The moment you see those two stripes confirming your pregnancy, you feel excited. It is a blessing indeed, but it does come with a lot of changes in life – emotional, physical, mental.
You must be thinking that the first trimester will pass with morning sickness, second trimester with baby kicks and third trimester with the anxiety to meet the little one. However, the ride is not always so smooth. Add to that unsolicited advice from people you know and people who are complete strangers.
Pangs of discomfort with food cravings and unprecedented weight gain could leave you aghast and appalled at the same time. While you undergo these changes, it is important to be happy and enjoy life during this phase particularly. Below are few tips which can help you with the “fun” part of pregnancy.
23 Tips To Make Your Pregnancy Fun And Enjoyable
- Choose your favorite mozart: There are beautiful mozart collections exclusively available for a pregnant women, these also enrich and encourage your growing baby inside your womb. Right from ‘bhajans’ to peppy music, you have all varieties of music for this category. Choose the most favorite mozart of yours and stick to it throughout. Your baby also gets used to listening the music inside the womb and many a times, the babies react to the music once born. This so happens that when babies listen to the same music that they heard in the womb, they connect with it and feel calm and relaxed.
- Enjoy a car ride: Bumpy roads are always troublesome, but choose the right roads, have lovely songs in your pen drive or CD. Pack up some healthy and nutritious snacks and enjoy a long drive on a great day. Do this as often as you get bored or wish to get some quality time with your spouse.
- Solace in the parlor: who does not like to indulge in the variety of services that parlors offer? Take a spa, get a massage, and above all, get a pedicure done, While your belly is growing, you lose the luck to see your own feet. Enjoy this stage with a refreshing pedicure every few weeks.
- Try out different outfits that will highlight your belly: The actual “you” are losing your shape and figure. The big belly and those chubby cheeks gives you a different look. Trust me, enjoy this as you would surely revert to your pre-pregnancy body within few years. So, have your “fatso fashion” mode ON. Try different costumes as per your mood for the day.
- Plan for a maternity photo shoot: Photos are memories. The best part of womanhood is having your baby. So, this phase of pregnancy has to be captured and framed! Hire a professional photographer and get these memories as keepsakes. You can even plan to take pictures of how your pregnancy is progressing every month or every trimester.
- Make craft items for your baby: Have you heard of grandmas making sweaters for their little ones during pregnancy? There are so many DIY things that can be made from the comfort of your home. Right from sweaters, frocks, mittens, caps, to ponchos and blankets. Grab those needles and get some wool and thread and start now!
- Write a diary note for the little one: Write down your emotions in a note or in your laptop. How you felt once you heard the news? What was the first emotional time during pregnancy? When was the first kick? How did the father talk to the baby inside womb? Reading it after few years will be nostalgic and this can be the best gift while you child is a grown up.
- Play the gender guessing game: Have few pink and blue cards and place them inside a box. Every morning you and your husband can randomly pick a card from the box and see if its boy or girl choice that day. It is just a funny routine that will add crown to your excitement.
- Cook / have your favorite food: Second trimester is when you get your pregnancy cravings reaching new highs. Use it to the fullest and enjoy eating to the core. However, in order to stay and eat healthy and nourish the baby properly, ensure that you cook your own food at home and indulge in take-aways or dining outs on rare occasions.
- Plan a tea party with your gossip gang: You are not going to get that gossip time for next one year. So, blast with your friends, laugh out loud, go crazy.
- Sleep like a Kumbhakaran” : New parents pray to get their “sleeptime”, sleep after a baby actually qualifies as a luxury! Why don’t you plan in advance and enjoy nap times so that you are ready for the show? Sleep, rest, sleep, rest. Trust us, you are going to have a hectic routine ahead.
- Go shopping: Shopping is the best therapy for most women all over the world. You are changing sizes. From first trimester till third trimester, you are mandated to buy new dresses with those tight fitting. Similarly plan for your post-delivery outfits and feeding costumes, do a gala shopping time.
- Freak out with your laptop: This is same as your meeting your friends. A No-time for next few months. So, watch your favorite movies, serials and freak out, especially during those sleepless nights.
- Take a belly massage: Those giggles wiggles are not for a preggy mommy, Have your husband do the massage on your belly with creams. Seek professionals and get yourself pampered to the core.
- Arrange your wardrobe for little one: Sounds silly? Post-delivery you have a big list of priorities and arranging wardrobe is last in the queue. Plan and buy enough hangers and wardrobe boxes, arrange the new born dresses, towels neatly, get a place to store the diapers and plan in advance.
- Decorate the baby room: There are a ‘n’ number of stuffs available in the market to decorate your little one’s crib / room, but how about making your own crafts ? Little babies don’t expect branded items, small charts cut into different shapes, painted in different colors and hung around can be a lovely sight for your baby. Give a try and experience the “Awesomeness” when you make it yourself.
- Plan a romantic date with your partner: All you are going to expect from your husband post-delivery is asking him to change those diapers. So, why not enjoy the “twosome limited time” before you become “three”.
- Watch a cartoon movie in theater: Get a little kiddy experience and check how it feels to watch a cartoon movie in big screen. Not only would the parents, the baby inside the womb also love it!
- Swim alone: The best way to relax your body and mind during pregnancy is to take a swim. If you are not a swimmer, just sit in a baby pool with legs folded and enjoy the rhythm of water around.
- Phone a friend: All of us have our best buddy who is away from the city where we live. This is the time you can just chit chat and chat with that friend for long hours. If your friend is yet to have a baby, prepare your friend also for the “timelimit” you are going to get for these one-on-one chats.
- Read, re-read: If you are an avid reader, then reading great books should be on the top of your list. Grab a book that you have been wanting to read for a long time but haven’t been finding the time for the same. Spend those sleepless nights indulging in your passion for reading.
- Bond with your mom or mom-in-law: Once you embark on a journey to motherhood, you will also find a new-found respect for all mothers riding high in your blood. You can use this precious time to bond with your mother or mother-in-law, learn all about your and your spouse’s babyhood antics, let them pamper you and thank them well before the baby is born.
- Zero on a name: Coming up with a name for the baby is the next uphill task that new parents face. Why not start zeroing out on a name from today? Sounds like a great thing to do, doesn’t it?
The tips given above will not only prepare you for the baby, but also let you enjoy those 9 months. Do not panic, it doesn’t mean that all your freedom and fun is going to be no more. You are going to open a new book of happiness.
The definitions of love, joy, fun, hobby, passion – all these are going to get new meaning in your life and sure you would enjoy them lot. Happy pregnancy!
