Pregnancy and postpartum essentials 

My top 10 pregnancy must haves are: 

• Seabands 
• Pregnancy / Nursing pillow
• Maternity clothes & shoes
• Stretchmark cream 
• Ginger
• Gaviscon 
• Good information 
• One born every minute 
• Memory foam mattress topper 
• Exercise ball 

Seabands – If you’re anything like me and have suffered or are suffering with morning sickness (all day sickness) or even if you don’t, I definitely reccomened buying these even if it’s just to prevent the dreaded nausea. I was so so poorly for the first 13 weeks of my pregnancy, I am hoping I can do all I can to prevent it with my second baby.

Pregnancy / nursing pillow – as featured in my “Baby Essentials 0-12 months” this has been my bestfriend all the way from 20 weeks pregnant up to now at 14 months postpartum – it is amazing! I suffered a back labour with my daughter and I have had back problems ever since, this pillow is honestly the best thing ever!

Maternity clothes and shoes – a bit of an obvious one I guess, but something we can’t all afford. Maternity clothes can be so expensive, which is abit mean really because it’s something we kind of need. I bought 2 long sleeved tops from Mothercare, and some maternity jeans off of eBay when I was pregnant, and I am saving them for my next baby. You need to feel comfy in your own skin when pregnant, it’s bad enough coming to terms with your body stretching let alone feeling like you can’t fit into anything, get yourself some comfy clothes even if they’re just 2 sizes bigger from Primark, it all works! Oh and buy yourself some comfy shoes / slippers, because if you’re anything like me – your feet will swell up after walking.

Stretchmark cream – I wouldn’t say this is a definite must have, however if you are used to pampering yourself or need something to make you feel a little bit better about yourself, I reccomened buying yourself some sretchmark cream or some body butter.

Ginger – I don’t usually like ginger, however ginger nut biscuits were a massive help to me in the first few (well 13) weeks of my pregnancy, they really do help with nausea and I reccomened just trying it even if you’re not 100% keen.

Gaviscon – definitely not the nicest taste in the world unless you have a thing for aniseed, but if you are suffering badly with heartburn – this will help you!!

Good information – get yourself a good book, I read quite a few books throughout my pregnancy, if you are a first time parent you will probably want to gather as much information as possible however they’re not always completely honest with you.. one book I wish I had read throughout my pregnancy would be “Pregnancy the naked truth”. 

One born every minute – you either love it or you hate it, but either way if you’re pregnant – you’re going to have to give birth one way or another. I absolutely love this show, although I must admit I cringe a tiny bit after giving birth myself – probably because I know how painful it is. But as a first time parent I really loved watching what ‘could be’.. you see them all on the telly rushing into the hospital with a lady nearly giving birth in the carpark thinking that it’ll never be you – but guess what.. it was me! You can read more about my labour and delivery story here. 

Memory foam mattress topper – not necessarily an essential, more of a luxury but if you have the chance – go and buy one! You will feel like you’re sleeping on clouds, It was so so comfy!

Exercise ball – this would be my number one alongside my pregnancy pillow towards the ending weeks of my pregnancy, I have never bounced so much in my life. I would highly reccomened getting one of these!

My top 5 postpartum mummy must haves: 

• Maternity pads
• Nipple cream
• Breastpads 
• Breastpump
• Diary 

Maternity pads – you will never ever have enough maternity pads, sanitary towels probably won’t do it for you.. you’ll need something bigger & better.. maternity pads are inexpensive and hold more.

Nipple cream – I never ever thought i would need this, and I definitely underestimated how much my poor boobs would hurt. We had trouble latching at first and it made me very sore, but the lanolin cream by lansinoh was an absolute gods send. I would strongly reccomened getting some of this just to be prepared.

Breastpads – if you carry alot of milk like I did, you’ll find that no matter how many times you feed/express, you will probably leak at least once.. you will need to wear breastpads or maybe even half a packet if you’re like me. Again, breastpads are an essential and are inexpensive to buy.

Breast pump – I planned on breastfeeding my daughter but failed to latch her properly and because I carried so much milk, I was so so sore and needed some relief. It hurt so much to breastfeed my daughter that I actually expressed my milk and bottle fed her for the first 2 weeks. My health visitor very kindly gave me a lansinoh breast pump which was amazing, my tommee tippee breast pump was too big for me and my milk kept spilling everywhere so we needed something with a smaller cup, I would definitely reccomend the lansinoh breast pump and I’m even saving mine for baby number 2!

Diary – honestly, I don’t know what I would do without my diary now. When you first have your baby, you will most likely feel very overwhelmed and stressing over trying to remember appointments is going to be hard. Get yourself a diary and write it all down, save your brain a job. As a first time mum, I also wrote down every time I breastfed and how much I expressed etc so I could keep track of it all.

What are/were your pregnancy must haves? & why?                                                   .. What are/were your postpartum mummy must haves? .. & why? 

Thanks for reading,

Zoe x