Learn easy ways to pamper your expectant wife, especially if she’s feeling stressed during this eventful period.
Hurray, you’re expecting a baby! While this is one of marriage’s most exciting phases, it can also be a very stressful time. From the physical changes to the adjustments in lifestyle and habits, some expectant women can find pregnancy rather challenging.
Since your pregnant wife is dealing with numerous physical, hormonal and emotional changes, she’ll welcome your support during this period. You can’t take bear the baby or and give birth, but you can still take an active part in her pregnancy journey.
If you are at a loss over what to do to make your significant other feel better, follow these easy practical tips to pamper your wife and make her feel cared for.
1. Show affection
Apart from feeling hormonal and even in pain at times from various aches, she might even feel self-conscious and unattractive about her expanding waistline, weight gain, stretch marks and other visible signs of pregnancy. So, reassure her constantly and don’t avoid physical intimacy for fear of hurting the baby.
The easiest way to show her that you care is to be a hands-on husband throughout her pregnancy journey. Discuss the next steps, and also plan and make decisions together with her.
2. Empathise with her
Pregnancy may make her sensitive and emotional. Don’t roll your eyes when she complains that she’s had to stand in the MRT, and when she starts crying during a TV show or listening to a song. Most of the time, she just needs you to listen and empathise with her. Pointing out to her that “it’s only one MRT stop” or to “stop listening to the song if you’re going to cry”, won’t help her feel better. Instead, acknowledge her discomfort and let her know that you are there for her.
3. Get involved
The easiest way to show her that you care is to be a hands-on husband throughout her pregnancy journey. Discuss the next steps, and also plan and make decisions together with her. Accompany her to doctor’s appointments to show you care for her and baby’s health. Take part in childbirth education classes, hospital tours and pregnancy seminars together, so that you’ll be just as prepared as she is when bubba arrives. Help her to maintain a checklist, look into the labour and delivery process and costs (to compare prices).
4. Satisfy her food cravings
When you’re preggers, you’re always hungry, which means that she’ll want to eat 24/7. As Star Wars actress Natalie Portman, could not resist the idea of (lack of) food. “I feel like I get a little panicky about food availability. If I’m going somewhere, I’m like, ‘Will they have something I’ll want to eat at that point?’ So, before I go anywhere, I’ll have a plate of pancakes or a veggie burger or whatever — just to be prepared,” she said on the Jimmy Kimmel show.
5. Give her a massage
Body aches and pains are common ailments throughout the course of pregnancy. A massage for your wife could always help to relieve soreness and stiffness of the body. By the way, she’ll never turn down a prenatal massage or spa treat!
6. Let her sleep
Growing another life inside her body takes up lots of energy. Lots. Let her sleep in on the weekends, stay in bed and nap as much as she wants. Don’t nag when she dozes off during car rides or at the movies.
7. Shop for baby essentials
You’ll have an endless list of baby essentials to stock up on. From diapers, milk bottles, pacifiers, strollers to baby cots, the things to buy go on forever. While you may think that you have nine months to stock up on baby products, don’t forget that you’ll also need to get pregnancy-related stuff, too. This pregnancy inventory ranges from books and maternity clothes to health supplements.
Capture all your wife’s significant moments during this period as it’s a great way to show her that you aren’t taking this phase of life for granted.
8. Buy her a pregnancy pillow
Finding a comfortable sleeping position may become difficult as the baby grows. Buy her a pregnancy pillow and help her to enjoy better sleep. Designed for expectant women, these pillows provide support to the back and belly, which should relieve some of her discomfort during the last trimester.
9. Run errands for her
Simple things that she is used to doing may become more of a challenging when her bump grows. Take the initiative to do tasks like doing the groceries, collecting the parcels and picking things up from her mother’s place, even picking up your older child ― if you have one ― from school.
10. Pitch in more around the house
Household chores that require physical movement should be your responsibility for the next 40 weeks or so. If you can’t cope, consider hiring a part-time cleaner to come in once or twice a week to clean and do the laundry. A clean, tidy home could, well, spark joy and help lift moods!
11. Plan a babymoon
Since the next time the both of you will be able to enjoy a holiday together may be a very long time in the future, a short trip or even a staycation will sound good to your pregnant significant other. Do research on pregnancy-friendly vacations and do make it a point to bone up on insurance guidelines and local emergency contacts.
12. Assemble a photo album
Pregnancy photoshoots aren’t just not only for celebrities to share the good news with their fans, they’re proud to show off their pregnancy bodies. Capture all your wife’s significant moments during this period as it’s a great way to show her that you aren’t taking this phase of life for granted. Snap photos of her from the first ultrasound scan and document how she looks at each trimester, to the actual delivery, she’d love it when you surprise her with a scrapbook of thee cherished moments.
Photos: iStock,
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