Category: WyzePregnancy

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The wait for the elusive first doctors appointment

When I hear doctors appointment, the first thing I think about is the long wait in the waiting room we are all accustomed to.  Well, this wait is even longer…. You may have to wait 5 or more weeks like I did when you use an early response pregnancy test.  Let the waiting begin….. I guess you should get used to it as you have 9 months of it!

5 weeks pregnant

Once you call your doctor and tell them your LMP, the waiting game begins.  I would say the first several weeks until the first doctors appointment are the most nerve wrecking.  My doctors office would not see me until I was 9 weeks from my LMP, so I had 5 weeks of waiting for any confirmation more than the pregnancy test I took.

Questions bombarded my head: Is there really a baby growing in me?  Is he/ she OK in there?  Are these symptoms normal?  I don’t have any symptoms is that normal? Is it an ectopic pregnancy?  If you are like me you are probably looking up what you should be feeling to confirm you do indeed have a viable pregnancy.  I did that and if it puts your mind at ease, please do.  However, google can seemingly increase your paranoia as it will inevitably pull up something you never even thought of!

I had absolutely ZERO symptoms for the first several weeks and really negligible symptoms the entire first trimester which actually made me more nervous!  I had no nausea, which I realize I was one of the lucky few but it always made me wonder if everything was OK.  These are some of the issues with the ability to look up anything  and everything.

If you haven’t already, make sure you are taking your prenatal vitamin every day.  I had been taking vitaPearl, but now I just take the NatureMade Prenatal Multi + DHA.  You  can find these at Costco for about $15 for 150 pills.  vitaPearl was originally covered by my insurance, but when I switched to a new prescription insurance the monthly cost went from $5 to $60!   So Costco it was!

In the weeks up to that first doctor’s appointment make sure to take your prenatals every day, change your diet if you need to (cut out alcohol and smoking if you do either), eat healthy and keep up your daily routine and exercise.  You can also make the decision if/ when you would like to tell your family or very close friends about your pregnancy.

Once we found out we were pregnant we had a busy schedule before the first doctors appointment, with two out of state trips already planned and a 5K we were signed up for.  In being the first pregnancy I was sure to google if it was safe for me to fly and I spoke to my Doctor on the phone who told me it would be fine and to keep up my normal routine of running (since my body was used to it).  Of course, I was still nervous to fly and was careful not to lift anything too heavy.

Our trips went great and I even started a tradition of picking up an outfit or a book from each place we visited for our new addition.  Several cities have books specific to them designed for babies, which I looked for each trip.

Don’t worry the elusive wait will be over soon and you will be able to confirm your pregnancy!

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Pregnancy Style during the Holiday Season

It’s December and it is time to show your holiday spirit if you haven’t been already! Being in my third trimester rules out a lot of clothing I have worn in previous years. Luckily there are a lot of sales going on at this time of year and tons of cozy clothing available making this last stretch more comfortable.

While there is no shortage of advertising for maternity clothing, I have mostly avoided buying them as not only are they expensive but I can’t see myself wearing most of them again.  I have tried to shop at the same stores I typically frequent and just upsize as I figure I will be able to wear these again.

Here are some suggestions on clothing to buy while being pregnant for the BEST season of the year, where to find them, current sales and just ideas to help you find your pregnancy style!

For Comfort: 

It’s time for leggings!  Not only because my jeans haven’t fit in awhile…  Although, I was able to rig them for a little while with the hair tie trick.  Over the past month I have found several pairs of cheap holiday leggings.  I bought 2 pairs from Marshalls for $7 and 2 pairs from JC Penney for $7 each.  After wearing all of them the ones from JC Penney have held up better, and are my favorite.  I have gotten so many compliments on these leggings and the best part is they are cheap, comfortable, and so festive.  The leggings from JC Penney are the two pictures on the left and the ones from Marshalls are the two pictures on the right below.

I recently tried out a flannel shirt for the first time in years, after borrowing one at my Mom’s house.  They are soooo cozy and I love the buffalo plaid look.  Flannel couldn’t be more comfortable and is great for a pregnant belly!  You can either button it or layer underneath and leave it open.  Another great thing is most are not meant to fit snug to your body so you may only have to upsize by one size.  I have the Red Plaid Flannel Two-Pocket Boyfriend Shirt from Express which I bought 50% off and that sale is still going on (picture on left below). 

I am also loving cardigans!  I layer underneath them to keep the bump warm.  These are also great because you may be able to order a similar size to what you wore before pregnancy and thus be able to wear it again.  My favorite for this season is the Sherpa Open Front Cardigan from Abercrombie (picture on right above).  I bought it for 50% off and it is still on sale for $44.  It is the coziest thing I own and feels like you are wrapped up in a blanket!  Who doesn’t love Sherpa?

You can’t forget your feet now, to keep warm or just cozy try Field & Stream Cozy Cabin Slipper Socks from Dicks Sporting Goods.  They are currently buy one get one free.  They are super soft and warm.  I have not only bought these for myself (one for home use and one to take to the hospital), but for my husband and a few others as gifts.

For special occasions and parties:

For special occasions or holiday parties, I again didn’t want to buy something I could not wear again.  I ordered dresses from multiple stores trying to avoid maternity dresses, just upsizing but they typically didn’t come close to fitting or if they did they had the fit and flare style and just made me look double my actual size!  Then I ran across the Reversible Floral/ Filigree Print Knit Sheath Dress at White House Black Market.  In being a frequent shopper at this store these typically have a lot of stretch in them.  Also, the reversible factor is awesome!  You probably have more than one event to attend this season and you can save money by only buying one dress, yet having two separate styles to wear.  The dress is $110, but the whole store is 40% off still and if you are a rewards member you get an additional 5% off at checkout.  I was able to size up by one size and it fit perfect, just showing off the adorable bump.  I paired one side of the dress with the Crystal-Bow Velvet Belt  is also found at WHBM (right picture below).  It has three different sizing snaps on each one, so I will be able to wear it again after pregnancy, I have it on the loosest snap.  They sell the matching Crystal Bow Shoe Clips, but they are sold out online.  You may still be able to find this in the store to add some bling to your outfit.  

Another dress that is super cute and reversible is the Ultimate Reversible Floral/ Solid V-neck Shift Dress also found at WHBM.  On the front side it has flowers along with a nice port color shifting to black at the bottom, perfect for the holiday season (left picture below).  The other side is a solid black (right picture below).  I also paired the crystal bow belt with both sides of this dress.

For those holiday runs/ walks:

If you live in Atlanta or any big city you probably know about the customized gym shoes that different shoe companies make for big events.  In Atlanta every year Mizuno makes a new pair of tennis shoes for the Peachtree Road Race which has 60,000 runners each year.  I love unique shoes and just running shoes in general.  My husband found the ULTIMATE Christmas tennis shoe for me…. wait for it… the Ugly Sweater Levitate 2 made by Brooks.  The shoe not only looks amazing for the holiday season, but it jingles all the way.  Literally there are small bells attached to the shoe laces.  Don’t worry you can remove them, but I find it fun to leave them on.  It’s always amusing to walk by someone and see the perplexed look and smiles while they try to figure out where the jingling is coming from.  Every time I have worn these shoes, especially when paired with my cozy holiday leggings above I always get a smile from those at the gym or that I pass while  walking, along with a “Don’t you look festive!  Happy Holidays!”  I bought these when they were 25% off from Dicks Sporting Goods, but other stores carry them too like Road Runner Sports.

For the scrappy:

One issue I have run into is that I can’t button any of my winter coats!  I also don’t want to go and buy additional coats and jackets unless I have to.  They are expensive and I know I won’t wear them again if they don’t fit like my current ones do.  Luckily I live in Atlanta and the weather has been very nice so I have gotten away with layering and wearing baggier sweatshirts that I owned previously.  On the colder days you may be able to raid your partners closet to see if one of their coats fit.  I have done this a few times and they actually fit perfectly and do not look bad at all, since they were a simple black bubble jacket.  Try this before hitting the store for new jackets.

Happiest of holidays!  Hope this gives you some additional ideas than just traditional maternity clothes.

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Social Media Pregnancy Announcement

It seems like every day one of my friends is announcing they are pregnant on facebook in some unique way.  There are ideas all over Pinterest, Etsy and Google advertising cute ways to announce you are pregnant.  However, we all want ours to be unique and to fit our personalities, right?  Take in all the ideas and think about who you are and what fits you best.

You will first need to decide when you want to make the announcement.  We waited until about 16 weeks, so we were safely passed the 1st trimester, had two ultrasounds and baby was healthy.  Make the announcement when you feel comfortable in your pregnancy to do so, as you will hear many more times throughout your pregnancy- every pregnancy is different.

Our announcement included “And so our greatest adventure begins….”.  It fit us perfectly as of all the travels, experiences and memories we have had this is sure to be our greatest adventure together.  Then I tied in LOVE, creating two t-shirts, LO for my husband and VE for me.  I opted several times throughout pregnancy to do some do it yourself (DIY) work as these shirts and props get expensive!  Once you have the basic supplies it makes it easy to create more.

Think of a good hashtag, so you can use it in with all your pregnancy photos to remember your journey later on.

Items needed for DIY

  • Computer/ Printer to print design
  • Pencil for tracing
  • Freezer Paper (can be found at Walmart)
  • X-acto knife (can be found on Amazon)
  • Iron/ Ironing board
  • Fabric Paint
  • Foam brushes
  • T-shirts (used my husbands older white under shirts instead of buying new ones)
  • Piece of cardboard

Don’t worry too much if you aren’t that artistic, I definitely had some minor flaws in my final product but they were not noticeable in a picture.

Steps to create LOVE t-shirt

1.) Type LOVE in Microsoft Word and print in landscape format.  I chose a very large chunky block lettering to make tracing easier.

2.) Put piece of freezer paper over the printed pages and trace the word.  While doing this turn your iron on.

3.) Place a flat piece of cardboard (I cut mine out from an old box) behind the freezer paper.

4.) Use an X-acto knife to carefully cut the traced word out.  Be careful as that knife is sharp!

5.) Put the letters aside and use the outline of the letters to iron onto the shirt.  You will use this as a stencil to then paint inside.  For the word LOVE, you will need to also iron on the inner circle of the O.

Tip: Before ironing make sure you know where you would like to iron the letters onto each shirt.  Since my husband is taller than me, I needed to drop his letters on his shirt and raise mine up a little.  They were not placed in the same location on both shirts as I wanted them to be in a straight line when standing next to one another.

6.) Place the piece of cardboard (or ironing board) between the front and back of the shirt and begin ironing on the freezer paper stencil.   Be careful while doing this, as freezer paper is thin.  Once the stencil of LO is ironed on securely, add the inner part of the O and carefully iron this on too.

7.) Repeat step 6 for the second shirt (VE) and beware of my tip above for placement. Make sure to iron all edges near the letters as we will be painting over these.

8.) Once both shirts have their stencils ironed on, it is time to paint!  Pour some paint onto a disposable paper plate and use a foam brush to slowly paint inside the stencil.  While painting keep the piece of cardboard between the front and back of shirt to prevent any paint seeping through the front of the shirt to the back.  Repeat this step for each shirt.

9.) Check shirt throughout the next 15-20 minutes and if the color is too light than add another coat of paint to each shirt.

10.) Once the paint is dry, slowly peel back the freezer paper to reveal your fabulous new DIY shirts!

For our announcement we held up a onesie that said “And so our greatest adventure begins….. Baby K arriving January 2019”

Good luck on your announcement, it will be great!

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Pregnancy Reveal to Family

If you are like us, super close to your family you will probably want to let them know just as soon as you find out you are expecting like we did!  No matter how you tell them, whether it be creative or you just blurt it out their reaction will be just as excited and happy for you.

In this being our first child we wanted to do something unique, but that wasn’t expensive and could be done the same day.   We don’t live by either of our families, so telling them in person was limiting.  However, my husbands family happened to be visiting that week, so  in person it could be!  We waited until after work and bought a cake that said “I can’t wait to meet you Nonna and Papa!”  When we came in the door, we told his parents that there was something not quite right with the cake and to come take a look.  It was so cool watching them read the cake and see their amazing reaction!

My family was not in town at this time, but I still wanted to tell them immediately.  So what else would you do then FaceTime them!  We put the positive pregnancy test on the screen so as soon as they picked up that’s what they saw.  It was yet another amazing moment watching them realize we were pregnant! Screams of joy and excitement bombarded the other end.  How did we ever live without FaceTime?

There are so many unique ways to announce your pregnancy to your family, choose one that represents your personality and works best with your circumstance.

 

 

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When you find out you are Pregnant?!

I am adding a new section to my blog for pregnancy and first time Moms as I go through the same journey!  My husband and I are pregnant for the first time with a baby girl!  I am hoping to add some useful posts and share our experiences to help others going through a similar time in their life.

When I first took the pregnancy test and saw a double line, I told my husband who was then still asleep I “may” be pregnant!  He wondered how I could “maybe” be pregnant.  Ladies, as I am sure many of you are aware especially when trying to get pregnant and having those times where you almost imagine the second line showing, you don’t want to get your hopes up unless you for sure know you are pregnant!  Well this test was one of those maybes… a faint second line.

I always chose the early result tests, so I could find out as soon as possible and adjust myself to the healthiest diet possible.  Well, early result tests are more expensive and the ones that clearly lay our “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant”, while still being early result are even more expensive.  If trying to conceive for awhile this will make an impact on your wallet, which you don’t need when saving for the new baby.  Long and short I went to the store and splurged on the more expensive, very clear test which sure enough verified we were indeed “Pregnant.”

When you first find out you are pregnant it is such an exciting yet nerve wrecking time.  Many questions may race through your head…. Whose family should I tell first?  When should we tell them?  How should we tell them?  When do I let my friends know?  When do I tell my coworkers?  What dietary restrictions do I need to follow?  What do I need to stop doing?  Can I continue to exercise?  When should I schedule my first Doctor appointment?  How can we be good parents?  It can all become a blur, as you try to sort everything out.  Over the next several posts I plan to go into more details on personal experience and suggestions.

Take a deep breath in and then out.  Celebrate and enjoy this precious time!  Try to relax and put aside some of the many questions bombarding your head. You will make great parents and you have plenty of time to make the many decisions in the next 9 months.

Tell your family in your own time.  We chose to tell both of our families immediately as we wanted them to be a part of every moment, even taking the chance we could have some hard news to share later if anything unexpected happened.

Take your time telling friends and coworkers.  We waited until about 15 weeks to tell friends and coworkers our exciting news.  While this seemed like a long time, since it was our first pregnancy we wanted to wait awhile to be sure our baby made it through the first trimester and even a little beyond.

Talk to your Doctor about exercise and the activities you can continue to do.  As long as you are having a healthy pregnancy they typically allow you to continue exercises/ activities (within reason) that you were doing before.  Listen to your body, it will let you know when you need to slow down.  I was an avid runner prior to pregnancy, running several races a year.  I continued running beyond 30 weeks, however my pace and length dramatically slowed down by the end of those 30 weeks.  I always spoke to my Doctor at each appointment just confirming I was good to go on anything I had upcoming, which I recommend to anyone pregnant.  This week I am 33 weeks pregnant and I plan to walk a 5K on Thanksgiving.  I plan to continue being as active as my body will allow until I give birth, hoping it will help make the labor easier… We shall see!

Call your Doctor as soon as you find out your pregnant, some practices have different guidelines for when they want to set up your first appointment.  My practice wanted to wait until 8-9 weeks since my LMP, as they wanted to be sure the ultrasound would show the embryo.  It was nerve wrecking waiting for those 4-5 weeks after I found out we were pregnant to have the confirmation of pregnancy visit.  Try to relax and enjoy this time as your body adjusts to all the upcoming changes.

Finally, congratulations on your journey!  It is truly a miracle!

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