The breakfast Something Navy’s Arielle Charnas craved every day of her pregnancy

Just days ago, Something Navy’s Arielle Charnas and her husband welcomed their second baby girl. Here, the busy blogger gives us a peek at mornings in her house before becoming a family of four. Welcome to My Morning Routine, where Arielle and other good-life gurus share their personal (frequently surprising, often healthy) morning rituals—to help you make your a.m.’s more awesome.

Arielle Charnas Creator of Something Navy

I wake up around 7:30 a.m. and check on my two-year-old daughter, Ruby. Then Brandon (my husband) and I get up and brush our teeth. Brandon usually goes and gets Ruby from her crib, and we all head to the kitchen.

When I was pregnant—I gave birth to my second daughter, Esme, on June 9—I would literally only eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast every morning. I don’t think there was a day during this pregnancy that I didn’t eat them for breakfast! And because pancakes have been a staple in my life since I was little, Ruby and I have been enjoying them together. I would even give her a smaller bowl of batter that she could stir herself. To make them slightly more healthy, we added a little wheat germ to the recipe. It made me feel better about having them for breakfast every morning.

Ruby loves to pick out (and copy!) what I wear. Since dresses were all that fit me in the last months of my pregnancy, she was pretty adamant about wearing dresses, too.

For my husband, I usually make an egg white omelette filled with veggies (I sauté them with  BOU bouillon cubes for extra flavor!). Then I also make him avocado toast. I drink a ton of water in the morning. And when I was pregnant, I’d have a large glass of 2 percent milk so I wouldn’t have to think twice about packing in the calcium for the rest of the day.

After we eat breakfast, Brandon goes to work and Ruby and I get ready together. I wash my face with Fresh’s Soy Facial Cleanser. Then I use Kiehl’s moisturizer and Dr. Brandt Eye De-Puffing Gel under my eyes to wake up my face up a little bit. During my pregnancy, I stuck with simple things in the morning—and I know I’ll have to keep to my streamlined routine now that I have Esme to take care of, too (at least for a little while!). 

Ruby loves to pick out (and copy!) what I wear. Since dresses were all that fit me in the last months of my pregnancy, she was pretty adamant about wearing dresses, too. Once we choose our outfits, we get to dress her doll, strap her in the stroller, and walk up and down the hallway. We just kind of play in the morning, which makes getting dressed more of a fun activity than an annoyance.

Future mothers: These are the 3 most important lifestyle changes to make *before* getting pregnant and the 5 things Sakara co-founder Danielle DuBoise wishes she’d known about the first trimester.