People who know me well, know that I’m a little (a lot!) OCD about researching everything.
So, you can just imagine the amount of hours I spent (*ahem* wasted *ahem*) on the internet doing research (*ahem freaking out *ahem*) when I found out I was pregnant.
I wanted to dedicate this Thursday’s Things post to my pregnancy survival strategy. I know I know, pregnancy is not an illness….blah blah blah, it shouldn’t be treated as a disease blah blah blah, it is a natural process and everything that happens to your body is natural blah blah blah.
Ok well, that might be true from a philosophical perspective, but from a stretch mark, vericose vein, cloasma, ripped who-ha perspective, you CAN and SHOULD prepare for pregnancy. This post is dedicated specifically to pregnancy because this is pregnancy week on reasonstodress.com!
As I mentioned before I was on 100% bed rest for the last trimester of my pregnancy. This is a wonderful drawing one of my closest friends did of me in January 2012. At that point I still had two more months of bed rest to endure. I must say, if it hadn’t been for her, some long phone conversations and online shopping, I don’t know if I would have made it out sane.
The nursery was done pretty well in advance, but I was missing all kinds of things for the baby and myself. You can’t imagine how difficult it is to find certain products in Italy. And sometimes you can find them but MAN are they EXPENSIVE. And we’re talking EXPENSIVE. So I was more than willing to buy everything I needed from Amazon, since I could do all of my research in English.
I just want to make it clear that Amazon didn’t send me any of this stuff (but if the Amazon people are reading this, feel free to send me some free stuff now, I’ll take it!!). Preparing for a new baby when you cannot leave your bed AND you have no mom to help or sisters or really anyone aside from your husband who works 12 hour days, means you get 90% of things you need online!
A side note about the “malls” here and driving.
Italy’s malls kind of suck. Like in North America there are the real malls and then there are the ghetto malls in the old part of town that no one really goes to. You know the ones I’m talking about. There’s a carpet salesman, and Indian furniture salesman, a grocery store and some no name clothing store selling things that are so polyester that at any moment the whole store might go up in flames.
Well, it feels like ALL of Italy (aside from Milan) has just the ghetto malls and no real malls. These people don’t know what they are missing. But in many ways that’s ok since I like going into the centre of the city and not going to the mall. Besides, even if there were malls, I’d have to drive there…..and guess what? My Canadian driver’s licence isn’t valid here.
American and Canadian driver’s licenses’ are not valid in Europe once you become a resident. They only let you drive here if you are visiting with an International license. After getting my Italian license I understand why they don’t let North Americans drive here. The rules are DIFFERENT! No right turning on a red. The bus lanes have different symbols, the road signs are different (and there are like a million of them) and I still don’t understand the round abouts!
Early on in my pregnancy I decided it was “now or never”, to get my Italian licence. I had to go through the ENTIRE license process, just like when I was 16. I had to study a book, take a quiz, go to classes and learn to drive a manual transmission car. PLUS, I had to do it all in ITALIAN! Picture a pregnant Canadian lady, driving on Italian roads with a manual shift car. Needless to say that I fainted TWICE while driving (ahhh those pesky pregnancy complications just kept popping up), but I somehow managed to pass the actual exam and got my license. Shortly after, I was put on bed rest, and again all of my dreams of taking the car and shopping till I popped were crushed. Again, I heart online shopping.
I am a bargain hunter, I love thrift shopping like the next woman, but in my case I got almost every single thing I needed new and online. Here is a picture of just one of the amazon deliveries with my baby and pregnancy items. This is one of 4 deliveries with this amount of boxes. Needless to say, I was definitely over compensating with stuff for my obvious feelings of inadequacy at coftronting new motherhood alone.
The Top 3 Things I Used to Survive Pregnancy
1 – Argan Oil
If you haven’t heard of Argan Oil (often referred to as Morroccan oil) I’m so glad to see that you’ve come out from under that rock! Argan oil is where it’s at. Those Berber women must have the softest bodies ever, because this oil is amazing. This anti-oxidant rich, “liquid gold” is packed full of linoleic acid. Linoleic Acid is an essential fatty acid that preserves the integrity of skin cells, contributing to elasticity and aiding in the regeneration of collagen and elastin. Just a few milliliters of Argan Oil on your boobs, belly, hips and thighs, gives your rapidly stretching dermis the moisture and protection it needs to avoid tearing and leaving scars (aka stretch marks). Once you are finished giving those body parts a daily rub why not just finish off with a few drops on your face, arms, legs and elbows! And there you have it. A full-body treatment that not only PREVENTS ACNE (I never once got pregnancy acne breakout), but it is also anti-aging as well, so your whole body will look younger and brighter. “Anti-stretch mark lotion for pregnant women” was one of the first search terms I started “researching”, and so once I was satisfied enough to know that Argan Oil was the answer to my prayers I was on the hunt for some. I found a small bottle in a local health food boutique. I think it was like 10 ml for 100 euro (ok I’m exaggerating, but not by much). What I’m trying to say is Argan Oil is EXPENSIVE. I think it is the most expensive oil currently sold for cosmetic purposes. So this is what I did. I went to the source…..well almost. I contacted the Argan Oil Farmers Association of Morocco, they provide bulk “drop shipping”. I could get something like 20 litres for 150 euros. Now, that’s not bad at all! For only 50 euro more, I would have enough Argan oil to last me till my 80s! The problem was that price didn’t include customs fees, an import licence fee, shipping fees, taxes etc. etc. etc. Oh and I think I needed to prove I was a shop owner….so yeah. I thought it was a good idea, but really it wasn’t.
So I went with the next best thing. Online! Here, I found 500 ML for $54.22 including shipping.
This is PURE Argan oil (not a combination of Argan with some other oil, and it is cold pressed and cosmetic grade, since you can also get cooking argan oil).
You can’t get much better than that. I used it throughout my whole pregnancy, everywhere, without ever being skimpy.
Even now, almost 20 months after I’ve given birth, I still ONLY let argan oil touch my face and body. Once you’ve tried it you never go back.
My main recommendation is DON’T WAIT until you start to feel itchy and feel your skin stretching. Get yourself some Argan Oil in your first trimester and use it DAILY throughout your pregnancy.
Even though Argan can help heal stretch marks, prevention is key. Remember what your mother used to say “a stitch in time saves 9″, well apparently this also applies to keeping your post-pregnancy belly stretch-mark free.
2 – Medical Compression Maternity Hosiery
Yesterday I got a little too excited about my compression pregnancy tights by Sigvaris. Now you may be thinking “what are maternal compression tights? Can’t I just wear regular pregnancy panty hose? Isn’t that the same thing?”
The answer is NO.
Do you love your legs? Do you love your non vericose vein, fun in the sun, let’s go to the beach and wear a mini skirt, life is fabulous legs? If the anser is yes, and you are pregnant, get yourself some compression tights.
Now, I know that this may not apply to all women. I know that out there in “miracle fantasy land” there are women who breeze through pregnancy, they never get heartburn, they never had an achy back, their pregnancy faces glow, their belly was the only part that grew…why you could hardly tell they were pregnant. But then, there are the rest of us in “normal people land” and according to the Sigvaris website:
Thirty percent of women pregnant for the first time, and 55 percent of women who have had two or more full term pregnancies develop varicose veins, according to a report by Swiss Medical Weekly. … One reason is due to the increased blood volume at full term. Additionally, pregnancy causes hormonal changes that increase blood coagulability, a measure of how easily blood clots. Wearing compression socks can help keep your legs healthy during pregnancy and beyond.
So there you have it 30% of women get varicose veins duringg/after their first pregnancy. I was NOT going to be a part of that statistic. I spent a LOT of money a few years ago getting my body hairfree with laser hair removal, I was not going to throw that investment out the window. What good are hair free legs is they are covered in big gross bulgy veins?
Plus, don’t think that compression hosiery means that you go around looking like your grandmother in ankle socks and slippers, they have come a long way.
Now there are sexy thigh high compression pantyhose with lace on the top.
Why….who knew?
Now that you are pregnant you can actually be sexier than your pre-pregnancy self. It would be hard to find a man that wouldn’t appreciate his lady in black (but they also come in nude!) thigh high stockings!
And in case you are wondering, Sigvaris is the best brand out there for medical grade compression hosiery. No this isn’t sponsored, it’s just the truth!
And finally the last thing I used to survive pregnancy was……..
3 – Water, lots and lots and lots of H²O!
Sure I could have talked about belly bands, and 60+ sun tan lotion to prevent Chloasma (the mask of pregnancy) and multi vitamins etc. But all of it pales in comparison to WATER.
A normal, healthy, adult woman needs 2.2 liters of water a day. The famous “8 glasses” of water a day gets you 1.9 liters, so that’s not bad. But a pregnant lady needs AT LEAST 3 FULL LITERS OF WATER A DAY.
Real water. Sure you can have some fruit juice, just be careful about how much sugar your gulping down.
Your growing baby needs water, you need water and if you want to have a healthy breast milk supply your boobs need water too!
According to the BabyCentre website:
During pregnancy, your body needs more water to cope with the demands of your changing body. Water is essential for healthy blood cells and to keep your body hydrated. Water is also a key component of breastmilk, and essential for good lactation.
Dehydration during pregnancy can lead to many complications such as headaches, nausea, cramps, oedema and dizziness. This is especially important in the third trimester when dehydration can actually cause contractions that can trigger preterm labour.
Some women find that drinking water regularly helps relieve symptoms of morning sickness, acidity and heartburn as well as indigestion.
It also eases constipation, hemorrhoids, oedema and water retention.
Although you may not think so, the more water you drink during pregnancy, the less water your body will retain.
There you have it people! The more water you drink the less bloated you will be. Water retention is a sign of your body retaining water because you’re not drinking enough.
Since I had low amniotic fluid (a condition that runs in my family) I was drinking between 4 to 5 liters a day, and let me tell you I felt pretty good. Did I pee all the time?….Yes. Was my skin fantastic? YES!
With every liter I downed I imagined my cute little baby in my belly playing under a waterfall of freshness. And strangely enough the more I drank, the more I liked it and the more I craved it.
These are my top 3 what are yours?
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