Mom Real Talk: Pregnancy Questions and Answers

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I’m so excited to team up with my friend Lindsey from Life Lutzurious and Kindred Bravely for this post! If you don’t know Lindsey, she is one of my blogger besties here in the ‘Ham (Birmingham for my non-local friends reading this). Her oldest son Asher is 2 weeks older than Leyton and her Holden is going to be about 5 months older than baby Brown #2. It is SO refreshing to have Lindsey’s friendship in my life because she’s going through the same strengths and struggles that I am in our industry as bloggers and as moms. I’m forever grateful for her friendship. Find your mama tribe ladies and love them hard! They’ll get you through some of the hardest and the best things!

Our pajamas in this post are my Kindred Bravely ones I’ve raved about many times because of how soft they are and I’m so excited to report that they are offering you gals 20% off of their nursing and maternity wear with code LIFEKB20 on their site and on Amazon! Lindsey and I had the fun idea to do a girls day in talking about all things mom life and answering your questions about motherhood that no one wants to talk about.

Several of you sent in your questions so we wanted to get real with you about our answers to some of the hard stuff that no one tells you about or warns you about with motherhood. Each of us have unique experiences just like you will but some of these questions really take me back to those early new baby days and while they are precious, they are also HARD at times.

It honestly makes me nervous thinking about going back to the baby days so soon…(8 weeks and counting!) but also so excited because there’s nothing that beats the first time you hold your baby, the euphoria of the after birth experience soaking in their sweet face, the first time your baby smiles at you, watching your husband become a dad and so many other things!

Pregnancy Questions and Answers Photos: Eric and Jamie Photo

Let’s just dive right into your pregnancy questions and answers, shall we?! And don’t forget to head over to Lindsey’s blog, Life Lutzurious to see her answers to these questions!

Pregnancy Questions and Answers:

Q: How to stay fit/healthy while pregnant?! I kinda “let myself go” with my pregnancy! Hoping to have a different perspective when pregnancy #2 comes along.

A: This is such a hard question because everyone’s pregnancy is SO very different. Some people are so sick especially during their first trimester that they can’t even fathom working out or eating healthy let alone eating at all sometimes. But I will say that if you are feeling good and able to workout or eat healthy, it will get you far.

I try to strike the balance between eating healthy most the time and then if I have an outright craving, I satisfy it. For instance, today I had a paleo chicken salad sandwich and house cut sweet potato fries at Mason Dixon Bakery but then there was chocolate covered nuts at my hairdresser’s so I ate those.

I also found that walking and Pure Barre are some of the few things later in pregnancy that made me feel good to do or gave me more energy so I loved doing those and was able to because I’d done them all throughout my pregnancy. Sometimes if I can’t do either of those I’ll just search Youtube for a 20 or 30 minute prenantal workout and do that. Check with your doctor first to make sure you are cleared to exercise and then make tangible steps each week like setting an alarm on your phone to go off 3 days a week at the time you want to carve out to workout, etc. I hope this helps!

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Q: My husband and I are expecting our first and just found out it’s a boy! What’s something you wished people had told you? It can be anything from the things people don’t tell you about pregnancy/delivery/hospital stay to must have registries to tips/tricks for being a boy mom.

A: Congrats to you, how exciting!!!!! I absolutely LOVE being a boy mama even though at first I had no idea what to think because I grew up with a sister, so I thought, “What do I do with a boy?!” Now, I just feel like a boy mom though. I wouldn’t know how to handle a girl I don’t think, lol! The drama my friends talk about with 4 and 5 year old girls blows my mind.

As far as things no one told me…I had NO idea that my mind would pretty much just be gone. “Pregnancy brain” turned into “mom brain” and I’ve decided that I was pretty much in a no sleep fog for the first 3 months. Then after about a year, the hormone haze lifted after I finished breastfeeding, but still my brain just isn’t as sharp as it was before. Lindsey told me she was listening to a podcast or read an article the other day that said your mind can only efficiently focus on about 2-3 things at a time at its max. Well, if you’re a new mom thinking about what to pack in your diaper bag, remembering to get the breast milk measured out and taken to the babysitters and buckling in your child as well as getting your lunch, computer bag, purse and not wrecking is about 5 things right there…so basically my mind is never efficient right now. BLESS.

Also, I wish someone would have warned me how REAL postpartum blues and crazy hormones are. I remember sitting in the hospital while the nurse explained signs to look out for and thinking “I’m so tired, why won’t she just let me sleep?” and “this won’t happen to me.” Wow, was I wrong! I’ve written some posts on this that you can read HERE about my breast feeding journey.

I also had NO IDEA how time-consuming having a newborn was. By the time you breastfeed, pump, wash bottles, sterilize bottles, and get baby settled it’s basically time to start the whole process over again. I was VERY OVERWHELMED by how little time you actually get to rest or just have time to do what you want to do.

Also, I know this is shallow but I remember crying (because again hormones!) because I thought oh my gosh, I will literally never wear real clothes again. I was always in the same two nursing cami’s and had nothing I had splurged on that was pretty and functional for breastfeeding. This time I’m armed with lots of Kindred Bravely to help me in the early phases of mothering at home and I won’t be afraid to break out real clothes earlier on because you can breastfeed in things OTHER than a nursing tank.

For those of you that don’t know, Kindred Bravely is a collection of maternity and nursing wear that enables moms to transition from the bump to breast and beyond. Their fabrics are SO soft, and their styles are super flattering. I am LOVING this MARVELLA maternity bra right now because it doesn’t have any underwire and transitions to nursing later. I love the fact that you can purchase these items at the beginning of your pregnancy and wear them during your postpartum stage and beyond. As you can see, Lindz and I are wearing the same pajama set here while she’s postpartum and I’m in my third trimester…amazing!

As far as baby registry items, I wrote this whole post on it. I’ll be writing my second go-round registry list SOON, so stay tuned!!

Q. How do you lose the pregnancy weight so fast?

A. Again, this is such a PERSONAL thing that can be totally dependent on how your body does during the pregnancy and after, how your health is, etc. I’ll be honest and say that I have packed on more pounds this pregnancy already than I did my last. I am still working out at least 4x/week and also eating relatively healthy (allowing some splurges) and my doctor has just told me that this is what my body is doing with THIS pregnancy. Typically if you gain the weight in a healthy manner though, your body will shed it as well.

I learned from one of my good friends the mantra that if it takes 9 months to grow a BABY HUMAN (let’s all take a moment of awe for that-Thank you, Jesus!) that you should give yourself 9 months to a year to get back to your normal size. There are so many factors that play a role into this like breastfeeding and hormones as well. I’ve NEVER been hungrier than when I was breastfeeding. It was constant.

I also didn’t know that after breastfeeding, my chest would go back to the size it was before OR SMALLER. My mom’s chest had stayed larger after having me and my sister but mine did the opposite. Womp womp.

Q. When did you decide to hire/let someone other than family/friends babysit your babies? What age do you think the babysitter should be?

A: In Birmingham, getting childcare lined up is VERY difficult for long-term stuff because we have waitlists that are 6 months to a year+ long so almost as soon as you find out you’re pregnant, you have to start getting on wait lists. It’s crazy!

I had a college friend who is a parent already who I lined up to keep Leyton a few days a week so I could get work done and we didn’t start that until he was 12 weeks old. It was SO hard to leave him the first time of course but it was only a few days a week so it worked well for us. When Leyton was in his first year of life, the youngest we ever had a babysitter be was in college but now I have a high schooler (who is very mature and a seasoned babysitter) who watches him sometimes for us as well.

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Shop pregnancy questions and answers post here:

Marvella Maternity & Nursing Bra – my favorite!