pregnancy supplies revised

Early on, I wrote about items I use in my pregnancy. Just the stuff I liked the best. But some of those things changed over the months, and I’ve been meaning to tell you about it.

So here we are.

Vitamins:

When I got scared that I might have Gestational Diabetes (I don’t, but the scare still got me thinking about reducing sweets), I switched from my fructose-sweetened liquid prenatal vitamin to this organic, tablet type:

I also like this better because it has iron, but not so much iron that I suffer the side effects (constipation), and that was important when a later-pregnancy blood test showed very slight anemia.

For the anemia, I also take this:

Other stuff:

This is my favorite belly balm, for both smell and texture. It’s a little oily, but doesn’t seem to stain my clothes at all. (Can’t say the same for that spot on the wall when I caught myself getting out of bed — nice hand print; maybe we’ll color it in.)

This is the pregnancy tea I drink now:

It takes more work to make it because you have to boil the herbs for 20 minutes, but it’s worth it. It tastes better and is more likely effective because the herbs are likely much fresher than those used in boxed bags. I make a big pot and drink it cold the rest of the day.

This is the fish oil I take now:

It turns out I was having slight allergies to the lemon oil in the other variety. This one doesn’t give me fishy burps either.

This is the alternate pregnancy tea I keep around for when Scott is making me a cup of tea (because the other brand used lemon oil too):

And my last little personal tip: I drink unsweetened cranberry juice, mixed with carbonated mineral water. The UCJ helps to prevent UTIs, and also, I find, helps to keep one more… umm… regular. Mixing it with a little sweet juice, like apple, is nice too. Lemonade is super tasty with it, but was responsible, I suspect, for the mid-pregnancy tooth staining that alarmed me so much (being acidic, combined with the already powerful staining ability of the cranberry…). Once I stopped using lemonade, and switched to a whitening toothpaste, my teeth started to look a lot better.

And, yes, we are supposed to limit soda intake because it can deplete calcium, but there are mineral waters that are high in calcium, to help negate that effect, for example, the brand, “Gerolsteiner.”