Mommy Must Haves And Something I wish I Had Not.

Being pregnant, it seems that I require so many more accessories than I did before to accommodate all the changes. Every magazine and pregnancy website seems to have their list of "Mommy Must Haves", after trying some of these products and finding many on my own, I thought my own review of these mom products would be helpful.
When you become pregnant lots of weird things start happening to your body. I've heard of women's hair changing color, feet growing, heightened gag reflects, liking food that was disgusting to the individual before the pregnancy, skin break outs and strange dreams are just a few. One of the first things I noticed was hair loss.....on my head. I was definitely less than thrilled. I'm not talking about underneath hair that could be easily disguised, I had full on on top and in the front hair loss on the side where I normally would part my hair. I parted my hair on the opposite side of my head which was really tricky in the beginning because of the way my hair falls naturally, but the real problem was when I started to get regrowth. Yay! Regrowth sounds like a good thing right? Not so much.... If I kept my hair parted on the side with hair loss I had one gnarly one sided mullet, this was not good. Even if I continued parting my hair on the opposite side I hade little spiky pieces of hair sticking out and up everywhere! I went out and bought and Herbal Essences leave-in protector, it's called Long Term Relationship(available Here) and it's for repair and protection. I put one squirt of the product(about the size of a nickel) in my hair after my shower, morning and night and it's helpful conditioning my hair and when I blow dry my hair it tames the regrowth down and allows my hair to be smooth no one can see the regrowth.
One side-affect that seems to plague most pregnant women is stretch marks. Thankfully my skin is very stretchy to begin with but the real secret to keeping stretch marks at bay ( for the most part anyway) is exfoliation and moisterization. I exfoliate every time I shower, with a light scrub and a synthetic loofah but like most people I forget to lotion on a daily basis. I have made a point to moisturize every day and I've tried a few different lotions and by far my favorite is Bethany Frankel's Skinny Girl Mommy, Belly Butter(available Here). I apply after my shower and it keeps my skin moisturized all day and through the night. I don't limit this lotion to just my belly area, this stuff is great! I would jump in a vat of it if I could. It is really smooth and soft on my skin with out being greasy like some lotions and creams.

Hormonal changes are a crazy part of pregnancy and they have seriously taken a toll on my face. I started breaking out about midway through my first trimester and it is AWFUL! I've never had breakouts this deep and intense, my normal face wash just was not cutting it. My husband had pretty crazy breakouts when he was in high school and he suggested Proactive(available Here), which is what he had used to help clear up his skin. I ordered Proactive immediately! Proactive seemed to start working right away but instead of just straight up clearing my skin, it began by purging all the bacteria and junk out of my pores which was slightly discouraging at first because it caused more pimples. Thankfully though after a few weeks of more breakouts, the Proactive system has brought all the junk to the surface and out of my skin. Which now just leaves to system to clean my pores daily and fend off future breakouts. It is definitely worth the money and time.

I like working out with my husband. It was really difficult for me during my first trimester and the first weeks of my second because I was so fatigued but now I feel a lot more energized. It was really hard to find clothes I liked on myself for a while because I was starting to show but my belly wasn't cute, round and obviously pregnant yet. I was totally in the "pregnant or fat?" questionable area, where no one wants to ask if your pregnant or when you're due. So, when it came to the gym and gym clothes I felt awkward wearing my normal shorts and a t-shirt over my belly, it basically just made me feel like I was hiding chub chub under a tent. I found a sweet deal on stretchy Champion racerback baby-doll style exercise shirts at Target(available Here). It has a built in sports bra that has great support though these days I'm wear another sports bra in addition to the built in. The top hits close to the body at a high waist line and shows that you have a figure, however the bottom half flares with ample stretchability to cover a growing belly. The top holds all the necessary parts in but gives my belly plenty of room in a very flattering way.
When I got pregnant there was a plethora of information on the Internet of things that pregnant women shouldn't eat or drink. Some of it is absolutely important, however there are of over dramatic moms on the web that apparently think pregnant women should only drink water and eat lentils. Honestly your best bet is to ask your doctor about your specific questions if you want a medically relevant answer, without all the paranoia. That being said, one of the things pregnant women SHOULD abstain from Is caffeine. I knew this was going to be a killer for me, I'm totally a three shots of espresso kind if girl. Chai tea is a great alternative to coffee and naturally without caffeine. I bought this box of liquid Tazo Chai mix(available Here) at the grocery store(this is the exact same mix they use at Starbucks and the whole box cost less than 1 grande chai latte!!!!!). I mix equal parts chai and milk, heat in the microwave and I have a wonderful caffeine free(super cheap) chai latte!




It's said that when you get really pregnant your pelvis, tailbone and essentially your whole booty starts to hurt. Somehow my body didn't get the memo about being really pregnant for this to happen, my whole entire lower half has been killing me since the middle of my first trimester, and I can only imagine it'll get worse. Even sitting on a couch or a seat in the car is enough to make my tailbone cry out for mercy. I started sitting on my blowup exercise ball(available Here) when I'm watching a movie or just need to sit for a bit. The ball allows me to sink down to a comfortable position and the air cushions my bottom and supports me without putting extra pressure on my pelvic bones. It's been such a help at keeping my body from being so sore.

They didn't make the group photo because I'm currently out,
yeah they're that good!

Fortunately my morning sickness never resulted in throw up, so I count myself very lucky. However I gained a seriously heightened gag reflex, this was only really a problem when I was brushing my teeth and worst of all taking my crazy prenatal horse pill vitamins. My OB suggested that I take any kind of chewable daily vitamin(available Here) instead of prenatals. He said even flintstone vitamins would do the trick, I just needed to take two. The One A Day adult chewy vitamins have become my favorite, I take two a day and they taste great. It is definitely a huge improvement from the nasty prenatals I was trying to choke down before.





One of the accessories suggested so much by magazines and websites are the belly bands. They are supposed to allow you to wear your pants unbuttoned or wear bigger pants while holding them up for you. I bought the Beband from Target and it's not working to well for me. When I sat down the band would pull up off the top of my pants and I would have to completely re-adjust when I stood back up. The band is about eleven inches tall and stretches. I thought I could stretch it over my belly(at this point my belly was hardly poking out) and the band just made me feel sick to my stomach, like it was squeezing me too tight but I still had plenty of stretching room in the band. I had to take the band off in the middle of the day it was too painful. I tried using the band another day, this time I pushed the band under my belly but eleven inches of fabric bunched up under your shirt just isn't flattering. And still just shifted around and was pretty inconvenient all day. This was money not well spent. I definitely wouldn't recommend this one to anyone.