Search Results for: blog exhaustion during early pregnancy

Managing Your Energy Levels During Pregnancy

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Halfway through our hike around Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin’s scenic state park of the same name, I was ready to pick a bench and crash. I had hiked this trail many times before, but this time I simply did not have the energy to finish. While the rest of my group finished the trek up the hill and over the boulders, I headed back to the campsite with my husband and passed out in the tent for two hours. Several times during our camping trip, I stumbled to the tent and fell asleep, napping for 2-3 hours at a time. … Continue reading →

Top 10 Reactions to a Positive Pregnancy Test

You’ve just found out that you are pregnant. How do you react? 10. You send your husband to the store to buy a second test. The more high tech, the better. If they came out with a pregnancy test that could verbally tell you, “Congratulations! You’re pregnant!”, you would probably buy it. 9. Take a photo of the pregnancy test and post it on the Pregnancy forum on Families.com to see if your forum buddies think it’s positive, too. “Is that a line? Is it an evap?” 8. Google “early pregnancy symptoms” and mentally check off any that you are … Continue reading →

Exhaustion During Early Pregnancy

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All the sleep I’ve lost over the past three months is finally catching up to me, so much so that I actually took a pregnancy test today to make sure I wasn’t about to have “Irish twins” this next spring. When I was pregnant with my son, the fatigue was so prevalent that I was basically a worthless lump on the couch for the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy. I’m very close to being a worthless lump again, but it turns out that the only thing keeping me down during the day is what (or who) is keeping me … Continue reading →

Put Those Grounds To Good Use!

Has your relationship with coffee changed since becoming a mother? Mine sure has. I grew up in Seattle, and inevitably have had a lifelong love affair with Starbucks. I couldn’t imagine anything more refreshing on a warm summer afternoon then an Iced Vanilla Latte. Nothing warmed me up better during rainy fall afternoons than a Pumpkin Spice Latte. After I got married and the reality of paying bills set in, paying $3-$5 for a cup of coffee was no longer a reality. I soon began brewing my own Starbucks coffee at home. The love affair continued. Then, I got pregnant, … Continue reading →

Three Reasons to Get a Shopping Buddy

Grocery shopping presents new challenges in the third trimester. Walking up and down each aisle is a little more tiring that usual. Pelvic pain can make a shopping trip miserable. Reaching items on the top shelf or squatting down to pick up items off the bottom shelf becomes embarrassingly difficult. Lifting a case of water seems impossible. And just when you think you’ve gotten through the worst part, you arrive at the checkout and realize you can’t reach the items in the bottom of the cart because your belly is in the way! The solution? Enlist a shopping buddy. Call … Continue reading →

You Will Forget All Of This

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This week I put together a book about my pregnancy and my son’s birth. I collected pictures of ultrasounds, my baby belly and the delivery and paired them up with excerpts from my blog and journal. As I was reading through old blog entries (most of these were private, not publicly posted), I could not believe how much detail I had already forgotten about my pregnancy. I forgot how miserable I was at times! I forgot how tired I was. When I looked at pictures, I realized I had forgotten how big I was! Some of you reading this are … Continue reading →

Study Finds Link Between Depression and Premature Babies

A new study, about premature babies that shows a link between symptoms of depression in pregnant mothers and premature babies, was published yesterday in the medical journal, Human Reproduction. The study from Kaiser Permanente surveyed hundreds of pregnant patients during their early weeks of pregnancy, using a questionnaire that measured depressive symptoms. Almost half of the women showed severe or significant symptoms of depression. Depression in women who are expecting is more common than you might think. It is a treatable condition, and women should be aware that ignoring the symptoms may very well lead to to premature delivery, according … Continue reading →

Dear Heather … My Husband Thinks It’s My Fault

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Dear Heather I get so frustrated with my husband sometimes. I’m overweight. I have been since my second child was born. With my son, the weight just fell off, but in the last couple of years I haven’t lost that pregnancy weight with my daughter. I don’t like how I look, honestly, I feel very chunky and ungainly these days. I gained over 50 pounds and I only lost about 10 after our daughter was born and then quickly regained that 10 pounds. A couple of days ago, I was feeling pretty frustrated and my husband said, and I quote, … Continue reading →

Feel Refreshed Without a Nap

Ideally, pregnant women should nap every day. This is especially important during the first and third trimesters when exhaustion is at its peak. However, napping is not always possible. Mothers to be who work or are home with other children have a difficult time getting rest during the day. If you work full time, there are some things you can do to feel revitalized. The hours after lunch are when most people feel tired at work, whether they are pregnant or not. This time is sometimes referred to as the afternoon slump. When you are expecting a baby, you can’t … Continue reading →

“If Only We Had Known…” Couples Sue over Wrongful Life

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Is having a special needs child worse than death? Apparently for some parents, it is. A number of couples are now suing their obstetricians for not informing them about testing procedures available during their pregnancy, which would have exposed fetal conditions such as spina bifida. In other words, they lost the opportunity to make an informed choice about continuing the pregnancy. According to the law in many states, physicians must inform expectant couples of all their prenatal testing options. Personally, I don’t blame parents for wanting to know about the health of their unborn child. And prenatal testing can provide … Continue reading →