The Music Teacher's Pregnancy Guide
Becoming Pregnant
Getting pregnant is certainly one of the most exciting times in a woman’s life, not to mention for the husband/partner, family, and close friends. You will even watch your students beaming with excitement over the “babybauch” (German for ‘baby belly’). Immense joy surrounds getting that positive pregnancy test, the initial doctor’s visits as you listen for the first time to the baby’s heartbeat, perhaps find out the sex and start imagining the life that awaits you. Of course, it is also a time filled with understandable anxiety, with particular questions for an independent music teacher: What to do with your students? How long do you take off? What if students quit? How will you stay healthy during the pregnancy so you can be the best version of yourself as you nourish a new life growing in your belly?
Below are some things that truly helped me throughout my pregnancy. I have also included our list of must-have items to help you prepare!
Staying Active & Healthy Eating
At the beginning of my pregnancy, I decided to do one thing every day, rain or shine, nauseous and tired (1st and 3rd trimesters) or brimming with energy (2nd trimester): movement; and specifically, 100 tricep dips each day. Doing 100 tricep dips takes 1-2 minutes but will have a refreshing effect on your mind. Many days, I paired this quick workout with a Melissa Wood Health 10-20 minute session in the prenatal section. Along with walking our dogs, I must say these fairly quick movement activities allowed me to feel strong throughout the entire pregnancy. [OKAY, full disclosure: there were a few touch-and-go days in the first trimester where I think I did nothing except lie on the couch. That’s OKAY too! However, prioritizing physical health, whatever this looks like for you, was extremely helpful for my mental state.]
Eating healthy was also something I prioritized when I was feeling up to it. Again, I can certainly remember a few moments eating pizza standing up in the kitchen having zero energy to cook or even order in. But eating lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains when I could proved valuable in feeling my best, not to mention nurturing the little growing baby!
One tip is to involve your partner. Perhaps he can make a smoothie for you each morning that you enjoy alongside your prenatal vitamins. Anything you can do to set up systems of support (like a habitual morning smoothie) will be helpful to maintain a healthy pregnancy. Another tip, if you’re thinking about getting pregnant, even if that may be a year away, start taking folic acid right away so it builds up in your system. Ask your pharmacist or doctor for more information!
Prenatal Listening
Ever since watching the journey of Dylan via Nuryl, I knew I wanted to try prenatal listening during pregnancy. I picked one hour of music for each month that I listened to every day. The pieces ranged from classical to jazz to pop. We even asked our family members to pick pieces to add to the playlists, which they loved contributing to.
Whether or not listening to music will boost the IQ of your baby (I can’t imagine that firing up those neurological connections wouldn’t help), it is a wonderful way to bond with your little one and at least feel like you’re doing something proactive. According to our OB/GYN, babies can hear inside the womb from as early as 13 weeks, so why not play some lovely Mozart for them?
As a Suzuki teacher, I have seen the magical effects of daily listening on older children and have every reason to believe this carries true with babies as well. To do this, all you need is to make a Spotify playlist and get some headphones that will fit over your growing belly!
Planning Your Maternity Leave
As soon as I found out we were pregnant, I began worrying about what to do with my students. I know I am among 100% of studio teachers who share this stress. For me, this had actually been a source of stress from even before I had seriously started thinking about children back in California. Where would I find the time for it all? And what on earth would my students do during maternity leave? Could I just SKIP maternity leave? (Answer: no, do not skip a maternity leave.)
After asking around in my area a bit, I was able to find a young piano teacher who was free to observe many lessons before taking over. She got to know the families during this time and also learned how I operated lessons (which was helpful for her as a new teacher as well). In the end, I took off about 3 months after the birth (a fall break and holiday season sandwiching the break helped me), which was enough to get the hang of being a new mom. I would not recommend taking off less time than this. We think of our students as our own kids, but once you have your own precious baby, I promise you will not regret setting aside time to ONLY focus on your little one!
Because I prioritized finding my replacement during the early part of pregnancy, it was a relatively stress free process, start to finish. When I announced my pregnancy to the studio families, I also told them the tentative plan so everybody had an idea of what to expect during the maternity leave in terms of tuition (which stayed the same as I paid the sub directly), location of lessons (ours remained at our studio space which was a luxury, granted), and anything else. In short, anything you can do to create a feeling of continuity for the students will help everybody involved.
The big part of this success is that I trusted Emma and that she also felt good about the gig. If you have any misgivings about your replacement taking your students, undermining your teaching, or anything of the sort, do not hire that person. In fact, don’t even give it a second thought. Once your little baby has arrived, you want to be able to devote 100% attention to them, not get bogged down with studio drama.
If you have some *high maintenance* studio members, tell those parents you will not be available between x and y dates. If you do keep your inbox open, limit your time dealing with families for 1 hour a week. Luckily for us, my studio families were among the first to congratulate us and have welcomed little Saskia with open arms since her birth. This is most likely what you can and should expect from studio families. Final note: do not feel bad about taking time off; you will never get this time back with your baby.
Building a Nursery (Get It Done!)
As a generally neurotic person, building the nursery and getting *everything* ready was a huge priority. My plan, which proved a successful strategy, was to complete the entire nursery before I headed into the 3rd trimester so I could relax during the final three months when I would probably be too tired to do anything else (that was mostly true). Trust me, with your big belly, endless food cravings (hello pesto pasta and burrata/tomato “salads”), and sleepless nights (which began for me in the 3rd trimester), you will enjoy having the final countdown time to relax and not stress about Reddit chains, Amazon reviews and online, or in-person shopping.
First, make a plan. I began by making a spreadsheet of the items I wanted (after endless blog research). This way, when family members asked what they could buy to help us prepare for baby Saskia, I had a link ready to go depending on what type of gift (and $) they wanted to get. It also helped me psychologically prepare to have everything laid out in one place.
Below I am including a list of the items I turned to day after day. This will, of course, be different for every new mom/family. However, I found it very stressful during the pregnancy to decipher between what were affiliate links/hype (none of these are) and what I would actually need!
Nursing pillow (which was also fantastic as a pregnancy pillow). I got this one from Danish brand Cam Cam Copenhagen.
Snuggle Me Organic (worth the hype, your newborn will live in it)
SNOO (although Saskia was a colicky baby and I don’t think anything would’ve worked to ease the bedtime crying for the first three months)
Drawers for clothing (don’t go overboard, we bought a slightly elevated one from IKEA)
Onesies in white for easy cleaning and pants with built-in socks
A great stroller (we went with the Bugaboo Fox 2)
Solly Baby wrap (I got two and Saskia lived in them for the first 2 months. AMAZING TO HAVE HANDS FREE AROUND THE HOUSE)
Infantino wrap for Dad to use
Highchair with infant attachment (although many friends love the Stokke as well)
LOTS of woven baskets for baby toys and stuffed animals - you will be amazed how quickly these pile up even if you are a clutterphobe like me
Diaper pale (absolutely worth the $)
Stokke bathtub (we used this for the first few weeks)
Baby Bjorn (do not skip this one)
Obviously this all costs a pretty penny, not to mention a lot of time to acquire, so take a deep breath and find hand-me-downs if you can and remember that you are preparing for a whole new person that will enter the world soon. Furthermore — as my mother-in-law reminded me multiple times — rest assured that even if you do not get everything, babies usually turn out just fine. I will say that I did not regret a single one of these purchases as they have been used daily and quality over quantity is absolutely true when it comes to baby items, even clothes.
Surrounding Yourself With Support (& Walk Away from Negatives)
I made a decision during pregnancy to surround myself only with people who I felt were genuinely supportive. Being pregnant is joyful. It is also unpredictable and scary. For us, COVID-19 and a forced separation from our families made me feel even more vulnerable, so cultivating a nurturing group of friends here in Austria was very important. When I was being honest with myself, there were a few people in my life that I did not feel good about and simply distanced myself from (yes, it’s that simple). The same is true with a bad project. For instance, if you’re on the board of an organization that is making you miserable, quit it. (I’ve been there too.) That ‘friend’ you find yourself wondering why on earth you’re ‘friends’ with because you feel lousy consistently after hanging out with them, distance yourself. Negative interactions are sometimes necessary, but more often than not, we have agency. With a beautiful baby coming your way soon, there is no reason not to only surround yourself with people who are supportive and loving. You will never regret prioritizing yourself and your baby.
Good luck as you navigate this new terrain. Try to enjoy the time as much as you can. Listen to pregnancy meditations in the bath. Treat yourself well. Enjoy your favorite food. Accept all the footrubs from your partner. You’ll need it all for what’s coming up soon!
As always, feel free to send me a DM @musikalhusky with any questions or just to say hi.
XO,
Samantha