Pregnancy 101: A Crunchy Guide to Nausea, Vitamins, and Stretch Marks

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! We have officially reached the grand finale of our Fertility Series. After weeks of discussing how to heal your body, reduce your toxic load, and prepare for conception, we are finally asking the big question: You're pregnant... now what?

And we couldn't think of a better way to kick off this episode than with a massive Random Revelation: Chrissy is 12 weeks pregnant!

The first trimester is a beautiful but incredibly challenging season. Today, we are sharing real-time updates and practical, crunchy tips for surviving the early days of pregnancy. We talk about finding grace when the only thing that sounds good is organic mac and cheese, how to navigate severe nausea, and why the "elastin" hormone is the sneaky culprit behind your early heartburn. We also break down what to actually look for in a prenatal vitamin and our favorite clean oils to soothe your stretching skin!

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The Big Reveal: Chrissy shares her 12-week pregnancy update and how vestibular physical therapy cured her severe vertigo in just one session.
• First Trimester Nausea Hacks: Why you need well-rounded snacks (protein + fat + carbs) instead of just plain crackers, the difference between ginger and peppermint, and Katie’s Unisom & B6 trick.
• The "Elastin" Hormone: How this hormone loosens your joints to make room for baby, but also triggers early heartburn and round ligament pain.
• Pelvic Floor Myths: Why pregnancy incontinence is not an inevitable life sentence and how proactive movement can protect your core.
• Decoding Prenatals: Why you need to check your label for folate vs. folic acid, watch out for glucose syrups, and why it's crucial to start taking them before you see a positive test.
• Stretch Mark Prevention: Our favorite natural body oils (like grapeseed, almond, and Ancient Greek Remedy) to keep your skin nourished—plus a hilarious story about Chrissy using belly oil as aftershave!

Resources mentioned:

• Exercise App: Expecting and Empowered
• Body Oil: Ancient Greek Remedy Body Oil - https://amzn.to/4nxsDE9
• Body Oil: Mother's Special Blend (Katie's older recommendation) - https://amzn.to/4wxGPRJ

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to the Fertility Series Finale!
04:33 Random Revelation: The Big Reveal... Chrissy is Pregnant!
06:06 Surviving the First Trimester
10:07 Trimester Overview and Diastasis Tips
12:54 Nausea Survival Strategies
19:25 Heartburn Hacks
26:17 Exercise and Birth Prep Movement
32:19 Ligaments Hormones and Pelvic Floor
40:48 Eating Well When Nothing Sounds Good
46:15 Prenatals: What to Choose
54:23 Second Trimester Glow
58:19 Stretch Marks Oils
01:03:12 Join Us On Facebook

Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Connect With Us: 

Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama

Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship 

FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Transcript

Speaker 0:03

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Rombach. And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We're cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically. From

Speaker 2 0:15

ancestral nutrition and natural remedies, to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how

Speaker 3 0:20

God intended us to live. So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship.

Katie 0:33

What is up, my crunchy friends? We are back at it with another episode in our fertility series. And honestly, is basically like the grand finale of our fertility series, because over the last several episodes, we had, what, nine of them? I think this is our 10th one. Over the last handful of episodes, we have been talking all about fertility and fertility challenges that we all experience, and how to prepare our bodies more to be pregnant. Like, how to prepare them to be healthy and ready to grow and sustain a little baby human inside of us. And yeah, if you're tuning in for the first time, I'd highly recommend going back and listening from the first episode, which was... We, we basically started off the series sharing our own fertility journeys and our challenges that both Chrissy and I have experienced in getting pregnant and, and starting families, and that's kind of what spurred on this whole series. But also, we have just learned a lot in our journeys about how to become pregnant and how to stay pregnant and how to have healthy pregnancies as best as we can. We are definitely not experts, so please take all of our episodes with a little grain of salt, because we just love learning things. We love to share what we have learned, and we may not get it right all the time, or maybe you disagree with some of the things that we have shared, and that's all right. We are just sharing what we have learned, and hopefully some of the information is helpful for you. And even if you are not currently trying to get pregnant, maybe you are past your baby-bearing days and you're like, "What does this whole series have to do with me?" Well, really, fertility is a sign of health. And so if you are not at a stage of life, um, w- where you're trying to get pregnant, you can just see this as a way to... a series of, like, just ultimate health. Like things that... Toxins you can avoid. Because, I mean, as Chrissy and I shared in many of our episodes, these areas of health that we talked about in each of these episodes don't- impact fertility, but they also impact other areas of our health as well, such as things that do cause cancer or things that potentially cause diabetes or just general unhealthiness, like things that will harm our immune systems. So I highly recommend going back and listening to some of these episodes and just soaking in what you can, but going to kind of end our fertility series with this episode. It's all about pregnancy. So now we're at a place where we've prepared our bodies, we've done all we, we can in order to be healthy, in order to get pregnant, and to have a baby. Uh, but now it's kind of like, "You're pregnant. Yay. Now what?" And so this episode is going to be all about And we'll go through a, a bunch of areas regarding pregnancy, such as we'll talk about prenatals, we'll talk about stretch marks and how to prevent them potentially. We'll talk about some exercise tips, nausea tips, um, and just how to prepare your body physically for birth and even just long-term preparing your body for more pregnancies down the line if that is something that you are planning or hoping to do one day. Um, because obviously we-- if you did listen to that first episode in our fertility series, even if we plan to get pregnant again in the future, sometimes God has different ideas as to what your future's going to look like. Um, so yeah. We're going to go over a few of those different things as well as, like, things to expect in your different trimesters. But before we jump into the episode, we are going to kick it off with a random revelation, and today's turn is Chrissy. So Chrissy, why don't you share your random revelation with us for this week?

Chrissy 4:45

Yeah, so today my random revelation is indeed not so random, and was a revelation I had a few months ago, but I am pregnant. And so, Katie's known for a while. Boop-boop.

Katie 5:02

But that'd be crazy if I found out for the first time right now.

Chrissy 5:05

That would be wild. No, I would not have been able to keep that secret from you.

Katie 5:10

Yeah.

Chrissy 5:11

yeah, so it was kind of perfect timing with this whole fertility series going on. We, um- Recorded that very first episode of Katie and I talking about our infertility and our infertility journeys, and that weekend after we recorded that episode, I found out I was pregnant. And so we, we looked at the, the calendar of it and we said, "How perfect," you know? Chrissy will be towards the end of her first trimester by the time we finish this whole f- infertility/fertility series, and so that's where we're at. I am 12 weeks pregnant right now. Um, little baby is-- I forgot what fruit it is this week. I don't know. I'm not very good at keeping track. I think little baby's like a plum or a lime or something like that. I don't know.

Katie 6:04

is rough. I-- Yeah, first

Chrissy 6:04

But,

Katie 6:05

challenging because oftentimes it... I mean, your

Chrissy 6:06

yeah, we've had a few ultrasounds, and baby is healthy and looking good and making me very sick, and that's okay though, because we are on the upward trend at this point. Um, the nausea is starting to wear off. I actually, um, during, I think it was maybe week seven or week eight, I got vertigo on top of the nausea, so I was not able to lay down at all, um, in any way, shape, or form. So I had to sleep sitting up, um, and it was bad. So, but thankfully, praise God, we have this amazing thing called vestibular physical therapy, and physical therapy is a horrible blessing to have, because it's not fun for anybody involved. But let me tell you, it works, and I only needed one session of physical therapy, and the vertigo was cleared. And so praise God. I am so thankful that I am not dizzy every time I turn my head right now, um, which I was. It was very difficult. Um, but yeah, we are making it through, and, um, first trimester is hard for, I think, anyone. You know, um, when-- Pardon me. I also have a cough right now, which is no bueno, not fun, but we're, we're making it through. I have my tea right here, just waiting for it to cool down so I can actually drink it. Um, I forgot what I was going to say.

Katie 7:46

I think we talked about this maybe on one of our episodes at some point. Uh, may- probably the fertility or the female, like Anatomy, um, episode where just talking about that, that shift that your body is going through hormonally. It's like your hormones were on this consistent cycle for quite a while just, you know, doing your monthly cycles, and then all of a sudden there's a baby in there, and it shifts everything. And the hormones now are just... It's like, it's like a... I almost think of it like a pool of water, and you know how like everything's like sloshing around, and like it's like kinda going one way, and then all of a sudden it's like, "Nope, stop, go the other way." And it's just like you think about that like, uh, that hormonal soup bowl going on of just it's, it's wild, it's crazy. And, and it makes kinda a lot of sense why your body is so thrown off by, by this big change. So...

Chrissy 8:54

Not only that, all of a sudden you have something growing in the middle of the body that was not growing there before. And so your immune system, it just kinda goes into overdrive on, like, trying to attack this thing, but also being prevented from attacking this thing. And so you just get really sick. And I even saw it in my, um, labs. When they drew my labs, my white blood cells usually rest around seven or so. And when they drew my labs, my white blood cells were up to 10 or 11, um, multiple times, 'cause I had to get labs drawn a few times. And so part of me was like, "Well, Max has a cough right now, so maybe that's it." But I never had any symptoms of having a cough at that point. And so I wonder if that was my body being like, "What is this thing inside of me that's growing?"

Katie 9:45

Yeah, that's a really good question. I wish I knew more about that, but I don't really know. I feel like I heard something about that at some point, but I don't know. Things like that, I'm like, "Oh, that's an interesting fact," but then it goes out the

Chrissy 10:00

This is only, this is only anecdotal evidence. We don't have any statistics to support it.

Katie 10:06

Nope. But generally speaking, the first trimester is by far the hardest. The second hardest one is the third

Chrissy 10:15

That's so funny

Katie 10:20

and it's very awkward and clunky to move around. you just think about now you have like doubled in size in the front of you, and sometimes in other areas you have grown a lot. And your body's just not used to it, especially growing so quickly. Just really throws off even like your balance while you're growing because all of a sudden you have this big weight in front of you. Getting up and down from things is really challenging. That is actually one of the things that I struggled with the most or felt very frustrated by in my third trimester was- I didn't actually experience a lot of the exhaustion during my third trimester. I actually felt really great. I enjoyed being pregnant at that point. But the one thing that I was super looking forward to once I wasn't going to be pregnant anymore, you know, once Malachi came, was just being able to get in and out of bed without needing to do the whole, like, roll over to my side and push up from the bed. Because when you're, especially in your third trimester, but even, like, at the end of your second trimester, you have to be really careful about the way you sit up and use your ab muscles because you want to prevent what they call coning in the middle of your abdomen, like your stomach muscles, your abs there. Because if they pressure a certain way, your abs can actually split in half, and you can have, like... You basically can put your fingers into a hole in the middle of your stomach, basically like the line kind of where your belly button is. And it's not the end of the world if that happens, but your body then has to, like, repair itself from that as well, and you don't want that to happen necessarily. So, you have to be really careful when you're getting up from bed specifically, but any other, like, laying down position or when you're using your abdomen and stuff, you have to just be mindful of those things. And I was so looking forward to having the baby so I could just be able to, like, get in and out of bed regularly. And yeah, that was... I just remember complaining about that. It was such a, such a little silly thing. But why don't we talk about, um, the trimesters in general? If you want to share maybe some of the just general things like first, second, third trimester that I don't know, you can enlighten us on some things that are going on or things that we need to be aware of when we're in those specific trimesters.

Chrissy 12:53

Yeah. So first trimester, uh, I think the, the biggest theme of it is nausea. And Katie, I know you said you experienced this also, that you threw up at least once a day during the first trimester up through week 16. I have been experiencing that also, except for, like, the three days after physical therapy, it was multiple times a day because PT sucks. But here we are. Um, so yes, nausea has been a theme. Some of the things, though, that I have found that are helpful with nausea go completely against everything that we ha- well, a lot of things that we have talked about in terms of general health and wellness. General health and wellness, you want to have time in between your meals, you know, four to six hours, to allow your body to fully digest the meal and actually start burning fat in between your meals. But during the first trimester, if I was not eating every hour, I was going to be throwing up. And, um, that was just the reality of it, and I think it's one of those things of, like, you kind of just have to listen to your body. If your body says, "Eat this," eat it, and if your body says, "Don't eat that," don't eat it. Um, and it's kind of funny. At first, I, like, could only eat pho for, like, the first week or two after I found out I was pregnant, and then all of a sudden that was disgusting, and it still sounds disgusting to me, actually. The thought of it is, like, yeah, it is still kind of gross. But it is interesting how, like, different foods, one thing could be really good one day and then really disgusting the next day and, um, the thing that cures the nausea one day and then the thing that makes the nausea happen the next day. And so it really has been, like, a daily playing it by ear. And God bless my husband. He has been such a blessing from the Lord, um, during this whole time. I, I always... I kind of joke, like, if he wasn't around, I'd be dead because I would have starved to death. Um, either that or our checking account would be dead because I would have U- Uber Eats-ed every single meal of the day because I did not step foot in the kitchen for two months Um, Max wasn't allowed to open the refrigerator or the pantry if I was in the kitchen. Um, and I also could not open either of those. So if I wanted any sort of food that was stored in the pantry or the refrigerator, I could not get it myself because it would send me heaving to the sink. So those are some fun little things from first trimester, but some things that help, um, lots of sleep. I did notice actually, um, the days that I got more sleep and more quality sleep, my nausea the following day was less and was much more manageable. So sleep is a huge priority. I think at the very beginning, I was sleeping upwards of like 10 or 11 hours a night. Um, now I am back down to about eight hours a night and feeling fully rested. But, um, even after that 10 or 11 hours, I still didn't feel fully rested, which is just like my body's creating a human, you know? Um, it makes sense. It takes a lot of energy. And so I think there's a lot of space to have grace for ourselves and for our spouses to have grace for us also as we are going through this experience that is, uh, takes a lot of energy and I have never been through it before and Max has never been through it before. Um, you know, you can only read about it so much until you're actually experiencing it, so.

Katie 16:51

Yeah. Yeah, I actually remember the very first New Year's that I did not stay up in many, many, many years was that year I was pregnant, because I was just so exhausted. So that would've probably been sometime in my second trimester. I think it was towards the beginning of it. I think it was right at the end of when I was experiencing all my nausea. yeah, like Chrissy said, I was experiencing lots of it, throwing up plenty. And our pastor and his wife at the time, they knew about our whole journey to getting pregnant, and their wisdom to us was, "Every time you're throwing up, make sure you're saying, like, 'Praise the Lord,' or, 'Hallelujah,'" and just, like, praising God in that moment. And so I just have funny memories of, like, being in our bathroom, and I'm, like, over the toilet heaving, 'cause I also had, like... I didn't just have morning sickness. I, I often had evening sickness, like, right before bed. And so we'd be getting ready for bed, and I'd get so nauseous, and I'd go throw up. And then Wes would be in the bedroom being like, "Praise the Lord." And I'm like, "Shut up. This sucks." And it was just... It was really funny. But the, the things that helped, uh, was eating. Yeah, I, I kept, like, Ritz crackers in my nightstand, because I would, like, wake up, and the first thing I would do was have Ritz crackers, which was probably not the best option to be doing. But it satisfied, uh, my stomach and kinda kept things at bay. Um, I also... So I'll share this tip with anyone who's, like, really extremely needing some help with nausea We, we kind of talked about vitamin B, maybe last week. I can't remember. One of, one of our weeks recently we talked about vitamin B and, and Chrissy kind of talked about how maybe that has something to do with nausea. But the thing that my w- midwife had recommended was the night, so like in the evening, right before bed, taking half a tablet of Unisom, which is actually, um, a sleep aid, and then, uh, vitamin B6 I think it was. And so I would take that, and then the next day I wouldn't be as nauseous or at least I wouldn't maybe be throwing up. Maybe I'd be, like, slightly nauseous. So that was one of the things. I, again, at that, at this point I'm like, I don't know if I recommend that because I don't know how, like, quote-unquote crunchy or actually healthy that was at the time w- considering, like, the sleep aid. I would take half the tablet, so it wasn't like the full one or something, but it helped. It definitely did, and I carried that around wherever we went. You know, if we were traveling and stuff, um, I always made sure to have it. And the other tip which helped with heartburn, 'cause I know heartburn, especially getting into the second trimester, and then I, I struggled with it a lot my third trimester, was, uh, yeah, heartburn is, can be really bad and something that many pregnant women struggle with. But the thing that actually helped with heartburn was right in the morning, the first thing I would do was take like a small shot of apple cider vinegar. And I don't remember the science behind it, but it has to do with something like it adds extra acid to your stomach, which sounds backwards, but then it, like, tricks your stomach into now thinking, "Okay, it's got enough acid," so it doesn't produce extra, which then comes up and creates that heartburn feeling. Um, it worked most of the time actually, but really what helped the most was just first off staying away from the things that triggered it, which often were tomatoey things. Even, like, a tomato on a sandwich would trigger it, so I'd have to be really careful. Um, but then I would still get heartburn on random days where I'm like, "I feel like I ate, like, nothing that should have triggered it." Um, and so I did do Tums at the time, and I was talking to a girlfriend of mine, and I don't know, I... There's probably gotta be, like, a healthier, crunchier version than just the regular Tums that are like... 'Cause they, they have, um, food coloring in them. Like, they ha- or they have, like, the food dyes in it. And so I remember as I'm going through and getting crunchier and stuff, I remember going through my whole medicine cabinet and looking for anything that had, like, Red Dye 40 because there's so much medicine that's, like, that slightly reddish color. You think of like, uh, what? Advils are sometimes red, and sometimes Advil has, like, the blue color, or Aleve I think is blue. So those all have colors in, coloring in them. And so for sure does, so I, I kinda wonder if there's, like, a

Chrissy 21:12

Yeah, so sorry, I keep having to clear my throat, but my midwife gave me a whole table of common remedies for common pregnancy symptoms. And so one of the things... They have three different sections, the try first, worth a try, and I've tried everything, which essentially is the, the reality of it is, like, um, kinda like natural remedies, homeopathy, medications is, like, the three different levels that they pretty much gave me, which I appreciate, you know. Like, there are times where you just need to take a pill, and that is the reality of it. And I think when it comes to the nausea, um, they, they did say small frequent meals, eating something prior to getting out of bed, anti-nausea tea. Like, um, they mentioned Earth Mama Morning Wellness Whatever that is. I don't know, haven't had it. Um, but hot foods made me more nauseous, so the whole idea of drinking tea was horrible. For me personally, I found that, like, eating ice was very helpful for nausea, 'cause it, like, kind of numbed the, the gag reflex a little bit. But one thing they recommend was, um, Preggy Pops, which I googled it. It's like these little gumdrop-type thingies, um, that you can eat. They're like candy. They look like candy, but they're better than candy, I guess. I don't know. Haven't bought it. But, um, they recommend that for nausea, and it looks like on the heartburn section, they also recommend Preggy Pops. Um, so that's kind of interesting. I guess they help for both nausea and indigestion. Um, they... Let's see. For nausea, they also recommend pressure points. So there's a pressure point on your wrist. It's about if you take your hand and put it up against your wrist, about four finger widths down from the bend of your wrist, there is a pressure point right there, and pressing on that can help relieve nausea. Now, it's really inconvenient to walk around just pressing this pressure point all day long, so they do make pressure point bracelets that you can use. And then ginger and peppermint are also super helpful for nausea. So, um, depending on w- if... Like, going back to traditional Chinese medicine, you know, peppermint is working on cold, ginger is working on hot. And so you want to treat the nausea with the opposite. So if not... If ginger is working, that means your body's too cold and needs more warm, and if peppermint is working, then that means your body's too warm and needs more cold. And so for me, peppermint tended to work better than ginger most of the time, and so I put some peppermint oil right on the outsides of my nostrils. And I did this particularly right before walking into a patient's home, um, especially if that patient just had a tendency for their house to always smell like food. Um, I would do that, and it was very helpful for blocking any of the food smells that I would smell in a patient's house, um, going to them. And then for the, the I've tried everything, i.e., the medications part for nausea, my, uh, midwife did recommend vitamin B6 And then adding to that the Unisom if it's needed in the morning and at night. Um, and then there is a medication that my OB recommended to me that I did not take, but I have a friend who is rather crunchy who is taking it because she, nausea has been horrible for her. She's only one week ahead of me in pregnancy, which is so fun actually that like we get to kind of go through it together, but her symptoms are so much worse than mine. But there's a medication called Diclegis, which is a prescription strength of B6 and Unisom together. Um, and she has found that to be very helpful for her. And so

Katie 25:44

Yeah.

Chrissy 25:48

take the pills if you, if you really need to, you know, if you, if it's the difference between existing and not existing, it, it's

Katie 25:56

especially if

Chrissy 25:56

worth it.

Katie 25:57

and you, you have stuff to do during the day, 'cause really the nausea can really wipe you out, especially if you are throwing up. Because thankfully, I was working from home, I was at home, but it's still like... I mean, it, it would kind of make or break my day if I was- nauseous. So definitely try those things if you are struggling with it. And then as far as, like, the first trimester, like, the, the that... or, like, exercise, because, like, if you think about just, like, preparing your body for pregnancy or for actual birth, say, like, I don't know, giving birth is like running 100 marathons or something like that. It's, it's a lot of work. Your body is literally opening up to just bring this baby into the world, and it is wild the way that God has designed it. Um, it's really beautiful, but it's also just so crazy. And so there's, there's things that you can be doing before you're pregnant And and and if you aren't pregnant and going to plan to be or hope to be someday there's lots of things you can physically be doing to prepare yourself for that Um specifically during your first trimester you your body is still somewhat the same like physically like looking and stuff You don't have a lot of extra weight yet You don't have the huge baby bump So you're kind of able to do some of the stuff that you've been doing previously So if you've been running you can continue running And if you've been doing a lot of like weight training and stuff you can still keep doing those things In fact it's actually encouraged to continue to what you've been doing um during your first trimester Um some of the other things are just like lots of light stretching or even not light but just like doing lots of good stretching especially deep stretching kind of in your lower core where your pelvic floor then is involved Um there's a lot of resources out there these days and actually the app that I used throughout my pregnancy was called Expecting and Empowered And I'm sure it still exists today I mean obviously it was three years ago that I used it But they basically you would put in your due date and then it would kinda give you the recommended workouts like for where wherever you were at in your pregnancy And so earlier on they're they're focusing a lot more on the weight training because your body can handle those and endure those versus as you're getting into second and especially in your third trimester you have to start tampering or tapering down on the weight that you're carrying and certain exercises that you're doing because again you have to protect your abdomen area from um doing the coning and then splitting in the abdomen So you just have to be really careful And then obviously your your o Um like once you're in your third trimester you have energy or more so maybe not even less energy cause I feel like I still had a lot of energy but the thing that I actually struggled with was now Malachi was like pushing in on my um lungs and so my capacity to actually take in air was diminished significantly And things like even raking my yard like I actually remember going and raking and just being so winded by it So like just such a basic little activity as raking up some leaves and I was just like heaving And so you just have to be mindful of that and just know like where your body's at But an app like Expecting and Empowered helps you with that They gave like yoga exercises to help um start to stretch your body to prepare to um give birth Because again like there's a lot of stretching that your body does in the pelvic floor region but also those muscles should be nice and strong in order to then push out a baby And not only that but then long-term as you're thinking about it if you are planning on having more babies if you're hoping to have more babies you really should be thinking about it in a long-term aspect of like you know taking preconception and pregnancy health very seriously so that your body is strong and it's not using literally all of its resources to just give this like one baby life And so you know focusing on nourishing foods before and during your pregnancy and especially after Like doing like bone broth and stuff after you've given birth helps your body to repair itself And so um And then even just like the consistent movement before during and after um giving birth And setting goals for yourself for like when you're actually giving birth like like using as l like little interventions as possible Obviously like I mean maybe we can even talk about like birthing and stuff in our next episode so maybe that's like now we're not even like talking about fertility as much but now we can start like talking more about like what happens after now you're pregnant and stuff So we can talk about birth stuff But I think just like taking that whole like your health very seriously during your pregnancy and that's something that I if I could go back I wish I would do better because I I mean I think it's culturally Like when when people are pregnant or Amer and especially in America they're like Oh now you're eating for two When I talked to my midwife and she's like Don't really think about that Like don't double what you're eating now because your body is going to tell you when it needs certain resources And so just focus on like the same things Like if when you're full stop eating And don't just continue gorging Um and a lot of people use pregnancy as an excuse to like drink milkshakes every day and eat cookies all the time and they're like Oh well the baby's just really craving these things And so that that's something that I don't think I did terribly with but I definitely could have done better with now knowing what I know And I wish I could go back and just be like Yeah I I wanna focus more on eating like meats and just higher levels of protein than I I just ate so many bagels That's Bagels and eggs was like what I wanted during my pregnancy which at the time I not like eggs and so that was a weird craving for me to want eggs But now I actually still like eggs so it it worked out I guess for the better

Chrissy 32:15

That's funny. So going back to the, the movement and the exercises and things. So because I had the vertigo, it made it incredibly difficult for me specifically to do any sort of stretching or movement or anything. Because if you think about most stretching positions, your head is not straight up and down, and you have to bend in some way, shape, or form, which would just send the world spinning for me. But the few times that I was able to stretch, I did notice that I am significantly more flexible right now than I was prior to being pregnant. And so I looked it up, and it makes a lot of sense. There is a hormone released, it's called elastin, that loosens all of your ligaments and your joints and everything to make space for the baby to grow, to allow your, your tendons and your ligaments in your abdomen to stretch. But with that comes all the other parts of your body. So I had an ACL repair, um, back in 2020, and I have... It is very difficult for me to touch my heel to my butt. Like, it takes a lot of intentional stretching for me to get to that point. And the other day, I was trying to stretch, and I, like, no problem. My heel was kind of going past my butt. Like, I could pull it more towards my hip instead. And I was like, "This is crazy. I have not been able to do this in years." Um, like, it was just as flexible as my right leg, which was beyond anything I could understand. Um, but another thing that the stretching is super helpful for that I am starting to feel a little bit is the round ligament pain. So there's these ligaments in our abdomens that connect the top of the uterus to the pubic bone. And Needless to say, they get stretched quite a bit, and they can be pretty painful. Um, I just think, like, on Sunday this week, I felt like the entire service, somebody was, like, digging their thumb into my lower abdomen just right above my pelvic bone. And I was like, "What?" Not my pelvic bone, my pubic bone. I was like, "What is that?" And I was like, it's not severe enough to, like, call my midwife, but it's really not comfortable either. And I had to keep shifting my weight, and, um, I realized that, like, when I stretched my abs more so, then it would go away for a little while. So definitely stretching is helpful and necessary as baby starts to grow to allow our bodies to morph and change more easily to allow space for the baby.

Katie 35:13

So I totally forgot about that elastin hormone is that what it's called Um and at the same time so I do remember this So in that app the um Expecting and Empowered exercise app I do remember So they would give you like they would have these videos for each trimester as to like they'd kind of give you tips of like Here's what to expect with your body and what to focus on And one of the things they talked about so your body obviously pumps more of that hormone as you get closer and closer to pregnancy so that it can work on stretching and and allowing your body to open up for the baby But on the flip side you actually have to be careful with stretching like in your third trimester cause you can actually like pull things out of place because they are so stretchy And I totally forgot about that until you just remem until you just said that So it is like it's great but you need to be extra careful as you get closer because you're you're extra stretchy

Chrissy 36:12

Mm-hmm, and that hormone is also the one that's mostly responsible for heartburn in the first trimester because heartburn in the third trimester is because the baby's pushing on your stomach and quite literally pushing the stomach acid up. Um, in the first trimester, that's not the case. The baby's still the size of a sesame seed or a blueberry, you know? So baby's not pushing on the lungs, but that elastin hormone is what loosens the gastric sphincter, which is right... Or is it the esophageal sphincter? Esophagastric sphincter? I don't know. The, the circle muscle in between your esophagus and your stomach, um, that prevents reflux gets loosened because of this elastin hormone. And so anyone who gets... I, I had a friend, she's, um, about to have her third baby, so she's, like, a professional in pregnancy at this point, and I told her that I had, uh, heartburn. She said, "Girl, it's too early for that." And I looked at her and I said, "What are you talking about?" Like Heartburn starts right, right at the beginning when that nausea starts. They kinda go together almost, and, um, because of that elastin hormone just loosening that, um, sphincter for us

Katie 37:30

So speaking of things that are too early I actually just again had a conversation with a friend of ours who's pregnant and pregnant for the first time and I w I was telling her just some of my tips and experiences and stuff And of course whenever I share things I'm always like Take what you want leave what you want you know Spit out the bones if you don't want to take it all You know I just I like I like sharing things I I'm definitely a first child and just love to tell people what to do So I was telling her all my things and I was I was mentioning to her that it is definitely a myth that once you're pregnant and have babies that you as a woman will always deal with incontinence forever Because I've just heard that so many times that like Oh like you know Say goodbye to like having nice dry underwear and stuff when you wanna like be running around or being on a trampoline and stuff And so I I just have moms joking about that with me all the time and But I am a living testimony to say that I never struggled with incontinence during my pregnancy nor do I struggle with it now And I think it has a lot to do with just the physical preparedness or preparation that I had gone through um and and just like my physical activity before being pregnant and then the that I focused on during my pregnancy And then even afterwards I saw a pelvic floor therapist um just after everything that I had gone through in the hospital I was just like worried about it so my doctor had given me a recommendation But even when I went to the pelvic floor therapist she was like Oh yeah you're totally fine Like you know just k keep doing what you've been doing I don't see any reason for you to be worried about any issues with your pelvic floor And so that was reassuring just to have a professional checking me out and making sure that things were fine But making sure to like you know do things like Kegels If you haven't heard of Kegels Google it and it's like the main exercise for uh strengthening your pelvic floor But there's a lot of lower abdomen exercises that you can be doing to prepare yourself for that And again it is definitely a myth but the reason I bring it up of like my my friend was like Yeah I have another girlfriend who's also pregnant for the first time and she said And she's only in her first trimester too and she's like already experiencing incontinence during her first trimester And she's like don't even think that's a thing And it just seemed so silly but you know I I was laughing at it because I was like No there's no way that that has to do with pregnancy But now I'm thinking if for two for two reasons Maybe she has a very weak pelvic floor but two this uh elastin hormone could be already relaxing things so much so that she's struggling with incontinence So it's kind of a twofold problem there

Chrissy 40:23

Very possibly. Yeah, I've heard many, many praises of pelvic floor physical therapy postpartum, um, where just so many stories, so many women telling me pelvic floor physical therapy is, like, a must postpartum. Must do it. And honestly, even, like, during pregnancy, doing a lot of those exercises. I, I wrote down actually the name of that app, Katie. Now that I'm not dizzy and my nausea is starting to subside, I feel like I actually have the energy to be able to do what I can do to maximize the health and wellness of my body. I feel like, you know, leading up to pregnancy, I was so focused on, like, "Okay, health and wellness. How can I maximize my health? How can I create this beautiful, perfect, luscious environment for my baby?" And then I got pregnant, and I genuinely felt a little... kinda like I got slapped in the face, because the only thing that tasted good was cereal and mac and cheese for weeks on end. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, all of a sudden I am feeding my baby crap." Now, was it still organic cereal and organic mac and cheese? Yes. But... 'Cause my husband w- actually so funny. I told him I wanted Honey Bunches of Oats, and he looked me dead in the eye and said, "No." And then went and bought me, like, the organic fancy stuff that, you know, still has some sugar in it and some seed oils, but not as bad as actual Honey Bunches of Oats, you know?

Katie 41:56

We used to eat that like crazy in our house

Chrissy 42:00

Oh, we loved it growing up. Yes.

Katie 42:04

We called it almond cereal cause we would get the almond version of it and that like for the longest time like growing up I didn't know that it had another name beside almond cereal So I'd go places and be like I want almond cereal and they're like What is that And it was Honey Bunches of Oats But yes that is one of my

Chrissy 42:18

That's funny.

Katie 42:19

I love it still

Chrissy 42:20

So good.

Katie 42:21

we don't buy it anymore either but I

Chrissy 42:22

Well

Katie 42:22

love it

Chrissy 42:23

there is a very similar cereal, um, it's like honey oat clusters or something like that, at Whole Foods that we've been getting now, um, and has been phenomenal. But yeah, I just felt very, um, like, down, you know? Of like, I have worked so hard to get my body healthy, and now the thought of any sort of meat or anything green or anything from the ground is appalling, you know? And so it was a while that all I could eat was, um, mac and cheese and cereal and something for dinner. I don't even know. But Oranges were helpful. I guess, like, the citrus, cold, cold citrus- Mm-hmm was good for nausea. Um, but now thankfully I'm starting to get to the point of like, okay, I can eat more real food. And it's just one of those things, like I already said, like, it's, it's a space where we can have grace for ourselves. You know, there, there's one side of like, yes, pregnant women do have a tendency to gorge themselves and just eat crap all the time and be like, "Baby wants the cookies. Baby wants the cake." And sometimes baby might want the cookies and the cake, but the reality is, like, we have to still be intentional to try our best to eat decently because our body is in so much more need of these nutrients. If baby's not getting the nutrients from food, baby will get the nutrients from mom's body. Whether it be from her muscles or her bones or her brain, baby's gonna get the nutrients in one way, shape, or form. And mom is either gonna pay for it or not pay for it as much. And so I think it's, it's just really important to still be cognizant of what we're putting into our bodies. And like, instead of having the mindset of, "Oh, I'm pregnant, I can eat whatever I want," it's, "I'm pregnant, and my body is telling me that I really want this food that I know isn't the greatest, so I'm gonna eat it, and I'm only going to eat it until my body doesn't need it anymore. And then once I'm able to then incorporate those healthy, more well-rounded meals back into it, into my diet, I'm gonna be intentional to do that." One other thing that I noticed, um, that I wanna share is, um, eating just straight carbs was not helpful for nausea. It would help for, like, two seconds, and then nausea would be right back. Um, but eating more well-rounded snacks. So like instead of just crackers, I would have cheese and crackers. Actually, my favorite right now is Mary's Gone Crackers with, uh, cream cheese, which is really not great for the se- the fact that I have this cold because dairy and a cough don't really go hand-in-hand. But at this point, I'm like, "Well, hot helps the, the cold and the, the cough, but cold helps the nausea, so I don't really know which one to do." So we just keep flipping back and forth. Yesterday I ate a popsicle with a cup of tea next to me. It's, it's just how it goes. But yes, eating more well-rounded meals. So like the mac 'n cheese has some fat, some protein, and carbs. And then that was more helpful than just trying to eat, like, plain pasta. Or a plain cracker was not nearly as effective for helping with the nausea as cheese and crackers, you know? Um, so I think it's really important to keep that in mind and to be intentional of like, okay, baby wants crackers right now. Baby can have cheese and crackers. Like, let's make it a little bit better, or let's be intentional to buy the organic kind, or let's be intentional to, um, have the higher quality thing that baby wants, you know, so we're not just feeding baby crap the whole time.

Katie 46:15

was why I struggled with nausea too much cause I ate ri Ritz crackers way too often and I just That was my go-to So I probably harmed myself in the the process of trying to help myself But and talking about like what we're putting in our bodies obviously one of the big questions that people often have when it comes to pregnancy is a prenatal vitamin And um there are lots of options out there for prenatals In fact when I was trying to figure out what prenatal I was taking at the time of my pregnancy I went on Amazon and I was scrolling and scrolling cause I was like I'm just trying to figure out what bottle looked the most familiar and stuff And so it took me a while I did end up finding the one that I had and um I want you to all know that this was like pre-Crunchy Katie But I had I took one called Vitafusion prenatal and I was looking up the ingredients and obviously it's got all of the the vitamins up top which they're probably all like the synthetic versions which I'm looking and yes it looks like they're the synthetic

Chrissy 47:19

Does it have folic acid or folate?

Katie 47:22

has uh Let's see I Oh folate

Chrissy 47:28

Oh, good.

Katie 47:30

yeah it did have it did have that Oh actually but then when you look at it it says folate and then you go over to the like amounts and percentages and it shows it as like 600 mcg DFE But then under it it says 306 mcg folic acid So maybe it was like

Chrissy 47:49

So 600 milligrams methylated folate and 300 micrograms of folic acid.

Katie 47:58

Yeah

Chrissy 47:59

folic acid is not digestible, by the way, to our listeners. So if your prenatal has folic acid in it, maybe reconsider.

Katie 48:07

Yeah And if it has things like glucose syrup and sugar as the next listed items I

Chrissy 48:14

Also reconsider

Katie 48:16

reconsidering I saw that and I was like Hmm I clearly just picked whatever was like cheap It was also a gummy version It has flavors in it which I would also uh stay away from It doesn't The one thing it did win at was not having any like food dyes like any coloring in it It does use blueberries carrot concentrate and purple carrots for the coloring So at least that had that going for it But there's a lot a lot a lot of options out there and the really fancy more organic the cleaner versions the ones that are made with more uh food-based vitamins versus the synthetic ones are so expensive And so it it kinda comes down to like what is really important And you know T Chrissy and I were even talking about this Typically you start taking a prenatal when you want to get pregnant You you start building up your body with these good vitamins and minerals and all the things And so you should be preparing your body before you get pregnant Because if you think about it we we find out that we're pregnant usually at like what is it Week four or five of your pregnancy Yeah five And so you already have a baby in you before you actually even find out you're pregnant So why they say like Oh you should be preparing yourself and and making the egg quality better by taking the prenatal vitamin Because if you start doing it after you're pregnant then the baby's kind of missing out on those vitamins before you're pregnant So obviously if you're listening to this and you're pregnant it's not too late You can already start doing it But the earlier in the pregnancy is better because that's when they're like taking tons from you to start building up their own body And so you kind of have to like figure out what's the best for you And if you are starting early like it just gets really expensive especially for Chrissy and I who spent years not being able to get pregnant So if you're spending years and years like every month you're buying a new bottle Like the one that I was doing I think I got it Actually I looked on Amazon It doesn't even they don't even like sell it anymore Like it doesn't have any price options But even like looking at it of them like range from like $15 to $20 but then the more expensive ones start becoming more like $50 a bottle and that's like sometimes a month's worth if that that's just a lot It adds up really quickly So I would again going back to the nutrition thing focus on like high nutrient value food um because that's going to be better for your body anyway and and s and your baby especially because it's the more readily available way to get those vitamins and minerals anyway

Chrissy 50:59

Yeah. So one thing that I wanted to share is, like, when Max and I started our fertility journey, I had that mindset of like, "Okay, I'm getting my birth control taken out. We are going to get on these vitamins. We're gonna get all of our vitamins and minerals up to where they need to be, um, so that Max will be healthy too." And so I actually found a prenatal vitamin that had a his and a hers. And so it ended up being quite expensive. I think it was like $135 for the two of us every month to buy these prenatals for both me and for Max. Um, and they worked fine, I guess. Like, I obviously-- I didn't notice a difference taking them versus not taking them, except that they made me burp, which was kind of weird. But now taking a lot of vitamins, I think that's just a vitamin thing that they make me burp. But, um, I didn't like that because I had never... Like, I j- before starting to try to get pregnant, I did not take anything consistently. I never took vitamins consis- consistently. I never took medications consistently. Never took anything. So anyways, we did that for maybe a year, 10, 11 months, something like that. And then we started working with our naturopath, and when we started working with them, um, we cut off the prenatal vitamin 'cause I was like, "I'm already getting so many vitamins and minerals" through this naturopath program that we did, that I wasn't taking a prenatal actually when I got pregnant. And as soon as I got pregnant, my naturopath looked at me, he goes, "You need a prenatal now." And I was like, "Oh, uh..." So I just went on and bought one that they had, um, in, like, my, um, naturopath group, I guess you would call them, has, like, a supplement ordering system. And so I got a prenatal through their, like, reputable options that they had. So that's the one that we've been, um, using or that I've been using. Max is not taking a prenatal now. He stopped taking all vitamins. It's just me taking vitamins. Uh, no, his job is not done. His job is to feed me and keep me warm and keep me not throwing up.

Katie 53:29

Uh

Chrissy 53:30

And to manage the house and to do the dishes and to open the refrigerator and open the pantry, because those two things are not happening.

Katie 53:36

That is so

Chrissy 53:37

No. His job has only begun. Just you wait.

Katie 53:41

Yes

Chrissy 53:43

Yeah. So, and with that, I am al- still taking my Juice Plus, so I feel like I have a little bit more nutrients coming from that. I also added on, uh, vitamin D in addition to the vitamin D that's in my prenatal, and a vitamin B6, um, in addition to what is in my prenatal, because that nausea, man, especially after... I actually didn't add the B6 until after physical therapy, which was about week 10, um, because I just got so sick after PT. I was like, "This is suddenly unmanageable. I need, I need something else." Like, it was manageable before, and then it was not all of a sudden. So, um, yeah

Katie 54:23

Well so it's interesting My mom always talked about how her hair and nails always looked really good during pregnancy and she always thought it was because of the prenatal vitamins And in some cases I think that that can add to it But I think we talked about this in a different episode the whole hair thing Um you are pregnant your hormones are focused more on the baby and and what's going on inside of the uterus to build the baby and the placenta and all the things You know the placenta's now taking all the stuff that it needs and the hormones are kind of focused more there So your hair is not falling out because the hormones that tell your hair when to fall out of its head out of your head it like stops going through that cycle And so your hair and your nails often look very nice and luscious because of this hormone shift And then once you have the baby you can really look forward to then looking like a naked mole rat as you lose all of your hair And that's at least how I felt I go back and look at pictures and my hair just looked so thinned out It was like month three or four after giving birth and I was just Not a lot of people can notice It's just me seeing that and getting used to it and then just remembering that feeling of like ugh But so that's something you can I I loved it being pregnant Your hair just is so gorgeous And that's why during second trimester people are like You're glowing and radiant because you you often literally are Like there The way that your hormones are like changing and stuff you tend to have this kind of like glow to you And it there is more science and I listened to it one time on a podcast of like why people say that and why they say like Oh you have this glow to you because like actually physically your body like radiating something And it's like your hormones and your hair is fuller and your eyes are shinier or something and all this stuff And so your second trimester is just beautiful and wonderful and you feel like you can conquer the world And you're also not huge yet so you still feel okay But then towards the end of it it's like Whoa my body's really changing and it gets wild Um did you have any thoughts I have one other thing that I wanted to add to this episode

Chrissy 56:38

I was going to say, I wonder how much your antibiotics also contributed to your hair loss.

Katie 56:45

That's a really great point Oh I don't think I ever mentioned this When Oh this is so gross but I have to share it So

Chrissy 56:51

You've told me. It's really funny, and it actually happens to a lot of people when they're on IV antibiotics.

Katie 56:57

yeah especially I guess it happens with vancomycin which is what I was on which is that really really intense antibiotic that I was on Um Malachi and I lost all of the skin on our hands and feet Like they literally peeled Like when you think about in childhood when you put glue on your hand and you think it's really cool and you let it dry and you peel it off that physically literally happened to myself on my feet and my hands and it was so gross and so weird But yet at the same time I will say it was pretty satisfying cause if you were someone who did that glue thing to your hands you know how satisfying it was to peel them But when it's literally happening and you can't stop it and you have to go out like that and your hands and feet are peeling And it was summer then and I'm like wearing flip-flops and I'm like This is so gross Like if someone looked down they'd see like the v the skin flaking off of my toes It was so weird But yes we we literally lost all the skin on our hands and feet and it was wild But yeah that that probably was way more due to the medications versus the hormones But I think the hair thing probably

Chrissy 58:05

Post-

Katie 58:05

to do with pregnancy mostly because it's super common for women to lose a bunch of hair uh during their like third or fourth like post-baby I almost said trimester But

Chrissy 58:17

postpartum?

Katie 58:19

postpartum Thank you That word last thing I did want to mention because it's another question I get is uh oil for your belly for stretch marks Um again was someone who was very blessed to not have any stretch marks during my pregnancy I know some well ladies will probably come at me because s for some women it's just inevitable Um I don't know if it was due to the oil that I used or not or if my body just maybe is not as prone to stretch marks I don't know

Chrissy 58:49

Question for you. Did you get stretch marks when you were a teenager? Like, when you were growing a lot as a teenager? Okay. So I stretch, I got stretch marks as a teenager when I was lifting weights And my muscles grew so much that my skin got stretch marks, and my mom was the same way. She got stretch marks as a teenager, but then didn't get stretch marks carrying twins to term.

Katie 59:16

Yeah

Chrissy 59:17

I don't know how she did that and didn't get a single stretch mark carrying twins, but she did get them when she was a teenager. So sometimes it's genetics. Sometimes it's just time of life. Sometimes it's the oil you use. Yeah, just wanted to put that little tidbit there.

Katie 59:31

I don't know if my mom ever got stretch marks I don't think she did I don't even I don't recall her having stretch marks but I don't know Mom I guess you can comment on that when we talk later cause I know that you're going to talk to me about it anyway I know my sister same thing like you did get stretch marks in high school when she was like in track and and being really physically active and stuff Um I while pregnant used a an oil called Mother's Special Blend if you Google it or go on Amazon and look it up Um however it's probably not one I would necessarily recommend now The ingredients are fine Actually the ingredients are like okay There's no like fragrance or anything that I would say is like but it's like not organic and so I'd probably recommend looking into an oil that is organic And one that I actually got Chrissy um is called Ancient Greek Remedy Body Oil And so they talk about it as you know being Oh here Chrissy Okay so this is a funny story I sent this to Chrissy but I forgot to put like on Amazon like Hey it's from me kind of thing And so she just got this random oil in the mail And it's not specifically a like pregnancy stretch mark oil It's just like a generic or not generic but it's like a body oil and can be used for just a moisturizer and all this stuff too And Chrissy thought it was like after shaving like a like

Chrissy 1:00:52

Well,

Katie 1:00:53

post-shaving like

Chrissy 1:00:54

I'm pretty, I'm pretty confident the, the bottle doesn't say anything about shaving, but I think the box said something about shave oil or, like, aftershave oil or something like that. So I legitimately thought Max ordered it, and I was like, "Wow, I'm so impressed. He got this really high-quality oil, but that's so weird 'cause he doesn't really use aftershave, so odd." And then I told him he could use it, and he's like, "I'm not using that. I don't use aftershave." I said, "Well, then I guess I'll use it as aftershave because I always have to put moisturizer on after I shave, and so might as well." And so I was using it on my legs for, like, two weeks before Katie told me that it was from her and it was for my belly. But let me tell you, this stuff is actually really nice. I put some on my cuticles. I put it in my hair. I put it on my belly, my legs, my hands. My hands get dry. Like, the whole kit and caboodle. It works everywhere. It's great. I actually love it. I'll probably keep buying it, actually.

Katie 1:01:57

There you go I so I still use during um pregnancy too I used an almond oil that um we can talk about this more for like pregnant or birth prep but um there are other parts of your body that you want to stretch out in order to prepare for a baby to come out And so um I used almond oil for that specifically But I still use that That's my like everyday like after-shower kind of oil And so I Yeah oil is like just helpful It's great It keeps you moisturized It can be obviously used for after-shower purposes or stretch mark purposes

Chrissy 1:02:34

Prior to you sending me this oil, I was using, uh, grapeseed oil post-shower or post-shave, which my sister actually bought for me to put in my hair to do, like, a grapeseed oil hair mask before taking a shower. But I can't remember to do the oil thing 30 minutes before I shower, so now I've been using it after I shower, and it works great. So I honestly think I'm a bigger fan of oil after a shower on your body rather than lotion.

Katie 1:03:04

Like a lotion Totally Yeah I think it it moisturizes differently and it like

Chrissy 1:03:08

Yeah.

Katie 1:03:09

into your skin differently which is a good thing

Chrissy 1:03:12

Mm-hmm

Katie 1:03:13

anyway those are some of the tips that we wanted to share I'm sure that you probably have lots of questions still and if you do please join us over on

Chrissy 1:03:23

I know none of it th- so far,

Katie 1:03:28

to chat more if you have questions about any of these things. We'll add links to some of the different products

Chrissy 1:03:34

so I'm gonna be learning along with our

Katie 1:03:38

as the prenatal vitamin, 'cause I wouldn't even want, like, any of my friends to use that. So please don't go buy those. Um, anyway, I hope that you found this episode helpful. think, yeah, we don't actually have a huge plan, but I think that after having this episode, we should probably talk more about, like, actual birthing, uh, stuff. So I have plenty of resources and tips and thoughts on actual birth, and, uh,

Chrissy 1:04:05

our listeners.

Katie 1:04:11

Yay. It'll be good. It'll be exciting. Yeah, it's a journey. It's an experience. Super fun. So, uh, yeah, why don't you take us out, Chrissy, and then we'll join everybody next week

Chrissy 1:04:23

Yes. With that, remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. We'll see you guys next time on "Crunchy Stewardship."