How to survive pregnancy | The Williams Way | Ep. 3

Hey everyone, it's Alicia from The William's Way here on YouTube and today I'm sharing with you guys my top tips on how to survive pregnancy. If you guys don't know, I do have a baby, a beautiful baby girl, her name is Valerie and she is five months old and there are so many things that I wish I would have known going into pregnancy that I did not know that would have definitely made my pregnancy a lot easier and just overall smoother throughout the nine months. So I figured I would come to you all and share with you guys my top tips on how to survive pregnancy and hopefully it'll make this journey a lot easier on you, your body, and of course your beautiful baby. So let's go ahead and just jump right into it. All right, so one of my top, top tips is to go ahead and just invest in a body pillow now. Trust me, it is worth it and you will need it at some point in your pregnancy because sleeping while pregnant is the absolute struggle. I suffered for so long trying to figure out how to sleep properly. Like the first trimester, it wasn't that bad, but by the second trimester, it was a whole different story. I could not sleep at all. It was just like terrible. I like tossed and turned all night long. I believe once I hit about 20-ish weeks, I went ahead and just gave and then got a body pillow. I ended up getting the Leach Co. Snoogle Total Body Pillow and it changed my life. So if you are pregnant and wanting to figure out how to get better sleep, try a body pillow. My next tip to all you mamas to be out there is to stay hydrated. It is so important to stay hydrated. I know for me, when I first got pregnant, I was like not drinking much water at all and my body definitely felt the lack of water intake. It was not a pretty sight. I had serious migraines. I just didn't really feel energized. I didn't really feel that good. I was bloated all the time. I started to drink more and more water as time progressed and my doctor actually gave me a liter water bottle. This one right here and I like kept it with me all day, every day, 24-7 and I would drink like 5 or 6 of these a day. I know it sounds crazy but I drink a lot of water and I felt like it made a huge difference in my skin, my energy level, just how I felt overall. So try to get some kind of like water bottle that would help you stay hydrated. If not, just drink water. Drink water all day long because your body will thank you. Of course, with pregnancy for most women comes nausea. I personally didn't experience a throwing up factor but I was definitely nauseous my entire first trimester. I felt sick all of the time and the only thing that would settle in my stomach properly and I would not get sick eating or drinking was ginger ale and crackers, saltine crackers to be exact. I ate these and drank these all day long, 24-7. Every time I had this, I would always feel so much better and of course it's good to have something in your stomach at all times. So if you are one of those mamas to be out there that are struggling with the nausea or the throwing up, I have been there, trust me, I know how you're feeling but give ginger ale and saltine crackers a try and I hope that it will kind of cure that nausea like it did for me. It was hands down a heating pad, especially whenever the Braxton Hicks start to come up or you start to get random contractions. This will help tremendously. I remember the last couple of weeks I had my husband go to the store and get a heating pad because I could not live without it anymore. My back was always on fire, it was always in pain because of course there's so much pressure in the front that your back is just out of commission so I was in so much pain. I was having terrible Braxton Hicks, I was just like dying on the inside and I had him get this and you guys, my back, it didn't really heal completely but it definitely helped to minimize the pain. I'm not sure about you guys but a nice heated feeling on the back of my back just feels wonderful and so sensational, it was a great feeling so I loved it and I hope that this will help you guys kind of soothe that back pain as well. One tip that I want to share with you guys is to always have a pair of comfortable flats nearby at all times because I know it's cute to wear heels and wear cute skinny shoes but trust me you guys, having a nice comfortable pair of flats is all you need to get through your 9 months of pregnancy. My feet personally swelled up so bad my last trimester. It was absolutely terrible and I could not stand it but one thing that got me through it is having a pair of flats like these here. These are just basic solid black lace up flats. They are so comfortable and I did go ahead and have to size up because my feet had gotten so swollen that I couldn't wear my regular shoes anymore. They had outgrown those so I did get a size up but having a pair of flats got me through like having to walk around, taking walks, walking around and work. Anything I had to do on my feet, I always wore a comfortable pair of flats. A pair of black, a pair of tan, a pair of gray. Just anything very simple and neutral so that way it will go with everything that you wear. Skincare was probably one of the biggest changes with me whenever I was pregnant with my daughter. My skin was terrible. Pregnancy will change your skin like crazy. It could change it for the better or change it for the worse. Unfortunately for me, it was for the worse. I had really bad skin. It got super dry and I would like break out and it was just not fun at all but I did have a couple of staple skincare products that helped me throughout my pregnancy. The first thing is a super moisturizing lotion. I swore by the Nivea Essentially Enriched Body Lotion. It was awesome. My skin felt like back to being baby soft smooth. I also did facial masks a few times a week when I was pregnant because my skin, like I mentioned earlier, had broken out a lot. It had just got really rough and dry. I fell in love with the Freemans Polishing Charcoal and Black Sugar Gel Mask and Scrub. This gets rid of all of the dead skin and it makes your skin so soft and kind of just like polished. And then I also love the L'Oreal Pure Clay Mask. It gets rid of all of like the gunk and junk in your face. I love this so much. Whenever I felt my face starting to break out, I would put this on and it would cure my breakouts before they even started to show. So try giving a facial mask or two a try throughout the week to kind of help revive your skin. Aside from dry skin and bad breakouts, I also unfortunately experienced itchy skin. My belly, you guys, itched like crazy. And the only thing that could cure it was Aloe Vera Gel. I rubbed this on my belly every morning, noon, and night and it was the only way that my belly would stop itching. One major, major way to survive your pregnancy is to stay active and stay exercising. I had to exercise because if I don't exercise, I like get super tired and I just don't really have any energy at all. So exercising is so important to me, but of course, once you're pregnant, you have to be very careful. You don't want to harm the baby at all, but you still want to stay active some way, somehow. So a couple of ways that I did so is by one, taking walks. I took walks all the time, especially during my third trimester because I was just feeling so heavy and just so big and I had to take walks constantly. So I took a walk once a day, at least once a day, and I felt so much better. And then I also exercise by using resistance bands. I use these bad boys faithfully. They are awesome. It's like doing resistance training, but at home when I wanted to go hardcore, I would pick a thicker band because that's a heavier band and then some days whenever I want to keep it light, I would pick a thinner band because those are lighter weights. Just do something, get out there and stay active. A couple of more tips that I have for you guys to survive your pregnancy is to one, be mindful that you are pregnant and you still do need to take it easy when need be. Listen to your body. Your body will tell you whenever it is tired, it is overwhelmed and you need to take a break. So just listen to your body. If you need to spend a night on the couch, laying around, watching movies, do that. You don't have to be busy 24-7. Things will get done when it gets done. Just take your time and get some rest. And my last tip to survive pregnancy is to just let it all go. Let go of all of your expectations and just savor the moment. Your pregnancy will not last forever. If your pregnancy is going great, that is awesome and I'm so happy for you, but if your pregnancy is having its challenges and its ups and downs, trust me, it will not last forever. Just savor the moment and just enjoy the fact that your baby will be here soon and that it will have been all worth it. I did not have the best pregnancy. I had my ups and downs, but once Valerie came into the world, all of my problems and my complaints went away because she was here, she was happy, and she was healthy. So you guys, those are my tips on how to survive pregnancy. Hope you all enjoyed them. I wish you guys a happy, healthy, and stress-free pregnancy. Again, I am Alisha from the vlog channel, The Williams Way here on YouTube. If you guys want to see more of my everyday life with my husband and my free-spirited little girl, Valerie, then check out our YouTube channel. I hope that you all enjoyed today's video and I will see you all in the next one. Bye, guys.