Hi there!

Today I am sharing a few tidbits on how we prepared ourselves for baby (pre-pregnancy)!

As I mentioned in my last post, a few months before we started trying I couldn’t learn enough stuff about pregnancy, optimal fertility, labor and delivery, etc.

Through my research I stumbled upon the “natural” world of all things lifestyle, but mostly labor and delivery. I began to feel empowered that God created my body to grow a baby, and also created it to know how to give birth as well.

So how did we prepare?

First, we prayed. A lot. For guidance on whether or not we were ready, on timing, on when exactly to remove my IUD (I mentioned this in the previous post). There were a lot of variables that we had to take into account, this was by far our most important decision to make as a couple thus far, and it wasn’t a decision to enter into lightly.

I came across the documentary “The Business of Being Born” and talked hubby into watching with it with me. Wow, if that documentary is not eye-opening. We quickly got on the same page that we wanted an alternative pregnancy and labor if God allowed us to. We decided we wanted to utilize a midwife for our prenatal care and delivery so we began to research options in the area.

I also stumbled upon a  “preconception diet” (from Mama Natural). And began to try to implement those changes in our diets. I upped my intake of vegetables (especially spinach) and drastically lowered my intake of sweets and desserts.

We also haven’t had any sodas or sugared drinks in several years. Nor do we drink alcohol or smoke. This didn’t change, but research tells you not to do these things while trying to conceive so I felt it necessary to mention!

I began prenatal vitamins sometime in late July (Honest Company- because they are whole food, and are easier on the tummy).

K had also started a multivitamin several months ago. (It’s not just about the woman’s health!)

I also learned to change from low fat dairy to whole dairy because you have an 85% higher chance of conceiving easier on whole dairy versus low fat. So whole milk, whole sour cream, greek yogurt, all of it. (Can’t remember where I read that, but I found it several times. Here’s why: in order for your body to create the hormones necessary for conception and pregnancy, your body needs cholesterol, cholesterol comes from fat which are found in the whole dairy products.)

We also had routine labs drawn to check both of our levels to make sure they were all in line.

I had already been drinking decaf coffee for years so that didn’t change, and I also kept up my routine workout schedule, but I got K interested in accompanying me to the gym. 🙂

Lastly, I came across an article via a “natural” friend (thanks Breanne!) from MommyPotamus that said to up your intake of magnesium before conception as it can aid in morning sickness. So after researching more, I learned that most of us are deficient in magnesium because it is not easily absorbed through diet. The best way to increase our intake of magnesium is to administer it topically. You can buy it at any natural living or health food store, its relatively inexpensive. I used it on the bottoms of feet because it does have a weird consistency once its on your skin, but then started using it on my stomach and back, it absorbs very quickly, but does burn/tingle slightly.

We then had to decide on how to proceed for the business. How we would attempt to not schedule any weddings, we knew the timing was up to the Lord, but we still had to be proactive in how to proceed. We decided that since 3rd quarter was the slowest then that would be when we would “hope to be due”. So we marked off July-September 2015. For a small amount of time I did put a lot of pressure on myself that we had to be due in that time, but we laughed about it one night chatting about that saying “when we make plans, God laughs”, ya know the one I’m talking about. 🙂

But, we also believed that our business is solely based on God’s will. When we don’t book certain couples it’s because we weren’t supposed to work with them, I fully trust that each wedding is from Him. So all we could do was pray that our planning would meet His will.

Ultimately, we became pregnant because it was God’s plan for us to, but we are called to be proactive about our health and our bodies so all the steps we took to prepare ourselves for conception were still in line with taking care of the bodies God blessed us with!

Hope y’all enjoyed how we prepared our hearts and minds!

Blessings!

xoxo, Tamara