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It’s true! We’re expecting a baby girl in October and we’re over the moon with excitement and joy! This episode covers all the behind-the-scenes details of pregnancy so far!

Episode Highlights:

• How we first found out we were expecting a baby (and how I told my husband)
• My BIGGEST fears around having kids and how I’m navigating them
• Creating a business over the last few years that has given me more space and freedom for family time
• How we told our friends and family
• Finding out the gender
• My symptoms so far 
• Pregnancy Cravings
• Plans for birth
• What I’m planning and preparing for maternity leave

My Biggest Fears Around Having Kids

I’ve always known I wanted to have kids, but I also had a lot of fears around how my life would change after having a baby. I’m currently the breadwinner in our household which adds a lot of extra pressure to figuring out all of the financial stuff involved with having a kid and continuing to work afterwards. 

Over the last few years, I’ve been listening to podcast episodes from other women business owners to help shift my mindset and ease some of those fears. I’ve also been intentional about following more working mothers who own their own businesses since I knew my maternity leave wouldn’t look the same as a traditional job.

Podcast episodes and resources I loved from other business owners:

• Elizabeth McCravy’s blog posts and podcasts episodes on motherhood and pregnancy 
• Dolly DeLong’s podcast episode: The SOPS I Put Into Place In Order To Take ONE Whole Month Off From My Business
• Kayla Sloan’s Blog Post: How to Take Maternity Leave When You’re Self Employed

How We Found Out We Were Pregnant

We found out with the faintest line test ever which I took on a whim…you could barely see that anything was there! It was so suspenseful waiting multiple days for that line to get darker and confirm that we were actually pregnant.

Telling Our Friends and Family

We made the choice to wait until the end of the first trimester to tell our friends our family. Since both of our parents live across the country and this is our first kiddo we wanted to go home to surprise everyone. 

It ended up being super special to get to have this secret for the first few months and it was super fun to surprise our families with the news.

For both of our parents we were visiting over Easter weekend so we made a baby-themed Easter basket and put baby-related things inside of the eggs like baby socks and a pacifier.

First Pregnancy Trimester Symptoms

I’ve been super fortunate that I haven’t had a lot of pregnancy symptoms. In the first trimester, I was tired often. One of my best friends said she was able to figure out the news because I kept mentioning that I was going to take a nap which isn’t a thing I normally ever do. 

My biggest (and weirdest) symptom in the first trimester was that water made me extremely nauseous. Water is usually the main thing I drink so I had to get a little creative and start drinking things like Gatorade, Caprisun and juice.

Finding out the Gender

We went more traditional with finding out the gender and didn’t find out right away through the NIPT test (which is a blood test that will tell you the gender of your baby around 10 weeks). I wanted to have some time where we didn’t know and could wonder whether it was a boy or a girl. I also knew that there was no way I wanted to wait all the way until the end of the pregnancy so we chose to find out right at the halfway mark during our 20-week ultrasound. 

We’re having a baby girl! My husband Tim has said from the very beginning that it was a girl. I personally didn’t have an inkling either way and had the ultrasound technician look multiple times just to confirm.

Pregnancy Cravings

Everyone always tells you about their weird pregnancy cravings, but mine have been pretty minimal for the most part! The notable pregnancy cravings were:

• Sprite from McDonald’s 
• Macaroni and Cheese (Annie’s, Chick-fil-a and Panera all had specific days where I was craving them)
• Watermelon
• BBQ 
• A Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse (which I didn’t ever actually end up getting but I talked about it for at least 24 hours).

Maternity Leave Plans

I plan to share more about what maternity leave will look like for me and my business on a future podcast episode. Currently, I’m planning to take about 6 weeks off from my business and then return to a lighter workload. I love my business and honestly, I think I’ll have a hard time fully stepping away. I’m creating short lists for myself with 15 to 20 minute business tasks that I can do during my maternity leave if I feel up for it.

My goal is to not have to do anything in my business, but if I want to work then I’ll pick from a list of shorter tasks.

Pregnancy Favorites

Being pregnant comes with needing all sorts of new things to help you feel good and stay healthy. Here are the things I’ve been absolutely loving during pregnancy:

Pregnancy Vitamins and Supplements

Prenatal Vitamin: One of the best pieces of advice someone gave me early on during pregnancy is to not commit to one prenatal vitamin and buy a whole bunch until you know it doesn’t make you sick. I went through several brands early on and some of them were hard to swallow or made me feel queasy. I also really don’t like having to take multiple pills throughout the day, so any prenatal vitamin where you had to take 2-3 pills broken up over the course of the day was a no for me. It’s way too likely I’ll just forget to take them.

I’ve been loving the Garden of Life Prenatal + DHA Vitamin. I’ve taken this one consistently for the last 3 months and it’s been by far the easiest to swallow and digest. I also love that it’s just one pill a day and includes DHA (which is usually taken separately).

Other Supplements:

• Natural Vitality Calm Magnesium Supplement – Magnesium is AMAZING when you’re pregnant. It helps with all sorts of different things like backaches, sleeping and tummy troubles. I opted to use the Calm brand of magnesium because you can dissolve it in drinks. Drinking any water (even to swallow medicine) has made me queasy throughout my pregnancy so I like that I can mix this with whatever I’m drinking that day.
  
• Megafood Blood Builder Iron Supplement – It’s pretty common that most pregnant women have low iron. At my very first doctor’s appointment, my iron levels tested ok, but at my most recent appointment I was testing under the recommended values so I started taking this iron supplement. This is the only iron I’ve ever taken so I can’t compare it to others, but this one is supposed to be easier on your stomach than other brands.
  
• Vitamin D – I also tested low in Vitamin D during my last lab tests so I’m not supplementing with this to get some extra Vitamin D in my body.
  
• TUMS – Pretty much every pregnant woman I’ve ever met has spoken about the wonders of TUMS and it’s true! They are amazing when you’re pregnant. They helped me battle a bit of first trimester nausea and currently, I take them for heartburn.

Pregnancy and Baby Books

I’ve been consciously trying to not read every book out there about pregnancy because sometimes too much information isn’t a good thing. Here are the books I’ve found the most helpful throughout pregnancy.

• The Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth – I actually bought this before I was pregnant because I wanted an informational book that would help me know what to expect without overwhelming me. This book is well-written and breaks down the information week by week so that you don’t have to read it all at once.
  
• Real Food for Pregnancy: The Science and Wisdom of Optimal Prenatal Nutrition – Tons of helpful information about what you should eat while you’re pregnant and how to get more protein in your diet.
  
• Juju Sundin’s Birth Skills: Proven Pain-Management Techniques for Your Labour and Birth – Covers a bunch of skills you can do to manage pain during labor.

Pregnancy Workouts

I’ve been focusing on walking every single day and doing yoga 3-4 times a week. I love Pregnancy and Postpartum TV’s videos and Nourish Move Love’s workouts.

Links mentioned:

• Connect with Mara on Instagram
• Subscribe to Create a Better Course on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Create a Better Course on Google Podcasts