The Importance of Preparing for Parenthood: Pregnancy Research and Maternity Style

As I've been trying to prepare myself for parenthood, I've come across various resources that have been incredibly helpful. One of the most valuable books I've read is "Brain Rules for Baby" by John Medina. This book has been a game-changer in my research on pregnancy and raising a child. The author's comprehensive approach to understanding brain development and its impact on infant behavior has been eye-opening, and I highly recommend it to anyone expecting or planning to start a family.

I've also been fascinated by the concept of "The Belly Book," which is essentially a pregnancy journal that you keep week by week. You document your progress, take pictures, and note any changes in your body or mood. This book has become an essential tool for me as I navigate my pregnancy journey, and I plan to continue using it throughout my pregnancy and beyond.

As I've searched for ways to make myself more comfortable during pregnancy, I've discovered the importance of having a "pregnancy uniform." For me, this means wearing three basic outfits that can be easily mixed and matched depending on the occasion. My first outfit is casual, consisting of tank tops from H&M ($5 each) that are long-sleeved to cover my back and belly area. These have been a staple in my wardrobe, and I've bought them in every color, with some duplicates for added convenience.

For my bottoms, I rely on Target maternity leggings, which have become my favorite due to their comfort and flattering fit. They're not see-through and don't give me the "camel toe" situation in the front that can be embarrassing during pregnancy. When I want to look a bit nicer but still feel comfortable, I reach for dresses from Forever 21. These dresses are knee-length, which is perfect for hiding any unwanted belly bulge, and they're surprisingly well-made despite being affordable.

For sleeping and lounging around, I've found that wearing dresses makes me feel more relaxed and at ease. I've discovered a number of nightgowns, some from TJ Maxx, Ross, and Target, that have become staples in my wardrobe due to their comfort and practicality. These nightgowns provide easy access for when nature calls, which is especially important during pregnancy.

As I prepare for the arrival of my baby, I'm excited to share more about my nursery tour, which will be coming soon. In addition, I'll be doing a baby product haul, featuring some of the essential items we've chosen, including baby clothes and our new stroller. If you have any recommendations or suggestions for baby names, please leave them in the comments below.

Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to share my own belly shot with you. Hold on while I do that...

[Insert belly shot]

And that's it for now. Thank you for joining me on this journey into parenthood. I'll see you next week for a new video upload!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys and welcome back to my channel so I am finally here filming a pregnancy update video for you guys this is just a bonus video on my channel this week don't worry I will have a regular video coming up on Sunday for you guys but today I am 25 weeks and 3 days pregnant so I'm right around the corner for my third trimester and I thought this would be a good time to kind of reflect on the second trimester what's been going on with me I'm also going to share some of my pregnanc Essentials and things that have been helping me out a lot throughout my pregnancy now if you guys do want to see me do more pregnancy related videos on my channel you definitely have to let me know I have not done many up until this point because I just don't know how much of an interest there is so if this is something you like seeing from me then hit the Thumbs Up Button leave a comment below just let me know so I know to do more of these coming out so we're going to start on a positive note and I would say the best thing that has happened recently is the baby started kicking and moving around like crazy and this is my first pregnancy so the feeling of a human being inside of you that's moving and kicking um it is the craziest feeling in the world it is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced and he even has a little schedule that he follows so he'll typically start kicking about an hour after I eat and he also really goes crazy at around 10:30 11:00 at night which is right around the time I'm falling asleep so he keeps me awake for good like half an hour to hour just moving around like crazy I have been having the hardest time sleeping I wake up about every 2 to 3 hours to pee and the thing that really bothers me is I don't even know if I really have to pee or if it's all in my head I'm constantly waking up I'm tossing I'm turning I'm having weird dreams if you guys follow me on Twitter you would see one of the funnier dreams I had recently was I had a dream that I was a superhero and and my superhero name was Mrs snacks and my power was that I could think of any snack and my hand would become the snack food and then I could eat that snack and after eating it my hand would grow back so in terms of weight gain I have gained between 16 to 18 lbs depending on the day I think a lot of that variance is just water weight um that's pretty normal based on what my doctor is saying and the fact that I started out before being pregnant I was a little bit underweight so I am supposed to gain a little bit more I feel like within the past 2 weeks my belly has really popped the baby right now is the size of a cantaloupe and I would say my belly looks like I have just like a cantaloupe under my dress some of the things that have been a little bit difficult in this pregnancy first and foremost the most difficult thing by far has been my acne it comes and it goes and it has been really bad at different points you guys might not believe me cuz it might not look as bad on camera and that's because I am wearing a lot of makeup if you want to see what it really looks like I will show you a picture here this was taken about a week ago so it's bad but it really comes and goes I haven't quite been able to get a handle on it the other day I woke up and my acne was completely gone there was nothing there was like oh my gosh my acne has finally gone away and then when I was looking at myself a little bit closer I noticed that there was some hair on my face like you know I think everyone has a little bit of peach fuzz but I had kind of got to the point where it was like a peach beard so I wanted to shave it I've never shaved my face before but I was like how hard could it be just get a little shaving cream on there just do a little bit of this a little bit of that so I'm all ready to go I go up to the mirror I go to make my first cut and what do I do I sliced open my face from here to here I'm bleeding profusely because when you're pregnant you have more blood in general so when you cut yourself you tend to bleed more in the first place so I am just gushing blood I have like the shaving cream on my face Ryan's downstairs I like start freaking out crying so he just sees me running down the stairs with shaving cream on my face covered in blood yeah that happened the other really challenging symptom to deal with is my back my lower back is so painful it will vary by the day based on how active I am on any given day but the more active I am the more my back hurts so I have two different Contraptions I have like a lower back brace and an upper back brace cuz I think some of it has to do with the extra weight and I'm like hunching over couple my back pain with the fact that I'm extra clumsy lately and I'm dropping everything every time I drop something I really have to sit there and consider if it's worth it do I really need it do I need to bend over and deal with the pain and pick this up so if you go around my house right now and you look at the floor there's so many just like random various objects all over the floor and those are things that I've dropped they're just not worth me picking up so the theme of the nursery has been chosen and I'm so excited about it how it's coming together the theme is Stars and universe and this has a meaning for Ryan and I because we are both obsessed with the universe the Galaxy cosmology all of that kind of stuff so the nursery is going to have that theme it's going to be very neutral in color so gray white silver and then a muted blue color I will definitely be filming a video on it everything has been ordered and it's starting to come together the big thing that I'm waiting on right now is I need to hire someone to paint the room it's going to be a light gray color so once that's painted I should be able to put it all together pretty soon here so for the baby names it's a little tough so if the baby were a girl we had our name locked we've discussed this name for many years ever since we met and there would have been no discussion but for boys it's been a little bit trickier we didn't have a name set and we still don't have a name I'm 6 and 1/2 months pregnant now and we don't have a name part of the problem is that I tend to like names that are a little bit more unique and that have a ethereal type of sound to them and Ryan just doesn't like the same types of names for boys that I do if you follow me on Twitter I did even put up a poll recently of some names that we are considering just to get some feedback I will just give you guys one name and it's my favorite name the one that I would pick if it were up to me today and that is Tristan and our last name is Thomas so I like the Double T Tristan Thomas I just love it so much but Ryan does not like the name he said says that it sounds frr I've been trying from all angles to get him to change his mind about the name maybe it will grow in him my current plan is to watch Legends of the Fall because Brad Pit's character in that movie is Tristan and if Brad Pit can't convince you that Tristan is a masculine name then I don't know who can I also wanted to share some things that have just been really helping me throughout my pregnancy that I would recommend if you're pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant or even if you already have kids the first is the best book that I have read so far brain rules for baby so you guys may or may not know that I research everything and I've been obsessively researching everything about pregnancy and raising a child because I'll be honest with you I don't know that much about kids so I'm just trying to educate myself and of the many many books that I've read so far this one is by far the best and just to let you know how much I love this book I have read it I've highlighted all throughout but also I bought the audio book I've listen listen to the Audi book I made Ryan listen to the Audi book and I plan on reading this book again and taking detailed notes and keeping those notes with me that's how valuable I think this book is and this is kind of the model we're going to be using to raise our baby the other thing that I've been having a lot of fun with is this thing called the belly book and it's kind of like a pregnancy journal that you keep week by week and you put pictures and you keep notes every week of what's going on and how you're feeling and ask different questions and I think this will just be really great to have and to look back on so I also wanted to share with you my maternity style and a system that I have developed and I call it my pregnancy uniform because I have three basic outfits that I wear depending on the occasion and it's been working out really well for me so Alpha type number one is casual so basically if I'm running errands lounging around I found these tank tops from H&M which were $5 each amazing price they're not maternity but they work extremely well for a maternity tank top because they are long and what I particularly like is that they have a high back because I have some bne going on I do not need to show off my back right now so it completely covers that up here's part of my collection I have a whole other hanger full of these because I bought them in every color and some of them multiples in the same color because this is pretty much what I wear like I said it's my uniform and then for the bottoms I wear my Target maternity leggings those have been the favorite maternity leggings that I've tried so far I have bought quite a few and the target ones are my favorite just because I find them the most comfortable they are not see-through they don't give you like a camel toe situation in the front now when I want to look a little bit nicer and cuter my uniform for that is from Forever 21 they have a lot of fitted dresses that I think are super cute and flattering for a pregnant body they're not too short they are you know knee length dresses but with a bump they come up you know maybe a couple inches above the knee but I have so many different ones it's Forever 21 so they're really inexpensive but they're surprisingly wellmade so that is what I wear from going out to dinner going out to a brunch something like that the last category is sleeping and loungewear I have just found in general I'm so much more comfortable in a dress I don't like anything that's too restricting or too tight on my belly so I have been wearing a lot of different night gowns some might call them mumo I will call them night gowns but I find them at like TJ Maxx and Ross and Target on sale I just find them like I said so much more comfortable and it's also easier access for when you have to pee every 5 minutes feel like I've been talking for quite a while now so I'm going to wrap it up here for today if you guys do want to see more pregnancy related videos I am planning my Nursery Tour pretty soon and I also was thinking of doing a baby product haul so some of the baby clothes and also the new stroller which I just got which should be coming soon so if you guys do want to see that let me know also because we are still having trouble with baby names keep leaving me your ideas down below oh before I go I obviously have to show you a belly shot hold on so that's going to be it for now I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will see you on Sunday with my regular weekly upload byehi guys and welcome back to my channel so I am finally here filming a pregnancy update video for you guys this is just a bonus video on my channel this week don't worry I will have a regular video coming up on Sunday for you guys but today I am 25 weeks and 3 days pregnant so I'm right around the corner for my third trimester and I thought this would be a good time to kind of reflect on the second trimester what's been going on with me I'm also going to share some of my pregnanc Essentials and things that have been helping me out a lot throughout my pregnancy now if you guys do want to see me do more pregnancy related videos on my channel you definitely have to let me know I have not done many up until this point because I just don't know how much of an interest there is so if this is something you like seeing from me then hit the Thumbs Up Button leave a comment below just let me know so I know to do more of these coming out so we're going to start on a positive note and I would say the best thing that has happened recently is the baby started kicking and moving around like crazy and this is my first pregnancy so the feeling of a human being inside of you that's moving and kicking um it is the craziest feeling in the world it is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced and he even has a little schedule that he follows so he'll typically start kicking about an hour after I eat and he also really goes crazy at around 10:30 11:00 at night which is right around the time I'm falling asleep so he keeps me awake for good like half an hour to hour just moving around like crazy I have been having the hardest time sleeping I wake up about every 2 to 3 hours to pee and the thing that really bothers me is I don't even know if I really have to pee or if it's all in my head I'm constantly waking up I'm tossing I'm turning I'm having weird dreams if you guys follow me on Twitter you would see one of the funnier dreams I had recently was I had a dream that I was a superhero and and my superhero name was Mrs snacks and my power was that I could think of any snack and my hand would become the snack food and then I could eat that snack and after eating it my hand would grow back so in terms of weight gain I have gained between 16 to 18 lbs depending on the day I think a lot of that variance is just water weight um that's pretty normal based on what my doctor is saying and the fact that I started out before being pregnant I was a little bit underweight so I am supposed to gain a little bit more I feel like within the past 2 weeks my belly has really popped the baby right now is the size of a cantaloupe and I would say my belly looks like I have just like a cantaloupe under my dress some of the things that have been a little bit difficult in this pregnancy first and foremost the most difficult thing by far has been my acne it comes and it goes and it has been really bad at different points you guys might not believe me cuz it might not look as bad on camera and that's because I am wearing a lot of makeup if you want to see what it really looks like I will show you a picture here this was taken about a week ago so it's bad but it really comes and goes I haven't quite been able to get a handle on it the other day I woke up and my acne was completely gone there was nothing there was like oh my gosh my acne has finally gone away and then when I was looking at myself a little bit closer I noticed that there was some hair on my face like you know I think everyone has a little bit of peach fuzz but I had kind of got to the point where it was like a peach beard so I wanted to shave it I've never shaved my face before but I was like how hard could it be just get a little shaving cream on there just do a little bit of this a little bit of that so I'm all ready to go I go up to the mirror I go to make my first cut and what do I do I sliced open my face from here to here I'm bleeding profusely because when you're pregnant you have more blood in general so when you cut yourself you tend to bleed more in the first place so I am just gushing blood I have like the shaving cream on my face Ryan's downstairs I like start freaking out crying so he just sees me running down the stairs with shaving cream on my face covered in blood yeah that happened the other really challenging symptom to deal with is my back my lower back is so painful it will vary by the day based on how active I am on any given day but the more active I am the more my back hurts so I have two different Contraptions I have like a lower back brace and an upper back brace cuz I think some of it has to do with the extra weight and I'm like hunching over couple my back pain with the fact that I'm extra clumsy lately and I'm dropping everything every time I drop something I really have to sit there and consider if it's worth it do I really need it do I need to bend over and deal with the pain and pick this up so if you go around my house right now and you look at the floor there's so many just like random various objects all over the floor and those are things that I've dropped they're just not worth me picking up so the theme of the nursery has been chosen and I'm so excited about it how it's coming together the theme is Stars and universe and this has a meaning for Ryan and I because we are both obsessed with the universe the Galaxy cosmology all of that kind of stuff so the nursery is going to have that theme it's going to be very neutral in color so gray white silver and then a muted blue color I will definitely be filming a video on it everything has been ordered and it's starting to come together the big thing that I'm waiting on right now is I need to hire someone to paint the room it's going to be a light gray color so once that's painted I should be able to put it all together pretty soon here so for the baby names it's a little tough so if the baby were a girl we had our name locked we've discussed this name for many years ever since we met and there would have been no discussion but for boys it's been a little bit trickier we didn't have a name set and we still don't have a name I'm 6 and 1/2 months pregnant now and we don't have a name part of the problem is that I tend to like names that are a little bit more unique and that have a ethereal type of sound to them and Ryan just doesn't like the same types of names for boys that I do if you follow me on Twitter I did even put up a poll recently of some names that we are considering just to get some feedback I will just give you guys one name and it's my favorite name the one that I would pick if it were up to me today and that is Tristan and our last name is Thomas so I like the Double T Tristan Thomas I just love it so much but Ryan does not like the name he said says that it sounds frr I've been trying from all angles to get him to change his mind about the name maybe it will grow in him my current plan is to watch Legends of the Fall because Brad Pit's character in that movie is Tristan and if Brad Pit can't convince you that Tristan is a masculine name then I don't know who can I also wanted to share some things that have just been really helping me throughout my pregnancy that I would recommend if you're pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant or even if you already have kids the first is the best book that I have read so far brain rules for baby so you guys may or may not know that I research everything and I've been obsessively researching everything about pregnancy and raising a child because I'll be honest with you I don't know that much about kids so I'm just trying to educate myself and of the many many books that I've read so far this one is by far the best and just to let you know how much I love this book I have read it I've highlighted all throughout but also I bought the audio book I've listen listen to the Audi book I made Ryan listen to the Audi book and I plan on reading this book again and taking detailed notes and keeping those notes with me that's how valuable I think this book is and this is kind of the model we're going to be using to raise our baby the other thing that I've been having a lot of fun with is this thing called the belly book and it's kind of like a pregnancy journal that you keep week by week and you put pictures and you keep notes every week of what's going on and how you're feeling and ask different questions and I think this will just be really great to have and to look back on so I also wanted to share with you my maternity style and a system that I have developed and I call it my pregnancy uniform because I have three basic outfits that I wear depending on the occasion and it's been working out really well for me so Alpha type number one is casual so basically if I'm running errands lounging around I found these tank tops from H&M which were $5 each amazing price they're not maternity but they work extremely well for a maternity tank top because they are long and what I particularly like is that they have a high back because I have some bne going on I do not need to show off my back right now so it completely covers that up here's part of my collection I have a whole other hanger full of these because I bought them in every color and some of them multiples in the same color because this is pretty much what I wear like I said it's my uniform and then for the bottoms I wear my Target maternity leggings those have been the favorite maternity leggings that I've tried so far I have bought quite a few and the target ones are my favorite just because I find them the most comfortable they are not see-through they don't give you like a camel toe situation in the front now when I want to look a little bit nicer and cuter my uniform for that is from Forever 21 they have a lot of fitted dresses that I think are super cute and flattering for a pregnant body they're not too short they are you know knee length dresses but with a bump they come up you know maybe a couple inches above the knee but I have so many different ones it's Forever 21 so they're really inexpensive but they're surprisingly wellmade so that is what I wear from going out to dinner going out to a brunch something like that the last category is sleeping and loungewear I have just found in general I'm so much more comfortable in a dress I don't like anything that's too restricting or too tight on my belly so I have been wearing a lot of different night gowns some might call them mumo I will call them night gowns but I find them at like TJ Maxx and Ross and Target on sale I just find them like I said so much more comfortable and it's also easier access for when you have to pee every 5 minutes feel like I've been talking for quite a while now so I'm going to wrap it up here for today if you guys do want to see more pregnancy related videos I am planning my Nursery Tour pretty soon and I also was thinking of doing a baby product haul so some of the baby clothes and also the new stroller which I just got which should be coming soon so if you guys do want to see that let me know also because we are still having trouble with baby names keep leaving me your ideas down below oh before I go I obviously have to show you a belly shot hold on so that's going to be it for now I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will see you on Sunday with my regular weekly upload bye\n"