I'm an information sponge. Especially when I encounter a new topic or face an unfamiliar situation, I get obsessed with reading everything and anything that I can to inform myself.
I've been reading research papers around all things gestation and early childhood development (thank you, PubMed and assorted online journal collections), listening to parenting and pregnancy podcasts on my morning strolls, and reading parenting books. Our daughter isn't even here yet and I'm already obsessed with her!
I hope to be an intentional parent and I want that to start in pregnancy. I want the environment that I create for her in my body to be what I've intentionally decided I want for her.
That's not to say I'm the perfect pillar of a healthy lifestyle - I'm far from it, pregnancy hunger is unreal. But our daughter's cells are undergoing rapid replication and division right now, so it's important for me to at least try to promote healthy development with plenty of nutritious food!
I've also been more aware of choices I make around physical activity. A recent study tracked the activity levels of babies who had mothers with more or less active pregnancies. Surprisingly, the results showed a statistically significant correlation between the mother's prenatal activity levels and her child's activity levels!
It would be difficult to extrapolate from those results to what having a fit pregnancy means for your child's lifelong fitness and athletic achievements, because behavior is always incredibly complicated and many factors go into it. Still, any little thing than I can do now in these nine months to set her up for a healthy, happy life is something I want to try to do!
That said, I'm not going on hard runs or joining Crossfit. I'm very much feeling the reduced cardiovascular fitness of pregnancy. But regular walks, prenatal yoga, etc. are all great! Baby's heartrate rises when my heartrate rises and when I get cardio fitness benefits from being active, she gets those benefits as well! I'm being active for two, what's better motivation than that?
I could keep going for a solid 10,000 words more about my thoughts and research, but no one wants to read that so we'll stop there. On to parenting - spending more time in nature these past days has really made me think about the childhood I want to create for my daughter.
My husband and I live in NYC and expect that we'll live in NYC or similar large cities for possibly ever. It's very likely that our daughter will grow up as a city kid (which neither of us is). I think a connection with nature is so, so, so important and want to be intentional about going on weekend hikes as a family, spending regular time in Germany out in the countryside (added bonus of extra family time with my mother, sister, and other extended family!), and exposing her to gardening.
I want her to feel the same sense of wonder that I felt looking at trees, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and everything else that grows out of the ground!
Our world is beautiful, uniquely nourishing, and just so incredible. It's important to me that she sees that and is raised with an appreciation of the Earth!
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I'm always in awe and wonder at the beautiful nature all around. Your daughter definitely will be too <3
ReplyDeleteSo am I! And I hope so, the world is so wonderful. <3
DeleteI think educating yourself and putting thought into how you want to be as a parent is an excellent start!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm a little nervous, but also very excited.
DeleteYou are taking some amazing steps toward conscious parenting- I love how you're digging into the medical research!
ReplyDelete-Ashley
Le Stylo Rouge
Thank you! There's so much to learn!
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