The other day on my Instagram Live I answered the burning hot question, “when are you planning on having another baby?”

I think it is only fair before I answer that question to share our history before getting pregnant with our son.

Recovering from Two Miscarriages

2 1/2 years ago we started our journey to becoming parents. Twice before the birth of our son we had a pregnancy end in miscarriage. One in August 2016 here and another in February 2017 here. Those two miscarriages changed my life in so many ways.

The devastation is the very thing that I needed to start researching the way I was living my life and what I could possibly do to improve my chances of having a full-term pregnancy. What could have caused these two miscarriages? Would I ever be a mom?

My doctors were no help at all, telling me I needed to wait until after I had 3 miscarriages to run tests or investigate the loss. So so it catapulted me in to being my own advocate and doing my own research for my health.

Taking my Health in to my Own Hands

It of course brought me to a place of passion for women’s health and non-toxic living. I believe the toxins in our day to day are harming us in MANY ways and hurting our children’s generation. Many of the products we use, put on our body, or even eat can have a hormone disrupting impact.

Disrupted or out of balance hormones can create trouble with conceiving and even carrying a baby. It is also important to add that these toxins, which really are right under our noses, can cause birth defects, cancer, emotional distress, weight gain, fertility struggles, and headaches.

Things to do Before Trying for Baby #2

With all that being said, we have made the decision that there are a few things that need to be done before “trying” for our next child. If you are curious to know what some of those things are, then keep reading.

1. Continue to Nourish with Fertility Supporting Foods

I started this year with a cleanse and will continue to do one every quarter to remove toxins and pesticides/herbicides from my body. Doing a cleanse also helps me keep my cravings for sugar controlled, which means I fuel my body better. The process keeps my hormones and body balanced.I will continue to focus on whole foods that nourish my body and mind. Whole foods, especially those that are organic or free from toxins, will give my eggs (& family) the best nourishment before trying for baby #2.

Along with eating more whole foods, more superfoods and greens (my favorite here, use code ANNAP for $50 off your first order), I will also focus on adding in fertility supporting foods.

You can download my Hormone Supporting Guide here, with a fertility supporting smoothie recipe here! I have also included a bonus guide to help you reduce your use of plastics!

It is free to download this week ONLY to celebrate my son’s birthday week!

2. Healing From Pregnancy

My little one, who is almost a year old, was 9 pounds when he was born. Regardless of the size of a baby, a mother’s body has so much healing to do within the first year to 2 years after her baby has been born. Pelvic and abdominal muscles are still recovering from pregnancy and childbirth.

I still have some physical healing to focus on after the birth of my son. My pelvic and abdominal muscles are still weak. As a result I struggle with pain in my lower back. My focus in the next year will be on recovering my pelvic and abdominal muscles. I am almost certain I have some Diastasis Recti in my abdominals, so recovery is the primary focus.

3. Continuing to Remove Hormone Disruptors

Since my miscarriages, I have focus on learning about the toxins lurking around our household and daily lives. We are all exposed to hundreds of toxic chemicals every single day. AND this isn’t just me being dramatic. Toxins that can disrupt our hormone balance, cause cancer, and even weight gain.

It has been two years since I started the process of eliminating as many of these toxins from our every day life as I could. I will admit, it is so challenging some days. I feel like every day I learn about something new that is toxic and dangerous for our health.

I will continue to educate myself and find healthy alternatives for our family before trying for baby #2. Here are some of the things I am focusing on.

a. Removing BPA/Plastic whenever possible.

I started first with trading our plastic food containers for glass food storage containers. I have slowly brought in cast iron pans so that we can eventually phase out all or most of our non-stick pots and pans. This article here has great information about plastics can mimic hormones in our body. There is even information linking BPA to miscarriages and poor egg/sperm quality.

I also have an Easy Guide for Reducing Plastics you can download here!

It is free to download this week ONLY to celebrate my son’s birthday week!

b. Toxin Free Products

I have slowly found alternative for our everyday cosmetic and body care products. A lot of the products on the store shelf contain chemicals that can mimic hormones in our body. Shampoo, body wash, makeup, lotion, etc. can all have toxic chemicals. These toxic chemicals get absorbed through the skin and can build up in our system, especially in fat.

Women are more prone to this because we naturally store more fat than men.

I have changed so many products in our daily life to non-toxic products. Shampoos, body washes, lotions, makeup, etc. I will continue to find new products to use that are safe for our family!

4. Nourishing My Eggs

The cycle of a woman’s egg(s) is 90 days. This means as an egg gets ready for ovulation, there are 90 days that we can be nourishing that egg. I will focus on nourishing my eggs and body, especially 90 days before we are ready to try gain. Things like stress, nutrition, blood flow, and hormone balance all impact the health of the egg.

Fertility supporting foods and a healthy diet are high on my list of priorities. Also, focusing on getting great sleep each night and minimizing stress is important for me. In my last blog post, I shared 8 different ways you can minimize stress. I also share how I get better sleep at night.

5. Tracking My Cycle

Perhaps one of the most important, but often overlooked priorities in trying to get pregnant is actually tracking the mensuration cycle. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t taught much about how to track my cycle growing up.

At 15 I was put on birth control pills and all I knew was my period came when I took the brown pills and as long as I was taking the white pills, I was safe. Problem is, there is NOTHING empowering about that. It didn’t teach me anything about my body, ovulation, when I could actually get pregnant, and what I should look for to know if I was ovulating. Not to mention it made me an anxious, emotionally raging teenager and woman until I was 26 years old.

Fertility Awareness Method

I HIGHLY recommend researching Fertility Awareness Method. Did you know you aren’t fertile the entire month?

Did you know that tracking and understanding your monthly cycle can tell you BEFORE YOU START TRYING if you might have trouble conceiving?

Using this method will help me make sure I know that my body is ovulating correctly and it will help us tremendously when we actually start trying for baby #2.

Taking control over your fertility and understanding YOUR OWN cycle is one of the most empowering things you can do as a woman! No marches or pink hats needed. 🙂

When Will we Try for Baby #2

I am not positive when we will actually intentionally “try” for baby #2. I do know this though, this year is a year for opportunity. This year is a year of recovery, connection, and nourishment.

For me, I want to be sure that my next pregnancy is even better than the pregnancy I had with my son. I have learned so much in this last year and I fully believe this focused effort over the next year will be the best thing for our family.

It is so easy to want to rush from one thing to the next, but when we take the time to nourish and learn about our bodies, we can do great things!

I appreciate you taking this journey with me. It is my intention to share as much of this process as possible. I hope that it inspires women to get to know their own bodies and to take control over their fertility!

Don’t forget to download your Hormone Supporting Guide with the BONUS Guide to Reducing Plastics!! It is free to download this week ONLY to celebrate my son’s birthday week!