Reminders ...

[saharasky]

1) drink plenty of water and red raspberry leaf tea

2) do your kegels (and avoid ..or try to ...having to wear diapers too early in your life!)

3) try to avoid sugar (makes your skin less elastic ... and I don't know about you but I'd like to avoid tearing!)

4) get some excercise...

anything else we should be trying to do daily?

[ctdoula]

remembering to put on shoes instead of slippers when leaving the house, LOL

j/k


thanks for the reminders

[julesmiel]

Originally Posted by saharamama

1) 3) try to avoid sugar (makes your skin less elastic ... and I don't know about you but I'd like to avoid tearing!)

I didn't know this. I battle a continuing addiction to sugar, so maybe this will be just the motivation I need. Thanks!

[aprildawn]

Originally Posted by saharamama

3) try to avoid sugar (makes your skin less elastic ... and I don't know about you but I'd like to avoid tearing.

i read this as i'm eating a waffle with butter and powdered sugar for breakfast... :

[proudmamanow]

great thread idea! I definitely need to remember to Kegel & drink RRL

from me:
-try not to sit in reclining chairs or lean back too much to try and shift baby from breech, keep baby head down. sit on exercise ball!
-take my Omega 3-6-9 supplement to help baby's brain development & help prevent PPD
-exercise! I really need to remember this one!

[ctdoula]

Originally Posted by aprildawn

i read this as i'm eating a waffle with butter and powdered sugar for breakfast... :

[natashaccat]

What a fun thread

-eat your leafy green veggies (yuck! I'm sure I haven't eaten a leafy green for over a month)

[danaalex]

Originally Posted by aprildawn

i read this as i'm eating a waffle with butter and powdered sugar for breakfast... :

we had a super duper health breakfast, but lunch here was mint chocolate chip ice cream LOL. i totally didn't feel like fixing lunch today.

i did the RRL tea with dd#2, started at 37 weeks, and she was born a week later. well dd#1 was born at 37 weeks, so i'm not sure if the tea had anything to do with dd#2 being born early or not. i'm a little freaked to try it again LOL. what do you think?

[natashaccat]

Originally Posted by danaalex

we had a super duper health breakfast, but lunch here was mint chocolate chip ice cream LOL. i totally didn't feel like fixing lunch today.

i did the RRL tea with dd#2, started at 37 weeks, and she was born a week later. well dd#1 was born at 37 weeks, so i'm not sure if the tea had anything to do with dd#2 being born early or not. i'm a little freaked to try it again LOL. what do you think?

Gosh, I don't think that there is any way of knowing. Were your babies healthy and strong, like they were ready to to be born or did it seem like they really were premies? Is 38 weeks considered too early or is it a variation of norm?

I drank a few cups during my second trimester but noticed that I could actually feel my uterus contracting so decided that just couldn't be a good thing. I'm drinking it again now but not in the commonly reccomended quantities, just a few cups a week. By 38 or 39 wks I'll probably go up to several cups a day as reccomended just because I'll feel the need to do something to prepare for labor, KWIM.

[Boof]

I've been drinking the RRL just about every day. I skipped a few weeks because I'd run out and was waiting for my order of it to arrive. I drink a 12oz cup, steeped for about 10 mins. When I keep up with it I have less BH while active and moving. If I've been on my feet too long the BH starts up.

I've been bad about the Kegels, duno why.

DH and I are going to start the perineum massage in a few more weeks. For some reason I decided 32 weeks. It's really arbitrary, I duno why.

Exercise hasn't existed this pregnancy.

I have been paying careful attention to how I sit/lay and try to stay in the positions that will let baby get into the proper position.


Hmmm what else is on the list....


xoxoxoxo

Beth

[heket]

Originally Posted by saharamama

3) try to avoid sugar (makes your skin less elastic ... and I don't know about you but I'd like to avoid tearing!)

I had never heard of this either. Where did you learn it, because that's very interesting.

Started making a greater effort to at least walk more this week. (*yay!*) After my last MW appointment (which was my first), I admitted to my lack of exercise this pregnancy. It's just so hard to find time between part time WOHM (with a long commute), dd, the house, and dh (my first child ). Besides, I'm more of a yoga/ swimming kind of exercise person -- none of which is either available to me right now (a pool or quiet time). BUT, dh and I have been attending Sat. morning Tai Chi, so all is not lost. I just have problems finding time to practice the poses.

Funny how someone also put in this one:

-try not to sit in reclining chairs or lean back too much to try and shift baby from breech, keep baby head down. sit on exercise ball!

I've also just naturally started to find ways to sit more upright. Of which, I'm at a desk most of the day. Can anyone recommend a pillow shape or something to help me sit up properly? While ergonomic and comfortable, our desk chairs seem to induce a reclining position, along with the lumbar style seats on my commuter train and car...

Oh, how about kick counts? Anyone else suppose to be doing those yet?

[liawbh]

Originally Posted by heket

Can anyone recommend a pillow shape or something to help me sit up properly? While ergonomic and comfortable, our desk chairs seem to induce a reclining position, along with the lumbar style seats on my commuter train and car...

I've been sitting on my desk chair backwards, straddling the seat and leaning a little onto the seatback. Not that that helps in the car or train, but at the desk anyway.

[jjsexton]

Originally Posted by heket

Can anyone recommend a pillow shape or something to help me sit up properly?

It's soooo important to sit properly so that the baby settles into the pelvis correctly!
My yoga teacher advises that we do that oh-so-attractive movement of scootching the flesh of the buttocks out behind us whenever we sit so as to encourage a forward rather than backward tilt of the pelvis...maybe that will help?

I've noticed that having a little foot in my ribs makes it tough to sit in anything but a full upright position!

[hawkfeather]

"The active ingrediant in RRL real name- rubus idaeus is fragrine <sometimes called framamine.> Fragrine is a nifty neato substance because it is BOTH a uterine relaxant AND a uterine toner, and all the research seems to show that it knows which your body needs. That is to say that if you are having uterine irritability it will help calm your uterus and if your uterus needs to be toned it will tone it."
I took this from a wise woman on another board, but wanted to share, many people still think RRL can cause uterine stimulation, but it is actually not an oxytocic herb...

i wanted to add to this thread, that drinking Alfalfa or nettles or both in a tea is also VERY beneficial to the birthing process, they help lower risk of PPH, and raise your hemoglobin...

I have also begun taking acidopholous every day, want to avoid thrush is possible, and drinking cranberry juice..as it aids in bringing O2 to the blood and helps prevent bladder infections!

lots of rest when we can manage!

affirmations and positive meditation and thinking!

I am *trying* to avoid suagr too...help with my skin.. but also i worry about yeast, it can make tearing more liekly and lowers yor immune system some..

and for the sitting.. a good birth ball goes a longgg way...

[julesmiel]

Anyone using exercise videos? I find that's a really convenient way to do yoga and pilates. I actually crave the exercise if I skip a day because my back starts to hurt and I start feeling really sluggish. (If anyone has any postnatal videos to recommend, let me know--especially those you can do with the baby.)

We've been snowed in a few times, so that's put a damper on my walks with dh, but we manage to get out several times a week. That always makes me feel so much better, too. I think it's mainly the fresh air.

I've been really bad about sugar at times--my major weakness. I think I'm starting to move in a healthier direction, though. Just had and apple and a buckwheat waffle (with a little maple syrup) for a snack. Does anyone know how the sugars in fruit and maple syrup compare with those in granulated sugar?

Also, I use Florida Crystals (evaporated cane juice) when I bake. Is that just as bad as the regular stuff?

Trying to be good (but dreaming about buying a Snapple when I go grocery shopping tonight)!

[danaalex]

well, i guess i'll go pick up some RRL tea and see what happens LOL.

i've been trying to pick non sugar type foods as snacks, like things higher in protein. i think fruit is a safe snack food even though it has natural sugar in it. i think that bananas, and citrus fruits are good cause they have other benefits as well. papaya is always yummy. berries are good too

i wish i could figure out a great way to sleep. i think that the baby flipped last night while i was sleeping and is now KILLING my lower back. bad baby LOL.

hawkfeather, do you think that the acidopholous and cranberry juice will reduce the chance of the baby getting a yeast rash, not thrush but in the diaper wearing area? both of my girls got nasty yeast infections about a month after birth, not in their mouths at all, just on their bottoms. i mean blistery red and very hard to get rid of. we resorted to nystatin with DD#1 and OTC yeast cream for DD#2. if i could do acidopholous and cranberry juice now and avoid the rash later i would totally do that!

[saharasky]

Sahara had the same horrid yeasty rash after birth ...and it took AGES to eliminate it ...she still breaks out occassionally. I'm dosng myself in acidophilus ...and eating raw cranberries (LOL ..everyone in the household things they're awful ...except sahara who'll eat anything) ...I plan on continuing to do so once the babe is born just as a breastmilk preventative.

[warriorprincess]

I have been trying on the sugar thing. It's so hard!!

I am drinking several cups of RRL a day. I have been a bit , er, plugged, so I drink a small amount of prune juice. ( I already have a very high fibre diet).

Trying to walk daily too.

[heket]

I'm doing the best I can with the sugar thing. My weakness is chocolate right now. I have to have some everyday, it seems. Not like a whole bar, but maybe a few kisses, a ghiradelli square, or at least a glass of chocolate milk at bed time. I just try to keep the rest of the meals as healthy as possible. All things in moderation, like they say...

[elbee]

The sugar thing is haaaaaaard... My ridiculous justification is "I'm pregnant, I deserve to have a brownie for breakfast (okay, make that 3) hehehe!

Laura