11 Things to Make Pregnancy Comfortable

Pregnancy is a wild time in life, where your body goes through so many exciting, sometimes uncomfortable, changes. As you go through pregnancy, these are the 11 things that I have found to make pregnancy comfortable. 

**Please keep in mind that I am not a medical professional, just someone that has gone through pregnancy twice. Consult your medical professional before making big changes and should always, always, always seek medical advice for any aches, pains, or troubling symptoms!**

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1. Water and hydrators

With my current pregnancy, I have been way more dehydrated than I felt like with my first. I always make sure to have my Stanley cup filled and when I’m feeling extra dehydrated – chapped lips is my go-to sign – I use an IV Hydrator in water! Right now, we have a bunch of lemon lime flavor, which also helps with nausea some too – a win-win when trying to make pregnancy comfortable!

2. Prenatals & Vitamin B6

When it comes to prenatals, I’ve found that the gummy ones are way easier to take than ones to swallow. But based on my health, I try to take prenatals that contain iron as well – in my last pregnancy, I was borderline anemic and am often low on iron in general – but I’ve only been able to find this one set of gummy prenatals with iron in them!

Along with my prenatals, I take an extra dose of Vitamin B6 to help with nausea and vasospasms. Because I have Raynaud’s syndrome, I’m more prone to them, especially in my nipples. Basically, the blood vessels constrict when there’s a trigger – for me, it’s cold – and the blood supply is reduced. With pregnancy and breastfeeding, it’s super painful and taking 100 mg of Vitamin B6 helps manage the pain quite a bit for me! Plus there’s the bonus of helping ease nausea quite a bit. 

3. Waist extenders

As your belly grows, I’ve found that my pants are the first thing to get uncomfortable. In my second pregnancy, I had to move to maternity pants at week 13! But before then, I was using waist extenders on my regular pants. With my first pregnancy, I used waist extenders up until week 24! It all just depends on how your body changes, but if you’re waiting to splurge on maternity pants, waist extenders are the move!

4. Support belt

Along with waist extenders, a support belt is also a big help as your belly grows. One of the first parts of my body that feels the stress of my growing belly is my hips and lower back. That’s where a strong support belt comes into play. By relieving the pressure on my body during the day, I sleep so much better at night too.

5. Chiropractor

Okay – so a chiropractor isn’t a thing, but a person. I highly recommend beginning to see a chiropractor as soon as you find out you’re pregnant. Your body begins changing immediately and your body starts to produce relaxin, which helps your joints be more flexible once you give birth. However, when you’re just living life, it can make things slip out of place so much easier. There’s where the chiropractor comes into play, where they are ready to adjust you as needed and help make pregnancy more comfortable overall.

6. Acetaminophen

One thing that I learned was that you have to be extra careful about the medication you’re taking. When it comes to aches and pains, especially the growing pains that you experience, acetaminophen is my go-to!

7. Comfy shoes

Comfy shoes are so important – and comfy should also have good support. I’ll be honest, I’m horrible about this one as I always want to wear the easiest pair of shoes and that usually means flats with very little support. And then I pay for it by the end of the day since, as a teacher, I’m on my feet quite a bit.

So let me help you find those comfy shoes! After perusing Amazon, I have found these 3 shoes that are supportive and easy to put on:

• Skechers – slide on sneakers
• Rothy’s are expensive, but great flats!
• Dr. Scholl’s Mini Boots

Be better than me 😉

8. Belly butter

I won’t lie – I strongly dislike how society puts so much emphasis and shame on stretch marks on growing bellies. Like, I’m literally creating life – let me embrace the changes instead of be afraid of them. 

But some people really do not want stretch marks. I personally just like to keep my belly hydrated, otherwise it gets itchy with all the growing! Here are a few of the top belly butters to use on your tummy as you grow, and even some for after!

• Promise Skincare is made for pregnancy. They have some great belly butter and belly oil.
• Bio-Oil is great for healing scars and when I started using it during my second pregnancy, I noticed a huge difference in my stretch marks from my first pregnancy.
• Belly Firming Cream is great for post pregnancy.

9. Pregnancy pillow

For my first pregnancy, I got the big U-shaped pillow to snuggle with. I loved it, but it took up more than half the bed and my husband got a little jealous ha!

For my second pregnancy, I was gifted a maternity pillow from babybub, which is more compact and I absolutely love it. This pregnancy, I’m finding that I want to roll onto my back more, but if I do so, I get nauseous. So this pillow prevents me from doing so and I love that I can adjust it as needed. Because it’s so small, I can bring it into my daughter’s bed during the night when she needs me as well. If you want something more compact, I highly recommend this pillow for you! 

Also – get 10% off your purchase when you use the code “NICOLE10.”

10. Comfy undergarments 

With all the growing and changing happening, you’re going to be uncomfortable. Why allow yourself to be more uncomfortable than necessary when you can get comfortable undergarments. There is pregnancy underwear out there, that fits under your belly, but I honestly have loved getting some granny panties from Hanes and then, wearing those even during the postpartum time frame too!

When it comes to bras, as my first pregnancy went on, I started gravitating to more nursing bras rather than any with an underwire. But it’s hard to find supportive nursing bras when you’re larger-chested. I highly recommend Kindred Bravely for their nursing bras, as they come in large sizes, are comfy, and their customer service is amazing. I bought a bra that had scratchy section on the strap and requested an exchange – not only did they send me a new one, but they told me to keep the old one and provided some potential fixes to the issue too! I was absolutely blown away! 

11. Maternity clothes 

Adding on to the comfort level – because let’s be honest – that’s really what you want, is to be as comfortable as possible during this wild change. Find maternity clothes that you like. Whatever that may be – leggings, dresses, maternity shirts, shorts, whatever you feel good in and help make pregnancy comfortable.

My go-to while teaching is maternity jeans and a nice shirt/sweater. I will also wear dresses fairly often as well, and a company that I love to buy dresses from is Latched Mama, which creates nursing friendly dresses that are gorgeous too!

If you’ve been pregnant before, what would you add to the list? Comment below!