Wondering what to do now that you’re expecting? Here are 15 things to do once those double pink lines show up and you find out that you’re pregnant!
The moment that pregnancy test shows a positive, life is never the same. I’m sure you are feeling a mix of emotions including excitement, fear, anxiety, love, and joy! Now that you are officially pregnant, what should you do?
If you’re wondering what is the first thing to do when you find out you’re pregnant, here are 15 things I recommend doing once you get that positive test:
- Tell your partner
- Start taking a prenatal vitamin
- Call your doctor
- Download a pregnancy app
- Adjust your diet
- Manage morning sickness
- Get a pregnancy book
- Look into online classes
- Make a pregnancy checklist
- Start documenting your bump
- Decide if you want to know baby’s sex
- Call your insurance and plan accordingly
- Start thinking about how you’ll tell friends and family
- Get the pulse on childcare in your area
- Read about pregnancy hacks to make the next 8 months easier!
Here are my tips for what to do after finding out you’re pregnant. These are perfect steps for a first-time mama to navigate your pregnancy and make sure you take care of yourself and your baby from the start.
1. Tell Your Partner
Let your partner know that you are pregnant! While you may want to hold off on making a pregnancy announcement through social media, there are still some cute ways to tell your husband you’re pregnant!
One way to tell your partner the news is to send him on a scavenger hunt looking for clues. Our pregnancy announcement scavenger hunt is a free printable that will have him solve riddles until he finds out he is going to be a dad!
2. Start taking a prenatal vitamin
Many woman start taking their prenatal vitamins while they are trying to conceive, which is great! If you haven’t started taking one yet, now is the time.
I liked the gummy prenatal vitamins, because swallowing whole pills made me gag. Find one that has the appropriate vitamins and minerals for pregnant women and start ASAP.
3. Make an appointment with your doctor
You can call or email your doctor to make your first prenatal appointment. They will often ask the date of your last menstrual period so they can estimate how far along you are.
Some practitioners will wait to see patients until they are 8 weeks pregnant or more. Call your doctor as soon as you can to at least get on the books and in your calendar!
4. Download a Pregnancy App
It’s so fun to follow along with baby’s journey and growth. Check in each week to see how big baby is, which parts of baby are developing, and the symptoms you may be experiencing at this stage in your pregnancy.
Here are some of the best pregnancy apps to help you track baby’s progress!
5. Adjust Your Diet if Needed
Read up on the foods you should avoid during pregnancy such as unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses, and deli meats. Also start limiting your caffeine and avoid alcohol.
Make a grocery list and re-think your daily lunch choices (I live off lunch meat when I’m not pregnant, so I really had to pivot my lunches.) Add any foods that you are craving to your list as well!
6. Manage Morning Sickness
Pregnancy nausea can happen at any time of the day, but is often referred to as morning sickness, Mine came every evening, around 5 p.m. and was really difficult to manage.
Try different morning sickness remedies to see if anything helps relieve yours. Things like sour candies and eating small meals throughout the day really helped me!
7. Grab a Pregnancy Book
Throughout my whole pregnancy, I was a Googling machine. I would look up every symptom i had under the sun. Finally I got the book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and loved it.
It is super thorough and goes into detail on the different trimesters and things you may be experiencing. It also helped me to know what to expect in each trimester as well as doctor appointments and how to prepare for baby’s arrival.
8. Consider Taking Online Classes
Okay, you don’t need to sign up for these as soon you as you find out you’re pregnant, but look into these courses and see if they are something you’re interested in. Then wait for a sale and sign up closer to your third trimester!
Newborn Sleep Course: I am a huge proponent of teaching healthy baby sleep habits from the beginning. My Newborn Sleep course is a short course that takes you through the basics of newborn sleep. You’ll learn how to set up good sleep habits in less than an hour. Learn more about it here!
9. Make a Pregnancy Checklist
Over the next nine months there are plenty of tasks that need to get done. Don’t worry, you have lots of time and don’t need to do them all right now or start buying baby stuff just yet.
Bookmark or pin this pregnancy checklist so you can come back to it to make sure you get fully ready for baby’s debut.
10. Start to Document Your Pregnancy
As soon as you find out you’re pregnant, start documenting!
Take a picture of your belly from the side, even if there’s no bump and continue to take pictures regularly. It’s so fun to see your belly and baby grow, even in really small stages.
Even when you don’t feel pretty, or picture-perfect, snap a photo. I regret not taking more pictures of my growing bump!
11. Decide If you Want to Know Baby’s Sex
Talk with your partner and decide if you guys want to find out what baby will be. An ultrasound won’t be able to tell this until 20 weeks, but some places will do a blood test around 13 weeks to find out baby’s sex.
Hang onto this old wives gender quiz and take your guess at baby’s gender as your bump grows if you do decide to wait!
12. Check Your Insurance
Call your insurance to see what kind of coverage you have. If you have a high-deductible plan you may need to start saving up some money to cover the cost of baby’s birth.
Talk with your insurance early on, so you can prepare and not get a surprise bill after delivery.
13. Start Thinking of How You’ll Announce your Pregnancy
It’s so fun to let others know you are pregnant. The timing of when to announce your pregnancy is up to you. Here are some memorable ways to let your parents know you’re pregnant as well as adorable ways to let your family know you’re pregnant.
Then, when you’re ready to announce it to the masses here are some ideas:
- Spring and Easter Pregnancy Announcements
- Halloween Pregnancy Announcements
- Christmas Pregnancy Announcements
- Disneyland Pregnancy Announcements
- Harry Potter pregnancy announcements
14. Start Looking into Childcare
Okay, this one totally depends on where you live, but I have heard of people being on a waitlist for childcare in some cities for up to a year!
If you know you want to be a working mom, then start exploring your options when you find out you’re pregnant. Talk to friends and family members so you can get a pulse on the childcare situation in your city.
If it’s in high-demand, then start looking now! Here are 40 questions you can ask daycare providers as you search.
15. Learn The Best Pregnancy Hacks
Make your bump life as enjoyable as possible with these genius pregnancy hacks. There are some goodies in here for every trimester! Pin that page so you can go back to it throughout your pregnancy.
Finally, take a load off and get some rest! That first trimester really takes it out of you. I was exhausted all of the time.
Listen to your body and give it what it needs! That might mean a nap in the middle of the day or eating a loaf of bread for dinner. Growing a baby is hard work! Take care of your body and baby and soak up this time mama!
My goal is to help tired parents get sleep, so the whole family can thrive!
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