Testing Testing. I truly hope you don't mind that this video is skewed. Like,
my shelves are just not straight.
It's Lucie Fink. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. I have been meaning to make this
video for a really long time and I finally got my *bleep* together. Sat myself down in
the office and it's time for me to share my pregnancy favorites with you. I was pregnant
for nine months. Most people are pregnant for 10 months. Milo came three weeks early
so I was only pregnant for nine months, but I still had ample time, I believe,
to test out a ton of products in various categories and find out what really works,
and find my personal favorites. I'm really freaking hot. We're taking this off.
I'm gonna put links for all these products in my YouTube description box so if you're looking for
anything just collapse the box down below and it will directly take you to the product. And in full
transparency, I'm sharing affiliate links where possible which means that if you purchase the
product I might make 62 cents. I in no way want you to feel like these are pregnancy essentials.
Things that you need to buy and spend your money on if you're pregnant. No no. Everyone's pregnancy
is different. Everyone requires different items. Everyone wants to spend their money
in different ways so absolutely, you do not need any of these items to have an enjoyable,
comfortable, and happy pregnancy. These are just the items that made my pregnancy more enjoyable,
happier, and more comfortable. So I split things into four categories for you. The first category
is sleeping because I found that when you're pregnant, sleeping falls to the wayside and
just becomes so difficult. The second category is clothing. Maternity clothes. The third category
is bump care for your growing belly, and the final category is just all-around wellness. I
actually don't have all these products here with me. Some of them I ran out of. Others I kind of
moved to my parent's house to put in storage for a future pregnancy because I just don't need them
clogging up my space right now in New York. So let's get started with the sleeping products.
This pregnancy body pillow. When you're pregnant, after a certain point in your pregnancy,
you are not recommended to sleep on your back any longer. I was a back sleeper through and through.
I loved sleeping on my back and so, all of a sudden, I had to sleep on my side and it just
became uncomfortable to not have support on both the front and back when I was lying on my side.
This pillow is like a u-shaped pillow and it kind of goes under your head. You can put your pillow
on top of it and then you can lie sideways and you can sandwich the pillow between your knees
and pull the back up against you to support your back. Even though it's just a pillow I'm telling
you it felt so supportive. This brand I believe it's PharmaDoc was really comfortable and it was
pretty neutral on the bed. I would just make it on top of my bed every morning and I honestly
slept with this on the bed until about five months postpartum. That's how much I loved it.
Then I parted with it. I put it in my parent's for storage because I redid our bed as you saw in a
recent vlog. I love this pillow so much and I will definitely be using it for future pregnancies.
Speaking of sleeping on your side, when I lie down on my side my bump, which had a lot of weight to
it, would kind of fall down towards the bed and it was actually really uncomfortable to lie on
my side. So this mini wedge pillow from the brand Hickapop saved my life. I would tuck this wedge
pillow under my bump as I lied on my side and it just sort of supported my bump as I slept.
In the later stages of my pregnancy, I could not lie down sideways without this wedge underneath
me. I actually brought it with me for a couple of prenatal massages that I got. The last pillow that
I got, as I'm saying this, I'm remembering that I took over the bed during pregnancy. Michael had no
space. I had three of these huge pillows flying around. The third one I would say is probably my
least important one, but I did buy it to test it out and it is really big. This large pillow I got
because at some point in my pregnancy I realized that I really wanted to sleep on my back. It was
highly uncomfortable for me to sleep on my side and I missed back sleeping so much. So I bought
this wedge pillow because according to what I saw online, it seemed like a good option for helping
you sleep on your back slightly elevated in a safe way during pregnancy, and I tried, I don't know,
I had to like make a fort of other pillows around me to keep me propped up on it and it ended up
being pretty comfortable but just not as great as sleeping normally on my back. Shortly after
Milo was born we transferred it into the living room and I actually used it for like a tummy time
pillow for him. On to the maternity clothes. One of my favorite brands for maternity clothes is
Hatch. I'm actually wearing their unitard right now. Oh yeah! I wore this Hatch unitard all
throughout my pregnancy and now in postpartum, I wear it all the time. If you can see it up close
it has like a ribbed material. It's very stretchy, really comfortable and I love styling it in
different ways. Like throwing an oversized sweater over it in the winter. In the warmer months,
you can kind of just wear it like this as a one-piece. And they actually sell the unitard
in pants and in shorts so this is the long pant version but I do have the short unitard. I would
pair it with like an oversized button-down blouse. I just really like the look. It kind of looks like
you're wearing biker shorts but it's actually one piece and really supports the bump. One other pair
of pants from Hatch that I would highly recommend. It's called the before, during, and after legging
and this is a photo of me wearing the leggings. You can't really see what's going on on the top
because I have an oversized shirt but the leggings kind of fold over so if you're postpartum or if
your bump isn't that big yet you can just kind of fold them down and wear them as everyday leggings
but as your bump starts to grow you can pull the fabric up and it goes like all the way up
to under your bra area and it just lets you wear kind of really high waisted leggings. I wore them
almost every day in my entire pregnancy and then also postpartum for months and months
and now they're just my everyday leggings. Next is this matching bra and boy short brief set
from Ingrid and Isabelle. Here are the boy shorts. The bra's in my room but it looks the exact same.
It's a really stretchy fabric and it says Mama on the waistband. This was a gift that I got during
my pregnancy and any mama-to-be will tell you that it's really exciting to get stuff during
your pregnancy that says Mama. I also got this cute Mama bracelet from Stephanie Gottlieb as a
gift from a friend during my pregnancy. All around just really exciting to get mama stuff and this
matching set is a really cute idea if you're doing a maternity photo shoot. I never slept with a bra
before my pregnancy and now especially because I'm still nursing I cannot sleep without a bra and
this kind of started for me during my pregnancy because I actually started leaking colostrum
pretty early on in my pregnancy, so I would sleep with a bra on every night with nipple pads in them
and this is just the softest, stretchiest, most comfortable material that will grow with you
and your changing body. And the last clothing item are these Hoka sneakers. My back started
to really hurt towards the end of my pregnancy as my bump was gaining more weight and I was putting
more weight on my legs. My lower back and my inner thighs were in so much pain. I could barely walk
the week before I gave birth. I posted on my Instagram stories. I asked my followers, please
let me know what are the most supportive shoes that you know of, and most people suggested Hoka
brand so I went to a nearby shoe store and I just grabbed the first pair of Hoka's I could find.
I will pop up the name of it. I believe it's like the women's Clifton 8 running shoe. But
I wore these for pretty much the last five weeks of my pregnancy and they feel like you're walking
on a cloud. I got the black ones just so it could pair with more outfits and now these are just my
go-to workout shoes. So I've continued to wear these into postpartum and I've got really great
usage out of them. For the bump, having your belly grow like that, the way it grows during pregnancy,
can be quite alarming, and even when you're in the early stages of pregnancy you will feel
like, "How is it possible that my skin is going to stretch even more than it's stretched right
now?" When it comes to things like stretch marks, I think I've shared this before, but I'm pretty
confident and what I've learned from different doctors and stuff is that stretch marks are
mainly genetics. There are creams and things that people use to try to reduce the severity of them,
but I do think that it's kind of a genetic thing if you're going to get stretch marks.
I personally did not get any lasting stretch marks during my pregnancy and my mom, even with twins,
you know I'm a twin, did not get stretch marks either, so there's the genetic factor. But I will
say that throughout the entire pregnancy, I was just open to all the changes that were going on
in my body and I was excited to potentially get a stretch mark. I did get that, like, darkening
skin pigmentation line from my belly button down towards the end of my pregnancy and that's another
thing I was really excited to get because I've always seen it on pregnant bellies and I think it
looks really cute. If I had gotten stretch marks I honestly would have welcomed them with open arms
but I didn't get any. Even still it felt good for me to put oil and cream on my belly every night
almost just like a ritual and almost just to make sure I was moisturizing the skin. Also, as your
belly stretches, it can tend to get a little bit itchy, so I felt like these oils were helpful for
me. The two favorite oils that I used throughout the entire pregnancy were this Hatch belly oil
and you will see that I still have half left and I used this every single night on my bump. One thing
I love about this oil and I did not compare it to many other oils so I don't know if every oil
is like this but I love how this one felt. It was not at all greasy and oily on your hands in a way
that made you want to wash your hands after using it. I honestly would just rub it all over my belly
and then whatever was left on my hands I would just kind of rub together or like rub onto my
arms. I also did use a body butter on my belly, not every day, but just whenever I remembered
it. The brand is called Drifter Organics and it was called their Serenity Now Body Butter.
This belly band from Belly Bandit was really helpful for me once I started to get lower back
pain. You basically just velcro it on around your waist and it kind of supports your bump. Holds it
up. I used this only towards the very end of my pregnancy and I would try to wear it underneath
my clothes as much as possible. Thankfully I was very pregnant in the end of the fall/early
winter months so I always had a big coat on top of me so I wore this belly band anytime I went out
for walks or went outside and did anything. And my last product for the bump is actually Hatch's
belly tattoos. So these are non-toxic. They're made with plant-based ink. They're safe to use
on your bump. I know people are concerned about putting stuff on your belly but they're totally
fine. They have, you know, how far along you are in your pregnancy. They have cute little
sayings like "it's a boy" or "it's a girl". They have cute little symbols. I didn't have a real
baby shower but I had a little get-together with some girlfriends and I put one on that said seven
months at that time and it honestly was just cute for pictures, and for in-person it was kind of
something that made everyone smile and so that's definitely a favorite and that's something I've
gifted to a lot of people when they get pregnant because it's just kind of a cute thing to do. And
lastly my favorite wellness products for you, the person who's pregnant. First this Hatch nipple and
lip butter. So this is a rescue balm that you can use directly on your nipples to kind of keep them
moisturized. This is actually really good for once you start nursing if you have like chapped and dry
cracked nipples and it's also great to be used on your lips just as a lip balm. I started using
this on my nipples during pregnancy just to kind of keep them, for lack of a better word, supple.
I wanted to hydrate them and moisturize them as much as possible to mitigate the risk of them
getting dry and chapped once I started nursing. And I will say I don't know if this is the cause,
but I never once had a chapped, bleeding, or cracked nipple. I keep this next to my bed in
my nursing cart and at night I kind of just take it and pump a little on my lips like this and then
I will also take some on my fingers and just, you know. So this next wellness item is kind of more
for your mental health. I'm the type of person who loves bullet journaling. I love tracking things
and staying organized and just seeing what is going on laid out on a page. So obviously
during my pregnancy, I created a pregnancy bullet journal for myself. I have it with me
here and I can kind of show you what some pages looked like. So it starts with baby number one
and then in here, I created a pregnancy countdown. So this is my conception date and the due date.
Oh, this is actually out of date. I didn't change it once his due date was bumped up to December
12th. Basically, after I went to the proper scan where they were able to estimate the due date
accurately that is how I got the due date, and then working backward we were able to figure out
my conception date and I charted basically at which day I'm gonna be at which week and that
was just useful because you know throughout your pregnancy that's one of the main questions you get
asked is how far along are you? And I always like to know, you know, for example by August 3rd which
was my birthday I'm going to be 21 weeks pregnant. That's just useful for me to have. Then I created
a spread for girl and boy names. I also had a pregnancy at a glance calendar that showed me
the whole upcoming year ahead and some key dates of things, you know, just logged in the calendar
followed by things like a symptom log. This just kind of goes on and on and basically I
shared this pregnancy bullet journal on my TikTok and people were telling me to sell it. I didn't
know how to go about actually creating a journal that you could buy a physical journal, so instead,
I created a pregnancy bullet journal ebook that is a downloadable document that you can buy online
and then you can download and you can choose between filling it out digitally and like keeping
it on your computer or iPad or you can print it and you can fill it out by hand. It looks a little
different so I'm gonna pop up some images. But we designed it beautifully. I personally think it's
an incredible tool for someone who's pregnant. I give you info upfront on how to calculate
your estimated date of conception based on your due date that the doctor gives you. You can
kind of track every step of your pregnancy from symptoms to every important event that's coming up
throughout your pregnancy. I also give you to-do lists for each trimester that is basically all the
recommendations of things you should be doing to make sure you're prepared for when the baby comes.
I give you that little growth chart that shows you what size fruit or vegetable your baby is
at what week of your pregnancy and then just lots of spreads and trackers and then empty grid paper
pages for you to create your own trackers if you want to track your weight or your mood
or your food or exercise anything like that. So this is available to download digitally. It's
in my online shop now. I'm going to link it for you down below with everything else but
this is a product I'm really excited to include in this roundup because this product is mine.
In terms of a prenatal multivitamin, I was taking the Baby & Me 2 prenatal multi from Mega Food.
This is their post natal multi. I no longer have the prenatal multis because I finished them and
then I also paired it with, they have a separate bottle that is DHA and choline, and that just has
a lot of great stuff in it for the developing baby's brain. The other great thing about it is
that you can take it on an empty stomach which a lot of prenatal vitamins make people nauseous when
they're taken on an empty stomach and this one did not do that for me. Speaking of nausea, I had a
lot of nausea during my pregnancy. One thing that was really life-changing that I'm upset I didn't
start until I was about 11 to 12 weeks pregnant is combining Unisom with Vitamin B6 so that's
kind of like an at-home remedy for pregnancy nausea. You are supposed to take, I believe,
25 milligrams of Vitamin B6 a day and pair it with Unisom which is a sleeping tablet. So I
would take a quarter of the Unisom at night before bed. I actually tried taking half of a Unisom
one day before the day and it like knocked me out. I did not feel good. I was like loopy doopy,
so I always took the Unisom at night and I would just take a quarter and then in the morning with
my normal vitamins, I would take some of this Vitamin B6. I think just one pill is 25 milligrams
and something about the combination of the Unisom and this really helped with nausea. I hope you
like this list and this roundup. I hope that if you are pregnant or you plan to get pregnant in
the future you feel like this is useful to you. Also if you have any friends that are pregnant I
think that these items would be good gift ideas or things to send them as recommendations that
they can buy themselves. Pregnancy is such a tricky time in our lives and it can be really
complicated and I think the last thing we need is to try to figure everything out ourselves on the
fly. I thankfully had tons of recommendations from friends and family members that had been pregnant
so I basically just sourced all of my favorites for you from all the products I tried and all the
products that were recommended to me. One quick note on the affiliate links. If you ever see
a link that's from a company called split it looks like spl.it and then slash a bunch of
things just know that split is a really cool affiliate platform that basically makes it so
if you purchase something through a split link you will get cash back and I will get commission
so we both are kind of getting a win-win for you shopping through that link. I am gonna make
a video like this for my postpartum favorites, my baby favorites, and my gluten-free food favorites.
I have so many favorite roundups coming your way so just stay tuned for those. Let me know down
below in the comments if there are any specific video suggestions you have in this category and
I would be so honored if anyone out there does end up buying my pregnancy bullet journal and using it
to track your pregnancy. If you post any content on Instagram please tag me I would love to see
how you're using the journal and it's just really exciting that I can be part of this special time
in your lives. So thank you for coming back to my channel! I'll see you next time. Don't forget
to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it. Comment down below and let me know your favorite
pregnancy essentials and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. See you next time. Bye!
you