Before the Bump

I am really happy to be having greens in my smoothies again. I feel like it really helps my system move the food around more efficiently. The greens added to the hydrating power of coconut milk seems to be a great combination. I had a little smoothie this morning with my breakfast and didn't actually eat any greens with the meal. I am also definitely slowing down on my use of Cholula. For some reason it just doesn't taste as amazing as it used to, whether it's because my tastes have changed or because I've overdone it. I still love my eggs though.

Before the Bump
As I am just about to enter the second trimester, I am anticipating and watching for the bump to appear. One of the things about ignoring the rule of waiting till 36 weeks to tell people I am pregnant is that people keep looking at me and saying I look great (not that I'm opposed to that). Its their slightly surprised look when they glance down to my non-existent belly that makes me feel a little like Sigourney Weaver's character in Baby Momma (she is supposedly pregnant but Tina Fey is confused because she has no belly and she's seems to old then says she feels a kick). I feel a little like people think I'm playing a joke.
Now is the time! Now there will be a bump happening and with that excitement comes my thoughts about maternity clothes and stretch mark inhibiting products.
Stretch marks
I have been looking into a couple of products:

Bio-Oil

The reviews on this stuff are great! One I read came from a woman who started using this product at the beginning of the second trimester and never had stretch marks despite them being a problem for her during teenage weight-gain. It seems to be made from natural ingredients and the price is worth the try. I am definitely getting a bottle. They sell it on amazon for a reasonable price.

Mountain Ocean
Skin Trip

I have used this lotion before for sunburns and it was extremely effective in reversing the burn after one application. They also make a soap bar I would be interested in. I received this as a gift a while ago but didn't use it often since I'm not really a lotion toting person. However, I knew that coconut oil has a naturally soothing effect on burns and grabbed this because it is the second ingredient. Unfortunately I tried to take the bottle with me to Las Vegas and they took it away from me, with it half-full. Bummer. I think this will probably be a big help with a growing belly and it smells like the beach. My best friend actually bought it for me because I used to wear coconut fragrant oil as a perfume in high-school. That was my "thing."

Also made by Mountain Ocean
Mother's Special Blend

These products seemed worth giving a shot because they are from a company I like and are geared specifically toward pregnant women. They have an oil and soap bar. I will probably get both when I get the cash. The cost is reasonable and they contain cocoa butter which is the usual "go-to" remedy for stretching skin. I have heard that it doesn't work as well as people think but it certainly could be helpful in a mixture of several effective ingredients.

I never thought I would be so excited to rub lotion or oil on myself, but I am looking forward to an easier way to accomodate the oncoming stretching and want to have a picture perfect, smooth, firm belly.... but who doesn't?

Clothing
It is always exciting thinking about a new wardrobe. I remember my best-friend and I walking past the maternity sections of stores and talking about how we couldn't wait to be pregnant and have a reason to dress in these really cute clothes. Thinking back on it, it seems a little strange that we thought the maternity clothes were so cute but that may be because biologically and historically we were already at prime pregnancy age. Luckily, we both were smarter than the girls on "Teen-mom."
Looking through my closet and my wallet, I realize that I could probably stretch the wardrobe I have to accomodate my changing body for quite some time, as I have never really worn tight clothing. I think it was the picture below that got me all revved up to start thinking about how I will dress as a pregnant woman. I will really be dressing for fall and winter pregnancy, which is a little bit of a bummer because I like the idea of sundresses so much. I will just have to find a way to use them in layers.

What I really love most about this look from the Hatch Collection is the belt below the belly. I feel like many women wear things that have an empire waist and fall over the belly and straight down from there, resembling a sort of tent. Now, I really don't know how this will look on me because I don't have this woman's body to begin with, so I may not even be able to pull it off. However, I certainly don't want to look like I am wearing a tent. It seems as though the trick is to put a hand on your belly to show that you are carrying something other than some extra weight. It looks a little funny to me in photos, so why not just get an accessory to do it for you?
Here are some fall/winter maternity looks:

 I am really drawn to the dress with leggings and layers looks. I love the cropped leather jacket, mens-style shirt and very tailored wool coat and predict a great amount of chunky sweaters/sweater dresses with leggings for myself. My reality is probably a bit more like the last two looks that have a bit of Colorado mountain style mixed with California (another place I live and where I am from). These would be the casual and fancy versions of my usual pants and t-shirt look. This is why I am also excited about the fact that H&M also has maternity clothes since that is right up my alley for budget and convenience. All I need is an influx of money and I am off for new clothes and bras/underwear (those are a whole different story I don't even want to get into).

Diaper Bags
This purchase is so far in the future, but I still wanted to post a couple of looks that I really like. Mind you, these are regular purses that are just oversized and perhaps I am naive to think that this will work just the same as an overpriced diaper bag. These are all right around $50 or less.

The first one is a medical type bag with a structured bottom that would make it easier to see inside the bag when I need to dig for something, however it doesn't have many pockets. The second one has more  compartments and can be carried by a longer strap like a messenger bag, which may be easier when a baby is being carried in the front. The last one is the hobo-style bag that I am always drawn to and seems like something that will stay closed and be comfortable on the side to back part of my body. I am not sure which is the most practical, but the third one is probably the least. Once I get a better idea of what kind of daily maintenance products I will need, I will be able to make a better decision. 

For lunch today I had a tuna wedge salad with homemade ranch dressing. For dinner I made fish tacos and shrimp tacos. The pepper and onion mix I made to act as a filling was really spicy and I may have used too much lime because it started to make me a little nauseous. Other than that, I would definitely make it again with a different filling.

The Beauty of Being Pregnant

This morning I had a smoothie with greens, half of a banana, some almond butter, coconut milk and cocoa powder sweetened with stevia extract. Every other day is smoothie day because it seems to help me poop regularly. If I tried to have a smoothie every single day, my body would refuse to empty. It just wants to do every other day and there seems to be nothing I can do about it. I also had 2 eggs and 2 pieces of bacon. I didn't eat greens this morning except in my smoothie.

The Beauty of Being Pregnant
This isn't the part where I tell you how beautiful I feel and that my skin is radiant and glowing. The title is a bit of a joke. I'm going to tell you how I am beginning to feel a little bit like Shrek.
First of all, something I have noticed but haven't mentioned until now is what is happening with my skin. First it seemed to be some dark patches that looked a little bit like a birthmark. One whole armpit was covered and the other just had a strange spotted pattern. I also see it sometimes on my bikini line which is great for summer when it looks like I have a permanent 5 o'clock shadow around my bathing suit bottoms. It comes and goes in darkness but I always see it because I am looking for it. Then I noticed some light spots on my chest that looked like I got sunscreen dripped in spots and those spots didn't tan like the rest of me. I think those are pretty obvious now that I have a great summer tan but at least they match the ones that have shown up on the inside of my left elbow. Every now and again some of these areas become raised bumps, like little spotted welts. I haven't been to a dermatologist so I can assume that this is a hormonal situation.
This webpage talks a little about what it is and describes one cause as: "Hormone. Melasma is more likely to occur during pregnancy and with the use of oral contraceptives. There is also evidence to suggest that progesterone administered to postmenopausal women may also play a role in the development of melasma. Apart from the female hormones, it appears that thyroid gland disorders may also be a risk factor for melasma."
Sounds like fun! Here's a picture of an example on a woman's face.

The next thing that's going on is hair. I've always been pretty lucky in that the peach fuzz that covers most of my body is blonde. Even my leg hairs are still blonde. For some reason I still have to dye the stuff on my head though. Well, the other night I was looking down at my belly and noticed that the fuzz on it was quite a bit longer and more noticeable than I remembered. It was still light, so I don't mind much. However, when I pointed it out to my husband he grabbed his electric razor and started to go to town on my stomach until I pushed him away. It would serve him right if that bare spot grew back long and dark. Haha.... Actually, I'd rather it didn't. Well, the hair is not just more noticeable on my belly but also on my breasts. I'm not going to go into much more detail than that... except to say it reminded me of this scene from scrubs (no need to go past the 1 min. mark).
When I first noticed the hair on my belly, it kinda reminded me of this picture (below), but by no means is there nearly this much hair. It's just what the hair was doing and the shape that reminded me.

Perhaps one of my husband's favorite ogre-like symptoms I have acquired is the gas. Whether it's burping or farting, he puts up a whole big stink (haha pun). You'd think he'd be much happier with the burping, as it is not so much lethal as it is loud. He acts like he doesn't understand the fact that I can't burp quietly because all the air will not come out if I try to stifle myself and then I just end up in pain. As for the farting, well, it's just the most awful thing in the world. Some people can stand their own farts or even like them, but I have to admit that these are even unbearable for me. Sometimes my husband gags and I will not be surprised if he actually vomits one day. I do what I can in the way of letting it out somewhere else or at least warning him that it's happening, but that doesn't do much to help. I tell him that it is all revenge for when we first started living together and I awoke from a deep sleep to the horrific smell of one of his blasts.... seriously, a deep sleep.

One other thing I've been feeling is a fullness that I was associating with overeating and constipation (a symptom I've already covered quite extensively). It turns out that I was not overeating but the feeling is just another symptom. In the book Exercising Through Your Pregnancy by James F. Clapp M.D. he describes this fullness as a result of additional blood flow during early pregnancy: "the increased flow to the reproductive tissues ensures adequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the developing placenta and baby, but it also creates the uncomfortable sensation of pelvic and lower abdominal fullness."

Hopefully the last thing I have to report about (so far) is the death breath I have been walking around with. Of course the hormonal changes a pregnant woman goes through are the culprit of this fabulous affliction too. I honestly am not affected by it one bit, but that is because I am not trapped in an astronaut helmet forced to inhale my own stink breath. My husband is of course constantly reminding me of how awful I smell and I do what I can to cover it up. Hopefully the people I am coaching in beginning CrossFit classes aren't catching a whiff. Sorry.....

Besides all of this magic of pregnancy, I still feel beautiful. My skin does look nice (where it is not blotchy) and my belly is starting to round out a little. I am just beginning my second trimester which is supposed to be the best part and looking forward to it!

Favorite Foods and Working Out

Breakfast has pretty much been the same every morning, with the exception of adding a smoothie every other day. I love my eggs. They are my favorite thing to eat and believe it or not, bacon is second. My body just really wants that choline I guess. Sometimes when I'm done with breakfast I think, maybe I could just do the egg part again. I haven't had too much trouble with the greens. Spinach is my first choice, but I know kale is better. I try to switch off every once in a while. I even tried taking some sauteed mushrooms and leftover kielbasa and adding it to the kale mix. Good move.

Favorite Foods
Most of the time the food we are really drawn to or have strong cravings for contain some nutrient that our body is telling us it needs. I think the first thing is pretty obvious, as it is something I have every morning (see above pics).
Cholula- This is something I used to eat back in college days and decided to recently buy a bottle because I remember loving it's smoky flavor. It's not a very hot sauce, but the taste is amazing. I have been regularly dousing my eggs with it in the morning, but now I'm starting to lighten it up a bit and appreciate the taste of the actual eggs.
Seaweed salad- I bought a container of this at Costco and had to pry myself away from eating it all in one sitting. It is a little on the sweeter side and has an alkaline feeling in my stomach which makes it good for me to eat when feeling a little nauseous. Seaweed has numerous beneficial nutrients including:  iodine, calcium, vitamins A and B-12, protein and fiber. I have been worried a little about my calcium levels because I haven't had broccoli in a while and I know that it is the best source of calcium of all green plants. But wait! Actually, seaweed is the best source. I really just found this out after having decided we should have broccoli with dinner. Broccoli contains 1 third of the amount of calcium compared to a portion of seaweed that is 35% smaller. Now I know why I want it so bad.
Horseradish mustard- We bought this at whole foods (it's their brand) and I can't find enough excuses to eat it! I love it. What could possibly be in it that I need? Besides boosting the body's intake of certain vitamins and minerals it also contains small amounts of selenium, magnesium, phosphorus and calcium. The mustard seeds themselves have insignificant amounts of various vitamins and minerals as well. This one may just be a typical vinegar/salt craving.
Pickles and Tahini- This is my substitute for pickles and peanut butter. By no means is this a craving I developed while being pregnant. The combination of pickles and pb has been around since I was a kid and my dad used to make it into sandwiches. I loved it then and still do, but since I don't eat peanut butter I had to find a comparable substitute. Tahini had the right salty alkaline qualities to offset the crisp, cool dill pickle. Sesame seeds are also on some lists for superfoods during pregnancy because they contain high levels of calcium besides their contribution to daily needs of thiamin, phosphorus and copper.
It's funny how I thought I wasn't getting enough calcium.
Lamb- The lamb meatballs we made the other night were amazing as usual and of course go extremely well with the homemade baba ghanouj and tahini I've been eating. It would seem as though I'm on a middle-eastern kick. The lamb is obviously helping with the high amounts of iron a pregnant woman needs to keep up energy levels while growing all that extra blood. I am truly lucky that we have access to such high quality lamb through our CSA with Herondale Farm.
Tomatoes- I have been eating quite a lot of tomatoes lately. I don't know if it is because we have access to so many during this time of year, or if I'm just drawn to their sweetness. I really like the little grape tomatoes I can pop in my mouth like candy. We have also been buying some heirloom tomatoes from farms and some of these are just amazing sliced and eaten as is. The flavor is crazy sometimes, like it has been seasoned. All it takes is a little splash of balsamic or a pinch of salt and I could eat a bowl full of tomato salad. I am definitely missing the luxury of goat or feta or buffalo mozzarella cheese bits though.  :(
Taken from LiveStrong.com:
"Like most vegetables, the tomato is nutrient-rich, supplying your body with essential vitamins and minerals needed for good health. A 1 cup serving of chopped or sliced tomatoes contains 25 mg of vitamin C, 27 mcg of folate, 1,499 IU of vitamin A and 427 mg of potassium. Vitamin C is necessary for the formation of collagen, and the support protein for your skin and ligaments. Folate is a B vitamin necessary for the formation of red blood cells and DNA. Vitamin A supports growth and health of teeth and bones. Potassium is a mineral needed for proper heart function and muscle contractions."

Besides the above foods, I have of course been having cravings of milk and cheese and soft, squishy rolls with onions on them and all the other things I see at the store. I smell all the cheeses on display at Whole Foods and daydream about my favorite sharp cheddar to the point of almost tasting it. I smelled a baguette the other night and was having a really hard time walking away from it. I'm pretty sure I seem like a crazy person... but it is worth it. I smell my husband's sangria, barrels of roasted coffee beans and anything that has an aroma to stop me in my tracks. It's always only the things I can't have. Sometimes I think if I smell it long enough I can recall that smell and imaginary taste later when sitting on the couch imagining my future re-introduction to these foods. It makes my mouth water and I almost start chewing on my own tongue. I decided that as soon as I can eat bread and cheese again I will get myself a baguette and a good hunk of cheese and put slices of the cheese in the baguette and eat it just like I did in France at 16 years old. The way I figure it is, if I breastfeed for a year after my due date I only 560 days until I can have this dream come true. If I breastfeed for 1 1/2 years that makes 742 days. Geez. That's not a bummer....

For lunch today I had leftover spaghetti squash with meat sauce and a little seaweed salad for some greens. This meat sauce is a total comfort food for me. I can't get enough of it! Definitely gonna have a huge stash of this for when the baby comes. Below is a picture of a dinner we had with sausage and organic farm peppers and an heirloom tomato and arugula salad on the side. Also another favorite meal maybe because it is so extremely easy.

Working Out
I finally got off of my lazy ass yesterday and went to the gym again. I haven't been feeling as exhausted during the day as I was before, so now I really have no excuse for not working out.

Yesterdays WOD:
Squat cleans- I did 5 at 65lbs. - 5 at 85 lbs. - 5 at 105 lbs.

10 chin ups (I did ring rows)
15 sec Support hold on the rings

3 rounds (I only completed 2 in the time allowed)

Barbell Complex:
5 – Deadlift
2 – Hang power clean
2 – Front squat
2 – Front rack lunge (alt legs)
2 – Hang power clean
5 – Deadlift

***10 rounds***

-The entire complex must be unbroken. If the bar is dumped at any time, the round must be started over
-increase the weight by 5-10 lbs each round

I did 8 rounds total: 5 rounds at 65 lbs. - 1 at 85 lbs. - 1 at 75 lbs. - 1 at 65 lbs.

We got to see our little guy/girl on Tuesday at a sonogram appointment. I will get into detail in the next post.

Dinner tonight is fish and broccoli. We bought some wild Hake at Costco. It is a mild white fish and comes in a long skinny piece that reminded me of fish and chips.

Breastfeeding

This morning I started off my breakfast with a chocolate, banana, almond butter and coconut shake. Not too shabby, right? This is something I have found gets my digestive system moving a little bit (helps me poop) before I put some solid food in it. I will hopefully be getting some more of the powdered greens (chocolate flavored this time) to add to the mix to make it more effective. A little while after this I had my usual breakfast with eggs, a wilted green, a piece of the best batch of bacon we've gotten from Herondale Farm and a couple of tomatoes because they are sweet and delicious on top of giving me extra vitamin C and other benefits. I have also stopped taking probiotics in the morning to curb the nausea that they seem to cause.

Breastfeeding
I certainly don't want to pass judgement on anyone about their personal choices but I happened to be a pretty opinionated person and this is an attempt at a warning that my following comments may offend those who choose not to breastfeed.
The only two reasons I can come up with that are acceptable for not breast-feeding your child are: 1. if you physically cannot do it (be it a health problem, impossibility to latch, being a male/male couple, etc...) and 2. complete ignorance about it, which is barely acceptable.
Why when you choose to be a mother (hopefully it is a conscious decision) would you not want to give your baby the best start in life that is available to them? First of all, let's just take a look at the difference between breastmilk and formula under a microscope.

Here is another example of how much breastmilk contains in comparison with formula and cow's milk.
What are the benefits of breastfeeding you ask?

Benefits of breastfeeding for the baby
1. A 50% less cases of ear infections for infants EBF (exclusively breastfed) at least 3 - 6 months
2. A 42% less chance of eczema for infants EBF at least 3 months
3. Babies have 64% less vomiting and diarrhea with any breastfeeding vs. none
4. A 72% less rate of lower respiratory tract infections/like pneumonia, bronchiolitis and
    hospitalization with EBF at least 4 months
5. Asthma is less 40% for children who were breastfed at least 3months
6. Obesity is less 4-24%
7. Type 1 Diabetes is less 19-27% for infants breastfed at least 3months
8. Type 2 Diabetes is less 39% with any breastfeeding vs. none
9. Cancer: ALL less 19% with breastfeeding at least 6 months; AML less 15% with breastfeeding
    at least 6 months (these are two kinds of leukemia’s that affect children)
10. SIDS less 36% with any breastfeeding vs. none

Benefits of breastfeeding for the mother
1. Type 2 Diabetes is less 4-12% for each year of breastfeeding for women without a
    history of gestational Diabetes
2. Pre-menopausal breast cancer less 4.3-28% for each year of breastfeeding
3. Ovarian cancer less 21% for any vs. no breastfeeding and evidence for dose response (i.e.
    greater protection with more breastfeeding)
4. Post-partum depression occurs less for short breastfeeding moms vs. no breastfeeding

Those are just the more scientific facts. Let's talk about all the other things:

-A woman's body will return to pre-pregnancy shape much faster than a non-breastfeeding mother because a feeding mother burns a ton of extra calories as well as she is producing a hormone while doing it that causes her uterus to shrink back to normal size much faster.

-It's free! How can you argue with that? It costs nothing but what you feed yourself and it's always there. You never have to mix up formula, warm a bottle and test it before feeding your baby at 3 am. Plus you will have less bottles to clean.

-Breastfeeding provides your baby with the perfect balance of fat, protein, vitamins and provides preparation of the digestive system for future feeding. You cannot simulate this mix with anything else because it is alive with white protective bloodcells.

-You will have better bonding with your baby and more time to do it. This is preventative of postpartum depression.

-Your baby will be smarter! Not just because of the nutrients you are providing but also because of the time you are spending with your newborn.
-Your baby will most likely sleep better at night as your milk supplies him/her with melatonin during those evening feeding sessions.

Here are two great sources of in depth information on the subject from Web MD and the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Here is a very important read about why a mother may have trouble with breastfeeding because of her baby's tongue. This is an unfortunate situation to find yourself in and thankfully this very smart mother did all of the research for us. You can bet that my husband got his tongue checked by me after reading this and my baby can expect the same thing when it comes out.

For lunch I ate leftover lamb meatballs with homemade baba ghanouj, horseradish mustard, red onion and pickles on top of arugula. Sounds like a weird combo, but it was delicious!

For dinner, we met some friends at Joe's Crab Shack. My sister-in-law told me about their buckets of shrimp and crab and I'd been thinking about it ever since. How could I not try that? Well, the place is a little hokey but the food was good and it was a fun experience. I think that the specific bucket I ordered didn't have enough seasoning on it, as I was trying to be super-primal. Also, the lobster wasn't as worth the work as the crab. Next time I will order differently, but I would do it again.

Food Aversions, Constipation and Midwives

It's been a couple of days since I've had greens for breakfast. This is not just because I ran out of spinach, but also because I don't feel I can stomach kale lately. We bought some from a farmer's market yesterday and after reading that it is only bitter when it is going bad, I tried the fresh bunch with today's breakfast and it was fine.

Food Aversions
When I think of greens, I don't think of the picture on the left, I think of the wilted slimy hot mess they will become in order for me to eat them. This picture even makes my stomach turn a little. This has been my problem since my first bout with nausea weeks ago. Things that are bitter turn me off and make me lose my appetite altogether. Salad with a little too much vinegar in the dressing, the fridge full of leaves my husband insists I eat and even the thought of the steak-burgers I got in the mail make me want to go upstairs and sleep through dinner time. Last night I knew I had to get some more greens in my body since it had been days without more than a caesar salad to balance out my nutritional needs. I decided that maybe I could eat kale if I made a soup with the canned organic butternut squash we had in the cupboard. My thinking was that the thick and somewhat creamy sweet squash broth would drown out the bitterness. It didn't turn out the way I expected, but it was damn good. I used leftover italian sausage, red onion, homemade beef broth, butternut squash and some leftover pizza sauce to make a very meaty italian soup. It is quite possible that having this soup with greens in it helped me with my latest constipation problem.

Constipation
This article helpfully discusses why it is that pregnant women get constipated. I was using the greens that I added to my smoothies to help me regulate my system, however these are expensive and not always around. They contained psyllium husk, which is the main ingredient in most fiber supplements. This morning I woke up with my back a little sore and have been feeling full and bloated lately. I thought something's got to give today or I will be in worse shape tomorrow. Luckily, I had some relief this morning maybe from the kale I got down last night or the bowl of fruit salad I made for dessert. It really goes to show you how big of a part fruits and veggies play in your diet.
Another thing I discovered is coconut water. One morning I was having the same issue and decided that I would drink a coconut water first thing on an empty stomach. This proved to be a good move. As I researched a little today, I was able to confirm that coconut water has natural laxative effects. My assumption is that when used on an empty stomach, your body is more easily able to absorb it and not only cause quick hydration (needed for regularity) but have a more efficient laxative result.
One other helpful thing during constipation is exercise. This can be a catch 22 as nobody really feels like moving around too much when they feel "full of shit" so to speak.

Midwives
We met with our first midwife on Friday afternoon and a second one on Thursday. We could continue the interview process and meet with many more, but since we had such great experiences with both of them, we can probably just make a decision at this point. One thing we did before meeting was make sure to have a list of questions. Here is our list based on some of the suggestions made in the homebirth forum I was reading in an earlier post:

-What will we need as far as pool rental, birthing stool and birthing kits go?
-Is there a back up plan if the midwife does not arrive in time?
-is there a problem if the pregnancy goes past the due date?
-How often do their clients tear and what they did to prevent tearing?
-What about harvesting cord blood?
-What doctors do they recommend or work with?
-What insurance do they take, if any? How much will this cost us?
-What is their experience and background?

-How often does a client need to transfer to a hospital?

We were told by both that they have specific doctors they like to work with and would have a list of recommended doulas if we decide to get one. We probably will based on the fact that both really seemed to be in favor of it. Both were willing to travel to where we live, which is 45 minutes away. They also had the same reaction to my question of them not arriving in time. I got a laugh and the response that I was a very lucky woman if this were to happen because that would be record breaking labor time. I really felt comfortable with both women and they were completely open to our lifestyle. I was told that my nutrition and overall state of health would play a factor in whether or not I would have tearing and how much. Insurance will cover most of it except for a doula and possibly the pool rental fee. As far as harvesting cord blood (something for a future post), one of the midwives made us feel like it would be no big deal for her to take care of it and the other suggested we have someone else there to handle it. This was pretty much the only difference between the two of them besides age, location, years of experience and one of them being a certified nurse. Despite the fact that she is not currently a certified nurse (but will be by the time we deliver), we decided (or my husband decided) on the midwife who will handle the cord blood. After all, you do want everything to be taken care of by the people you are hiring right? I think I liked her because she told me I was healthy and seemed to be doing everything right. It certainly doesn't hurt to be flattered and have your own thoughts confirmed. It also sounds a little funny, but I liked that she gave me a hug when I left her office. I found this to be a very comforting gesture from someone who will have a major part in our family for this monumental event and who will (pardon me) be seeing an awful lot of my vagina.

Food and A Couple of Things

Breakfast has been pretty much the same as always: 2 eggs, some bacon, some wilted greens, water and vitamins. I did have someone suggest that I take my vitamins later in the day because of the slight nausea I was feeling. I actually ended up taking them at lunch and realized that perhaps dinner would be better. But, of all the vitamins I take, the probiotic seems to be the culprit in upsetting my stomach. We might have to try another brand as my husband is adamant that I take them with every meal.
We've had a couple of fun meals in the last few days.

On Wednesday night we went to Peter Luger Steakhouse to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. We had the most amazing (non-pastured) bacon pictured above, followed by a 36 oz steak for two being polished off in the photo below. I did feel guilty eating grain-fed beef and non-pastured bacon. It tasted amazing as is expected of this famous place. 

This breakfast includes a little salmon patty from the batch of homemade salmon burgers we made on Thursday night.

I made a batch of homemade baba ghanouj by roasting an organic eggplant and blending it in the food processor with some seasoning. This is an easy dip for veggies and should be a constant staple in our fridge.

Saturday afternoon I had a hankering for baking and needed to eat lunch, so I decided to play around with a recipe for pizza dough. I also really just wanted something bready with olive oil on it. I was pretty pleased with the way this turned out, so I will make it again tomorrow for my husband's birthday. In the version below, I did not have any tomato sauce so I blended some basil, spinach, roasted garlic, olive oil, splash of lemon and a little sea salt in the bullet to make a type of pesto sauce. To the top of this I added sliced tomato, red onion and portobello mushroom slices. I did not have any meat handy unfortunately so I followed up the four pieces with a leftover salmon burger. Big mistake. I've been eating too much lately and this was one of those times.

Last night we made orange chicken and wilted bok choy. This was also a whim project and came out pretty tasty but was a big difference from the inspiration dish with it's slimy coated pieces of chicken (gross but yummy). 

I followed this meal up with an amazing fruit salad that had pieces of watermelon, pluot, blueberries and golden raisins, covered with a mixture of homemade peach preserves and a splash of coconut milk. I also added a lite dusting of stevia to make sure it was super sweet. It was pretty damned satisfying. 

A Couple of Things
1. Mosquitos seriously bug. It has been that time of year for a while and I feel like I am walking bait. I don't know if it's because I am growing blood or because I smell different or both. I really feel like mosquitos favor me a hell of alot more than everyone else especially because they never used to be that interested in me. According to this article it is true that pregnant women attract more of these blood-suckers. However, it is not proven and they can only make guesses about why it seems true. While looking for answers I was also coming across articles about west nile virus and malaria. Great. I think I will definitely be purchasing a clip on mosquito repellant or start applying some oils of naturally repelling plants. I do have Dr. Bronner's eucalyptus oil soap. It might not hurt to start using this as a bodywash or just dabbing a tiny bit on the backs of my knees, ankles and inside of the elbow (just figuring these places give off more heat and will cover my legs which get bit the most). We took our dogs to a dog beach the other day and literally walked a 100 yard mosquito gauntlet. My legs look like a braille map of pink constellations.
2. Constipation is a wonderful part of pregnancy. Yes, that is sarcasm and yes, I'm talking about poop... or lack thereof. I have had this problem starting with the grain-fed steak dinner. It is suspect and probably not a huge surprise that changing the quality of my food would cause such trouble. I am not having a meal like this (a kind of quality "cheat") for a while because of how I feel now. It's really been a frustrating last couple of days as I continue to put food in and nothing comes out. I did have my little container of greens that contained psyllium husk and seemed to help with the situation, but we ran out. Not to mention that most of the time if you are not regular to begin with the psyllium tends to add to the problem and just cause bloating. Granted, I did eat at Fette Sau today and had even more amazing bacon than the piece I already showed you. But this is it for low quality meat. No more. Hopefully I will get back on track and be regular again. I apologize for this information, but a person just doesn't feel so hot when they are stuffed up with waste and it really goes to show that what you eat can have a big difference on how your system operates.
3. Symptoms like the faint nausea can possibly be diverted with moving around the time in which I take my vitamins as discussed earlier.
Now, I don't know if this is a pregnancy thing or what, but the other night I had a nose-bleed. Of course my reaction, to be a little dramatic, was to yell "I'm anemic!" I really haven't had a bloody nose in a long time. The last time was at 10,000 ft above sea-level in a super dry climate. It's pretty darn humid where I am now and I remain a little baffled. So, let's just blame it on pregnancy.
Another thing I've got going on is constant burping. My husband yells at me every time I do it, as if I can control it. You know what I say? Tough shit.
This is something that seems to be just recently happening and could certainly be caused by what I'm eating. At first I thought it was happening because of the shredded yam I used in our salmon patties, but I was going again pretty good today and had no salmon at all. It could be the fish oil, although I'm not getting any fishy flavor coming up. It just seems I am full of gas and it's coming out the more controllable end (for now). It's possible my body is just having trouble accommodating the food that continues to go in and not come out.
4. Overeating was bound to happen at some point and having a kitchen stocked with fun stuff to play with doesn't seem to help. The first step is admitting it, right? Checking out my thigh-size in the mirror this morning was checking back into reality for a second. I realize this past week has gotten out of control, but now I know what I have to do to get back on track. I will not overstuff myself. I will be consistent with my workouts again (I worked out on Wednesday, Friday and plan to get in on Sunday).  My usual every-other-day system is back in effect. I will stop eating poor quality foods and cut down on the fruit. Hopefully I can still weigh in at 157 lbs at my Aug. 27th doctors appointment.

Questions: "Pump and Dump"

This morning's breakfast was the same as yesterday's: 2 eggs, bacon, wilted spinach and a handful of heirloom tomatoes. These little things are amazing because each one has a distinctive flavor. I even got one that tasted like a miniature melon or berry, it was so sweet. I've been on a kick adding lemon to my water. I used to hate lemons in my water, but after the trip to Vegas I have just loved the taste. I am wondering if this is my body craving more vitamin C. After all, I don't drink orange juice. I'm definitely getting a little bored with the spinach and think maybe a squirt of lemon will liven it up for me.

I also seem to be feeling a distant nausea that is so faint I am unsure if it is only in the back of my mind or a real possible threat. I ignore it and eat and it goes away for a little while.

Questions

Q: What is it to "pump and dump"?

In my daydreams about when I can eat cheese and drink coffee or wine again, I imagine that I can just pump the breast-milk I would otherwise be giving my baby after these little indiscretions and pour it down the drain. When I bring it up to my husband he argues with me about the fact that the dairy is still in my system and really never goes away. To this I say "Well, then isn't all the dairy I've ever had still in my system? So what's the point of not eating it if it's still gonna get into my baby?" Thus the research begins. How many dumps until the baby will not actually get any dairy in the breast-milk? The same with caffeine, alcohol and grains?

A: It is exactly what it sounds like. You would pump your breast milk after consuming something you do not want to pass to your baby and then dispose of it. The easiest thing to address first is the consumption of alcohol. This site tells us that once alcohol is out of your blood, it is out of your milk as well. So, as long as you have some back up milk if you baby gets hungry, you don't have to dump the milk you produce after drinking. Obviously if you still feel intoxicated, you're not going to breast feed. It might also just be safer to wait until the next morning to pass the milk on to your baby. This is under the stipulation that only 1 or 2 drinks are being consumed (as I generally don't last past one glass of wine or one bottled cider). Likewise, remember that alcohol that comes from grains (beer, etc...) is still putting "grains" into your system also.

Now, I will address grains or mainly gluten, as that is the easiest to find information for. I found this article which makes me think that in between the 4th month and 6th month of breastfeeding it might not be such a bad idea to introduce a little gluten through the breast milk. Why? Well, I think about my husband's lactose intolerance and seeing him writhe in pain after eating one of my favorite recipes that contained heavy cream (in the tiniest amount). This was a while ago and obviously we don't eat that recipe anymore without cutting out the cream. I would hate for my child to never have any gluten introduced into his/her system and then accidentally eat something that contains it and have a dangerous reaction. Heaven forbid it happens when I or my husband are not around. Besides that, for people who have intolerances (lucky me to never have suffered so) wouldn't they rather not have to suffer from severe reactions, should they one day eat something they know they shouldn't? I'm not going to be able to control what my child eats for their entire life and I'm sure they are bound to make some unhealthy decisions at some point. I'd rather it didn't come with such a painful price. I will compare it to chicken pox: It is better to let the child get it and recover than to have the child grow up and get a case of shingles, which can be tremendously worse and possibly deadly. Right?

So the question then becomes, how long does it take to rid the gluten or gluten antibodies from your system. Well, I read one article that says the half-life is 3-4 months which would make the whole life 6-8 months. This is also dependent on how healthy the person is to begin with. This article also suggests that it will take around 6 months to get gluten out of your system. So the "pump and dump" method is clearly not an option for at least 1 grain. If I can discuss this with my husband and get his okay, it looks like I may only be able to have 1 meal that includes grains and that being for the purpose I stated earlier.

I also looked into rice, but couldn't even find what it introduces to your system to cause an allergy and therefore could not find how long it would take to get it to leave. My guess is that it just passes through like food, but that's just a guess.

Dairy is the current argument point, so I will explore that one next. Here's a quote from this article:

"Milk protein can be eliminated completely from a person’s system anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days, depending on her metabolism and the amount of dairy products she has consumed." 

Let's consider this person (me) has no dairy in the system to begin with, is as healthy as one can be, and has a high metabolism from continuous exercise. It is probably safe to assume that if I do not go on a crazy cheese binge or try to do the milk challenge, I can safely "pump and dump" for 24 hours and not have to worry about passing dairy proteins on through my breast milk. This is probably not enough research for my husband and I will probably need to do a follow-up. I'd really like some more specific answers that involve the differences between raw milk/cheese and pasteurized and how those get processed through the body.

Caffeine is hopefully more along the lines of alcohol. One person suggested that you'd have to urinate to get the toxins out of your body, but that doesn't really have and back-up info or make enough sense to me. This site suggests that after 12-15 hours there is no caffeine still in the system while this article says that it can be 3-12 hours for a half dose of caffeine (1/2 cup?). If I do end up drinking coffee, it will most likely be decaffeinated and will contain certainly no more than 20 mg of caffeine. As long as I "dump" one load of breast milk, I can assume that my intake is otherwise completely harmless to the baby.

 

For lunch I had leftover chili, a small salad and some squash bread that I baked today. It was a little too sweet, so I lowered the amount of xylitol before posting the recipe. This has two yellow squashes and two zucchinis and no sugar or grains! It's really really good. I just worried a little about the amount of xylitol because it has been known to cause "digestive discomfort" or diarrhea when consumed in large amounts. No reactions to it yet!

 

Last night for dinner we had blackened fish (half a piece of cod and mahi mahi each) and roasted carrots with dill. This is such an awesome recipe because it is super simple and tastes better than you could ever imagine carrots to taste. All it takes is some sliced carrots (it's easier just to use organic baby carrots out of the package), some fresh dill, sea salt and a fat to cook in. I used a combo of lard and bacon grease. You just roast all of this together until the carrots are forkable. It probably takes about 30 to 45 minutes. The blackening seasoning used on the fish is found here. I put the fish on some arugula to get some greens in the meal. 

Tonight we are having slow-cooked country pork ribs and collard greens with homemade bar-b-que sauce.

Morning Sickness? Working Out and Ice Cream

I am back on the Cholula and trying a different flavor too! The bottom half of the eggs are covered with  the chili garlic flavor. It's good. It's not what I expected and you definitely have to be in the mood for garlic first thing in the morning, otherwise it's probably amazing on tacos. My husband is stoked on it, which makes me happy since I am obsessed with the original. 

Morning Sickness?

Friday morning at about 4 am I woke up to pee and felt nauseous. I tried to ignore it and went back to sleep however, when I woke up later that morning I still felt it. It wasn't an urgent puking feeling but the feeling before that tells you it might get that bad. I started off with a little water before getting up and going downstairs. The first think I did was eat a banana. The sugar/starch base seemed to mellow the queesiness enough for me to make my usual breakfast and even continue with my Cholula covered eggs. The nausea continued throughout the day as a distant warning but never got worse than that. Despite the fact that it made me not want to eat, I did it anyway. Someone once said I love to eat and well, who doesn't? Every time I ate something the feeling went away for a little while. 

Why was I feeling this way? My thought was that it was too late for morning sickness to start as I am already into my 9th week. So, I started thinking that maybe it was food poisoning or that maybe I swallowed too much chlorine during my body-fat test (something we did at the gym involving submerging yourself entirely in a small pool by letting out all of your air... during which I'm pretty sure some of the water went up my nose because I was tasting chlorine for the rest of the night... Ick!). Just thinking about it makes me nauseous. I don't know what was happening here but luckily the next morning it was gone and all I had was a memory of the feeling. By this, I mean that if I thought about it hard enough I could bring the whole nausea back again. Maybe morning sickness is more of a mental thing and if you just try to ignore it and move along your day as you normally would, you could suffer from it less. Wouldn't that be nice...

For lunch I had a salmon burger on some cut organic pea shoots with tomato, big mac sauce, mustard and relish. Today's lunch was my second day having tuna salad, which seems to taste realllllly good to me lately. It all started when I came home on Saturday and while walking up the stairs to my apartment I kept smelling tuna salad on toasted bread. I could actually smell the toasted bread which was really the most enticing part. I ate a ton of tuna salad as a child and at some point decided I was over it. When I got older, I realized I could put more in it than just the mayo and relish I grew up with. So, I got fancy with it and used homemade mayo (equal parts extra light tasting evoo and an egg), onion and garlic powder, fresh organic dill, salt and a splash of white vinegar. To the mixed liquids and tuna I added chopped red onion and some pickle relish. Today I just poured the sauce over the tuna and two small wedges of iceberg lettuce and added some grape tomato slices. It was so good I could make it again right now but I'm waiting for dinner.

Working Out

Friday I did half of Angie instead of the full workout, as this was my first day back after vacation and I was still faintly nauseous.

So, my workout looked like:

50 pullups

50 pushups 

50 situps

50 air squats

my time: 21 minutes and 25 seconds

I went really slow and took my time obviously.

Ice Cream

We bought this coconut ice cream at Whole Foods on Thursday and it was gone by Saturday night. I made it perfectly clear that if there was ever to be a crisis-quencher during the future of this pregnancy, this is the motherlode. This is absolutely without question the best mint and chip ice-cream that a non-dairy, sugar-free eating person could dream of. I dare not say that it wipes out all dairy competition because it has been so long since I have had any. When I am eating this, I don't care about all the other possibilities. Mint chip has been my favorite flavor for a while and we've tried to whip up our own batches with coconut milk and stevia, but I think I can relinquish that trouble to the experts. My husband said I can't eat it all the time because it's ingredient list is not just as simple as coconut milk, stevia, peppermint extract and dark chocolate. Okay, that's fine... but one day I may be moaning my head off for it and I will not be refused. I will save my battle for then.

Holy balls... they make butter-pecan too...... I'm trying that next!

For Dinner we are having chili-fries (my favorite). We made this on Saturday night and had leftovers to eat tonight. How can you not eat these? They are sweet potato fries, but the sweetness is that much better with hot meaty chili on top! My husband made this batch and he must at this point realize that he is supposed to chop the onions a little better (per MY recipe)... I hope.

Tired, Doctors Appointment and Chocolate

Tired
I really have been exhausted the past couple of days. I was reading on my Sprout app that it is common to do something as simple as a load of laundry and feel like you've run a marathon. This ran through my head the other day when I got up in the morning to pee and had to go back to lay in bed for a few minutes before heading downstairs for breakfast. Sometimes I even come downstairs and need to sit on the couch for about 20 minutes before I can muster up the energy to make myself breakfast. This is the hardest part because I know that once I get the fuel in, everything else will be a little easier. I certainly wasn't this tired last week when I was on vacation, fortunately. Maybe it just has to do with getting closer to the second trimester or the fact that I am overdue for a workout.

This morning I am trying a different hot sauce because my beloved Cholula bottle flew out of the fridge door and shattered a couple of days ago. Wah wahhhhhh.....
This sauce is not cutting it. I will be buying a replacement bottle today! Today's breakfast is wilted spinach, 2 eggs, CSA bacon, avocado and an organic pluot from Trader Joe's (that's a plum/apricot). I am eating this fruit knowing that later today I will be getting back in the gym.

Doctor's Appointment
I finally had my first visit with an ob/gyn. This was just at a women's health center because I do not have insurance or another doctor. Despite the scary scene in the waiting room, both the doc and nurse were very nice and seemed pretty pleased to have two normal and seemingly "educated people"- to use the doctor's words- in their office. The nurse weighed me and it turns out that switching to 100% primal eating knocked off about 3lbs. from my previous 160. YAY! I can still have hopes for a Bergeron-type body! The doc then did a breast and pelvic exam and sent us into another room for a sonogram. Awesome. After he moved the scanning piece around for a few seconds to get a good angle, I could see a little smudge in a dark area he pointed out as the uterus. It looked a little like the graphic I've been staring at on my phone in the Sprout app. Then he hit a button and after some fuzz and what seemed to be my own heartbeat, in came the sound of the little smudge's own heart. Wow. There really is something in there, and its alive! I got choked up for a second and let out a little laugh, and in doing so, knocked the paddle off the perfect view and ended up with the image below. You can still see my little smudge in the dark area at the top, intersected by the vertical line.

After this exciting moment we went into the office again to speak with the nurse about what I need to do to get Medicaid coverage. Luckily for me, it is an easy process and I get coverage as soon as a doctor confirms I am pregnant. There are a couple of hoops to jump through, classes to take and financial papers to track down but it is worth it. Once we've been approved we pick a specific care provider and that's it! Today, my job is to start talking to potential midwives and finding out who takes insurance and what provider so we can make a better choice when the time comes. 

I am also set up for another sonogram in a month. I am just as excited for a better look at this little smudge.

For lunch I had a hot dog from our CSA and an organic pickle. I finally found a store on Staten Island that sells ones with no sugar added in the brine. They are good and now I have to ration them because the store is on the other side of the island and the darn things were $5 for the jar. My favorite snack is pickles dipped in peanut-butter, but I've been off of peanuts for a while now.   :(   It's not a pregnancy craving, its a genius pairing of something slightly salty and warm and creamy with something crisp and cool and acidic. If you've never tried it, get on it (or not, because it's not primal). It's not the same with almond butter either because that stuff is way too sweet.

For my second lunch, which totally ruined my appetite for dinner, I had a primal big mac experiment. I took one of my steak-burgers I got online (grass-fed), chopped up some red onion and the crispy part of romaine and covered it with my version of the big mac sauce made in this video. It was good except the burger wasn't cooked enough and probably could have used some more salt (not to mention it's just not the same without that cold piece of american cheese). This was at 7pm which is normal dinner time for most people. However, real dinner comes at around 10pm when my husband is working. I didn't want to ruin my dinner... it's just that I made the sauce and how was I not going to try it? Needless to say, I had maybe 2 bites of steak and some broccolini with my husband and set the rest aside for another meal.

Chocolate

The battle has begun whether or not chocolate is good during pregnancy. In my opinion, it will make me very happy at times and that's a winning situation altogether. There is the fact that it supposedly has caffeine. I say "supposedly" because of an article I read (here) that another chemical in chocolate called theobromine causes a natural high feeling which is rumored to be what people are mistaking for the effects of caffeine. Some studies suggest that it is beneficial but still needs to be regulated. The recommended maximum consumption of caffeine for a pregnant woman is 200 mg. To me, that seems hugely excessive and ridiculous. I am using raw cacao powder and nibbling on pieces from chocolate bars here and there and through all the numbers I've looked at, 1 gram of dark chocolate (or cacao powder) is equal to 1 mg of caffeine. This means that 1 tsp of the stuff equaling 4 grams has only 4 mg of caffeine. So, when I make a glass of chocolate coconut milk and use 2.5 to 3 teaspoons of cacao powder, I am only consuming 10-12 mg of caffeine. I think that is pretty close to nothing of a risk when you consider all the other health (and mood) benefits of chocolate talked about here and here. I think this is still an ongoing search for me to find better answers about the stuff, but at least for now I have a decent amount of information that says a little may be better than none.

PS. I was a lazy bum and did not work out today, but I did get some other things accomplished instead.