Grab The Milk Mama Lactation Cookbook HERE
Try Needed's Immune Support for 20% off HERE using the code “mama20”
Try Needed prenatal vitamin HERE using the code “mama20” at checkout
Learn more about electrolytes during pregnancy HERE
Grab the recipe for my adrenal smoothie HERE
Tune in to episode 26 to learn about natural remedies for morning sickness HERE
Tune in to episode 47 to learn about Monolaurin (and snag my discount code!) HERE
Hey mama, this is a very special episode because as I’m sure you saw by the title, I’m pregnant! Again. Just so your math is right, I had my second baby November 1st of last year and I’m now 13 weeks pregnant with my third. They will be 18 months apart!
Crazy, I know. This sweet baby was planned, yes, but we were still surprised. And don’t worry, I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second.
I have other exciting news to share - this episode marks the 1 year anniversary of The Well Nourished Mama Podcast! In one year, we’ve had 53 episodes, over 21,000 downloads, 26 guests, and conversations about nearly everything you can think of.
The most downloaded episode of all time is episode 30 with Meg Miles, a good friend, and we chat all about “building a career while building a family.” If you haven’t listened to that one yet, I’ll link it in the shownotes!
Some of the other favorite episodes are the first two episodes of my Milk Supply 101 series, a bunch of topics related to pregnancy, and 10 things I wish I knew before becoming a mom.
It’s been an incredible year and I want you to know how grateful I am for you tuning in, whether this is your first time or you’ve been here since day one. I spend so much time each week scheduling interviews, writing solo episodes, doing research, creating free resources, and connecting with brands to help you have the best motherhood experience possible and I hope you’ve gotten a small taste of how much I care about you through what you’ve heard and seen from me.
As a thank you for your support, I’m giving away a $100 gift card of your choosing. All you have to do is leave a 5 star rating and review for the podcast! If you’ve already left a rating, thank you so much; just leave a review for the podcast as a whole or leave a comment on your favorite episode. Send me a screenshot of your rating and review, and you’ll be entered to win!
This giveaway will be open until Friday, October 18, 2024, and I’ll remind you in the next two episodes just in case you’re like me and you wait until the last minute.
Alright mama, now that we’ve got all the big news out in the open, let’s dive into what my third first trimester experience has been like and the advice I have for you as a third time mama.
When people ask me if this baby was a surprise, I always laugh and say “sort of.” And here’s why.
Around 6 months postpartum, I had a feeling, prompting, intuition (whatever you want to call it) that it was time for another baby and I panicked. I was not ready for another baby! In fact, I had explicitly told my husband that I wanted a bigger gap between baby two and three so I could have a break from two pregnancies, deliveries, postpartums, and two hernia surgeries. I wanted to feel like a person again, I wanted to get in shape, I wanted to really dive into my business and actually have time and energy to scale.
Well I knew this feeling wasn’t coming from me because on paper it made zero sense and I did not want another baby, so I talked to Tyler about it. I told him I felt like God was hinting at having another baby and thankfully Tyler said “not right now, let’s wait a bit longer before we talk about it.”
Well, that was back in April. As the weeks went on, the thought lingered in the back of my mind and would resurface every once in a while and I would say “nope not now.” Then July rolls around and it was to the point where I was literally going insane. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t focus on work, I couldn’t really enjoy intimacy with Tyler, it was insane. One night I broke down in tears and prayed to God.
I said “I know what you want for my family because we’re having this conversation right now, so instead of asking if it’s the right choice, I want to know that everything is going to work out instead. I need some reassurance that despite my fear, we’ll be ok.”
Long story short, after about 5 minutes of reading my scriptures and really listening to the thoughts that were going through my mind, I felt so comforted by God and knew that this was the right choice for our family, even if it wasn’t what I wanted and I was frustrated and terrified. I felt like I hadn’t even had time to get back into a routine with exercise or work and my body was still recovering from pregnancy and surgery.
But I trusted in that feeling and talked to Tyler again.
And this time, Tyler said, “I’ve been thinking a lot about it too and you’re right. Even though it doesn’t make sense and it’s not our first choice, it’s the right choice.”
So we decided to start trying. I got my mind wrapped around the idea of being pregnant yet again, how I was going to prepare physically, and get strategic around work to be prepared for first trimester.
Well, my friend, I kid you not, A WEEK LATER I found out I was pregnant. Turns out that I was already pregnant when Tyler and I had finally decided to listen to our gut and trust in God’s plan for our family.
So that’s why I say it was a planned pregnancy but also a surprise. Like we anticipated at least one month before actually getting pregnant, not a week. I cried a lot those next few days. So grateful that we were blessed with a baby so quickly without really trying but also so scared for everything that was in store for me and my family.
Now that you’ve got a little backstory, let’s get into the real topic of conversation and that’s what my first trimester has been like.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this has actually been the easiest first trimester I’ve had with all three of my pregnancies! That’s not to say that it’s been easy, but it’s been the easiest of the three I’ve gone through and I genuinely did not expect that.
So far, I haven’t really had that many strong cravings other than maybe week 4 and 5 of pregnancy and I haven’t had many strong aversions, like to the point where I was going to throw up. It’s just been a general lack of appetite altogether and some specific foods have consistently been a no for the last little bit.
The first one is eggs. 90% of the time eggs are gross, but then randomly that’s the only thing I can stomach for breakfast. Another aversion has been sweet things like fruit, greek yogurt, maple syrup, and dessert. But I have been able to get down a chocolate protein shake almost every day? It’s weird. Lastly, chicken was a soft no for a while, unless it was spicy or sandwiched between a bun with lots of toppings.
Other than that, I’ve actually been able to eat a lot. Tons of veggies, especially roasted veggies, tons of beef, and tons of milk. I don’t think I’ll ever be adverse to milk unless I develop a literal allergy to it lol. Also you could get me to eat almost anything if it was spicy. Call me crazy, but spice settles my stomach and masks anything that might otherwise be a turnoff. So I was adding hot sauce, sriracha, and red chili flakes to almost everything!
Something funny about me is that I don’t ever eat taco bell unless I’m in the first trimester of pregnancy. It doesn’t sit well with me, it doesn’t sound appetizing, and it’s not the most nourishing choice, unless I’m 7 weeks pregnant. And just like clockwork, when I was 6/7/8 weeks pregnant, I was craving Taco Bell, specifically a grilled beefy 5-layer with extra nacho cheese and a crunchwrap with extra nacho cheese. So good. And then we’re back to not good haha.
So overall, my diet has surprisingly been quite healthy, all things considered, and I’ve had the energy to cook probably 70% of our meals. So grateful.
The biggest thing for me has been the exhaustion. Like pregnancy tired is one thing, but then you throw on a 3 year old boy, a 9 month old baby who is still breastfeeding, and all the other parts of being a mom and it’s just next level.
Oh, that’s the other thing! I’ve been breastfeeding this whole time too. So I’ve technically been nourishing for three, and boy is it exhausting. Thankfully, my milk supply has remained strong because of all the things I’ve been doing (which I’ll talk about in a second) but we have started weaning and baby girl will be finished with breastfeeding around her first birthday.
This was actually the plan all along anyway, but it times out perfectly because my milk supply will switch back to colostrum in the second trimester just because of pregnancy hormones. If you’re interested in learning more about breastfeeding while pregnant and how to not die or lose your supply earlier than you want, shoot me a DM! I might do an episode about it.
What else about first trimester… diet, fatigue, oh and exercise. I haven’t really intentionally exercised much in the last two months just because I knew if I did it would take all the energy I have for the day and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else for the rest of the day. I took my kids on a walk when I could, but other than the occasional walk, I’ve been mostly resting and sleeping more.
So now I want to get into what I did during first trimester to not feel so horribly awful all the time. As always, I will preface this conversation by saying that I acknowledge that every woman is different, every pregnancy is different, and you can’t really completely prevent all the pregnancy things, BUT (and that’s a big but) there is so much you can do to feel less bad than you’ve been led to believe. And that’s what I want to share with you.
And I’ll remind you of my other two first trimesters so you know how different this one is and why it’s so different. My first first trimester was exactly what I thought it would be - I lived off of Zofran and still threw up sometimes anyway, I had really intense cravings and aversions, I spent every waking minute on the couch horizontal, and I lived off of empty carbs.
Going into this first pregnancy, I was recovering from disordered eating, tons of nutritional deficiencies, and over exercising, so my body started out depleted.
My second first trimester was better, but still hard. I only threw up a couple of times and I didn’t need any nausea medication, but I still spent months on the couch, had little to no appetite, and had really intense cravings and aversions.
Going into this second pregnancy, I had learned a lot about nutrition, made tons of dietary and lifestyle changes, and actually prepared my body for pregnancy, but I still hadn’t learned about minerals or natural remedies for nausea.
This current first trimester has been so different from the other two in the best way possible, despite getting pregnant at 9 months postpartum while exclusively breastfeeding and exercising less than I have in the last 7 years. And I’m going to tell you why I think that is.
First, I religiously take a high quality prenatal vitamin. This helps fill in the gaps from my diet and acts as an insurance policy for those off days. The brand I use is Needed and the reason I love them the most is because their formula was created with mama in mind, not just baby. Most prenatal vitamins on the market only have the bare minimum dosages to prevent deficiency and support baby, but not enough for mom and baby to thrive. Needed’s formula has the optimal dosages for 23 essential vitamins and minerals, and they also pay attention to which nutrients compete for absorption and avoid pairing them together.
I started used Needed’s prenatal almost a year ago and I’ve noticed a huge difference in my mood, milk supply, and now early pregnancy. This is one of the only differences between this pregnancy and my last and I’m confident that the higher dosages of nutrients has played a role in how much better I feel during first trimester, given the fact it was a surprise.
If you want to try out Needed, I’ve linked their prenatal in the shownotes and you can use my discount code “MAMA20” for 20% off your first month.
Another thing I swear by is minerals. I didn’t learn about true value of minerals until halfway through last pregnancy and they have literally changed my life. I’m not exaggerating. I have at least one electrolyte drink a day and the days I don’t have one I see a noticeable difference in my energy levels and it was even more obvious during this first trimester.
Without high quality electrolytes, I was couch-bound, taking two naps a day, and going to bed early. With my electrolytes, I could actually do things with my kids and only needed a nap every other day. The two brands I use religiously are Just Ingredients and Redmond Relyte. I use the Just Ingredients daily for maintenance and on the days I need an extra boost or I have a headache or it’s extra hot outside, I’ll do a serving of Relyte too.
To learn more about electrolytes during pregnancy, which brands I do and don’t recommend, and any discount codes I have, click the link in the shownotes to read my blog post.
Since I don’t want to overwhelm you, I’ll keep things simple and share one more major thing that truly made all the difference during this first trimester. I did everything I could to keep my blood sugar stable. This means I did NOT follow the BRAT diet, I ate a little bit more frequently, and I ate right before I went to bed.
I kid you not, almost every time I felt my nausea coming on, it was the same time that my blood sugar started to drop. I learned very quickly that I could not go more than 3 hours without eating and I had to be really strategic about what I ate when I did eat.
If all that sounded good was toast, I was reaching for Dave’s Killer Bread that has more protein and I was slathering the butter on it. I even kept the Dave’s Killer Bread bagels on hand because those had more fiber and twice as much protein per serving. I also paired the toast/bagel situation with some protein hot chocolate or Just Ingredients bone broth for a boost of protein. (Side note I discovered that my stomach could handle a “protein shake” if it was hot, rather than cold, hence the protein hot chocolate.)
If the only thing that sounded good was ramen, you best believe I was making a bone broth/coconut milk situation to cook the ramen in. I actually came up with three amazing ramen recipes last month that have over 30 grams of protein per serving with absolutely no meat or eggs and I had those religiously for a few weeks.
Last thing is I changed the type of crackers I kept on my nightstand. Instead of saltines, which are gross anyway, I opted for Simple Mills seed and herb crackers. About 50% of the calories come from fat, they’re gluten free/grain free, and they’ve got tons of micronutrients in them. They helped settle my stomach first thing in the morning before I could get an actual breakfast in my body.
I mentioned eating right before bed and I want to touch on that because diet culture has convinced us that it will wreck our metabolism and we’ll get fat or something. If you eat something high in protein, fat, and/or fiber right before you go to bed, you’ll actually sleep better through the night and you are less likely to wake up between 2-4am because your blood sugar is stable. This is especially important if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.
In case you’re interested, some of the other habits that helped me with first trimester were:
Before we wrap up, I want to reiterate again that one of the reasons I wanted to talk about this first trimester with you is because I’ve put my recommendations and research to the test on myself and I wanted to prove to you that these simple things really do work. So many of the things we have been told are “normal” with pregnancy and postpartum are actually just a result of nutrient deficiencies.
I’m talking things like nausea, hyperemesis gravedarum, headaches, fatigue, brain fog, nightsweats, constipation, depression, anxiety, mom rage, the list goes on. I told you what my first first trimester was like and you compare it to this current one and it’s night and day difference. What was different? How I nourished my body before and during pregnancy.
Some people could say that it depends on the gender of the baby or what number pregnancy it is but I’ve talked to and worked with so many mamas and there is no correlation between either of those things and how nauseous you are or aren’t. The common thread I’ve seen and experienced is nutrition and lifestyle practices.
Take my friend Kaylee for example. She’s a 36 year old mom of 4 who got pregnant with her 5th and had a history of debilitating HG, fatigue, brain fog, aversions, and pregnancy complications. She’d tried every medication under the sun for her nausea and nothing helped. She was what I like to call “walking shambles” if that’s even possible.
She came to me because she’d tried everything else and she was desperate for relief. I encouraged her to try some of my electrolytes and cooking her carbs in bone broth. She texted me two days later and said this is the first time in all of her 5 pregnancies that she felt like she could function without needing to stay on the couch or puke constantly. Just those two things!
Another pregnant mama started making my adrenal smoothies every day and this is what she said, “I was hesitant at first to think a smoothie could help me feel better being 20 weeks pregnant chasing a one year old around and actively working out daily BUT this smoothie does EVERYTHING it says it will and more. I had such sustained energy ALL DAY! No coffee just smoothie!”
I promise you mama that this is not a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Nutrition really is the key to functioning during some of the hardest times of your life. The more intentional you are with your nutrition, the better you will feel. End of story.
Now don’t hear this and think that you have to be perfect to feel great. That’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying is that the better you are about what goes in your body, the better you will feel.
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