Yesterday (19th September) was my official due date, and so I had planned to have this post up a few days ago.

However, my little girl decided to surprise us all by arriving exactly 2 weeks early.

Let's just say, life with a newborn has been a wild ride so far (a good, fun ride at that) but still a rather crazy rollercoaster of ups and downs. So far (touch wood!) she sleeps verrrrryyyyy well, and feeds like a dream. This is why I am able to pop the odd blog post up every few days or so. By the way, I share a lot more over on Instaram & Instagram Stories (click here to follow along) so head on over there if you'd like to see a bit more of the behind the scenes.

And now back to this post of my pregnancy essentials. These are all things that helped me cope with the highs and lows of 9 months of growing a teeny tiny human. If there is anything you feel deserves a mention that you found helped you in your preganncy, please leave me a comment below, I'd love to hear from you and I'm sure the rest of my readers would too!

I bought all of my Cherry Melon maternity wear online through the Spree app on my phone. Spree often have amazing discounts and specials and so I was able to buy most of my items at a discount. Throughout my pregnancy I bought a pair of their linen shorts (they have an awesome stretch waistband!), two of their capped sleeve T-shirts, 2 vests, 1 pair of leggings and a strappy tank top. The tank top and T-shirts were worn the most by me (especially the pretty coral coloured one pictured above) and as it was Winter, I wore the strappy tank top just about every day.

My skin went through all kinds of different phases. My face broke at at the beginning, and then my eczema flared up (click here to read how I coped with Winter dryness and eczema) and so I used just about all of the products in the Epimax range. I loved the Epimax & Epimax Junior bath oil for showering and bathing, and then used the Epimax & Epimax Junior cream all over my body. I did also use Epizone which has a similar formulation to the Epimax but is a little bit cheaper. I bought all of those products at Dischem.

I then liberally applied Bio-Oil all over my tummy, boobs, thighs and bum every day and am happy to report that I only got two little stretch marks under one of my boobs. Not bad going considering I put on about 20kg's of weight during my pregnancy. I also drank a lot of water and tried to do as much exercise as my body allowed me to (the best being pilates). I think the Pilates helped keep not just my muscles supple, but my skin nice and flexible too.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I got horrible back pain (click here to read more). I did eventually go to a physio which sorted me out in two ticks, but before and after my physio session I used a wheatie bean bag and/or hot waterbottle to soothe all the aches and pains. 

Ah yes, this 'little' project is probably what kept me sane during the 9 months. A friend of mine (Candice) introduced me to the wonderful world of crochet, and from the first stitch I was hooked (see what I did there hehe). And silly me thought making a baby blanket would be the best project to start with. Well, needless to say, I am STILL not finished the blanket (to be fair, I have kept changing and adding squares and borders to make it bigger) and I was still crocheting while in labor two weeks ago. I am just about done though, and I can't wait to wrap my little girl up in it (just in time for the sweltering heat of summer!).

I'll be sure to share photos with you once it's done.

I drank the odd cup of tea and coffee throughout my pregnancy, but I definitely went off milk and so my 5 cups of tea a day habit went down to one. To make sure I was drinking enough fluids (and because water is so boring) I got into the wonderful habit of drinking lemon, ginger and honey tea. Simply pour hot water over a few slices of fresh lemon, a slice or two of fresh ginger and a teaspoon of honey, let steep for a few minutes and voila! It's really good for you, cleanses your system and has loads of vitamins to keep you health.

This was to use in the bath, to keep my huge tummy warm. We have a HUGE bath and yet my round belly would always stick out above the water and I'd get cold very quickly. I ended up having a few face cloths on hand to keep me warm.

I've spoken more about prenatal vitamins in this blog post , but the PregOmega Plus is the brand I ended up liking the most and am still taking now. It's one of the pricier brands on the market, but I would wait until it went on special at Clicks or Dischem (or at the Baby Expo!) and then stock up.

I lived in these sports bras from Mr Price since week 1 of pregnancy. They have removable padding (which I didn't ever remove because the pads are soft and I like having a little 'lift' in that area) and are very soft. 

Not much more needs to be said about having your feet comfy :)

These nighties from Woolies are the absolute BOMB! I wore them throughout my pregnancy, and have found them to be the most comfortable thing to wear for breastfeeding. They have enough support in the boob area to hold breast pads now, and they are so oft and comfortable. They are also very stretchy and so are not restricting on the tummy as your belly grows and grows.

So there you have it, my list of things that helped make the past 9 months as comfortable as possible.

Is there anything that you found to be essential for you during your pregnancy that I've left out? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

I've linked up all my pregnancy posts here. Simply click each post to read more: