Newborn baby Blue - we're eating for another healthy baby.

~ guest post by MRS

After the initial “Oh my gosh, I’m pregnant!” moment, both times I’ve had a positive pregnancy test, my thoughts have immediately moved towards what I need to do to grow a healthy baby, because at the end of 9 months, that is really all I want. Sure I wouldn’t complain if this baby happened to be a girl, but what I want more than anything is a healthy baby, regardless of the gender.

So I bought and started taking prenatal vitamins. I’ve been making sure to eat breakfast and have been trying to eat more vegetables and less junk food. One thing that has been hard for me to cut back on is pop (or soda depending on where you’re from). I have a weakness for pop and both times I’ve been pregnant, it has helped to ease my morning sickness, which makes it hard to cut back on! I’ve also struggled to be active. I know that moderate exercise is good for me as well as the baby, but during the past few weeks I have been completely exhausted. I lay Blue down for his afternoon nap and immediately crash on the couch. I’m starting to forget what it was like to have energy!

Another important part of keeping my body and my growing baby healthy is watching what I eat. I’ll admit that this is not my strength. I often fall into the habit of eating what’s easy and fast instead of what is healthy – frozen pizza, turkey sandwich and potato chips – not exactly health foods. But I want to change that. So I spent some time looking up nutrition during pregnancy. I found a couple lists of foods to avoid during pregnancy to use as a reference:

• Seafood high in mercury, such as Swordfish, Shark, King mackerel & tilefish
• Raw, undercooked or contaminated seafood, so no sushi, oysters, clams
• Undercooked meat, poultry & eggs
• Unpasteurized foods, i.e. soft cheeses, some juices
• Unwashed fruits & vegetables
• Large quantities of liver
• Excess caffeine
• Herbal tea
• Alcohol
• Raw cookie dough or cake batter
• Salads made in a store, such as ham salad, chicken salad & seafood salad
• Raw or undercooked sprouts

The list of foods to eat while pregnant isn’t as succinct as the list of foods to avoid. It’s more like a list of the kinds of foods to eat to make sure to get the right kinds of nutrients for mom and baby. And frankly, it sounds like a lot to eat: 6-11 servings of breads & grains, 2-4 servings of vegetables, 4 servings of dairy & 3 servings of protein all in one day. I’m pretty sure I’ve been falling short! Other tips I read were to make sure to get 1000-1300 mg of calcium, 27 mg of iron, 70 mg of vitamin C, .4 mg of folic acid every day and one source of vitamin A every other day. It sounds like a lot to remember and worry about, because as each food & nutrient is listed so are all the terrible things that could happen if all of these foods aren’t eaten correctly, i.e. birth defects. But as I thought about what I should be eating every day and the impossibility of remembering all the specifics, it occurred to me that if I just try to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet as well as taking my prenatal vitamin regularly, my baby will be getting all the nutrients he/she needs. And that is what is important to me.

Oh, and I still need to cut back on the pop!

Lists of unsafe foods found at American Pregnancy Association, FoodSafety.gov & Mayo Clinic.

Guide to eating right during pregnancy can be found at WebMD.

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