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Pregnancy is no joke. It is SO tough, every time, and in so many different ways! But thankfully, in the end, it's always worth it when you're holding your sweet newborn baby.
There is so much out there on the internet about pregnancy, it's hard to know what to look for and what to trust. That's why I put together some of my favorite resources for pregnancy here! I hope you find them as useful as I did, even though I didn't find some of these resources until I was pregnant with my 2nd and 3rd babies!
Mental Prep - Books to Read While Pregnant
Mental Prep - Books to Read While Pregnant
What to Expect when You're Expecting
I read this book while pregnant with my first baby. I found it really helpful to calm my anxieties about being pregnant. It explains everything going on in the body very well, and with a light-hearted and cheerful touch. I'd definitely recommend this for 1st time moms who are expecting!
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
I wish I had read this book before my first baby was born! I only started reading it after I started preparing for an unmedicated birth with my third baby. With my 2nd child, I had a complication, post-dural spinal headache, with the epidural and was not supported by the doctors or nurses in the hospital at all. Just knowing some of this information in this book would've helped me tremendously to avoid the epidural. Even if you may not agree with what the author thinks, or even if you think "why even use a midwife, if you can use an OB?" (I know I thought so at first, out of my own ignorance!), I would highly recommend this book just to have the knowledge and a different perspective.
I could write WAY more on this, but I'll leave that for a future SubStack post and link to it here!
On Becoming Babywise:
Giving Your Infant the GIFT of Nighttime Sleep
Although not a pregnancy book, I recommend reading this book while pregnant. I had never taken care of a newborn baby before, and I had no idea what to expect. This book gives good guidelines to be aware of, even if you choose not to follow this method, it is a good starting point in preparing to take care of a newborn!
Click here for my full review of the book, and link to my SubStack post (hint: my kids were sleeping through the night by 10 weeks old!)
Physical Prep - Courses and Exercises
Physical Prep - Courses and Exercises
I wish I had taken this class before my first baby!! I learned so much from it (I did an in-person class, which I would highly recommend), and definitely recommend taking this class if you can. At first it sounded kind of weird (how could I "spin" a baby?), but after taking it and learning of the actual physical positions and physical anatomy of pregnancy, labor, and delivery, was SO HELPFUL even though I had already given birth twice. Turns out that you don't actually "spin" babies as the name suggests, but you learn how the baby fits into your body and how you can prepare your ligaments to accommodate labor as you are going through pregnancy.
As a disclaimer, I have not taken this online version of the class, but I have heard that the information presented is the same as in the in-person version. It is definitely cheaper and more convenient as well!
I love these prenatal barre workouts! They are organized by trimester, and are just the right about of time duration (< 30 min.) and difficulty level for expecting moms.
I really enjoyed Dr. Betsey's Course "Floor & Core" Lab. She explains the "why" and "how" of the exercises really well, and it has helped me better understand how the pelvic floor works, as well as give me simple exercises to implement to gain back my core and pelvic floor control. Although I haven't taken any of her other courses, I have heard from friends that they are all really good as well!
Financial Prep - Set Yourself Up for Success
Financial Prep - Set Yourself Up for Success
While you're pregnant, this is the best time (if you haven't already) to start planning how you will be financially successful with your new bundle of joy!
1. Create a budget
If you haven't done one before, now is the time to start! Check out this article to get started: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/budgeting/how-to-create-a-family-budget, or take a look at my Personal Finance page for more info.
Once you start a budget, it takes around three months to get into the groove and get an idea of your and your partner's income and spending habits. This means that if you start even halfway through your pregnancy, you'll still have a good idea of what your finances look like before baby arrives! That is bound to relieve some stress in what is an already stressful time (even for 2nd and 3rd time moms!)
2. Know your family values
What do you want your family's culture and values to look like? This is a pretty loaded question and needs to be pondered and decided upon with your spouse (you can read more about this here), but the biggest question related to finances is: Do you want to stay home with your kids? Why or why not? If the answer is yes, and that is one of your values, you absolutely can make it work by planning ahead and budgeting. If not, you will need to decide who will take care of your kids for you, and budget for that appropriately. [Hint: It's not cheap and it's not going to be as good as you would be (no matter how you see yourself as a mom!)]
3. Save for OB/midwife visits and hospital fees (if applicable)
Read through your provider and your insurance's policies, and make sure you know what it is going to cost beforehand. Start saving that amount and putting the money aside (this is easy to do if you use a budget like EveryDollar!) That way, when the hospital bill comes, you have the money set aside and you can start your parenting journey without medical debt!
Pro-tip (US-only): After you give birth, if you call the hospital and ask for a paid-in-full discount, and you pay in full, they will usually give you 10-20% off of your bill (this is even after the deductible!) I've gotten 20% off each of my hospital births. You can also do this with other medical bills as well.
4. Budget for baby expenses
You don't need the latest and greatest tech, the most gadgets, or the newest toys to have a happy baby. Keep things simple, and don't let baby marketing get ahold of your wallet!! I'll post a SubStack article with my opinions on what has been useful for me, and what hasn't.
5. Create a mock future budget for any changes you anticipate once baby arrives
This is really important! My husband and I dropped from 2 to 1 incomes so that I could stay home and raise our children. Our salaries were similar, so this was a big hit for us. I created a mock budget for what that 1-income budget would look like, and let's say things were REAL tight... but, this didn't matter to us because our family's values were centered around having me at home. We adjusted the budget accordingly, and cut out a lot of our extracurricular activities.
When our first child arrived, we weren't stressed at all about how we were going to "make it work." We knew it was going to work, because we planned for it. Having your first child is already so stressful-- there are so many unknowns. Why not take care of what is under your control right now-- your finances-- and plan appropriately for what will be an amazing (although sleep-deprived) first couple of months!
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