By Shelly Lopez-Gray
First, let me say that there is no such thing as “eating for two.” I know this is a huge disappointment, as many people out there would love to use their pregnancy as an opportunity to eat every single thing that they ever thought tasted good (I know, I’ve been there). But let me fast forward through your pregnancy a bit – it’s unhealthy for you, it’s unhealthy for your baby, and the pregnancy weight is not going to magically fall off.
As you begin your pregnancy, I wanted to share some key things to remember:
- You need about 300 extra calories a day during pregnancy to support your baby’s growth and development.
- Most doctors suggest women gain a total of 1 to 4 pounds total during the first three months of their pregnancy.
- Women who gain too much are more likely to have a large baby or a premature baby.
A premature baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. These mothers may also have health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure that can cause problems during pregnancy.
The total amount of weight gain during your pregnancy depends on your weight when you become pregnant. Talk to your physician or midwife for more information.
Tips to help you create better eating habits:
Watch how much juice you drink. Even all-natural and 100 percent juice is full of sugar and empty calories. If you find it impossible to cut out these sweet drinks, treat yourself to a small glass once a day. If you are gestational diabetic, you should cut these out from your diet.
- Anything canned or frozen is full of salt. Even if it’s a “healthy meal,” it’s still full of salt.
- Try snacking on something healthy every two hours or so.
- If you can pick the food up in a drive-through, it’s probably unhealthy.
Here’s a list of fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains and protein foods that are great for women to eat throughout their pregnancy.
Vegetable Group
- Carrots
- Sweet potatoes
- Pumpkin
- Spinach
- Cooked greens (such as kale, collards, turnip greens, and beet greens)
- Winter squash
- Tomatoes and tomato sauces
- Red sweet peppers
These vegetables all have both vitamin A and potassium. When choosing canned vegetables, look for “low-sodium” or “no-salt-added” on the label. Vitamin A helps with postpartum tissue repair and helps to fight infection. Potassium helps to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance in your body’s cells.
Fruit Group
- Cantaloupe
- Honeydew melon
- Mangoes
- Prunes
- Bananas
- Apricots
- Oranges
- Red or pink grapefruit
- 100 percent prune juice or orange juice
These fruits all provide potassium, and many also provide vitamin A. When choosing canned fruit, look for those canned in 100 percent fruit juice or water instead of syrup.
Dairy Group
- Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
- Fat-free milk (skim milk)
- Low-fat milk (1 percent milk)
- Calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage)
These all provide the calcium and potassium you need. Make sure that your choices are fortified with vitamins A and D. A vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can cause growth retardation and skeletal deformities. It also may have an impact on birth weight. Some researchers believe that a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can affect your baby’s bone development and immune function throughout your baby’s life.
Grain Group
- Fortified ready-to-eat cereals
- Fortified cooked cereals
When buying ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, choose those made from whole grains most often. Look for cereals that are fortified with iron and folic acid. Iron is essential for making hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells. During pregnancy, the amount of blood in your body increases almost 50 percent, so you need more iron to make more hemoglobin.
Protein Foods Group
- Beans and peas (such as pinto beans, soybeans, white beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas)
- Nuts and seeds (such as sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, peanuts, and peanut butter)
- Lean beef, lamb and pork
- Oysters, mussels, crab
- Salmon, trout, herring, sardines, and Pollock
Some types of seafood can contain high levels of mercury. Too much mercury can damage your baby’s developing brain and nervous system. Shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish can contain high levels of mercury.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency say pregnant women can safely eat up to 12 ounces (340 grams) of seafood a week. Similarly, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 8 to 12 ounces of seafood a week for pregnant women – or about two average meals.
Talk to your provider if you have any questions about safe foods during pregnancy.
Unlike my previous pregnancies, this pregnancy was complicated. At 32 weeks, I was hospitalized at the Pavilion for Women. During my two-week stay, many of the nurses were wonderful and made me feel comfortable. Because of polyhydramnios (excessive amniotic fluid), I had an emergency C-section and delivered a handsome 4 pound, 7 ounce baby boy.
When Anthony was one week old, he had his first surgery to correct esophageal atresia, and two days later, he had surgery to treat choanal atresia. Anthony underwent bypass open heart surgery a few days later to repair the narrowing of his aorta, which eventually caused his heart rate to increase and be off rhythm. He was placed on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECHMO) machine because his lungs and heart were too weak to function on their own. While he was on the ECHMO machine, his left lung collapsed. The day after his bypass, he was taken off the machine, but since his heart could not tolerate it, he was placed on the ECHMO machine for a second time. Sadly, Anthony’s extremely weak heart and lung were not cooperating.
In these few short months, we have had a great time showing Vivian around “her” state. We traveled to the Hill Country where we took in the scenery, saw a live glass-blowing demonstration, went to a county fair, and shopped at a huge outdoor crafts festival. We visited Austin where we toured the State Capitol, showed Vivi the famous bat bridge, and ate at a popular Mexican restaurant. In San Antonio, we explored a few of the historical mission sites, walked around the Riverwalk and listened to some live music. We’ve enjoyed spending a few days in Galveston where we watched the sunrise over the Gulf each morning and visited a large aquarium. For a couple quick trips out of town, we shopped in charming Old Town Spring. And, of course, Houston has offered plenty of great sites to visit and explore each day with our new addition including the zoo, Museum of Natural History, and several great parks.
Most people would classify my husband, Scott, and I as nothing short of crazy. Yes, four kids under the age of 2 is going to be extremely challenging, and yes, I’m aware of how I will rarely have any time left for myself. But in all reality, I consider us to be the luckiest people in the world. How many families do you know that are blessed with two sets of twins? How many people get to grow their family in such a unique way? I come from a large family (I’m the second of five children), and so I’m welcoming the chaos with open arms. My childhood home was always full, always loud and always busy. But above all, it was fun. As a child, I used to crave silence, but now as an adult I can’t imagine anything better than to give our children siblings and to introduce them to the world I knew growing up.
