March 24, 2011

Staying Fit During Your Pregnancy

Keeping fit during your pregnancy is great for you, not only will it help you keep your body toned but it also can help when it comes time to push that baby out. Every pregnant woman wants to be able to go back to her pre-pregnancy weight after the baby is born, but the only way to do that is to make sure you can. By excising or working out every day you are making sure you don’t add fat to your body. During labor it’ll be much easier to push the baby if you’ve been strengthening your leg and stomach muscles. Who knows, it may even make labor a little bit shorter. Isn’t that what we all want?

Plus when you are tired and just feeling a little blue, just by exercising you actually increase your energy.

Here are a few quick things you can do to stay fit during pregnancy, without really having to break out a sweat. I’m sure by now you’ve heard of yoga, this is a very good thing for you to practice, especially if you haven’t always been in the best of shape. Not to worry, there are beginning levels here, you don’t have to jump into the human pretzel right away. Try purchasing a set of small weights that you can use throughout the house, like hand weights or wrist weights that can use while walking. Instead of just laying on the couch while you rest you can be lifting small weights.

Get a chair and try doing a couple crunches, 5 to 10 in the beginning to make sure you don’t pull anything. Don’t worry you can always add to it as the weeks go on.

Try running, walking or jogging outside. Not only will this boost up your energy but it’ll also help get your spirits up, especially if you’ve been inside all day. Remember, if you are going for a walk to always bring a drink with you. You don’t want to dehydrate out there. Always make sure that you are wearing comfortable shoes, before you leave the house. If you didn’t always run, ask your doctor if you can. Sometimes a doctor may suggest you walk around the block at first and increase it from there, if you didn’t always do it before you were pregnant.

If you can you may want to try going for a swim or try bicycling. However, if you find that you are accident prone you may want to stay away from the bike. A bike accident is something that can easily happen, even when you’ve always road a bike. Swimming can help you relax and stay cool. Take a dip in the pool near you, they may even have a swim class for pregnant women in your area. This would be a great way to meet other moms.

Whenever you are doing exercises, make sure you aren’t overdoing it. If you believe you could be stop immediately and take a break. You never want to do anything that’ll harm the pregnancy.

February 11, 2011

Wives Tales and Pregnancy

It's all great to hear advice during your pregnancy, especially unwelcome advice. I'm sure you've been told by one person or another how to live. Am I right? It only gets worse the further along in your pregnancy you are. Someone will want to tell you that you shouldn't bend, or walk a certain way, not to pick up a baby in case you hurt the one in your stomach or put yourself in labor. As the pregnancy gets closer to the due date you'll be told many different home remedies of how to put yourself in labor. Got a headache? Someone can tell you exactly what to drink to get rid of it without any medication, remember it is important to ask a doctor before trying to take something you've never tried before doing it. But the most fun I have during the course of the 9-10 months stretch is hearing all the wives tales, also known as myths.

I'm pretty sure you aren't going to even care at this point what sex the baby is, all you want is for the morning sickness to stop. You may even be counting down the days until the first trimester is over. Chances are if you morning sickness someone is bound to tell you what sex of the baby is. One wives tale is if you are having severe morning sickness is a sign you are having a girl.

Here's a wives tale that is a lot of fun and you can test it on everyone in your household. Take a thin piece of string or your hair, slide your ring down it, hold it above your belly and let the ring dangle above it. If the rings spins in a circle it is a boy, but if it goes from one side to the other, it is a girl. Once you've tried it out on your tummy, get someone in your house and do it above their hand. Does the ring spin in a circle above your husband's hand? Hmm, is it really and old wives tale or is there really something to it?

Many women claim to suffer from bouts of heartburn during the pregnancy, according to the old wives tell this would mean your baby will be born with a head full of hair.

Right before the end of your first trimester your doctor will listen to your baby's heart rate, this is to make sure the baby is doing alright. The wives tale goes, if the heart rate is high it is a girl and a low one is a boy.

Ever have someone tell you that you are carrying high or low and wonder what that really means? Basically if you are carrying your baby low it is closer to your abdomen, a high baby is closer to your chest. Look at yourself in the mirror. How is your baby sitting? The old tale says that if you are carrying high it is a girl, carrying low is a boy.

Wives tales can be a lot of fun but keep in mind these aren’t fact. Don’t go preparing your child’s room just because one of these told you, you were going to have a girl.