What are fun things to do while pregnant? Or an even BETTER question: how do you pamper yourself when pregnant?
You of all people know how pregnancy is like the biggest waiting game of all time. That said, it also can seem like the ultimate countdown of preparing for baby to-dos, especially for first time moms:
….anxious doctor visits, maternity clothes shopping (yay to bigger sizes…), prenatal class taking (at least this helps), hospital tours, doll-sized clothes shopping, uber nesting frenzies (because the silverware drawer needs to be ready for bringing baby home too), baby registry making (how can someone SO tiny need SO many things?), and baby shower craziness (pink, yellow or blue?).
PHEW. Among ALL those things there are pregnancy checklists galore! First trimester, second trimester….blah, blah, blah.
This list is for pregnant mommas-to-be who are TIRED of all-the-things to do!!! That pregnancy checklist can wait. You are a badass pregnant momma who deserves a break (getting ready for baby is HARD work and being pregnant is even harder!). You deserve the world. I mean it.
Here are 29 FUN things to do while pregnant, the ULTIMATE bucket list. Because once baby is here, your life will change forever. Now is the time to pamper yourself, pick some awesome date ideas and live life to the fullest. Relish in the freedom of no-baby life and distract yourself from the ultimate waiting game.
An Important Note Before We Dive Into All The FUN Things To Do While Pregnant
being pregnant IS hard work and you can’t do everything (duh) like drink, ride horses, ski or do anything physically crazy. But here is my advice, you beautiful-momma-to-be, DON’T focus on what you can’t do.
Try not to centralize on how much puffier you look in the mirror or be sad about not having a mocktail with your friends or regret not hitting the slopes this season. I’m telling you, THIS thinking will take so much away from your entire pregnancy experience and most importantly, it will hold you back from the joy you could experience while going on all these fun adventures before labor and delivery.
Live it up, girlfriend. Why not? Because I’m telling you, pregnant life is hard but life with a newborn? That may be the hardest thing you ever do.
That said, here are some important bringing baby home survival tips to pin or come back to when you’re feeling like getting back to the preparing for baby stuff:
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Preparing For Baby: How To Survive The Infamous First Night Home
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Preparing For Baby Number 2, 5 Things I WISH I Would Have Done
NOW, let’s get to those fun things to do while pregnant!
29 Fun Things To Do While Pregnant, The Ultimate Pampering + Adventurous Bucket List
I’ve made this list into 3 different categories:
1. Pampering
2. Reducing Stress
3. FUN Date Ideas.
These aren’t necessarily ranked in order.
How Do You Pamper Yourself When Pregnant?
Pregnancy can be exhausting and NOW is the time to ‘treat yo self’ before baby arrives. Here are a few super fun things you can do to pamper yourself.
1. Get a prenatal massage. THIS tops the list of fun things to do while pregnant. I think I was floating for days afterward and I can’t tell you enough how much it helped. Be sure to do this when you can go home and take a nap for the rest of the day! For baby number 2, I even booked a prenatal spa day…it was life-changing.
2. Go all out with a mani/pedi. Get yo’ nails did and those poor little toes. You deserve the whole package, girl. Bring your favorite book or girlfriend.
3. Plan a decaf coffee date with yourself. Head to Barnes and Noble, grab a decaf coffee (maybe a pastry too?) and take in that new book smell as you browse your favorite genres. If you just got the quivers like I did, definitely add this to your list!
4. Take a loooong nap. And I’m NOT saying this to “get your sleep now before baby arrives” like you can stock up. (Like #11 here on 15 things NEVER to say to a pregnant woman! Haha). That’s cra-cra and stupid. However, if you can, go take a nap and enjoy it. Hell, take a hot shower while listening to calming music, wind down, slip into the most comfortable-cute maternity gown ever and pass out in bed. Top it off and wrap yourself in a cloud with this specially designed pillow. Apparently, 5,000 other mommies love it to death also.
5. Do some maternity shopping from the comfort of your couch. I had a HARD time finding super cute maternity stuff, so I quite store shopping and found it ALL online here with two-day delivery. Isn’t some of that stuff adorable?! Bonus, check out Prime Wardrobe and see if the item(s) you want can be tried on before you buy.
While we’re at it, I have to tell you about my favorite leggings of all time. During pregnancy, they were awesome some for leaving after the postpartum hospital stay because they are just the right amount of stretchy (they aren’t actually maternity leggings!). I bought three pairs afterward and wear them all the time, still to this day.
6. Give into a ridiculous food craving. When it comes to the taste of food, being pregnant is like being high – food tastes AMAZING. At least once, GIVE IN to that crazy food craving. My craziest was a Cheeto grilled cheese sandwich and yes…it was amazing.
7. Dive into a brand new book. Are you like me and put off reading books sometimes because you can get seriously sucked it? This time, let yourself get lost in a book. It’s the perfect vacation for this time of your life. With both of my pregnancies, I found an awesome book to fall into. It was amazing.
8. Get your house professionally cleaned! Did you know Amazon has house cleaning services for a fairly low cost? For just over $100 (on the low end), you can get your entire home clean. Seriously. Top it off and get your running-to-the-hospital vehicle cleaned and detailed as well.
9. Order your favorite take out and skip the cooking. Pregnancy is the prime time to order your favorite take out. Eating was pretty much my FAVORITE fun thing to do while pregnant. Haha.
10. Have a mocktail tasting party and experiment. Invite your friends over to watch your favorite Netflix series and theme it: help a sister out and find the BEST mocktail – no alcohol allowed. Google some fun recipes and browse the grocery aisle (there are some fun ones!). Make it fancy.
11. Go all out at your next hair appointment. Sitting and getting your hair done for hours on end may be something you do NOT look forward to (I sure don’t) but what if you found a BEAUTIFUL hairdo you’d usually never splurge on while browsing Pinterest photos? And what if you went all out? Get a blowout, do a scalp treatment. Call your stylist-BFF and tell her this one is special. Ask her what she’d recommend. Does she do eyebrows, extensions, or scalp massages? Do it and don’t hold back!
How Can I Reduce Stress During Pregnancy?
Stress and anxiety during pregnancy, for some women (*raises hand*) can be the worst experience. I was so stressed during pregnancy, that my body was literally revolting, from an ER ambulance ride to not being able to see. More on that later. I found out quickly that this affects my baby! My doctor said this could cause my baby to come early than she should or have a low birth weight.
However, a little stress during pregnancy IS normal. Who wouldn’t be a little anxious about a major medical hospital trip, a lengthy recovery and becoming suddenly solely responsible for a tiny human life (while recovering)? You may not have a heartbeat if none of that gives your chest a flutter.
But, if this feeling is constant and affecting your life in major ways, the BEST thing to do to reduce stress during your pregnancy is to talk to your doctor.
12. Be ready mentally for labor and delivery. Take an awesome online prenatal class – take it at your own pace, whenever you want, wherever you want. Traveling to the prenatal class at our hospital was stressful, I had to take work off AND sit for eight hours plus. To top it off, our instructor kept skipping the videos because they didn’t work! She skipped entirely over newborn care due to “technology issues”. ARGH! I looked at online classes and some are over $400!
But I found an AMAZING one with EVERYTHING I needed to know + more by an RN of over 16 years. She’s delivered hundreds, if not thousands of babies and has taught this prenatal class through all those years. Plus, she’s a mom herself of young children (so she’s been there, done that) and is incredibly genuine, down-to-earth, knowledgable and transparent. Hell, I’d have more babies if I knew Hilary could be there. Check out Hilary Erickson’s amazing prenatal class here.
13. Decide tonight to go to bed early. Try to make this something you look forward to. Maybe plan on slipping into your favorite maternity gown, reading a little of a new book you are excited about or browsing your phone because today has been so crazy and you need some me-time.
14. Have some quiet time. Meditate, pray, go on a walk in a beautiful part of town (or a local garden) or do some simple pregnancy stretches while listening to soft instrumental music.
15. Feel 100% ready for postpartum recovery for easier, faster comfort and healing. Check out this Amazon List of everything you need for a postpartum recovery kit (and hover over the “comment boxes” on each item to see why you need it. Some women call this the dreaded “4th trimester”, the worst yet. BUT you can make it easier by having a kit ready and knowing what to expect.
RELATED (top postpartum posts to seriously help you prepared for postpartum recovery):
10 Unbelievable Postpartum Recovery Tips For Healing After A Vaginal Birth
5 Shocking Truths: What Postpartum Recovery Is Really Like
16. Move your body in a way you would enjoy. You may not look forward to exercising during pregnancy (I sure didn’t) but once I finally got out during my daily lunch break walk, I felt a million times better. Listen to an audiobook or podcast that lifts your spirits and makes you feel like a badass (Rachel Hollis is AH-mazing).
17. Breathe a HUGE sigh of relief, feeling at peace and ready to bring baby home. This is the #1 thing that reduced all my baby-having anxiety. If you don’t know my story, I had an ambulance ride to the ER (for my first anxiety attack ever) and a panicked optometrist exam because I could hardly see out of one of my eyes (I was told I had a growth in my eye due to stress). What made ALL THAT anxiety go away? Being done.
The nursery was ready, room-by-room our home was ready, all the things had been purchased on the baby registry, the baby shower was done, we’d taken a killer prenatal class, I’d toured the hospital, all our cloth diaper stuff must-haves were in place, our hospital bags were packed and I had a postpartum kit ready. There was nothing left to do! I felt like I could breathe again.
So, how can you have this “at peace and I’m ready to have my baby now!” as instantly as possible? This is what helped me MOST and I hope it can do the same for you: download this nursery and home checklist. You’ll have a plan instantly to be DONE with all those preparing for baby to-dos.
18. Splurge on a prenatal exercise class. People RAVED to me about prenatal yoga (I had never really done yoga before) but I went out on a limb, tried it and fell in love. Look at classes held at your local gym or ask around.
19. Be financially prepared for your baby and breath easier. For us, this was a hurdle we took on right from the very beginning and it was one of the best things we did (no more stressing!). Here’s the budget template we used (there’s a free download in that post).
We took 9 months to practice and see if we could do a certain budget AND put money into a baby savings (of $5,000 in the end for hospital bills and new baby things). We did it and because of that practice, I was able to choose whether or not I wanted to go back to work or not. I decided to stay home and raise our baby.
Later that year, I decided to start a blog (and work during naptime) in order to give us more breathing room financially and it is our main source of income now! (I have a step-by-step course on how I did that and how to earn $3,000+ monthly, here.)
What Are Some Fun Date Ideas To Do While Pregnant?
20. Go to a restaurant you would typically never go to. Your taste buds are crazy right now, so try out new foods! I had never liked cheesecake or anything vanilla BUT for some reason, I found one of my favorite foods of all time during my first pregnancy: strawberry cheesecake custard. All thanks to my pregnancy cravings!
21. Have a card or board game. Now, if you never do card or board games, hear me out. Some of the BEST date nights we ever had while I was pregnant were game nights!
22. Plan an easy picnic. Grab a blanket, pick up some fancy sandwiches (my definition of fancy here is one that would be better than you can make at home) and head to a park. Add some pizzaz and do this at night, beyond city limits where you can see the stars. There’s some SUPER fun star finding apps out there too like StarTracker.
23. Do a super easy 3D cast of your hands together during this significant time of your life. Find the kit on Amazon here. It looks amazing! You have to check out the photos. Buy another kit for when your baby comes home. You will LOVE this!!! Those little baby feet and hands grow SO quickly. In a blink of an eye, they are almost the size of yours.
24. Paint by number together while asking date-night questions. One of my favorite date nights was painting by number using this kit (they’ve got the cutest pictures!) while we asked each other fun date night questions. This got super interesting! We stayed up late into the night talking and laughing about all the answers.
25. Do a nature “hike”. One of the most fun things we did (near the end of my second pregnancy) was to take an easy hike to see the leaves turn during the fall. The trail was breathtaking and all the swirling gold leaves in the crisp autumn air were dream-like.
26. Do an ice cream tasting. YUSSS. Skip the brewery tour, do ice cream! Snag pints of different types of ice cream (because isn’t it SO hard to choose sometimes anyway?). Maybe 5 varieties of Ben & Jerry’s? Make it fancy and put scoops in little condiment cups. I super love these. Bonus, they are perrrrfect for serving baby food when the time comes.
27. Couples massage by candle-light. Snag a tranquil, stress-relieving massage oil like this one and take turns (or maybe your partner will be the massage therapist!). Have this prenatal massage how-to video playing to show your partner the BEST way to relieve your stress and pain. Prenatal massages are SUPER beneficial and there are a few tricks to them!
28. Plan a candle-lit dinner (even if it’s takeout). Turn your phones off and focus on each other. Talk about baby names and what you are MOST excited for about bringing your baby home. Bonus: take out a piece of paper, write these thoughts down and save it in a keepsake place <3. You’ll LOVE looking back at this.
29. Grab dessert and decaf coffee for a late-night rendezvous. Alcohol may not be on the menu but that doesn’t mean you can’t have one of the most fun nights of your married life! That’s not even an exaggeration. Find a hip little bakery and bistro and have a late-night out talking over coffee and a decadent dessert (your pregnancy taste buds with thank you!) This was also one of my favorite date-nights we have done.
Conclusion
Now you have a ton of FUN things to do while pregnant. Checking things off this bucket list will help you wind down, breath a little easier and take a much-needed break from all that baby planning. Try to check a few things off each list. Be sure to pamper yourself, reduce stress and go on a few date nights with your partner before baby arrives.
Once you’ve done that, hopefully preparing for your baby comes easier, work won’t seem so challenging and you can look forward to your baby’s due date. Again, take the time now, you beautiful badass momma-to-be, because once your little squish arrives, life will be a whole different ball game. And you’re going to do great. <3
