7 Month Check Up

I'm doing my glucose test this morning, so a lot of waiting around! I also had my 7 month check up - everything is good, the heartbeat is strong (it should be, this kid is raging around in there like a champ). 

I only gained 1 pound this month, officially, though probably a couple more since the last time I was weighed it was 4 PM and I got weighed at 8 AM this time. I'm pleased with that - trying to gain only baby weight from here on out, not Jeanette weight!

It's still a little struggle to accept my body - it's strange to not fit into my normal sports bras and for nothing with a waistband to fit and shirts not cover my belly! I did a little shopping to fill in some gaps, but I hate spending money on temporary clothes.

Going to a rehearsal dinner tonight at a super awesome restaurant! I'm excited to hang out with lots of friends tonight and to eat some great food. Big treat for me! I got a pretty maternity dress at Target for $15 for the event- I love deals :)

I'll leave you with a picture Chris snapped of me and Koda that I love:

Purple Foods

I'm at 28 weeks pregnant today! Can't quite believe it - about 3 months to go till I can meet my baby :) Still feeling pretty good physically: I'm walking a ton still, getting enough sleep (despite multiple bathroom breaks in the middle of the night!), and not suffering any of the ill effects that are possible at this point in a pregnancy (big knock on wood there!!). My biggest discomfort is no longer being able to lie on my back without feeling suffocated. 

I've definitely put on weight - I'll find out how much at my appointment on Friday (I'm getting my glucose test done this week). I tried a pair of shorts that were a size 4 and they didn't even go up my thighs! I have a couple, stretchier pairs of sixes that still fit (under my belly haha) but it's weird to see shorts/leggings/underwear/etc that fit for years all of a sudden NOT. 

I'm not one of those super fit moms-to-be who only have a baby belly. I filled out for sure! Still coming to terms with that and believing I'll get my body back. I'm just not as strict as I used to be with food and exercise as I used to be - for good reason: I want my baby to have the best possible environment in my body it can! If I'm hungry, I eat (I used to not mind a little bit of hunger here and there, going to bed hungry or whatever), if I'm tired, I sleep (I used to go without a little bit of sleep here and there to get up earlier to work out), and my workouts are not intense like they used to be (no big jarring jumping around and twisting around - sticking to walking/hiking and yoga). It's just what is feeling right for me right now and my baby is thriving - moving a ton, right on schedule as far as size, great heartbeat. So I'm happy :)

So even though I'm off my paleo template, I'm still sticking with my rules of limiting my grains to one or two servings a day. The reason is because I needed to focus on getting a wider variety of nutrients - more fruits and veggies! Been doing pretty well at this, apparently I was craving purple foods (eat the rainbow!) today because we came home with this from the co-op this morning:

Grapes, fairy tale eggplant, purple peppers (my first time seeing these!), and plums! I think my body was trying to tell me something- that I need something in purple foods, maybe antioxidants? 

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-you-should-eat-more-purple-fruits-and-vegetables.html

Been working to get in my greens, too. Putting whole bags of spinach into a smoothie with coconut milk and berries is one way! Last week we precooked lots of sautéed zucchini and I had some at every lunch.

So to recap - I'm eating more than maybe necessary, but me and baby are feeling really good and healthy and getting lots of rest and nutritious foods. It's not the time in my life to focus on my aesthetic body. I'm not going terribly off the rails, don't worry, health is still the goal (and getting back to obesity is NOT how I plan to start my life as a mom). I've just realized what's more important than an "ideal" body... It's been nice to let go that obsession.

Got a busy week ahead - meeting with a pediatrician, doing my glucose test, and my good friend's rehearsal dinner and wedding (I'm in the wedding! Will post pics of me in the bridesmaid dress).

One Day Vacation and Belly Pic

Enjoying the Adirondacks today- taking a one day respite from writing, cleaning, cooking, worrying, and doing!

Had a great day with Chris, his family and Koda! We hiked, went out to dinner (I had crab cakes!), and spent time by the lake.

Can you spot Koda in the background??

Namaste <3

My Body as Public Property??

Wow, so my belly got exponentially bigger this week! (Okay - that's an exaggeration :D) But, really, the baby is growing fast right now and so is my waistline. It feels so incredibly strange to have this weight on the front of me. It wasn't like that when I was overweight/obese because I carried my weight pretty evenly over my whole body. Now I feel all unbalanced and strange!

Strangers have started to remark on me being pregnant, that's odd for me.

And friends just cannot help themselves, some just want to touch the belly! I've found that I don't mind it when most people do it, those I consider myself close to and love dearly. It's actually kind of awesome.

But not everyone! One person who is more of an acquaintance than a friend said, "You know your belly is public property now!" and put her hand on my belly. Um, no. No, it's not. Yes, there is a whole other person inside there, but it's still my body. I found that a very weird thing to say on her part, especially as a woman!

Chris has been gone this week and I am pretty overwhelmed with all the stuff I need to do - mostly because I really, really want to make progress on my dissertation so I tend to get frustrated when house/financial/etc stuff has to take precedence. Chris does so much about taking those things off my plate when he is home, I'm grateful for him!

I've let some of my daily yoga practice slide this week, because I am walking the dog now, so I am getting in over 10k steps a day. But I definitely need to fit in 10-15 minutes of stretching even during these busy days.

So, otherwise, things are going well. Enjoying my new car, eating well, sleeping well (sorry Chris- but I do sleep so much better when you are gone... this pregnant lady needs to stretch wayyyyy out!), and getting stuff done overall.

Just a little check in, hope your week is going well, everyone <3

Great Weekend in the Woods!

It was time for the annual Cabinfest this past weekend! I almost didn't go, because it's a big party and obviously I'm not going to be drinking, and it's loud so not really conducive to the amount of sleep I need, stuff like that. But in the end, my friends convinced me to go and I ended up with a private room in one of the cabins far away from the music so that I could sleep when I wanted to!

Turned out, the extroverted part of me doesn't need to have a drink in order to party pretty hard! I stayed up until 330 in the morning both nights, and slept in and got plenty of sleep the next day- it was awesome. I got so energize just by talking to people and listening to the music that I didn't get sleepy. I'm so glad I went - last Cabinfest without kids!

I got to go swimming:

Enjoy the woods with friends:

See lots of great music: 

And enjoy a BBQ with my husband:

Party with my dragon: 

And sleep in an awesome cabin:

Successful weekend! I'm glad I didn't shy away from it just because I'm pregnant. I want to keep doing this kind of stuff with my kids, it's going to be different, of course, but it's a part of my life that I love.

But this week is a focus on healthy, nutritious foods (because I had quite a bit of junk over the weekend) and lots of sleep (I got a full seven hours the first night, but only five hours the next night because we had to leave early to pick up our dog).

Oh! And Chris assembled the crib before we left for the weekend:

I love it!!

<3

One down

One problem solved:

And now just hoping I can start whittling down the problem list - instead of adding to it!!

Tonight I'm visiting my friends and their new baby. Obviously I'm pretty excited! I still sometimes can't believe I'll have a little one in three months.

Just a quick check in - also a little photo proof of how I'm looking at 6 months pregnant :)

Namaste <3

Prepping food for a busy day

So, because I pick up my car tonight, I am relying on Chris to get me to work and appointments today, still.

He's picking me up after work, bringing me to a tailor's appointment for my bridesmaid dress, then a half hour north to pick up my car. So neither of us are going to be home until the later evening - which means we won't have enough time to put together an actual cooked dinner.

And we both are trying to stay on track, which means eating real food! So we talked about it yesterday and decided it wasn't a good idea to pick up something on the go tonight (especially since we made plans to bring pizza over to our friends tomorrow, they just had a baby and that was their request). I am trying to stick to the "eat really well 6 days a week, have an indulgence on the other day" kind of rule. It's been working really well for me.

So, last night, we cut an acorn squash in half and roasted it up. Tonight, all we have to do it fill it with our patented "mix" (usually a lean protein cooked up with a variety of vegetables, like onions, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes), heat it up in the microwave and we'll have dinner on the table very soon after coming home.

It didn't take a lot of time, thought, or planning. Just a little bit of knowing the next day's schedule and prepping for it.

We had gotten out of these type of healthy habits in my first trimester (we were both overwhelmed and I was just basically sleeping all day, leaving Chris to handle everything - now that I have the energy to pitch in again, we're back to normal). It's easy to forget how actually easy it is to make these good decisions - when life gets crazy, worrying about food often slips down the priority list. But a healthy, well-fed body is much better equipped to deal with this crazy life.

Even though I haven't been posting a lot, I am back to my old self (mostly - aside from this wiggly little creature inside of me!). And, so far, I am having a really healthy pregnancy. I take the glucose test at the end of August, so even though I am expecting it to come out fine, you never know with gestational diabetes. But fingers crossed that my body is working fine in that regards :)

That's all for now. Namaste, friends <3

New(ish) car, keeping it together, how I'm eating

So, first things first - I found a new-to-me car over the weekend and I am going to finalize and pick it up on Tuesday! I am excited :) It's a Nissan Versa (so pretty darn affordable) and I've wanted one for a while. It's a 2012 with less than 30k miles on it, brand new tires, brakes, etc. Here's hoping it will be a reliable and safe car for my new little family for a while to come!

I think I did a really good job last week keeping it together last week - though things seemed to be falling down around me (in my life and in the lives of those I love). I definitely cried a few times and snapped at Chris a time or two (sorry!), but overall, I maintained a pretty even keeled physical presence, because I didn't want to physically stress the baby out. I took the time I needed to decompress and chill out before dealing with any of the problems that popped up. Obviously, having Chris (and other family/friends) around to help me deal with things helped immensely. Chris did a lot of the leg work with selling my Jeep and arranging appointments to look at new cars, etc. It gave me the time I needed to deal with others things in my life and not get overly stressed. So, very lucky there.

I've been eating very well - and staying moderately active - lately. I seem to have one day a week where I really indulge on foods I normally wouldn't (for example, that day last week was Friday when there was a pizza party at work - I ate past fullness and felt like a glutton) but the rest of the week was really on point. Lots of veggies and proteins, healthy dinners (made by Chris - again, thank you!).

Last night we had pork chops and roasted cauliflower for dinner - no starch but I made us really lovely banana-strawberry smoothies with coconut milk and cinnamon for dessert. I was pretty full (the baby is taking up a lot of room in there and I need to snack a little more than usual because I can't eat huge meals right now).

Lunch was a turkey burger with veggies in a lettuce wrap, breakfast was toast and eggs and turkey bacon.

Saturday was pretty similar.

So, limiting the sugary snacks and focusing on more nutritious stuff. It's been good and I feel worlds better! We just did a huge grocery shop (as we were eating fridge leftovers on the weekend) and have lots of lovely produce for the coming week.

Just a little update. Trying to practice what I KNOW is right - taking care of mind and body for the health of me and my baby. Doing it even when it would feel better to lose control (mentally freak out and physically indulge in a bunch of junk). But knowing that won't get me where I want to be.

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start. I hope mine goes much better than last week!