A Journey Through Pregnancy

INTRODUCTION (:01)

I’m Heidi and this is my journey with pregnancy. We have Nicolas who’s nine, Bennet is six and three-quarters, Grant is four and a half – he will tell you – and then we have the baby who is fourteen months, Rowen.

STAGES OF PREGNANCY (:16)

Looking back at my pregnancies, I really loved those first few weeks because you’re so excited about the news that you’re expecting. And then I also liked the last maybe four or six weeks, just coasting into the due date. Stages that were more challenging for me was always when the morning sickness kicked in. With my first I remember being at work one day, fortunately it was in an office where I could shut the door because a wave of nausea came over me so fast that there is no way I could’ve made it to the bathroom. That could be really tough to contend with and for me it got progressively worse with each pregnancy.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT AND EXERCISE (:53)

I worked out before I got pregnant with my first child and I just maintained that through the pregnancies. If you were pretty good at exercising before and if it was an enjoyable part of your life, which it certainly was for me, definitely keep it up. In general we know that exercise just helps us mentally and I think that really is amplified in pregnancy.

NUTRITION (1:16)

I tried to watch my foods, but for me it was really just eating whatever sounded good because nothing sounded good to me. I remember one day I thought, ‘Okay, a root beer float, I can do a root beer float today.’ I probably had three or four root beer floats. One interesting experience that I had with my third son, he was just getting really big in the womb during my pregnancy, and my doctor said, ‘You know, you’re going to be delivering a huge baby.’ And he said, ‘It’s better for you, it’s better for the baby, you’ve got to cut the sugar.’ Well that was it. I did it and I’m glad I did because he was a typical size.

TESTS AND CHECKUPS (1:48)

The weight check-ins, the blood pressure, all of that I was real careful to never miss one of the scheduled appointments. It’s a piece of mind thing really, and if that is available to you as a part of your health plan and your pregnancy plan then why not take advantage of it? And actually with my second pregnancy, because I went to all the regular checkups, my doctor was able to realize that I was having too much amniotic fluid. I was induced early and some other precautions were taken that otherwise might have been missed.

POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION (2:18)

I did have challenges with postpartum depression. With my first baby I think I didn’t even know what was happening. With my second child I knew that I had postpartum issues. I ended up getting on medication. For me it ended up being such a good decision. I felt like I was myself but with that sadness element just kind of lifted off. It’s such a precious season of life that you don’t want to kind of waste it, you know. You want to be there as yourself enjoying it.