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uckily for me I am one of these people that can eat the same thing every day and enjoy it. I have practiced meal planning for over a decade on and off and find it so convenient and affordable that I don’t mind the repetition one bit. I alternate my meals each week and don’t have it to an exact science. Meaning, sometimes I don’t have time to meal prep and instead wing it or check the freezer for something I’ve batched cooked before like a big batch of soup.

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hen I was pregnant with my 1^st son, I was horrified reading article after article, “your body will never be the same”. Sure, my body isn’t what it used to be after having two baby’s, but I found it wasn’t as bad as what I was expecting. As is the case with most things, we tend to anticipate situations being far worse than what they actually end up being.  While there is nothing wrong with stretch marks (I have them from adolescent growth spurts), I preferred to not get more. If you have spent any time reading about this topic, you have likely read that genetics (if your mother had them) is an indicator. However, in my case, my mom got stretch marks, I have them, and yet, I still did not get ANY stretch marks during either pregnancy.

Through trial and error, and lots of research, here are 10 things I did. I have listed them in the order of what I feel most attributed to no stretch marks during both of my (big) belly on pregnancies.

Dear mama, in the end, if you do get stretch marks, it isn’t the end of your beautiful body. In no time they will fade, be less pronounced and be a gentle reminder of the extraordinary journey you went through. I still have a faded linea nigra on my tummy and love it.

There are TONS of hospital bag checklist. When preparing my bag, I wanted it to be simple and essential.  So I wondered, “what do I REALLY needed. Here is what I packed (and didn’t pack) in my hospital bag. My bag was packed at 36 weeks, and I went into labor at 38 and 39 weeks with my boys. I included an (*) symbol on items we did not end up using with either delivery, but packed just in case.

Scroll down for a quick checklist!