I had the pleasure of talking to this amazing mama to be a few weeks ago and wanted to share a little bit of her journey with all of you. Ray is a total fox to begin with but with her belly (which popped at 20 weeks) she’s a lovefest dream!

When I asked Ray about the beginning of her journey she told me that she and her husband had taken a late honeymoon ( about 4 months after her dreamy fall wedding ) and while they were away they started talking about babies and their future family. Like many couples, there is that anticipation of knowing you want a tiny person in your future, and the inevitable question of ‘when do we start trying’? For Ray and her husband they decided they were so excited to meet their future baby that now was the time to start!

In terms of her body and it’s willingness to cooperate, she’s a lucky one! On and off birth control for most of her late teens through her twenties she managed to have a regular period the entire time! Regardless of knowing that though, she did say she thought it would be a lot harder than it was. There seems to be some understanding these days that it’s always going to be hard so you sort of go into it thinking, “it’ll take at least six months if not more”.

Surprise! Two months into trying ( and loving it! – Ray was the inspiration behind my Knocking Boots post) she noticed her cycle was a few days late. I was more curious about the other symptoms though, so I bugged her for details! For someone who has an irregular cycle and can’t really tell if we’re late or not, I wanted to know what other things/feelings come up before you can take a pregnancy test. Ray said she just felt different. Even though she normally experiences breast tenderness around her cycle, she said this was a totally different type of sensitivity. Emotionally she was all over the place and she started feeling insanely tired and having nose bleeds. ( Nose bleeds are very common in early pregnancy as your body is pumping about 30% more blood throughout your system to get ready to build a new human!)

Ray suffered from constant UTI’s and a horrible cough that was diagnosed as ‘chronic bronchitis’ for 5 years and as a result was always on antibiotics. After finding out she was pregnant, she was feeling frustrated with the idea of being on medication throughout pregnancy so she turned to a Naturopath. One of the first things the ND did was a very thorough allergy test where Ray found out she was seriously lactose intolerant as well as having a gluten sensitivity. She immediately cut out all things dairy + gluten related and her cough (and UTIs)  dissipated -no more antibiotics! The Naturopath suggested a high dose of probiotics to get her healthy bacteria count back up (which is so important for birth!).

Ray and her husband were healthy and nutritious eaters to begin with but had changed up their diet about six months before she conceived. Along with diet, Ray added a multivitamin and later a prenatal called Pregvit. After Ray started seeing her Naturopath, she recommended she switch to an all natural vegetable capsule prenatal called NFH Sap. As I’ve talked about before, supplementation is a personal choice that is important if you’re not getting all of the proper nutrients from your diet ( which most of us aren’t if we aren’t consciously making a point in doing it!).

It was so refreshing to hear from Ray that before her bump really started to show she experienced some sadness and frustration relating to her pregnancy. As with all things we anticipate to take a long time, when trying to get pregnant, you sort of mentally prepare yourself for this wild and long journey that can take anywhere from 30 days to 10 years. It’s sometimes impossible to think that you’ll be the one that gets pregnant right away. So, if you happen to be the one that does conceive quickly, it’s easy to feel unprepared! Not having experienced this myself, I can’t say first hand how I would feel, but I can still totally relate to feeling ‘not ready’. A close friend of mine with a two year old just put it very honestly to my husband and I – there isn’t really a way to be ready until you’re ready, it just sort of happens one day!

Just know that you’re not alone if you’re experiencing this. Not only are you getting ready for this wild and very real physical journey but your body is emotionally going through it’s own journey that makes it very hard to feel stable sometimes! Slowing down and talking to people about how you’re feeling is so important- surround yourself with love, support and knowledge so that you can really start to understand what is going on both emotionally and physically.

Currently Ray is 27 weeks and feeling good! As we were finishing up, we were talking about how to keep up with her health and all her questions without the expense of seeing a Naturopath. Although I am a huge advocate for seeing holistic practitioners when possible, I completely understand the financial challenge. The one piece of advice I have for anyone is personal empowerment! There are so many books you can read written on the topic of holistic and natural pregnancy/birthing that will allow you to really feel like you know what’s going on. I have a new section under ‘Things we love’ where I’ve listed all of the books I’ve read so far. By no means is this the best list of books to read but it’s a start! As I find/read more I’ll be sure to add them to the list.

Thanks Ray for taking the time to share your story. We can’t wait to meet your adorable tiny person this fall! We’ll definitely catch up with Ray post birth to hear her birthing story and see photographs!

We love you! xxx LFJ