prenatal vitamins

Every women and every site I have consulted has stressed the importance of prenatal vitamins! They are oh so crucial during pregnancy, but what many women don't realize is how important they are to take while trying to get pregnant.

Folic acid, iron, and calcium are the key ingredients in prenatal vitamins. Calcium can prevent you from losing your own bone density, since your baby will need to use the minerals for growing their bones. Iron helps both of you get oxygen through your blood.

But folic acid is the most crucial. It can reduce your risk of having a baby with spina bifida. A baby with spina bifida, the most common 'neural tube' defect, is born with an unclosed spine. The exposed nerves are damaged, leading to varying degrees of paralysis, incontinence, and sometimes mental retardation. Wow! If I can prevent all that just by taking a vitamin, I'm all for it!

So why is it so important to take prenatals before getting preggers? Neural tube defects develop in the first 28 days, that's why. And many women don't even realize they are pregnant before that time, especially if the pregnancy is not planned. The Department of Health recommends taking at least 400 micrograms of folic acid each day while trying to get knocked up and 600 micrograms at least 12 weeks into pregnancy.

Look for a prenatal vitamin with the following:
400 mcg of folic acid
400 IU of vitamin D
200 to 300 mg of calcium
70 mg of vitamin C
3 mg of thiamine
2 mg of riboflavin
20 mg of niacine
6 mcg of vitamin B12
10 mg of vitamin E
15 mg of zinc
17 mg of iron

Personally, I chose to stick with my multi-vitamin. Since junior high, I have been taking Shaklee's Vita-Lea Iron Formula Dietary Supplement - which is specifically formulated for 'teens and women of childbearing age'. It has the necessary folic acid, calcium, and iron that I need. Plus I already have a full bottle in my cupboard! I may switch when I actually get pregnant, but I'll base that on my doctor's recommendation.

 
If you do take a multivitamin, make sure it doesn't contain more than the recommended daily allowance of 2,565 IU of vitamin A, unless it's all in a form called beta-carotene. Getting too much of a certain kind of vitamin A can cause birth defects.

To learn more visit http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/prenatal-vitamins or ask your doctor.
 
Good luck choosing the prenatal vitamin that is right for you! Do you have any recommendations?

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curiosity got the best of me

Remember that expired pregnancy test? The one I couldn't throw away? It was just sitting there in the drawer, staring up at me. Try me. Try me. Try me. Try me.

But Aunt Flo is already here, no point in even wasting my time ... But curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to try it anyway. There's no harm in a test run, right? The result ... (drum roll please)

Not Pregnant

Oh well, nothing I didn't already know. Now I guess I won't be so nervous to take one when the time actually comes. Right?

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no beginners luck here

Well I guess the question of the expired pregnancy test is a mute point. Aunt Flo came to visit today. Am I disappointed? Am I relieved? I have no idea. Part of me just wanted it to happen right away. The other part of me was terrified that it might happen right away.

I certainly did not expect it to work on the first try, and I didn’t feel pregnant … not in the least, but part of me still felt like it could be true. Well I guess that means I can drink all the coffee and diet coke I want! For the next two weeks at least, until round two.

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expired

After my niece was born a year and a half ago, I inherited a leftover pregnancy test from my sister-in-law. Many times since then I’ve been tempted to use it, but never mustered the gumption to go through with it. What if hubs found it? What would he think? I wasn’t ready at the time to have THAT conversation.

So once we decided to try for a baby, I tore apart the bathroom looking for the little tool. (Well not really, I’m too much of an organized perfectionist to tear anything apart, but you get the point.) Upon finding it I realized two problems: 1) there were no instructions; and 2) it expired 9 months ago.

The first problem was nothing that Google couldn’t fix. It didn’t take me long to find out that I could take that particular test as soon as three days before my period – great that meant Valentine’s Day!

The second problem Google could most likely answer, but not solve. I found it hard to get any real expert advice, but the general feeling in the online community was it’s better to just buy a new test and save yourself the anxiety. However, some did say that you are more likely to get a false-negative than a false-positive.

Well, I didn't FEEL pregnant - so it seemed like such a waste of time and money to go buy a new test. But I couldn't seem to throw the little thing away, so I stashed it back in my drawer ...

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wordless wednesday: hope for haiti

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by the way ...

I turned 25 last week. Twenty-five. That’s a quarter of a century! It’s kind of strange. I feel old, but still so young all at the same time. Since I was a little girl I kind of always had this idea that I would get married shortly after graduating college, and have my first baby at 25. Well, the first part somehow came true … we’ll see about the second!

I am a planner, to the very core of my being. No matter what stage of life I’m at, I’m always planning the next. In college when my husband and I were dating, I was so enamored with weddings that I was convinced I wanted to be a wedding planner. Then I planned my own wedding. And suddenly my interest in weddings vanished.

So it only makes sense that I have been planning my pregnancy since the first day we got home from our honeymoon. My dear husband on the other hand, has not. Most likely he has only thought about it three times during the last 2 ½ years we’ve been married – and that’s because I brought it up. (Actually that’s probably not true, he’s just as excited to have kids someday as I am – emphasis on ‘someday.’) He just hasn’t spent the time thinking about it that I have.

We absolutely adore being married. We love living life together, traveling, spontaneous planning, sleeping in on Saturdays … You get the picture – we’re fully enjoying being in our mid-twenties and not being responsible for anyone other than ourselves.

So the question for the last few months has been, “Do we or do we not end our perfectly, self-centered lives by adding a sweet bundle of joy to the mix?”

Just before Christmas I finished my current 3-month supply of ‘the pill’, and since we had a romantic getaway planned to Phoenix over New Years, I mentioned to my dear husband that this would be a perfect time to ‘remove the goalie.’ He wasn’t as convinced as I was, so we agreed that I would pick up a 1-month supply of ‘the pill’ and we would talk more about it over the next four weeks.

Well life is busy and the next four weeks come and go and, you guessed it, we didn’t talk about IT. So on January 16th I take my last pill of the pack and summon the courage to bring it up again. Still he is hesitant. And the LAST thing I want is to jump into something so monumental if we BOTH aren’t ready. So I wait a few more days. Then Sunday comes, the day I should start a new pack. The one that is still sitting at the pharmacy. But our favorite NFL team is in the Division Championship game! This hasn’t happened for like 10 years. Yup, no baby talk today.

Monday night, at 11:02 pm, we’re lying in bed and I suddenly turn to him with a goofy smile – not wanting to push the subject, but also needing direction. But he can read me like a book, so of course he knows exactly what I’m thinking about. He’s not thrilled with my ‘timing’ of bringing it up, but then again when would be a good time? But it’s just too much of a decision to make at this time of night. So we talk about it again, pray about it together, and decide to sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow.

Tuesday comes and goes.

Wednesday comes and goes.

What can I say. We have busy lives.

Thursday we have dinner plans with friends at their new house. They have been married four years, and have a 20 month old little girl. I walk in the door and she immediately asks me, “Up? Ok.” and starts playing with my necklace the minute she’s in my arms. My heart melts.

She stays in my arms throughout the entire house tour. She eventually goes to bed and we eat dinner. The conversation briefly turns to baby talk, and just as quickly turns to other topics. We talk and laugh the night away. Suddenly its past midnight, and we need to get going home – we all have to go to work in the morning.

On the way home we talk about how fun it was to reconnect with our friends, and how adorable their ‘new’ 1920’s German style house is. Then he does it. He quietly says that little sentence I’ve been waiting months to hear.

“By the way, let’s have kids.”

And all I can do is smile.

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