Help Your Woman Out: The Guide For Soon To Be Fathers
It is 3:00a.m. You’re staring at the ceiling fan trying to find a way to fall back asleep while the love of your life is stuck in the bathroom going through the miracle of childbirth. Well, not childbirth, more like the discomfort of morning sickness. This is the second month of her pregnancy and you're already wondering how you will make it through the remainder of her pregnancy. You feel like you are looking at a due date calculator every hour. After all, you worked a twelve hour shift so your body is exhausted, your stamina is depleted, and you’re going crazy thinking about how to even help her through this hurdle. Don't have time to read it all, just take a listen and let her know your in this pregnancy.
Help Your Woman Out: The Guide For Soon To Be Fathers
This is a tough time for any couple whether it is your first child or you are expecting a second. Uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms like morning sickness shouldn’t have to keep you up at night, and shouldn't cause the love of your life such discomfort. Luckily there is a way to help her. Understand what she is going thru during all 3 trimesters. There are some great books that detail pregnancy week by week, so keep it behind your toilet so you can reference it when your wife just doesn't make sense. Here are a few tips to consider for each of the trimesters.
First Trimester Tips
First trimester pregnancy is the worst. From hormonal changes to morning sickness, this is when her body is undergoing the most change. She will feel exhausted because her body is consuming lots of calories creating your beautiful baby. Do not encourage her to binge eat or gain excessive weight because healthy pregnancies should be about 25 pounds more than their pre-baby weight. (A yogurt and a piece of fruit extra is really all she needs.) Exercise is great during pregnancy, whatever she was into at the gym she should continue except if she is into heavy body building, because you shouldn't pick up more than 20 pounds within your 1st trimester to avoid miscarriage. Your support in doing what she loves shows how dedicated you are, so if she loves to dance go to a Zumba class with her.
Give your woman a helping hand with the NoMo Nausea Band -the only 100% natural alternative to medication in stopping morning sickness induced nausea and vomiting. Don't let these early signs of pregnancy interrupt your sleep or hinder the love of your life's day. The ingenious combination of peppermint aromatherapy and acupressure contained in this slim wristband are gifts of comfort for the mother, allowing her to experience the very first feelings of motherhood, and gifts for dad, allowing you peace of mind about your significant other. Take away nausea and vomiting with NoMo Nausea Bands so you and your loved one can revel in the joys of pregnancy.
Is your wife’s sense of smell becoming as good as Game of Thrones wolves in the House of Starkes? YES! Circulating gonadal hormones are proposed as the explanation for heightened sense of smell. As hCG rises so does the olfactory perception in women. This increased smelling superpower is also why many women get a food aversion, and might also be a reason for more severe morning sickness.
Urinary protein and glucose increase in the kidneys, plasma creatinine decrease (hence why you need to drink lots of water), and there is an increased risk of UTI. Pregnant women find that they get sick more often because of a decreased immunity.
Second Trimester Tips
Second trimester is the “sexiest” one due to surges of pregnancy hormones: estrogen & progesterone. Between weeks 14 and 26, women tend to have energy again, not be suffering with morning sickness, and they are still have a small belly. Many women report having a high sexual desire and intense orgasms. Fellas, sex during pregnancy is perfectly safe, and women are usually extremely horny once the morning sickness has stopped. Check out 5 great pregnancy sex positions in Pregnancy Pukeology Episode 19: Sex during Pregnancy. Increased blood concentration to account for the probable 500ml to 1000ml loss during delivery starts happening in the 2nd trimester, so her clitoris is super stimulating. Nearing toward the 3rd trimester prolactin, the hormone that starts milk secretion, can decrease a mom’s libido.
Moms have an increased risk of having murmurs (a fancy word for extra sounds originating from the heart). The left ventricle of the heart tends to enlarge, also known as left ventricular hypertrophy. The heart literally shifts up and to the right prior to delivery, showing weird EKG tracings on occasion.
As the baby gets bigger the diaphragm is able to less work as a muscle to help pull the chest wall open for big deep breaths, so that results in fast breathing with minimal effort. The extra blood flow can cause congestion in the nose, increase sinus headaches, so moms with past asthma tend to relapse and need an inhaler.
Third trimester
The baby is getting big, making physical activity difficult. Heartburn is also something that most women have not experienced so just think how the reminisce of that hamburger is coming back up. If she doesn’t want to kiss you, it’s probably just that. Her body is changing in more ways than one. Did you know almost every organ has a physiological change during pregnancy? Let’s look at them from head to toe.
Mommy brain is for real! Forgetfulness, fogginess in remembering details, and overall just not feeling like yourself happens. The University of Barcelona actually showed changes in the mom’s brain from before pregnancy to up to 2 years after birth. They proposed these mental changes were needed to help understand the needs of their babies to help prepare them for motherhood. Neurologically speaking the volume of the body increases increasing cerebral spinal fluid as well.
Gastrointestinal system is put to work with morning sickness in the first trimester, acid reflux caused by decreased lower esophageal sphincter tone (meaning the valve that caps the top of the stomach gets loose so every time you eat gas and food come back up to the esophagus), and there is an increased risk of aspiration during delivery which is why all anesthesia personnel will ask a pregnant woman to not eat for 8 hours prior to an elective c-section.
The musculoskeletal system goes completely out of wack. Relaxin, a hormone responsible for relaxing the ligaments to move the hips outward for childbirth, can result in a higher chance of dislocation. And the big belly doesn’t help, so an increased lumbar lordosis happens. Gentleman… rub your ladies sway back. You will get lots of brownie points.
I wanted to leave the endocrine system until the last because there are so many hormones responsible for all of these changes. Increases in progesterone and estrogen we already talked about, along with relaxin, prolactin, and human chorionic gonadotrophin hormone. Did you know pregnant women get transient hyperthyroidism? How about insulin resistance? Meaning they need to be checked for gestational diabetes, because diabetes is the result of high sugar content, and insulin is what drops that sugar in the blood. Cortisol, fat storage hormone, increases the secretion by the adrenal glands so the baby never runs out of food. It also is the reason loosing the baby weight is so hard because cortisol is the “stress hormone” that women have more amounts than men and want to pack on the pounds even if we workout like crazy.
Women during pregnancy become transiently high thyroid presumably related to hCG levels. HCG stimulates TSH receptors which cause the pregnant body to increase thyroid hormone. The side effects of hyperthyroidism is nausea and vomiting, which we women already know we suffer with during the first trimester. L-carnitine is great for helping to control the tremors and fatigue. This amino acid is found in meats, fish, and dairy products. Supplements and liquid drops of L-carnitine can now be found. Generally, B-12 deficiency accompanies hyperthyroidism. Lavender essential oils help to reduce feelings of anxiety to fight the accompanied nervousness and sleeplessness (other hyperthyroid symptoms). Consider NoMo Sleepless Nights, an acupressure infused lavender essential oil researched to help put people to sleep faster and keep women asleep longer.
