Creating a human inside your body is a wonderful journey itself. However, many of pregnant women experience “side symptoms” of pregnancy – morning sickness, tiredness, unusual cravings, you name it! But this extra-ordinary journey can still be the best of your life, if you really want to.
Health on Female First
Fear of giving birth
Never mind side symptoms, focus on the big day instead. Nothing compares to a moment when you first get to see your newborn. Many first-time mums-to-be are afraid of giving birth. But the question is – how can you be afraid of something if you don’t know what it actually is like? Every childbirth is different even to the same woman, so there is no need to panic ahead of time; you never know how it will go. Stressing and worrying, of course, won’t benefit your little one so stay calm and carry on.
Me – time
You will have loads of time for yourself when you go on your maternity leave (unless, of course, you work until the last day). Make this time to treat yourself and do whatever you feel like – if you want to do gentle exercise, by all means do, it is advisory; but if you feel like lying in bed all day in your pyjamas, go for it, because you won’t have this luxury once your baby is born. Go meet your friends, learn something new, write a diary for your child, start buying things for your little one, do whatever you want. Life will change significantly once you have your child and nobody can explain what it is like – you have to experience it by yourself.
Follow your baby’s development
It is also a good idea to go on websites such as bounty.com, pampers.co.uk and similar ones each week where you can follow your baby’s development while he’s still in the womb. There will be a picture of how a typical baby would look like each week, how much he should weigh and what new happens in his life. This is really interesting and fun even though everything’s just approximate.
Spend time with your partner
Unfortunately, you won’t have many occasions to spend time just with your partner when you will have a child, except sometimes when your friend or relative will give you opportunity to do so by taking care of your little one. So one of the best and really worth doing things to do is to go on a holiday just with your partner, doesn’t matter if you can still fly somewhere abroad or you are heavily pregnant and can only handle a weekend break somewhere nearby. This is a very special time for both of you and spending some quality time together by doing a mini-escape will relax you.
However, you can never prepare enough for having a child, no matter who will advise you or what parenting books you will read. You will get it quick when the time comes.
By Monika Petrauskaite