Hellobee Boards

Ice cream definitely helps, but overall I've tried not to worry about things I'm doing wrong (or right). Also, I've ignored just about all the eating rules (just kept up with no raw foods or more than a sip of alcohol). Follow your instincts too!

I asked my SIL about this once. She's about to have her 8th kid and she's the most mellow person I know.

I asked her about her sub obsession (because people say not to eat cold cuts)

She said she doesn't read any of the books and she tries to remember that women have been doing this forever. She doesn't go overboard on anything, but she believe in moderation.

@MaryM: I totally agree with your sister – keeping a historical/global perspective is my biggest suggestion. Women have been birthing babies for tens of thousands of years in deplorable conditions. Most women today survive in deplorable conditions. If you’re posting to HB, your standard of living is pretty darn amazing and you’re living a pretty privileged life with access to the knowledge, information, healthy/clean water and food that the majority of women don’t necessarily have access to. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in all the information we have access to though. The human race hasn’t come to a screeching halt yet! It’ll be ok.

On a related note; take “someone on the internet said X was bad” with a grain of salt. Just because one person, somewhere, at some time disagreed with someone else doesn’t mean it’s something you need to worry about and stress over.

Get prenatal massages as often as you can, they rock.

Not everything is your fault or within your control. Don’t blame yourself for everything. be kind to yourself and your body.

No one has mentioned this yet. I was super worried about birth defects and miscarrying and other things I really had no control over other than the normal stuff.

To help stop worrying about this... I actually came up with a trick.

I tried to worried about something pretty dumb that I also had no control over and basically told people that I was worried about that and knowing it was dumb, it made me less stress which I think helped me a lot.

My dumb thing was "I worried if LO was going to come out cute". Of course it doesn't matter if LO is cute or not as long as LO is healthy but it really did make me feel better to focus on this and knowing that either way I'll still have a healthy baby.

Exercise! As much as you can, I think that really helped with my labor and recovery. Also, treat yourself a few times a month--mani/pedi, massage, haircut, glass of sparkling cider, etc.

I had a great pregnancy and I think exercise and meditation/guided relaxation helped me the most. I did Hypnobabies in the third tri and loved it. I didn't end up with a med-free birth, but I still think it was totally worth it because it kept me very calm and helped me sleep better. I am prone to anxiety and insomnia so that was a huge help.

Prenatal yoga, long walks (or short walks- just fresh air and movement!), really spicy chicken wings, at least one massage (worth it no matter how broke you are), and at least for me- a really, really good therapist.