First pregnancy and the ’Do’s’ & ‘Don’t’s’...

[BeccaH81]

So, I did a test on Wednesday and tomorrow i’ll be 6 weeks pregnant. I had my suspicions after I was a few days late because I’m never late and if so it’s by a day, 2 days max and so did the test and that confirmed it for me. It was a shock but a nice one and my OH is from and lives across the pond and I think he’s more excited than me if possible! So never pregnant before and I’m 38 and I’ve only just today started realising that I have to change certain habits and take care of me and my body more than ever now. And I honestly still can’t get my head around the fact I’m pregnant! For the last few years I’ve being doing 5/2 (eat 1500 cals 5 days a week and up to 500 cals 2 days a week) but obviously I’ve stopped that now as from when I found out but upon reading a little this morning I’ve read to pretty much stop drinking coffee too (and I’m pretty much the biggest coffee fiend I know!)... I also take two shots of ACV daily too which I’ve read that because it’s raw, unfiltered and unpasteurised it’s not the best thing to be drinking if pregnant so as of from now I’m going to stop that too...

I feel like for the last 6 weeks I’ve probably been doing a lot of stuff that I shouldn’t have been doing and that was simply because I didn’t know I was pregnant... For the most part I have a relatively good diet (I did gain 7lbs in the states and it’s still with me 4 weeks later :( ) but I exercise at least 4 days a week I don’t smoke, I don’t drink (only socially and really when I’m with my OH) but my diet over the last few weeks had been really bad and as I said I just feel like I’ve started my pregnancy bad... Is this a first time pregnancy thing that I’m going through?

Anyway thanks for readying my rant and I was wondering if there is anybody that can recommend any books/magazine for first time parents as I really have no Idea about the obvious do’s and don’t’s like what you can and can’t eat and drink etc...

I also have my first appointment with the midwife on in a couple of weeks

As excited as I am it’s somehwat nervous for me too...

Thanks again

Becca

Congratulations!
The NHS website is comprehensive, and includes plenty of lists of dos and don'ts, and "expecting better" is an excellent book that gets stuck into the evidence behind the rules so you can draw your own conclusion (eg- the evidence for avoiding coffee is flimsy to say the least).

Same as PP^

Are you 6 weeks pregnant from your last period? If so then technically baby has only been growing for what 4 weeks! Don't be so hard on yourself! Try and limit your coffee to 1 a day and have it when you need it rather than in the morning! I hardly ever drank coffee before I got pregnant this time but iv been having one cup when I need it!! ( I have a 2yo! ) as long as you try and be healthy 90% of the time you will be fine! X

The important thing is to take pregnancy vitamins including folic acid. Your diet doesn't have to be super amazing.

You can have a cup or two of coffee, I used to have one in the morning and sometimes one later on, then swapped to decaf for the rest of the day.

The NHS website on pregnancy is really the best source of info on what to avoid eating and other things to take into account. I didn't find any book to be particularly helpful.

Definitely recommend Expecting Better as a book to help you understand all the ‘rules’ and decide which to stick to. Congrats OP!

Don't worry about early days stuff that you've already done – you can't undo it! I got walloping drunk two days before my positive test; all is fine.

Coffee is fine too, up to 200mg a day. I can't function without my morning coffee. As for healthy diet, I had all these pregnancy nutrition dreams, I was going to be SO impressive with my rainbow of fruits and vegetables... then I spent weeks 8–22 vomiting nonstop and lived off haribo, hula hoops and pre natal vitamins.

Generally as long as you're moderately sensible and don't smoke, you're probably fine.