Pregnancy Essentials - The first half!

I celebrated the halfway point of this pregnancy on Sunday! I can't believe I made it halfway - sometimes it seems like the time is dragging on and other times it feels like it's flying by.

I put together a short list of the things that helped me get through the last 20 weeks and what I couldn't live without!

1. My Sigg Water bottleI will admit - I was HORRIBLE about drinking water before I got pregnant. Like, I would go all day without drinking anything. As soon as that 2nd line popped up, I was craving ice cold water like it was my job. I have a 24 oz. Sigg and I try to drink 4-5 bottles of water a day from it. I carry it with me everywhere and I'm seriously obsessed with tracking how much water I've had in a day.

2. These 2 prenatal workout DVD's...
Suzanne Bowen's Long and Lean Workout - this is a serious workout, even if you aren't pregnant! She does a million squats and leg lefts - it's a great whole body workout and I am typically super sweaty by the end. I LOVE the stretching sequence at the end, it really helps with hip and back pain. I do this every other day and alternate it with this:Shiva Rea's prenatal yoga. This is amazing and calming, but still a great full body workout. I feel like I've gotten the best stretch ever after I finish it. She has different modifications for each trimester. I also like how she teaches you some deep breathing techniques, which I hope will be useful for labor!

Both of these DVD's have really helped because I've had pretty bad back and hip pain since around 11 weeks. If I skip a few days of them, I definitely start to feel more sore.

4. Cardigans. Sort of random, but I've found that dressing while pregnant is all about the layers. My current go-to outfit during this pregnancy is maternity jeans, a short or long sleeve t-shirt, a cardigan and then some fun jewelry. The nice thing about cardigans is that they will work after I have the baby as well, so I don't feel guilty about buying a lot them since I will get more than 9 months of wear out of them. I bought this ruffle cardigan from Target in every color...
Edit - The cardigan from Target can be found here. They also had a lot in my local store, on clearance for $17.99!