My FAVORITE Pregnancy Must Haves! (Clothing, Registry, Misc Items...ALL THE THINGS!)
Hello! If you’re new here or don’t follow me on instagram, you may not know that I am currently 29 weeks pregnant. We are expecting our first baby, a girl on August 12th, 2019! We are SO excited and this pregnancy has seriously FLOWN by. To the point of now I’m 29 weeks and panicking because I only have 11 weeks left…where did the time go?! I know, I know, nobody ever feels “ready” so I have to get over it :)
I wanted to share my FAVORITE pregnancy related things with you! I have found some great maternity clothing (and some not so great) as well as some items I just could not live without! If your expecting too or are TTC, congratulations!
MATERNITY CLOTHES
I thought I would be one of those girls who didn’t need to buy any maternity clothing till WAY later in pregnancy, but I was WRONG. I was SO bloated even at 9-10 weeks that I could no longer button my pants for work. I had to suck it up and take the plunge because I didn’t want to be uncomfortable anymore!
For maternity clothes I LOVE anything from Pink Blush. You can check out their site here! https://www.pinkblushmaternity.com/. My entire outfit in the picture above is from there actually… The Kimono, jeans and the tank top :) They can be a bit pricey but they do have sales often AND if you don’t get anything else clothing wise- I highly suggest finding some maternity jeans you love. I looooooove the way the Pink Blush ones fit. I have 3 pairs and they are a life saver! Well worth the cost to be comfortable! You can only do the hair tie trick with your regular jeans for so long…
I probably wouldn’t have cared so much about comfortable jeans if I wasn’t pregnant while teaching, but I couldn’t just wear leggings to work everyday so it was a non negotiable for me. Now that’s summer you’ll more than likely catch me in workout clothes/leggings every single day unless it’s date night lol. #StayAtHomeDogMom
I’ve also bought 1 pair of working leggings from Motherhood Maternity, https://www.motherhood.com/maternity-clothes/ . They are very reasonably priced, but their quality is definitely not as good as Blanqi https://www.blanqi.com/#modal-email-capture (at least for workout leggings, anyways). I purchased two pairs of leggings from Blanqi— one pair of workout pants and one pair of just regular leggings and I love them BOTH. #YOUGETWHATYOUPAYFOR
I have bought a couple pieces from Target’s maternity section and honestly, I wasn’t impressed AT ALL. I should mention that my Target has a very small maternity section, so maybe that’s why. Overall, I wasn’t a fan.
Last but certainly not least, OLD NAVY! I love Old Navy so much because they have Tall sizes (hello, being 5’11 tall size are a MUST). I have a few tops, one pair of pants and some athletic shorts from their maternity section. I love them all!
I know you may not want to spend a ton of money on maternity clothes, but I highly recommend just getting a few staple pieces to make your life easier.
BABY REGISTRY
When trying to create a baby registry I was extremely overwhelmed. This is our first baby so obviously we had NO IDEA what we would really need on our registry. Since we are also a military family, I wanted to register somewhere that had multiple stores in one place instead of having 5 million different registries. Cue BABY LIST! I found it online one day and it’s been so awesome! You create your registry on Baby List and can add whatever you want from any store! It’s all in one spot so your family and friends can browse and purchase at ease. I added items from Target, Carters, Etsy, Amazon and etc. When someone buys you something, they simple register for the gift, then go back to the site to mark that they bought it. All the items are shipped directly to your house (if you want). This is helpful since we did not have a typical baby shower with friends and family where they would be seeing us in person.
You can set yours up by going here! https://www.babylist.com/
FETAL DOPPLER
Until I first felt the baby move, I was constantly worried about something happening and me not knowing! Having this hand held fetal doppler was SO awesome in early pregnancy. You can hear the baby’s heartbeat and it totally puts your mind at ease! I think this is a life saver to use between your month long OB appointments (that feel incredibly long in between). Some things to note: research shows they don’ have any harmful effects on baby as long as you don’t use it a million times a day (I only used it once every other day for a little bit then stopped because I wasn’t worried). Even if you do use it a lot, they have no way to prove it’s harmful- but like anything, it’s usually better in moderation just to be safe:)
All you do is use the ultrasound gel that it comes with (or you can use Aloe vera when you run out!) and rub a quarter size amount below your belly button. Rub the device on top of the gel and listen for the heartbeat! Be sure you actually find the baby’s heart beat and that the device is not picking up your own. I had NO IDEA it could pick up my own heartbeat in my stomach (LOL I guess I should’ve realized that) so at first I thought we were hearing baby, but really it was my own. Thank goodness a friend pointed it out to me and helped me! Your own heartbeat is much slower (although the device picks it up as reading 125ish) than the baby. It also sounds like a swishing noise, whereas baby’s heart beat sounds like horses galloping and is VERY fast. Just FYI, When I was only 9-10 weeks a long I had to put the doppler very low. Baby is much lower than you think at that point.
Also, remember that the doppler isn’t necessarily going to pick up the heartbeat correctly so the reading may not be entirely accurate (due to echoes and a million other things)- but hearing it is so amazing! Once you hear it, you’ll know. Some people don’t recommend them because sometimes it can be hard for you to find the baby’s heartbeat and you don’t want to freak yourself out thinking something is wrong (it doesn’t mean there is). So take it with a grain of salt. I never had any issues finding it, although sometimes it would take a few minutes and other times I would find it immediately.
^It’s only 39.95 and well worth it IMO!
PREGNANCY PILLOW
My husband was the sweetest and gifted this pillow to me as a Christmas present when I was only a few weeks along. He did the research and found that most women LOVED them so he bought it from Motherhood Maternity at the mall (they have an online store too). I will admit, I don’t use it every night and definitely had to get used to it but I do love it! I’m using it a lot more often now that I’m getting farther along. There are so many different ways you can move it to make it comfortable for you, which I also love!
You can get yours here:
https://www.motherhood.com/pregnancy-pillows-body-pillows/
I hope this post was helpful! I loved sharing some of the things that have been really helpful for me during this pregnancy so far!
with love,
Brooklyn