Is There ANYTHING I Can Do?(jff Kinda)

Fortunately when I was pregnant the advice was "eat healthy". Not

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I'm a big believer in "all things in moderation" so I didn't stress out at all.

Moms of us baby boomers smoked--drank alcohol and coffee--ate what they wanted and we turned out fairly well.

In fact the baby boomers became the most successful, imaginitve, and creative group the world has ever seen.

Stop stressing and use good sense.

I gave up almost nothing, I just moderated everything. I already had a fairly healthy diet, didn't drink much coffee to begin with. But really, if you try to follow every "rule" you could drive yourself crazy.

Example: while pregnant I was reading a magazine with food advice during pregnancy. On the same page, one article said "eat tuna", another article said "don't eat tuna". I threw the magazine away and just ate the best way I knew how.

Why throw them away because one magazine article says one thing? Most of the time when you read about something being "linked" it's rarely true! You can prove or disprove almost anything with the "right" study. I refused to give up caffeine, so I limited myself to the 200mg or less per day and I ate whatever I wanted. Most women in this world don't abide by the "flavor of the month about what you can't do pregnant" trends and most have no problems. The ones who do -who knows if it's because of what they ate or drank or did or just because they would have had a problem anyway? Until you see numerous articles about something and start getting information from doctors and midwives about not doing something when pregnant -just don't worry about it The Listeria thing gets a lot of attention, but I still ate deli meat and soft cheeses like most other women in the world.

I really don't buy into a lot of these "links" between things and miscarriage. Not to say you should overindulge (and I definitely don't support drinking/drugs) but I think regular coffee is fine. I drank it all through my pregnancies. However, I don't do caffeine now, while nursing...and it's been 15 months since I've had a real coffee....or a real Coke... :(

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Truthfully... I think ANYTHING has the capacity to cause harm or to be nothing at all. Anything excessive during a sickness, pregnancy, etc is dangerous... but moderation is key.

I read a study that said sleeping on your RIGHT side during pregnancy increased the risk of miscarriage! SERIOUSLY?? When I read into it further, the increase was LESS than .03%! Yet they had made it sound soooo damaging!!

Another kicker - Listeria and cold cuts during pregnancy. Made it sound all scary and that it happens all the time... it hits less than 1.5% of the American population annually. Like 4,000 people get it a year out of almost 400 Million people.

I take everything I read with a HUGE grain of salt... most of it is hyped up, misleading or simply not studies enough before publishing the very small sample statistics.

Only things I gave up during my pregnancy was my high intake of chocolate candy - which isn't good even when NOT pregnant, and crunching on my chocolate coated coffee beans.

It was really hard for me to give up lunch meat. I love eating ham sandwiches but it could have listrosis in or on it and that is bad for the baby so I couldnt risk it. So I went the entire pregnancy without eating it. It was hard!

I told my husband the day I gave birth to my son, I said I want Subway! Lol. It was the best ham sandwich and pepsi I ever had.

I hate those moments.
When I was pregnant I loved the blue full throttle, still do. It helped me survive some military mornings too lol. Right before I found out I was pregnant (by coincidence) I read the little side label, I was SO bored at work, and read that pregnant women can't drink it. Well, 2 days later I found out I was pregnant so no Full throttle for me :P
I also gave up my Newports (cigarettes) and cleaning out the cat box (oh darn haha)

For real Jen, I hate trying to remember to take those prenatal vitamins and the guilt trip I gave myself when I would forget haha.

I gave up coffee my first pregnancy, but with the last on and this one I just have one cup a day and I drink decaf tea. I have read somewhere that the decaf isn't healthy, but honestly, I haven't worried about it. So I really haven't given up anything this time around except like high mercury fish, but I didn't eat it anyway, so it's all good. I rarely drink and not at all prego, but if I was more of a social drinker than I would probably notice that and I haven't smoked in like 16 yrs, so that is no issue, so I really don't feel too deprived! But what I HATE adding to my life are prenatal vitamins!!! I hate feeling guilty if I forget and they still make me feel a little weird sometimes, but I do try to take them. If you are up for a great pregnancy read, I read a book called Fearless Pregnancy written by a Dr, a midwife and a mother. It's so good and addresses so many questions I had. So you might want to check it out!! :D

Before pregnant, I drank about 3 cups of coffee per day. During pregnancy, I limited myself to one a day, and sometimes none. It was so hard!

I also had to give up my deli sandwhiches for fear of listeria! Such a pain!

Don't throw them out, they will keep until after you have the baby! Then you can enjoy them guilt free!