reach the baby well. 
• You cannot sleep on your stomach because of the obvious belly. 
• that you can’t sleep on your back because you’re drowning and coughing up (it’s true) then your only choice is your left side. 
• The left side will be your best side for the last few months. But if you get rib pain like me on that side you’re screwed!

10. The flu

If you get the flu, you are carried away because you cannot take any medicine. Neither the home remedies included honey, ginger, or cinnamon because those are very hot for the baby (and can harm the baby). So, endure the discomfort! 

11. Heartburn

You will get horrible heartburn !! It seems that it goes from the chest to the back! Some people say it is because the baby is going to have a lot of hair !!! Well, you better! LOL.

12. Rhinitis from pregnancy

Is that a thing? Yes, it is, and only 10% of pregnant women it, and guess what? I got! LOL.

For those of us who have never suffered from rhinitis, it means that your nose gets stuffy, especially here in Boston, in the winter season, the heating doesn’t help much and doesn’t let you breathe. 

It usually happens at night and It becomes more difficult to fall asleep. It is hard because through sleep you give your baby oxygen and that is why you must sleep well! 

For this I got the perfect tip: I recommend you boil water and put a little bit of eucalyptus and inhale the steam. Do this before you go to bed and you will feel much better afterward.

Also:

• Be careful with adding too much salt to foods because it will make you retain fluids… 
• Be careful with sweets so that you do not get gestational diabetes either preeclampsia…
• Remember your daily dose of prenatal pills...
• if you get anemia you need to take additional vitamins (like iron which can make you constipated) so that you do not have to get a blood transfusion…
• If your hair falls out is normal (even if you are going bald)…

For constipation I used to take the following:

These products also support Gut health, Relieve cramps, and provides natural relief.

The Pink Stork (as they said, they are not sponsoring me in this post, I just truly love these products) has this wonderful bundle that I highly recommend because it has the essentials to survive while pregnant:

AND SO ON!

It is a lot to take when you are pregnant and you think that is unstoppable. But my friend, let me tell you: it gets better! don’t worry about tomorrow, live the present and enjoy that belly and the baby that is inside. Everything will pass and your baby will bring so much joy to your life. 

At the time, when I was going through all of that I thought childbirth was going to be nothing compared to everything I had experienced. (It wasn’t, but I am going to dedicate a post specially to when I deliver my baby)

But people say being pregnant is not a disease, well that was the sickest 9 months of my life. As I said at the beginning of the post, every mom life this experience in a completely different way. I wanted to congratulate those moms that didn’t feel anything while pregnant! But I prefer to tell the next moms everything that has happened to me so that they can get ready!

Anyways it was a super nice stage! So wonderful that I would not change anything. 

Well, friends, I hope this post has been very useful for you. In any case, if you have any doubts, questions, or concerns, you can follow me on my Instagram @not_a_fit_mom and send me a little message 💌 I will gladly answer you.

If you loved reading this post, share it with your friends and family and support my Blog 🙏

With love,

Ana

#notafitmom #sharingiscaring