Prepregnancy Planning?

[Adelle]

Ok so I'm gonna ramble a bit, but ya'll r so smart, I need help!

I'm healing super well, and everything is going great. Ryan (my lovely hubby) and I are thinking about starting a family. The general goal is to start "trying" in 6mo-1 year. Depending on what happens in the meantime. Yay for that!

The thing is, nobody (I mean NOBODY) I know has had a PLANNED pregnancy. Everyone's been a "suprise". What do you suggest I start doing now to give our future baby the best shot?

I volunteer walking dogs at the humane society (it truly is the best excercise) once a week but as of next week it'll be at least 2-3 times per week (I had a cold so I cut back). We don't smoke. I only drink decaf coffee and have the occasional glass of red wine. I also take st. John's wort & elderberry extracts in my water (which have made a HUGE difference) and a good multi and b vitamin supplement.

I'm also 200lbs at 5'5. I went for a year (last year) eating less than 800 cals/day and I GAINED 50lbs. Now I'm up to about 1,100cals. I don't eat refined anything (I grew up on a farm, I can't cook from a box ha ha) probably 1/2-2/3 of my diet is vegetables. I just like them. 1 ex-doctor looked at my food journal and told me I was lying! I've dropped about 10lb's since going gluten-free (4+months ago) and I'm continuing to lose.

So I guess I have a few questions:

1) how long before "trying" should I nix the st. Johns wort (it's been amazing helpful, but I have heard it's a no-no for babies)

2) how worried about my weight should I be? I'm tend to worry about nutrient content more than my weight, should I cut that out?

3) any other random advice from you moms?

Nobody I know planned their babies so they had no advice for planning ahead!

Sorry for the length. I just have found this website so helpful, as we were discussing the pre-pregnancy plan, ryan's first question was "can u ask the celiac disease forum for advice, I'm sure they'll know!" ha ha! Thanx for everything!

[Guest cassidy]

What an exciting time. I read a great book called Taking Charge of your Fertility. I highly recommend it. It teaches you a lot about your body and your cycles and I learned so much that it was amazing that I had gone so long without knowing all that. It also teaches you how to read your fertility signs so you know when to try.

I started on a prenatal vitamin about 6 months before we started trying. I like Now brand the best. They are capsules which my doctor says are better than tablets, they have beta carotene and not palmitate as the source of vitamin A which you just pee out if you get too much, and they are of course gluten-free.

I don't know about when to stop taking the St. John's Wort. I would ask the health food store and your doctor and see what they say. I think most things are out of your system in a week or so. I stopped taking evreything a couple of weeks before the first time we started trying in case we got lucky right away. I do take probiotics and digestive enzymes that my doctor said were very beneficial when pregnant. If you are taking the St. John's Wort for depression, I would be sure to talk to your doctor about it. No one wants to take medicine when they are pregnant but it is important that you don't get very depressed and just suffer.

When I got pregnant I was underweight and my body was so starving that I didn't have a choice but to eat tons and tons of food. I only say that because I think your body knows what you need so if you are eating a balanced diet and you get pregnant your body will let you know if you need more or less calories. I would also talk to your doctor about the weight. I would think it would matter if you have any complications from the weight.

Good luck and have fun trying!

[Ursa Major]

Some people with celiac disease gain weight, instead of losing it. My naturopath says that weight gain can be a sign of malnutrition too, not just weight loss.

So, eating a healthy amount of gluten-free food will help you lose weight (but only if you don't eat a lot of gluten-free replacement foods like breads and pasta). I also found that the less I ate, the more I gained. And make sure that you get enough fat! And no, saturated fat is NOT bad for you, and doesn't make you fat. Just make sure of totally avoiding hydrogenated fats and trans-fats (partially hydrogenated fat). What is fattening are excess carbs and sugars.

For my last three pregnancies, I was over 200 pounds. And while I felt dreadful all throughout my pregnancies (all five of them, even when I was still slim, weight didn't matter), I believe that was because of the celiac disease, and had nothing to do with weight.

I had very healthy, good sized babies (the last two nearly nine pounds).

I agree with starting to take a prenatal vitamin now, and make sure you get enough folic acid. Also, I suggest seeing your doctor, and asking for testing of your levels of ferretin (iron), vitamin D, vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, potassium to see if you need extra supplementation for any of those.

[Adelle]

Thanx for the advice! Next grocery trip I'll look for prenatals. I'm gonna give my body some time to stockpile goodness before more testing. But we will go to the doctor well before I I go off the shot etc.

I deffinately want to breast feed... Ryan was HORRIBLY allergic to breastmilk and formula. He had goatsmilk, it's all he could tolerate! I'm hoping I can breastfeed w/o problems.....

That's about all we've decided. I must make another trip to the library! Ha ha!

There is so much to think about. I'm a planner. I like having a plan, hence questions now!

Thank you for all the advice!

[Ursa Major]

Ryan was probably allergic/intolerant to something his mother ate. Whatever the mother eats will be in the breastmilk. My oldest daughter had to stop eating nightshade foods while breastfeeding her twins, because they are both intolerant to those (wonder who they inherited that from ). When she stopped eating them, their terrible rashes cleared up.

Now she has had to stop eating dairy, because her youngest can't tolerate it, and gets eczema from it (she is four months old). Only one of her five kids can tolerate dairy.

So, be aware that if your baby can't tolerate your milk, that usually means he/she is not really intolerant to breastmilk, but rather to something you eat. You'll have already eliminated one possible source of distress, which is gluten. Dairy is another one that is very common, as is soy and potentially nightshades.

When breastfeeding my son (23 years ago), I had to stop eating everything that's red. If I'd eat tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries or anything else that was red, he'd get a terrible rash on his bum, that would get raw and bleed. Who knows what's naturally in red foods that he was reacting to, I don't have a clue. I just know that once I stopped eating red foods, he was fine.

[Adelle]

Yeah when he had breastmilk (and later formula) he threw up violently, that scares me!

If our child has problems with breastmilk, I'll cut out dairy, soy, etc. But if I can't fix it I'm thinking I'll go right to goatsmilk. Still unsure.

[Guest cassidy]

I thought of one other thing - DHA or Omega 3. There are great studies out that show that these really help with brain and eye development. I'm taking DHA which is a precursor to Omega because I couldn't find any Omega that had as much as I wanted in a single serving. The bottle says right on it that it is good for the baby and when breastfeeding. You can get Omega's from fish but then you get in the whole fish/mercury/good Omega debate. I have chosen not to eat fish to avoid the mercury. The 3rd trimester is when it is most important, and it is expensive, so you don't need to start that early, but just be aware to at least add it later on.

I would look into that and ask your doctor about it.

[Ursa Major]

The best Omega 3 source is cod liver oil (or fish oil, if you aren't concerned about vitamin D). I take the Carlson brand, which has added lemon juice, and actually doesn't taste bad at all. It isn't cheap, but lasts a long time. But it is much less expensive than the pills, and easier to take.