Secrets of a Pregnancy Unicorn: Part One–the Prep Work

Come on.  We’ve all seen them, and not just in the movie What to Expect When You’re Expecting.  Strutting around in their high heels, feeling great, energy to spare…

Some people just get lucky.

Unless they don’t.

Unless maybe they are just working smartly to make their bodies work for their babies and themselves.

I realize that lots of people have surprise! babies, but the Hubsters and I, as well as many other couples, had a bit of a “let’s have a baby” conversation, followed by the ensuing and necessary “work.” My gracious husband was ready for a baby years before I was, but, recognizing that his contribution was strictly the “fun part,” he left it up to me to decide when the baby making should begin. When I was finally ready, I decided to do a few things to prepare my body for the demands of pregnancy.

I had seen lots of women go through pregnancy looking miserable, exhausted, and lifeless. Many of them would give me the “just wait until it’s your turn” look, which really didn’t make me pity them (and it certainly didn’t make me want to be them!). It only fueled the fire for me to think, “This just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think it has to be this way. Obviously, some women make it through pregnancy looking healthy and vibrant and energetic, so it must be possible. I’m going to figure out how!” And so my quest began to search for all the ways I could get my body into great baby making shape.

Please don’t get me wrong—I am not trying to pass judgment on these ladies. I also realize that some women enter pregnancy with preexisting conditions that make pregnancy much more difficult. Ladies, I applaud you. Thank you for caring for that little human with so much love and devotion! Thank you for sacrificing your comfort for that little baby. This post is written to encourage the woman in good general health who is thinking about or trying to conceive a child and wants to prepare her body to handle pregnancy as best as she is able. In no way am I trying to make anyone feel badly about what they did or didn’t do, and I certainly don’t claim to have this all figured out or down to a perfect science. I simply want to share my experience in the hopes that other women can have as happy and healthy of a pregnancy as I had.  I also realize that calling yourself a pregnancy unicorn is rather narcissistic (!), but after the millionth conversation with another pregnant friend belaboring (pun intended!) all her pregnancy symptoms, and realizing that you never really had any of those symptoms and then being able to pinpoint why you never had any of those symptoms, I just decided to embrace the title of pregnancy unicorn.  Here’s what worked for me…

(BIG, IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE!  I’m not a doctor, and this information is not intended to be medical advice or to replace the advice of your doctor.  Please consult your doctor before beginning any supplementation or new exercise.)

1. I supplemented with royal maca.

I had been taking royal maca for a good eight months or so before Landon was conceived. Originally, I started taking it to balance out my premenstrual hormones. (Without getting too detailed with you, my biggest complaint was just that my breasts were extremely tender for sometimes two whole weeks before my period, and I’m not exactly blessed in that department in the first place, and I enjoy running…weird combo.) Anyway, a friend of mine recommended it to me. Maca is a tuber that was used by the Incas. It is adaptogenic in nature, meaning that it will help your body produce whatever hormone it is low in, or lower any hormone that may be made in excess. Both men and women can benefit from this valuable food. In fact, many male bodybuilders use it to increase their testosterone if they are having trouble building muscle.

After just a few months of use, I noticed that my PMS symptoms had dissipated, but I continued using it knowing that we would probably want to try to conceive soon and wanted to keep all my “sexy” hormones running strong! I can’t say whether or not it worked since I’ve never tried to conceive without taking maca. However, we certainly had no trouble conceiving at all. Please note, I discontinued use of this supplement when I learned that I was pregnant. Some people say that maca is safe to use during pregnancy, but most sources do not recommend it. I opted to discontinue use since it had done its job anyway. I look forward to using this supplement again once I’m done nursing.  Here’s the one that I like.

2. I was on a low gluten and dairy diet.

Now, let me say first of all that I do not think this is a hard and fast rule for everyone. Some people (namely, my husband) seem to tolerate both of these things extremely well (it’s somewhat annoying). However, I began avoiding dairy to help clear up my skin (definitely works) and avoiding gluten to help keep my thyroid in tip-top shape, but the biggest thing I discovered when I drastically reduced these foods from my diet was that my digestion worked better than it ever had before. No more constipation. No more embarrassing gas and bloating. Symptoms that had plagued me for years and years of my life went away. I was amazed. Additionally, those abs that I knew had to be there for as hard as I worked them finally started appearing, and I found myself much leaner than I had been in years. (I do contribute this to a variety of factors, but avoiding gluten and dairy definitely helped!)

Now, what on earth does this have to do with pregnancy? I do firmly believe that your gut health is a big indicator of your overall, general health. You must be properly eliminating on a daily basis. It is your body’s way of eliminating waste, obviously, but you do not want that backing up in your system.

Truth be told, once I got pregnant I had a much harder time with my no gluten/no dairy diet. Sometimes I really craved yogurt. Sometimes all I wanted was cheese and crackers. It was weird how foods that hadn’t tempted me for months now seemed so enticing. So, I let myself have them from time to time. And most of the time, I paid for it! But, as I got farther and farther from those first few weeks, it got much easier to get back to my low gluten and dairy lifestyle.

3. I was supplementing magnesium.

I started supplementing with magnesium a few years ago when I could not figure out why I was so sore after my workouts. I could lift weights one day and be sore for five. This did nothing to help me gain any strength since I had to wait so long to lift those same muscle groups again. I just didn’t feel like I could bounce back as well as I should have been able to. I had heard that magnesium was an important mineral to muscle recovery, so I started taking it in liquid form each evening. And kind of like the low-gluten diet didn’t make me feel like my thyroid was functioning exponentially better but it seemed to heal my gut, the magnesium was much the same way. I didn’t notice drastic changes in my recovery time, but I did notice one thing very peculiar, and amazing. I stopped craving carbs. I had a sweet tooth like none other before magnesium. I had to have ice cream regularly. I craved crackers and pretzels and all sorts of simple carbohydrates all the time, and all of a sudden one day I realized that I didn’t have to have them anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still really like sugar. I’m still trying to back off on it and cut down on it even more in my diet, but I am much, much better than before.

I had also started using magnesium topically as an oil that I spray on my legs before bed. It stings a little, and my husband isn’t particularly fond of the chalky feeling it leaves on my legs, but it does seem to work a bit better for muscle soreness in this way.

One pregnancy symptom I have dealt with has been restless legs. I just can’t seem to sit still some nights close to bedtime and sometimes I toss and turn a bit when I get to bed. Typically a few sprays of magnesium oil does the trick for those restless legs, and I calm down and go to sleep within ten or twenty minutes or so. I’ve found that my body definitely needs more magnesium now than before I was pregnant, but I am also finding that I don’t have any intense sugar cravings that all pregnant women are “supposed” to have (if your body is craving something so unhealthy, please note that this is a craving that just needs to be redirected to the proper nutrient it actually needs).  This is a great topical magnesium.  Or you can make your own using this recipe from Wellness Mama!

Additionally, I did not struggle with morning sickness in my first trimester. While most women think you either luck out in this department or you don’t, I truly believed that morning sickness had to be caused by something. You see, I believe that your body was created to carry this life inside you and make the best possible human being that it can given its resources. If that means that the mom suffers and feels sick as a result of her body giving all her nutrients to her baby, then it will do just that. Your pregnant body will take care of baby first and give mom any leftovers. This is why proper nutrition during pregnancy is so important and why so many women don’t feel well.

There really doesn’t seem to be any firm evidence on what causes morning sickness, but there are some pretty strong theories. One of those theories is that morning sickness is caused by magnesium deficiency. Seeing as I was already supplementing with magnesium, it makes sense that I would not be terribly deficient in that mineral. (Note, many, many people are deficient in this mineral since our soil where much of our food is grown is now quite depleted. If you’re wondering if you should supplement magnesium in your diet, my answer would be, probably so.)

4. I supplemented with milk thistle extract.

I knew that I was about to put my body, and particularly in that first trimester, my liver, through a lot of harder work being pregnant, so I was taking milk thistle extract when I got pregnant. This is where the morning sickness theories continue. Some people think that morning sickness is caused by the load on your liver (you are making a ton of extra blood in the first trimester!), and if your liver isn’t up to the challenge than you are going to feel it. Some women start taking milk thistle and their morning sickness completely disappears. Since I was already taking it, I can’t pin my lack of morning sickness on this one herb, but I certainly don’t think it hurt! I stopped taking it right around the end of the first trimester simply because I had used the entire bottle, and did not foresee any morning sickness in the second trimester and beyond.  Here’s one.

5. I was using a whole food supplement.

Now, call me crazy, but I am not a huge fan of traditional multi vitamins or prenatal vitamins. Most of these vitamins are so heavily, and artificially, processed that our bodies really can’t recognize them and use them. Now, I know some women swear by their prenatals, and that’s perfectly fine. If you’ve found something you like, great. I was much more comfortable using a whole food fruit and veggie supplement that I know consists 100% of just real food in a capsule. I use Juice Plus. Ideally, I would be taking a double dose, but that is not the most affordable option. And yes, Juice Plus contains folate which is much healthier for your body than the artificially created folic acid found in prenatal vitamins. I feel confident that I am giving my body the proper nutrients it truly needs because I do not have any unhealthy cravings for food. Cravings are real. They are not just cute pregnancy qwerks. They are your body’s way of telling you that you need something. Unfortunately, those cravings can be kind of misdirected if you are not feeding your body real food. No, your baby does not need ice cream or McDonalds, and if that’s all you want, you should probably figure out which micronutrient you are lacking that is making you want junk food.

You can order Juice Plus here.  (FYI, I don’t get a kick back from Juice Plus for recommending their product to you.  I just really like it and believe in it.)

6. I was taking fermented cod liver oil.

If you look at ancient civilizations and the foods that were given to men and women during their fertile years, you will see that they consumed lots and lots of fats and fermented foods. By fermenting cod liver oil, the vitamins are preserved in the oil (most fish oils are rancid by the time they hit the shelves!). I was taking this nutrient loaded food before I got pregnant and will continue, well, maybe for life. During the first trimester, on days when I didn’t take it, I noticed that I was a bit more tired than days when I did take it. My body definitely needed those vitamins!  This is the only one I use!

(I definitely, definitely recommend the “cinnamon tingle” flavor.  It is strong enough to really help with masking the fishy taste. And yes, just go for the liquid version.  You would have to take so many capsules to get a full dose of fish oil in liquid form that it becomes much, much more expensive.  It’s not too bad once you get used to it.  Just use the syringe that comes with the bottle to shoot the stuff back behind your tongue, tilt your head back, and swallow.  Then chase it with some food or drink.  It’s possible that you put something way more disgusting than fish oil into your mouth during college or a similar time in your life.  Bear that in mind, and you should be just fine.)

7. I was in the best physical shape of my life.

This is a big one for me. If you want to get through pregnancy feeling energetic, you must be in shape beforehand and continue exercising throughout pregnancy! I am so glad that I was in the best physical shape of my life before pregnancy. During the first trimester, whenever I would start to feel a little blah or a little bit icky, I would exercise and feel completely better. As my pregnancy has continued, I certainly had to modify my exercise routine a good deal. That was a bit of a bummer since I am a competitive athlete, but I think of how much more I would have to scale back if I wasn’t in good shape beforehand, and that spurred me to continue on with what I could.

It is not typically recommended that you start any new exercise while you are pregnant, so if you have been sitting on your couch prior to getting pregnant, how on earth are you going to gain the hormone balancing and energy inducing benefits of exercise now? Not to mention, it will help keep you from gaining too much weight. No, I couldn’t run as many miles as I usually can, and, no, I can’t run them quite as fast either, but I can still run at a pretty decent pace! Additionally, daily household chores and tasks, like carrying in all the groceries up the stairs to my second floor apartment was not a big deal. I was, somewhat easily, crawling up on top of my countertop to reach something in the cupboard less than 24 hours before Landon was born.  I can only imagine how chores like that would be much harder if I hadn’t been fit beforehand! Get in shape before you get pregnant, and you will be so glad that you did!

So there you have it, ladies—my top seven tips for an easy and energetic pregnancy. I hope they are helpful to you.

What are your thoughts?  What worked well for you or a friend to get your body set for a happy, healthy pregnancy?  Post your comments below, please!

(Note: this post contains affiliate links.  That means, if you click on one of my links and purchase a product, I receive a small compensation.  Thanks in advance for keeping Sprinting Spoon spinning!)