Hello lovely moms, and congratulations to all moms-to-be!

I am sure you all must be undergoing some mixed feelings; something ranging from feeling happy; happy high to as low that you want to cry, isn’t? For me, my first trimester was all of surprises, morning sickness, curiosity, cravings, and reading books related to pregnancy and motherhood. Was utterly pampered by my mom, sister and my little nephew around who kept me cheerful.

Don’t be surprise if you get number of compliments like ‘Oh! She Glows’ for your radiant face due to pregnancy. Also, not every mom glows, some moms may look dull like me when I was nearing the end of first trimester (Adverse morning sickness). If you want to know about my craving for the first trimester, I confess I had none due to morning sickness. And also just before I got to know that I am pregnant we have had been to holiday and had loads of junk food specially French Fries and Arrabiatta Pasta, no wonder my lo loves it till date.

Ya, ya there are many rule books by old-wives like what you should eat and what not… Blah blah I did follow it but then after sometime I just listened to my heart and food craving. I lived on home-made yummy chaats by my mom and also loads of Sindhi Kadhi and rice were one of my favorites. One huge change I got into my eating habit is I absolutely avoided tea-coffee-soda and other such caffeine, aerated or preserved drinks.

What you need in First Trimester?

Following are few must-haves for any expectant mom in the First Trimester; these stuff kept me going much positively for my pregnancy ahead –

I was blessed with elder sister who guided me every step-by-step throughout my pregnancy from day one. I was just like sharing my feelings, cravings with one of my close girlfriend. She handed over me an amazing set of books on Pregnancy and beyond.

Throughout my pregnancy I read these two books which my sis gave i.e ‘What to Expect When Expecting’ by Heidi Murkoff (Popular pregnancy and motherhood author) and ‘The Complete Childbirth’ by Nutan Pundit (A Lamaze instructor, pregnancy and beyond author from New Delhi) Heidi in her book clarified all my doubts while I was reading and made me much comfortable with my curious nature. Both books really helped me in all my three trimesters, but I loved the way Nutan Pundit has answered each question, with alternatives with Indian perspective and not to forget her awesome trimester wise recipes to keep new mom healthy.

Other books like ChickenSoup for Motherhood Soul also gave me an insight into how it is to become a mother and then the journey of motherhood is never-ending. Though Nutan Pundit Lamaze Programme does have online social media presence and so does the Heidi’s What to Expect When Expecting, but I still recommend and firmly insist all first-time-moms to buy their books.This can be the best gift to any expectant mom.

My Pregnancy Journal

Maintaining a journal or a diary is a good practice when you are expecting. It helps new moms to vent out, express their feeling, share their experiences and also it helps them to introspect and evaluate their routine and lifestyle habits. This also happens to be good document for future medical reference also something like first kick, food cravings you must have had and so on.

It also helps mom to be more creative with scrapbook activity, like did for baby Erishka when we did not know like is it a girl or boy but I kept making few scrapbook activity for my future baby maybe boy or maybe girl. Honestly I enjoyed scrapbooking for baby girl, it was like reliving my childhood reflect my inclination of having baby girl.

Baby record-book, pregnancy journal helps the single mom or to a new mom who hubby is not around due to work. Likewise in my case my hubby was in Bangalore in First Trimester and in Dubai in second Trimester. So I use to write letters to him in my jounal and shared with him once when we met.

Food and Nutrition

Due to horrible Morning Sickness, I was advised by my doc to have few bites of biscuit /cookies before I step out of the bed. This practice really helped me to avoid the morning sickness till certain extent. Also as I had stopped tea/coffee, I use to have jasmine tea or any other fruit tea or herbal tea. I used to drink cold milk in night because I was having lot of heart burn. At first two trimester you don’t need high calories but you need more iron, folate and vitamins. To keep up with energy levels keep munching healthy snacks.

This phase is very important as for the development of your baby’s circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems. So to sum up have nutritive snack bites like I use to munch granola bars, carrots/cucumber with hummus dip, fruit chats, home-made chaats, khichadi, veg stew, jacket potatoes, sprouts salad. For healthy beverages you may opt for fresh seasonal juices, milkshakes, tender coconut water, buttermilk, soups.

Also note there will be time that you just don’t want to see food (called Food aversions), but keep trying something or the other, don’t keep your tummy empty as it will be the worst morning sickness, just have what you feel like. Food like pasta, potatoes, rice, wheat help to avoid morning sickness.

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