Pregnancy question

jumblejups

First off - many congratulations!

Secondly many of the posts above have already given great tips, but I just wanted to add one extra thing on the point of calories and eating. Advice varies between countries - I'm in the UK, and when I was pregnant sometimes I would be looking at American sites that had different recommendations for how many calories to have and what to avoid eating when compared with official advice here. I can understand that some foods or liquids might possibly have different compositions in different countries, hence the variation, but overall there isn't so much difference between the US and the UK that should mean an American woman needs more calories than I do (!). Yet the official guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (ie UK) is that a woman needs ZERO extra calories in the first two trimesters and only 200 calories more in the last trimester. Compare that with what I assume are the official US guidelines above that say to eat extra straight away, or from the 2nd tri, and you can see it's quite a big difference.

What did I take from this? Don't worry about it too much Obviously eat healthily and satisfy extra hunger and cravings with healthy snacks as much as possible. Just as when you're not pregnant, treats here and there are fine. Look to official guidelines for foods to avoid for health reasons*. Our guidelines also state that moderate-intensity exercise is fine and actually recommended. From personal experience, I wasn't calorie counting prior to getting pregnant but I was actively losing weight. Once I got pregnant the 1st tri sickness (24/7, not morning!) meant I just ate when I could stomach it - I couldn't look at anything but sandwiches and sorbet without wanting to throw up. 2nd tri I made sure I had 3 healthy meals a day and healthy snacks if I was still hungry. 3rd tri(1st half) was the same, but in the 2nd half I got much more hungry. I just increased my snacks/meal size as necessary and felt no shame about my daily Nutella on toast... :bigsmile:

One last thing: if you haven't already, look up pelvic floor and pelvic tint exercises. This link is a UK one but I found it really helpful: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/pregnancy-exercise.aspx#close . This is so important both during and after pregnancy.

*Over here that would be soft yolks, liver products, swordfish, marlin, shark, excessive tuna, soft rind/mould ripened cheese, limit caffeine, and don't take regular vitamins as many have elements that are derived from inappropriate sources - esp. vit. A and E - obviously prenatals are made for pregnant women and are fine.