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My daughter is now 9-years-old and so it is a long time since I have gone through an entire pregnancy, and a lot has changed, not only in the world of pregnancy, but also with me.
I think if I got pregnant again I would be much more relaxed this time; knowing I am capable as a mother and that I produce great children!!
I would like to be pregnant again one day and so it is something I think about sometimes and how I would do certain things differently during the pregnancy and afterwards. I never wanted to only have one child (I originally wanted 4 or 5!) and so I would love to have another baby in the next couple of years, perhaps.
After my surgery in 2019, I no longer have any ovaries; but fortunately, we still have two frozen embryos from our last IVF (the one that gave me my daughter!!) so it is still a possibility, thankfully.
If I were lucky enough to be pregnant again, here are some of the things I would do differently.
Last time I really wanted a water birth all through my pregnancy but at the actual time, I just didn’t want one, even though I was able to! I don’t regret anything because it all mostly went well and it was just how I felt at the time, but I would still love to be able to have a water birth next time.
I think it’s such a lovely way to give birth and would hopefully help with pain and the whole process of labour and birth.
As I was trying to get pregnant for years before I had my daughter I had been taking Folic acid for years, but I didn’t end up taking a specific pregnancy supplement because the one I tried made me feel quite sick. Next time I would want to take a multivitamin designed especially for pregnancy so I know I’m getting everything I really need.
I’ve talked before about Feel multivitamins and how much I love them – I reviewed them last year and I am still subscribing to them and taking them every day. They have really great quality ingredients and all of the things we need, and now Feel have launched a new pregnancy supplement too!
Feel Pregnancy is a completely clean and gentle formula to support you and your baby, providing all of the essential nutrients you both need. The combination of vitamins, minerals and probiotics help to support fertility, foetal development, and breast milk production and quality after birth.
It contains folic acid in the best form (Folate) so you don’t need to take a separate tablet, and there are no excess doses of anything and no artificial additives so you don’t need to worry. Feel Pregnancy supplement can help to reduce nausea (which I suffered with so badly last time!) as well as contribute to overall health and energy levels.
Folic acid or folate is SO important in pregnancy to help prevent birth defects and to support tissue growth of the uterus and placenta, but lots of supplements don’t contain a form that is easily absorbed by the body; Feel Pregnancy, however, does.
I think they sound brilliant and will certainly take them myself if I do get pregnant again, plus whilst having the fertility treatment that I’d need and afterwards to help with breastfeeding. I really trust the brand and the quality of their supplements, and plus I think they’re a great price for a month’s supply, especially when you can try them free for a whole month!
You can get a free trial of Feel Pregnancy (so a whole month free!!) if you go here to get them: Feel Pregnancy
With my daughter, we got home from the hospital at around 6pm, 24 hours after giving birth. Family wanted to come over and see her (understandably) so despite being knackered and sore and wanting to enjoy the moment of coming home with my wonderful new baby, I felt pressured to jump in the shower straight away and quickly get ready for guests.
It wasn’t their fault, of course, but I should have said no to visitors that evening, but I felt too guilty and selfish to do that. I now know that was wrong and it was about us as a family having some time to chill, recover, and enjoy our new bundle on our own schedule.
With Ava we had a moses basket at first, and then a crib when she’d grown out of that. I had it right next to the bed, but it was still so hard bringing her out to feed her again every couple of hours. Plus, she would hardly ever settle back in it so I would end up with her sleeping on me and trying my best to stay awake.
If I did it again I would get a co-sleeper cot if I could so that the baby would hopefully settle more being right next to me, and it should make it slightly easier to breastfeed without fully waking up, so that we both get more sleep.
Having said that I also wouldn’t worry too much about them sleeping with me in bed (obviously, following all the guidelines for co-sleeping). Last time we literally took it in turns, in two-hourly slots to have her on us and try and stay awake, because she wouldn’t stay asleep anywhere else! That time was so incredibly hard and so this time I would be more relaxed about co-sleeping (but only have the baby with me) and not feeling like I needed to stay awake.
When I was pregnant with Ava I got really bad migraines and felt sick all the time. I also had so little energy so I didn’t really do any exercise at all. I was young enough then to still maintain a healthy weight, but I don’t think I would be so lucky next time!
I have a dog now so would be walking regularly anyway, so I would really want to maintain that with long daily walks if I possibly could, as well as keeping up with my exercise routines. Hopefully, that would help my body to recover more easily afterwards and keep me and the baby healthy all the way through.
I would also start drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea earlier – I only drank it close to the end last time – which can help with toning the uterus, potentially reducing labour time (yes please!) and is full of vitamins and minerals.
Not only that, I would make sure I drank plenty of coconut water all the way through and particularly before labour. I get heartburn so badly during pregnancy and last time it even got so bad after birth that by the fourth day I couldn’t eat anything at all and even water was agony to swallow with a straw and I was so weak and in so much pain.
Other than medication (which I may well need anyway), coconut water is the only thing I have found that makes a massive difference, even now. And if I haven’t had any for months I start getting awful heartburn again all of a sudden!
If I were to get pregnant again, it would very likely be my last so I would hope to really make the most of those crazy, hazy newborn days and embrace that time, rather than wishing it away to a time it becomes easier. I would hopefully allow myself to get sleep whenever I can and ignore a standard daily schedule as well as the housework!
I know the ability to ignore all that stuff without worrying about it fully depends on the state of my mental health at the time, but hopefully all of these thing I would be doing for my health would help with that!
This may sound like a stupid and very vain one, but I hate the first photos of me with Ava (except one from above me where she is breastfeeding and you can’t see my face!) and that makes me sad. I look awful. And whilst I would never expect to look incredible right after giving birth, I would love to have some photos that I really love with a new baby. They wouldn’t have to be beautiful or perfect, but I’d just like to not hate looking at them and just also feel a little bit better about myself.
There are a few other things I would like to do next time; I would try not to tell everyone straight away so that we can enjoy our little secret by ourselves for a little while first, I would make sure we did lots of batch cooking and filling the freezer with healthy and tasty foods for when we’re short of time and absolutely knackered, and I would (really try!) to buy less stuff! We still have lots of things from last time, and at least I would know what we are likely to need and use next time around.
Is there anything in particular that you would want to do differently if you were to have another baby?
This is a paid partnership with Feel but all words and opinions are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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