My Pregnancy Overview

I continue to receive reader emails asking questions about my pregnancy, so here’s a post on (hopefully) everything you’d ever want to know about it!

Weight
I’ll start with the most popular question, which is weight gain. I gained a total of 26 pounds during my pregnancy which was right in the “normal” range for my body type. One thing I found helpful for tracking my weight gain was this chart from ParentingWeekly.com which my friend Jill (who was also pregnant at the time) shared with me. Around 20 weeks I began to get concerned that I wasn’t gaining enough weight, but as you can see (my progress is the orange line in the picture below) my body quickly made up for it. It was also really helpful to see that even though I had some weeks with dramatic weight gains, I was still within “normal” limits.

Food
It didn’t take long for my normally huge appetite to go into overdrive when I was pregnant. I’m not sure I ever felt full those entire 9 months! To keep myself in check I kept a food journal during most of pregnancy, keeping track of what I ate and at what time. I didn’t count calories or any other information–I just kept it simple. I primarily wanted to make sure I ate every 2-3 hours (to prevent binging later–a horrible habit of mine) and to make sure I was getting enough protein. I also used these daily logs to keep track of taking my vitamins and supplements, and to make sure I was getting enough water. A typical day’s log would look something like this:

7am–Carnation Instant Breakfast, vitamins
9:30am–Oatmeal w/wheat germ
12pm–Salmon, wild rice
2pm–Peanut butter granola bar
3pm–Nerds candy
5pm–V8
6pm–Cheese & crackers
8pm–Pancakes

Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. I tried to make a few dietary changes for the sake of the baby. This included drinking more milk (I hate milk), drinking a V8 every day (I hate vegetables and choking down one of these down sans vodka was often the hardest part of my day), and adding wheat germ to my daily bowl of oatmeal. I read somewhere that wheat germ is a “pregnancy superfood” so I decided to give it a shot. Two tablespoons per day is what was recommended and I found that adding it to my oatmeal or cereal was the easiest and least noticeable way to get it in. My grocery store carried two brands of wheat germ and of those I liked Kretschmer’s the best. The other kind–I can’t remember the brand name, but it came in a bag versus a jar–tasted like ass. I only mention it to save you the potential gagging (and the $4) if you decide to give wheat germ a try.

Cravings
I remember during my first trimester my friend Jill asked if I was having any cravings. I told her I wasn’t, but then G jumped in and asked, “What about pancakes?”

Me: “Pancakes aren’t a craving. They just sound reeeallly good to me.”
Jill: “Um. What do you think a craving is?”

Good point.

Pancakes were my first pregnancy craving, and holy hell did I eat a ton of them! It also didn’t take me long to realize that when I wanted pancakes I wanted them FIVE MINUTES AGO DAMMIT, so prep time wasn’t something my hormones could be bothered with. To keep my hunger from turning into a Code Red Situation, I made huge batches of pancakes and kept them in freezer so I could quickly heat them up whenever the urge struck. In addition to pancakes, pretty much ALL breakfast foods quickly became cravings of mine–cereal, eggs, waffles, toast, and cinnamon rolls. Especially cinnamon rolls. I went through a HUGE cinnamon kick for a while there. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Activity
To balance out all those pancakes, maple syrup, and cinnamon rolls, I tried really hard to keep active during my pregnancy. Luckily I was able to keep running all the way through my second trimester which really helped. I also continued low weight/high rep strength training classes at the gym (Body Pump) through my second trimester and a bit into my third, but gave it up once being on my back became too uncomfortable. I used the elliptical all throughout my pregnancy and it was pretty much the only thing I did during my last trimester. I tried one water aerobics class–which is supposed to be excellent for pregnant women–but it just wasn’t for me.

In addition to trying to remain active, I also started seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis. I’ve dealt with hip and sciatic nerve problems in the past from running and wanted to be proactive about not experiencing those same problems–which I’ve heard are common–during my pregnancy. I had some very slight, occasional hip pain as my belly grew and my body expanded–but nothing compared to what I’d experienced in the past. And thankfully I didn’t have any problems with my sciatic nerve! My hope was also that keeping my body properly aligned would help with delivery, but since I ended up needing a c-section I can’t really speak to that.

Symptoms
I was incredibly blessed to have no morning sickness or nausea during my pregnancy, however I was horribly tired all throughout. I think I’ve shared this before, but I remember one day during my first trimester when I was so exhausted that I could barely make it up the stairs to get to bed. I ended up stopping mid-flight and just crying over how tired I was before finally crawling the rest of the way up. It was awful. Luckily that extreme exhaustion didn’t last all 9 months, but I never really experienced that burst of energy I hear people talk about during their second trimester. I was pretty tired the entire time. My sleep, on the other hand, was a bit varied. I had a lot of sleepless nights late in my second trimester and early in my third trimester, but luckily I slept really well at the end of my third trimester.

Another symptom I had all throughout my pregnancy was congestion–although using a humidifier in our room at night really helped. I also had really low blood pressure, so I was pretty dizzy and light-headed quite a bit until I got used to moving more slowly. I fainted once (and almost twice) during my pregnancy, but luckily it wasn’t too serious. Another prominent symptom was just being ridiculously forgetful. That is hands-down what drove me the craziest! I hated that I couldn’t remember ANYTHING and spent most of my pregnancy saying, “This is what stupid people must feel like.”

I had very minimal swelling during my pregnancy. I experienced it once during my second trimester during a three-hour flight (that was horrible) and then had some slight swelling in my fingers during the last week or two. I also got a bloody nose once, which was strange, but luckily not reoccurring.

At the top of my list of symptoms I managed to avoid is stretch marks! This was one I really couldn’t believe. With how big my belly got (my belly circumference maxed out at 44″) I was POSITIVE I was going to get stretch marks. I would’ve bet the house on it. I rubbed Palmer’s Tummy Butter on my belly every night and it’s hard to say if that helped prevent the stretch marks or if I just got lucky, but many of you have asked what I used so I thought I’d share. I also managed to avoid skin tags, varicose veins, heartburn, and other pregnancy horrors. And last but not least, my belly button remained an innie! It was hanging on for dear life at the end but it never popped out!

Overall, I had a really wonderful pregnancy and absolutely loved being pregnant. I’m pretty sure this answers all the questions I’ve received, but feel free to let me know if you have any more!