Category: Pregnancy

Motherhood Challenges

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Me and my little one

Today makes 19 months of me being a mother and I can’t believe how quickly it has gone by. A year and a half later I can definitely say there are challenges with motherhood or being a parent. I won’t talk about all of those challenges in this blog post but I will focus on one that I’ve struggled with probably since the beginning and that is time management. As much as I want to make plans for my day, do things for myself or create content or study that doesn’t quite go as planned. Some days I can barely get to it at all if I’m lucky!

So the question is how do you manage your time or make time for yourself. Good question lol . To start nap time is your best friend. During a nap you can do one of two things. You can take a nap yourself or you can use that time to get EVERYTHING done! . Just kidding, do not do that and try to cram everything into that nap time because believe or not that nap time goes by quickly at least when your little one is past one year old. When babies are first born and in the newborn stages that is when they sleep more. My son used to sleep for 2-3hours and sometimes longer. So you have more time to work with when they are newborns but once they are a little older the nap times become shorter and shorter so do what you can with the time that you have. 

One thing that got really bad after I gave birth was the pregnancy brain. Pregnancy brain turned into mom brain and mom brain is much tougher for me and I forget things easily so when I have ideas for content I have to make sure I jot them down right away or I will forget. So always write down your ideas. Always plan ahead if you can and have either a notepad or use a notepad app on your phone. Even if you can’t get to what you need to do, you know that you have everything written down.

So when it comes to time management when you have children no matter their age we have to adjust and that is one thing I’m learning on this journey of parenthood.

Written By: Vanessa J

The New Normal Exercising at Home Part 2

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Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

I absolutely love what the photo above says wake up and workout and ever since the pandemic started for some of us working out at home has become a part of our new normal routine. Last year I wrote part 1 to this blog post and it received some pretty good traction and so today since that blog post did so well I want to follow up with part 2 which is an at home workout video! Now I’m not saying I’m an expert when it comes to working out but I wanted to visually show you all some of the exercises I enjoy doing at home.

Join along with me! 14 minute video

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Prepartum Depression and Postpartum Depression

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Prepartum and Postpartum Depression

This blog post is for all my mama’s out there and mama’s to be. Let’s get real and let us talk about postpartum depression but only not postpartum but prepartum depression which is something I experienced the first few months of my pregnancy.

It is said that the cause for postpartum depression is unknown but can be linked to rise and drop in hormone levels after giving birth. After a woman gives birth they given six weeks before coming back for their first postpartum checkup. In my opinion that first visit just goes by really fast and because postpartum depression is such a big topic of discussion in motherhood and pregnancy one screening for postpartum depression is not enough. Thats exactly how it went for me and several mama’s out there. During your six week check up you are given a questionnaire to fill basically asking you questions in relation to how you are feeling at that time. If you score above a certain number on that questionnaire it may mean you might have postpartum depression.

After my six week visit everything was good and my doctor said to come back in a year. I was thinking to myself a year? Thats it? That is all? This is where I feel things go wrong screening for postpartum depression should not just be after the first six weeks but should continue throughout that first year of being postpartum. 

As for my experience with prepartum depression which I am not sure is really a term but that’s what I would call it, I experienced this between my 2nd to 4th month pregnancy.  I just remember feeling really down and like I didn’t feel like myself, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Throughout most of my pregnancy I did feel very sick and was nauseated and dry heaving almost everyday so some of those things could have played a factor to making me feel more depressed but it just a different feeling that I never felt before.

It is very important that we know the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression which are:

  • Depressed mood or severe mood swings
  • Excessive crying
  • Difficulty bonding with your baby
  • Withdrawing from family and friends
  • Loss of appetite or eating much more than usual
  • Inability to sleep (insomnia) or sleeping too much
  • Overwhelming fatigue or loss of energy
  • Reduced interest and pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
  • Intense irritability and anger
  • Fear that you’re not a good mother
  • Hopelessness

If you feel that you may be exhibiting any signs of postpartum depression please reach out to your primary care provider

Written By: Vanessa J

Check Out My Youtube Video on Postpartum Depression

Listen to my Blogcast!

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Hey Everybody,

This blog post is to simply announce that I have officially turned my blogpost into podcast! You can now listen to my blog post if you don’t feel like reading it. (Only if you don’t lol)

My Podcast is currently available on six platforms:

The GOOD and BAD Fats

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The Good and The Bad FATS

Now I know you guys have been waiting on this one and I’m a little late but I’m back! So lets talk about the GOOD FATS and the BAD FATS. Just as with carbohydrates there are healthy fats and not so healthy fats because what it can do to the body.

Let’s start with a little science:

  • Fat Molecules which are called “triglycerides are made up of chains and bonds
  • These chains and bonds can be single or double
  • These chains and bonds can have carbon atoms or hydrogen atoms
  • These chains and bonds will determine what type of fat you are dealing with

The GOOD:

  • When you hear about good fats you will usually hear “unsaturated”
  • Unsaturated fats have subcategories called “Mono-unsaturated” and “Poly-unsaturated
  • Mono-unsaturated fats is a fat molecule that has a single double bound and one of those bonds is an unsaturated carbon bond
  • Mono-unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and solid when cold
  • Mono-unsaturated fats help to reduce bad cholesterol in the body which is called LDL and HDL is the healthy cholesterol
  • Mono-unsaturated fats helps to maintain the cells in the body by giving it nutrients such as vitamin E
  • Same thing goes for Poly-unsaturated fats with the exception that it has more than one unsaturated carbon bond
  • Poly-unsaturated fats work in the same ways as mono-unsaturated fats helping the body to regulate cholesterol levels

Examples of Mono-unsaturated and Poly- unsaturated Oils:

  • olive oil
  • canola oil
  • peanut oil
  • safflower oil
  • sesame oil
  • soybean oil
  • corn oil
  • sunflower oil

The BAD FATS

  • When we talk about bad fats there are two categories they fall into those categories are Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated fats
  • We also we hear CIS and TRANS fat
  • Hydrogenated fats are processed poly unsaturated fats that have hydrogen added to them
  • Partially hydrogenated fats are also processed artificially as well
  • CIS fats are fats that have a double bond with carbons on the same side
  • Trans fats are fats that have a double bond as well but hydrogen and carbon are on opposite sides of the bond and this is what makes it bad
  • Trans fats are the worse fats for your health. They don’t go rancid, they are more stable during deep frying and can change the texture of your food
  • How do you know if a food has Trans fat in it? good question you will know that it does if the label of any food states that it is partially hydrogenated because that is how trans fats are made
  • What foods can you find Trans Fat in ? Basically in any foods that may be fried like fried chicken, fried fish, fried doughnuts and other foods that are not fried like pizza, hamburgers, cookies, pastries etc..