As I write this, I am 9 months pregnant and due any second!  During this pregnancy, I have been able to reassess products and reference books that were helpful during my first pregnancy, as well as discover new products and books that I incorporated during my second pregnancy.  I wouldn’t replace any of the recommendations from the list from my first pregnancy, but I would add a few more items.  They are below.

• Skinny Bitch
• Clean Plates

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Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven

Having read The China Study, Disease-Proof Your Child and several other books that were based on scientific studies, I thought Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven did a good job of aggregating and summarizing a wide range of important content.  I was grateful to have read it during my pregnancy as it provided a good overview on how to live a healthy pregnancy.

Clean Plates NYC

About two months before I became pregnant, I started diving into a raw vegan diet.  Based on everything I had read about health and nutrition and a raw food diet, I wanted to consume as raw vegan a diet as possible.  So I was confused and depressed that once I became pregnant, all I wanted were cheeseburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, doughnuts, Hot Tamales, and other processed foods.  I was quite depressed by my overwhelming cravings for these things, things that offer no nutritional value to myself or the baby.

A dear woman — founder of BeamGreen, who heard about my experience called me to ask me not to feel bad about any of this and reminded me that none of my cravings during pregnancy were “wrong.”  During the same conversation, she recommended a wonderful, helpful book, , that helped me indulge my meat and dairy cravings using organic and/or seasonal ingredients — “cleaner” ingredients.  This book helped alleviate guilt I felt when “indulging” while being informative as well.  I recommend it to anyone who is looking for “cleaner” restaurants in NYC.

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• First Pregnancy

Based on my experience with my first child — and building on the Shopping List for Essentials for My Pregnancy – below are additional products that would have helped me prepare for my first child.

Preparing for Baby’s Arrival

1) Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child provided a good understanding of, and good guidance on, baby sleep habits. I wish I had read this during my third trimester. This had an average of 4 stars from 1,1,58 customers.

Brain Development

1) What’s Going On In There? I really enjoyed this book and I picked it based on the popular customer reviews on Amazon.  Its focus is on the first 5 years of life, including the prenatal experience.

Other

I recently came across this Martha Stewart videos of products that moms must have. I don’t have any of them but they look quite interesting. I may be purchasing a few.

Please Note: All products with an image shown below can also be found at TSF SHOP, along with many other products not listed below.

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Based on my first pregnancy in 2007, below are the products that helped me during the pregnancy.

Prenatal Vitamins
New Chapter Perfect Prenatal Vitamins. It didn’t occur to me to get ORGANIC vitamins until I read an interview of Gwyneth Paltrow and she commented on how great these vitamins are and that she took them post-natally because it made her hair and skin look amazing. I didn’t notice a big impact on myself but I now believe in organic vitamins, after becoming more informed.

About Pregnancy and Nutrition

1) Great Expectations: Pregnancy and Childbirth. I bought 7-8 books about pregnancy but ended up referencing Great Expenctations and Your Pregnancy Week by Week the most, though I think Great Expectations is better. Great Expectations received 4.5 stars from 51 Amazon customers.

2) Your Pregnancy Week by Week. I received a copy of this book from my insurance company. I ended up frequently referencing this book pretty often. It received 3.5 stars from 366 Amazon customers.

3) The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. I referenced this book often during my pregnancy to remind myself of how to make healthy choices. This received 4 stars from 5 Amazon customers.

How to be Green

1) Healthy Child, Health World. I just read this book and it’s wonderful. This book provides a great overview of how, and why, to provide a healthy environment for your family. This received 5 stars from 1 Amazon customer.

2) Squeaky Green. I liked this because it provided clear action item lists on how to green your home. Concise and not overwhelming, while covering major points.

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