Top 5 Pregnancy Must-Haves

Howdy, friends!  Hope you're having a happy Tuesday.  My morning was happy, because I woke up and could finally breathe through my nose.  Unfortunately, the Afrin nasal spray I used last night must have worn off sometime during the day because it didn't take long to feel horrible again.  I promise to try to stop complaining about this illness soon, I just can't seem to get rid of it!

In other news, much to my delight, since I've gotten pregnant, several of my girlfriends have as well.  I am obviously no pregnancy expert, but I thought about the things I like most about the pregnancy and baby blogs that I follow, and one of them is that they are not only entertaining but helpful.  So, with that said, I thought it would be neat-o to do a post about my top 5 must-haves throughout this pregnancy, in hopes that anyone someone may find it helpful.  This list was on the verge of being a "Top 10" because I was having trouble narrowing it down...maybe I will eventually do with a "part 2" list, but I didn't want this post to be too boring long.  Anyway, I hope you moms-to-be out there find this list helpful!

1.  The bella band.  I have blogged about this ingenious invention several times before (except I think I've previously been calling it the belly band, whoops).  This was SO helpful to me during the first part of my pregnancy, and I really was able to use it comfortably a little past halfway through:

There are times, particularly in the beginning of pregnancy, when you will really be "in between" from a clothes standpoint.  Some of your clothes will fit ok, others definitely won't, and you'll be too small for maternity clothes.  The bella band saved me money on clothes by allowing me to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes for a longer period of time.  They are such an inexpensive alternative - you can find them at places like Target, Amazon, etc. for anywhere from $10-$20.  Additionally, they come in a variety of colors, so you can pick up a few to go with every outfit.  I think I have a black, a nude and a white, and trust me I wore those suckers slap out.  I have noticed that for me, it's important to still feel pretty - especially on days when I feel like a whale - and this helped with that because I had a bigger variety of clothes to choose from until I got too huge.

2.  Tums.  I should by stock in these suckers the way I go through them.  My heartburn has been OUT of control.  Need I say more?  My favorite "blend" is the berry one because it contains all the best flavors:

Additionally, for any of you who are like me and are not milk lovers, 2 tums satisfies half of my daily calcium requirement (my doctor enlightened me on that one).  Double bonus!

3.  Stretch mark cream.  A good stretch mark cream will change your life!  It is allegedly a wives tale that stretch mark creams actually prevent stretch marks - it has more to do with how fast you grow/gain weight, etc. - but a lot of women swear by it.  Additionally, as the skin on your belly starts to tighten, it will be so itchy, so a good cream is nice to have around.  I have used mine religiously twice per day since I found out I was pregnant.  I knew in the beginning that stretch marks likely wouldn't appear until later in pregnancy, but I wanted to avoid them if at all possible.  There are three that I have used, and I like all of them: Palmer's Stretch Mark Cream, Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Balm, and Mama Mio Tummy Rub Stretch Mark Butter.  As stated above, I like all three and have used all three, but if I had to pick a favorite, I'd pick the Mama Mio:

It smells the best and is the least greasy of the three, and I like the consistency of it.  Highly recommend!

4.  A body pillow.  A lot of women find that they don't need one of these until later on in their pregnancy, but I needed mine pretty early on.  I am a stomach sleeper, you see.  You're supposed to sleep on your side - better blood flow to the baby or something of that sort - but due to the fact that I have terrible circulation, my limbs were always falling asleep, so having something to wrap around made it much easier.  There are quite a few varieties out there, but the one that was highly recommended to me by multiple girlfriends and that I ended up going with was the Boppy total body pillow:

I can't remember how much I spent on this sucker but it has been worth every dime and then some.  I loved it from the moment I got it, but it has been increasingly helpful the bigger I've gotten, because it's hard to get comfortable.  It also makes getting in and out of bed easier.  I would highly recommend something like this - sleeping as much as you can pre-baby is a must, from what I hear.  :-)

5.  A way to document your pregnancy.  This is more of a "to each their own" type of thing.  I have never been good at keeping up with a journal/diary/anything of that sort, but when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted something to help me keep track of my pregnancy.  Those of you who have been following for a while may remember the blog about the belly book that I ordered.  I still absolutely love it, but I would be lying if I said I had been keeping up with it.  I was religious about it at first - I did weekly updates and an extra update from doctor's appointments, but I don't even think that lasted until the gender reveal, if I'm being honest.  Once I started blogging, it was easier not to write in it.  I would love to have done it the old fashioned way and continued to fill out the journal, but I got so behind and then couldn't catch up.  I've considered trying to update the book from going back through my blog posts, but that's going to take some time at this point.  Anyway, at least I've documented it somewhere, right?  AND blogger has this nifty tool where you can turn your blog into a book, so maybe I'll look into that after homegirl is born.

This got longer than I anticipated as usual, hope I didn't lose anyone!  I also hope you found this list helpful.  If there's anything that my Mom friends can think of that I've left out, feel free to leave me some comment love so that my girlfriends who are expecting can see.

Almost hump day, woohoo!

Sarah