Over here at Women’s Wisdom Co we love a good morning routine. We are firm believers that how you start your day sets the scene for the rest of your day. I also don’t really love the word routine because it makes it sound non-negotiable and bland, but instead let’s use the word rhythm. Baby prep morning rhythm. Because this is what we aim for most days, but it’s flexible and doesn’t happen every single day. And you know what? That’s completely okay. Because we are human!
But essentially, gone are the days of waking up in the morning and the first thing you do is grab your phone and have a scroll (well, I try my best to avoid this but let’s be real, sometimes life happens). But our brains are very impressionable and in a deep receiving mode during those first few crucial moments upon waking, so I don’t know about you, but consuming other people’s content isn’t necessarily the seeds I want to be planting first thing in the morning.
I like to set myself a little goal that I don’t turn my phone back on (I sleep with my phone on airplane mode) until I have completed these key steps to starting my day off the right way. Then once I have dedicated my morning to myself and set myself up for a good day, I switch my phone back on and become available to the rest of the world.
So let’s get into what my baby prep morning rhythm entails:
Full disclaimer – this is an ideal day and sometimes it might only be 1 or 2 of these practices that get ticked off, but I try my best to stick to doing what I can and not put any pressure on myself. I also have a toddler in the mix so that makes things interesting too 😂
✨ HYDRATE – Before I do anything I like to get up and make sure I’ve got a glass of water or have a big drink from my water bottle. Because hydration is essential to keeping your bowels regular and your bowels are the main evacuation route for waste, toxins & excess hormones that our bodies don’t need (and we want to be making sure this is leaving our body while we are baby prepping). We’ve also gone all night with likely little to no liquids, so hydrating to get things moving early helps me feel my best.
✨ STRETCH – Then depending on the day and my motivation levels (or if my toddler is awake yet) I either roll out my yoga mat and do a gentle form of movement that gets the blood flowing. This isn’t anything fancy and I wouldn’t say it’s a workout. Usually just some gentle, intuitive stretches or nonlinear movement. Maybe a little yoga if I have some extra time that day. If I’m feeling really tired or had a bad night’s sleep, I may even stay in bed for this and just do some gentle stretches and take some deep breaths in bed.
✨ HERBAL TEA – I then hop up and get the kettle boiling to make a delicious warm drink or herbal tea to start the day. My current focus at the moment is my gut health & microbiome so this blend is full of gut loving herbs that just give my tummy that bit of extra love before I start the day with breakfast.
✨ SUPPLEMENTS – My focus is always on food first, but I see supplements as an insurance policy, just to be sure that I’m covering all my bases and our soils aren’t what they used to be. The probiotic I’m taking contains specific strains essential for mums + bubs. I’m working on getting my microbiome in it’s best shape possible, ready to give to my future bub, because our microbiome seeds our babies microbiome. If you’re looking for some high quality, practitioner only, tailored supplements to incorporate in your baby prep journey, both myself and Karina can support you with this. Find out more about our 1:1 online consultations here.
✨ AFFIRMATIONS – Baby prepping is just as much a mental, spiritual and emotional journey as it is a physical one. All four of our bodies need to be in balance to achieve whole body health and wellness. Affirmations are a tool I love to use for emotional wellbeing and creating positive neural pathways. Affirmations set the tone for my day & are planting the seeds that I want to grow. You can create your own specific affirmations by writing a list of what you would like to become/attract in your life and writing them in “I AM…” statements, as if they have already occurred. Affirm these to yourself throughout your day or in the mirror.
✨ JOURNAL – My favourite mindfulness practise. I always do a morning or evening braindump where I get everything down on paper that’s been on my mind or causing stress in my life. I find that by writing down what’s on my mind, it almost gives me permission to stop thinking about it and looping it over in my mind, because it is written down in physical form, I won’t forget. My favourite brand of journals and planners are Magic Of I – they are beautiful! You can use the code “MADDISONCATE” to save 10% at checkout.
✨ DRY BODY BRUSH – This is an easy practise to stimulate the lymphatic system and support the body in clearing waste & toxins. Brush your body in long upward strokes moving towards the heart.
✨ HERBAL BODY OIL – This one is for my nervous system. I add St Johns Wort infused oil to this and do a body massage before jumping in the shower. It’s like my “energetic barrier” between me and the world. You can learn more about herbal body oiling here and why I turn to St Johns Wort here in these podcast episodes.
✨ NOURISHING BREAKKY – A balanced breakfast with a source of carbs, fat & protein helps to stabilise blood sugar throughout the day & also provides the building blocks essential for egg quality. My go to morning meal nearly always includes eggs because they are truly a fertility superfood – with choline, DHA, omegas + much more.
If you’re looking to start your own baby prep journey, we teach you all of this in our Conscious Conception online course + so much more. Enrolments are now open for our first cohort of 2022 💛
Is trying for a baby on the cards for you in 2022? The time to start preparing is now! We would love to see you join us. Enrolments are open until the 6th of Feb 2022.
Written by
Maddison Cate
Women’s Health Dietitian
Women’s Wisdom Co
