One Month Ago

I need to alter this blog, as Nugget is out! He was born about a month ago, so the gestational diabetes is gone, though some habits still remain. I hope to continue to check labels, and have been trying to balance carbs, fat and protein. I'm looking forward to starting running, but for now I'm trying to get use to my new sleep schedule, and am mostly recovered from giving birth to the little one.

The whole experience was pretty good, considering it's suppose to be one of the hardest most painful things that a woman can experience. I actually chose Nugget's birthday, he was past his due date and I had been 3cm dilated for two weeks so I scheduled with my OB to be inducted as there wasn't any additional risk over going into labor naturally. So my husband and I went in to the hospital, they began pitocin by about 8AM, broke my water at about noon, and Nugget was born at 4PM. They weren't expecting him that early but I was walking around the maternity ward as much as I could, then changed positions as often as possible when I couldn't walk anymore. I didn't have any intervention other than the pitocin, so I yelled a lot probably starting at around 3. Apparently I had been having contractions before arriving at the hospital I just wasn't aware of them. Even until they broke my water I thought the contractions were pretty mild. Once the contractions were close together though, and I only got a few seconds of a break, they felt pretty bad.

I've read some things that other people have written about their birth experience and wanted to put mine out there. I chose to induced, because one of the OBs I saw encouraged it in part because if I didn't get it the following week I would have to have a non-stress test the next week. I also wasn't having any contractions that I knew of, just some suspected Braxton-Hicks and I didn't even really know if I'd had any of those, and I didn't want the little guy getting too much bigger before coming out. I would do it again if I was as dilated. His head grew an additional inch at his one week checkup. No thank you.
I also chose not to use other drugs. My mom had a negative experience with and epidural when she had me, and I thought I could probably do it, so my crazy butt tried it. I didn't take any classes to prep for the baby except CPR, I just read some about breathing techniques and positions for labor online. But then I'm crazy, I've gone through basic training for the army, and been hit by a car. I thought that I could take it on, and this time I was right.

The way our hospital worked they kept you in the hospital for two nights after giving birth. The first night the nurses told me to sleep and not worry about feeding. I had read you are suppose to feed every three hours, and so I thought it was really important that I try to feed him every time he woke up. That was true, it's good to try when they wake up, but that first night they are exhausted, and still have a body full of crap. The hospital staff gives the baby a bath and swaddles them up tight. I should have gone to sleep. I woke up every few hours because of being uncomfortable and would try to feed him. At some point he spat up, and I pushed the nurse call button. They came in and let me know that spitting up was completely normal, they are pushing everything out of their system. Doing it again, if he woke up crying or fussing I'd feed him but not every time I woke up and he seemed unsettled. Besides the nurses will come in every few hours to get blood or other things, so when they do you can feed the baby. Other than that, sleep.
The day was good. The baby got circumcised, checked by a pediatrician, and I saw a lactation consultant, had my blood checked, and asked the nurse any questions that came up during the day. Night two was a monster. I would feed the baby and the second I put him down he would cry. At one point I ended up crying myself because he wouldn't latch, and was hungry. The hospital had a sheet about the second night in the folder they gave moms, basically saying it was going to be nuts, and recommendations for how to get the baby to sleep. Plus I'm pretty sure the nurses would walk around and if they heard a baby screaming for a while they would go in to help out the poor family trying to figure out what to do.

I really don't like being at the hospital, but I was glad to have the support there when I needed it, and wouldn't have done it any other way.
I had an easy time with labor and delivery, which is unlike other experiences I've read about, but I also didn't have an immediate attachment to my baby. He was still this foreign critter, who I could barely fathom came out of me. I constantly was just surprised that I'd given birth, and confused about how to fix the babies cries (so having nurses, and my husband around to help was great). I was an attentive parent, but not an enamored one. I think that's slowly changing.

For those of you who are pregnant or looking at becoming parents, I would recommend listening to other people's advice and experiences, but just don't dwell on much of it too long. Every person, every baby and every experience is different.

Yummy Thai Food!

Wednesday-

B- Boiled Egg, Soy-milk with cinnomin

L- Cottage Cheese, Green Beans, Boiled egg, apple with peanut butter

S- Swiss Cheese, greek yogurt, potato chips

D- cantellope several slices, kale, shredded pork

Ice cream about 1 cup

10 AM- 168.4 lbs

Thursday-

10 AM- 166.7 lbs

B- spinach and egg (made my blood sugar go down, not up strange)

L- Cantelope while I made food, yogurt with homemade granola and fruit, cheese and lunchmeat rollups

S-Cantelope and cottage cheese

D- Eggplant Chicken Thai dish, with rice mango dessert

Loosing the sugar, and the weight...

166.9 lbs at 10 am

B- Leftover pork and carrot chinese food

L- Turkey tomato and swiss sandwich, green bean leftovers and some cottage cheese

(I'm always really hungry by lunchtime since being on this low carb/sugar diet, this was one of the first satisfying lunches I've had so far... maybe a little over-full.)

Vitamins post lunch pre blood sugar

Yogurt with granola

1 serving potato chips

D- Chick-fil-a sandwich half the bun removed, small unsweet tea, small milkshake shared with Jacob (banana pudding shakes are awesome! It's good they'll be going away soon, cause I'd be tempted to eat them all the time.)

I killed the granola so I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll try an adjusted recipe to make it have less sugar, then eat it for lunch so I'll have an idea if it works well for keeping blood sugar low.

No Joke

Fig Newton

Chick-fil-a Nuggets with sauce

slice of bread with cheese

1 cup frozen strawberries and about 2 tbsp walnuts (I need to toast those up, they're old and taste terrible)

1 cup + a little soy milk with cinnamon allspice and nutmeg

slice of cheddar cheese

handful of roasted peanuts

burger (full sized) from Five Guys

4 tbsp starbucks ice cream (completely allowed!)

So I have a meter now, and the only abnormal readings I had were post fig newton (probably because it was morning and too much carb without anything else) and post burger... which I can't really explain.

Trip to the grocery store tomorrow to get the things I need to stay on a low carb diet.

It's been a while.

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but I didn't realize it had been this long. I've got to hop on the Wii later today. Last Wednesday I went for my blood glucose test. They called me to let me know I have to go through the big test, because my level was elevated. I'm feeling pretty crumby about this, but I guess that it's just an indication that even skinnies need to make changes to their lifestyle. I'm going to make it a goal not to be a couch potato.

To be honest, I was pretty devastated to hear that my level was elevated. I don't exactly eat an unhealthy diet as you can tell by my logs, and I blame myself for having a crappy level. It terrifies me that the little snacks that I have and my putting off exercise have kicked me in the butt (though I understand that it's different than type 2 diabetes, and I haven't gotten the complete test yet, it still bugs me.) Plus there was the fact that when the nurse called I was watching Biggest Loser, and I had eaten ice cream for breakfast and had a snack of candies which made me feel super guilty. It's a rainy day, so I'll get on the wii, and hide the sweets from myself. I'll just have to make more of an effort till I get this test done, and maybe it will be a more permanent choice I need to make to my couch potato lifestyle.

Food Log-
Ice cream
Choco-pomegranate candy
a little veggies and potato
2 tomatoes
Quinoa with veggies
tangerine
frozen pineapple center pieces
cheddar cheese
fig newton (2)
2 shrimp tacos from taco bell
1 granny smith apple
Potato chips

Weight at 4:30- 170.6 lbs

Thursday-
I now have an appointment for tomorrow morning at the diabetes center. They aren't going to do the 3 hour glucose test. I'm going to this appointment to talk to a person about my habits, and to get a meter and instructions on how to use it. So this will be something new for me to experience. I'll be curious to see what my levels are. I just hope I won't have to cut too much out.
Blech.

Granola with soy milk - You'd think that granola is healthy but it's not completely. I made this one myself so I know how much sugar and maple syrup is in it. I tried a new method when I made it which worked well, so next time I might put in less sugar and syrup.
Tangerine
Leftover BBQ and a few fries
piece of gum
hint of lime chips
cup of frozen fruit
Grilled Cajun fillet sandwich from Bojangles

12:30 weight- 170.9 lbs

Wendy's Wednesday

Wednesday-

165.6 lbs

Biscut

Beef Jerky

Bagel and Cream Cheese

Dr. Pepper

hard candy

trio bar

Grapefruit with sugar

Sandwich from Wendys- 470 cal

Frosty- 310 cal

Mini sandwich- 350 cal

Woah that was a lot of Calories in my dinner.

Happy Pi Day!

I took a week off from writing the blog, as my computer is failing, and my husband had the week for spring break. I took my weight this morning... and I don't feel so much like a skinny couch potato.

167.6lbs

Yikes. I was getting kind use to my body image, but man. I'm not so sure if I'm going to stay out of the 170 range. No wonder I'm so much more tired than I'm use to. So I'm going to blow up the yoga ball, and maybe do some walking today, or maybe a little yard work. I've been thinking though that my project priority needs to go to doing my taxes, but you gotta eat... and I should get it written down.

Peanut butter and banana- 150 cal

Fig Newton- 200 cal

1 cup pineapple

2 cups bean and kale soup

Small handful dark chocolate pommegranet candy

Cheddar cheese

Tomato

Bagel

V8

2 hard candies

Red Lobster Shrimp meal with Fries and Garden Salad- 1000 cal

2 tums

Tuesday

166.2 lbs

This is the first time my weight has gone down even a little since being pregnant

Banana and peanut butter

Tomato

Fig Newton

Goldfish

Gum

Beef Jerky

Quinoa with veggies

V8 splash

Chocolate candies

2 red lobster biscuits

Potato chips

bowl of beans and kale soup

strawberrry balsamic truffle uncoated

2 thin mints

Thursday-

Granola with Soy Milk

Beef Jerky

Tomato

2 cookies

cup of yummy soup

muffin

Chicken sandwich and bo-berry biscust from Bojangles

goldfish

a nugget of Jacob's chicken

Friday-

Chick fila bagel sandwich

7 layer burrito from Taco Bell

Pomagranet Freeze (yummy)

Leftover cauliflower soup

Shortbread cookie, and chocolate chip

20 Jelly beans (I found them!)

Grilled Cheese sandwich

Healthy Checkup!

Cookie and Granola with Soy Milk

Chick-fila Sandwitch, Cherry Coke, 2 Cookies

Handful of green peas

Yogurt

2 Shorbread Cookies

Trio bar

a bit of mango

tomato and cheese

Another Cookie

Beef Jerky

Grilled Cheese

Cauliflower Soup (Yay Jacob!)

I had another doctor's appointment today. Completely great bill of health. Nugget wouldn't sit still to have his heart beat on the dopplar, and the nurse eventually gave up after trying with him wiggling around (and that was before any caffeine today.) Took two tums in the evening as I'm feeling over stuffed. I'm so glad that I had a friend's blog to read in addition to all the online resources to know the unexpected side effects of pregnancy (including strange stomach activities, like food not having space to go, and coming to my throat when I lay down, easily fixed with pillows eating small meals and eating early.) Next visit I get my Rh shot, and the blood glucose test. So it said come back in 3-4 weeks, and the doctor said three. But the visits have been quick lately, so I'm not too concerned that they'll be every two weeks after this next visit.

165 lbs on the doctor's scale

Tuesday- begin again

So yesterday Jacob made cookies, and in addition to that I've been eating a lot of jelly beans, so I need to pick up on this again, rather than just trying to remember what I've been eating.

Weight: almost 162 lbs (eep! I think/hope this is just indigestion)

Pizza slice (leftovers)

3 Cookies

2 tomatoes

Another 2 cookie

Granola and soy milk

Grapefruit

Cookie and Pasta with tomato, garlic and Parmesan

Sushi (california roll)

Cranberry juice

Foodie Friday

So last two days I haven't been recording everything... so now I gotta get back on the books

Weight the last two days: just shy of 160lbs

Today's foods:

Homemade granola with soy milk

Noodles with chicken

Yogurt

Jelly Beans about 30

Handful of potato chips

Lemonade

Shortbread cookie

Thin mint candies

More than a handful of chips

Gum

Prediction for the evening:

Cherry Coke

Pizza

Monday Monday

Weight at around 9:45 ish: 158lbs

Blueberry bagel with cheddar cheese

Tangerine

shortbread cookie

costco muffin

2 tomatoes

Large handful of sugar snap peas

25 Jelly beans (I felt great till I ate these... darn it)

Beef Jerky

Chicken Noodle Salad

Cranberry Juice

Thin Mint Candies

Icecream

Popcorn!

Tuesday:

Pasta salad

2 Doughnuts

Yogurt

potato chips

tomato

15 jelly beans

Way too much starbucks ice cream

Jack in a Box- Turkey Sandwich, Curly Fries

Tomato

Into the weekend

Weekend!

Saturday

V8 Fusion

Chicken bagel (yay chick fila!)

Jelly Beans (around 30)

Pizza

Choco toffee mac nuts

BLT

Limeaid Icecream mix from sonic

Sunday

No... I skipped tracking today, will begin again tomorrow. Taking my weight first thing in the morning.

Friday Feedings

Yogurt with maple syrup

Trio bar

Cheerwine sherbert

Cheese and tomato sandwich

2 Mac-nut shortbread cookies

blackberries

Large piece of trout

Tomato

gum

Animal Cookies

yogurt

Pasta with tomato sauce and chicken

Coffee Ice cream

I forgot to check my weight today, and I'm skipping calorie counts. I'll check my weight again tomorrow... probably early as during the weekend I'm usually doing stuff at 5pm.

Food Stuffs

1 Yogurt- 170 Calories

Some Cheddar Cheese

The end of the Potato Chips- 160 Calories

Thin Mint Candy- 80 Calories

40 Jelly Beans- 160 Calories

Sandwich of French bread, chicken breast, tomato, and cucumber

Applesauce

2 Shortbread Macadamia cookies

Piece of gum (sugarless)

Handful of blackberries

Apple with peanut butter

about 20 sugar snap peas

Tomato

Hard candy

Flavored Almonds- 150 Calories

Chicken Breast, and collards with bacon

Lemonade- 150 Calories

Weight at 5:15 pm : 158.7lbs ack... I'll attribute this to changing the time I'm weighing in, more water, and more clothes (though the wii accounts for clothes) I actually did some of the activities today too. Wii yoga seems like a good plan in addition to walks.

Renewing the Blog

So I mentioned that I was considering keeping track of what I eat, because I'm (normally) thin (though not skinny) but I don't necessarily keep track of what I eat, nor do I exercise like I should. So because I'd like to change my habits, and I think that tracking my eating helps, I'm going to change the direction of the blog. Well... I'm going to give this blog a direction, which it didn't really have before.

Today I have eaten:

1 Trio Bar - 230 Calories

1 Yogurt - 170 Calories

1 V8 Fusion (since pregnancy I don't like normal V8 as much) - 150 Calories

4 Graham crackers (the whole rectangle)

A handful of blackberries

Medium piece of trout

1/2 cup cauliflower soup

1 tangerine

2 servings Sour Cream and Onion Chips - 320 Calories

3 Thin Mint Candies -80 Calories

1/3 pack of animal cookies -240 Calories

10 ish Hello Kitty Mango Marsh-mellows - 100 Calories (those little things are addictive, I was just going to try one, oops)

Some Meatballs from Ikea (most of a serving) with Ligonberry sauce and gravy (unfortunately) and a few French Fries

Veggie Soup from Ikea

1/2 a Princess Cake

Popcorn with 3 tsp sugar

Cup of Cranberry juice

So part of the reason I'm doing this is because the past few days I've been getting headaches again. Most of the time it's after consuming a large amount of sugar (we bought Jelly Beans.) I've decided that taking a better look at what I'm eating would be a good idea, as I'm starting to be concerned about the effect of food on my body and Nugget.

Now full disclosure. Weight. I normally weigh about 135 lbs, I fluctuate a lot depending on my habits. For example my last trip to China I left the US averaging 128 I came home around 123 because I ate lots of fish and veggies, but didn't exercise a lot. (My first trip to China I think I came home around 145 or so because I ate junk and didn't exercise.) With Costa Rica due to all the hiking and the like I left the US at 138 and returned at 132. I own a Wii Fit so I can look back at all my weight changes, which can be pretty scary. Especially now, being pregnant I watched my weight gain gradually through October to November/December to 142, and then shoot up at the beginning of the year, as maternity pants become a necessity at my current weight/size.

Weight today taken after first meal @12:30: 157.6 lbs

The Wii officially told me I'm "overweight" two days ago. I know that I'm suppose to gain between 25 and 30lbs during pregnancy, and talked to the doctor last time because I've already gained 20 (that was at my appt time.) and she said not to be too concerned, spread out meals more, and be sure to keep exercising/walking. My goal is not to get out of the 160 range. I will be sad if I get over 165, but to be at or above 170 is unacceptable, and I don't that that's being to hard on myself. I keep hoping maybe Nugget can use some of this stored fat for energy, but that seems pretty unlikely, so I'm just going to not stress about it till after he's born and I can make goals, and maybe do a half or full marathon or triathlon with a friend.

Until then, I'm going to keep track of my habits, so I have a baseline to go off of. That way I'll know where I started, and how I can make improvements.

Redirected Aggression

So last about a week ago Harry got out of the house. It was a nice day, and I had multiple chores I had to work on outside, so I let him stay out. I left the door open for Zinc to come outside too if she was interested. Harry wandered behind a shed on our property and I went out to stop him from straying too far. He was very angry, the hairs on his back and tail were standing up and he was growling and hissing at me.

We have a lot of "stray" cats in our new neighborhood. I met one of them last week who was a very nice un-neutered male. I suspect like him many of these cats have, or had owners. This really frustrates me, to know that people own animals and don't get them fixed, then let them go. I just don't understand where the attitude comes from that it's an acceptable practice. These cats have found their way to our house, and seem to really enjoy it. They'll cross the front yard, and run around in the back, sometimes hiding under the shed.

So Harry smelling these little invaders is pissed. He thinks he is the alpha male of all kitties, so doesn't like smelling all their stuff. Meanwhile I go sit in the trees nearest the house, and am talking to Zinc, who is much more timid about coming outside. She comes up and is being petted, and Harry comes to the same set of trees, and I can hear him grumbling and growling. After a while they start sniffing at each other, and acting fairly normal. I stand up to take on some other task, and shortly afterward I hear them fighting. They are now right in front of the open door growling and hissing, this is clearly an all out brawl. I yell, and clap and try to get their attention off each other, while hoping that Zinc will run inside. She does, and Harry is right after her. I'm a little behind them, and can hear them fighting now in the bedroom. Eventually chasing them around, I get in between them, and lock Harry up in the kitchen (which has no door so I build a wall.) They can still interact, and this ends up not going so well, and eventually the chase continues so I lock Harry in an upstairs bedroom.

This aweful interaction is called redirected aggression. It has been observed in dogs and cats, and I suppose people too, but it's fairly common in cats.

Update 2/13/11: A few days later I got involved in an altercation between the two cats, which stunk. Wounds have since healed on myself and the cats, and things are back to normal-ish in the house. We'll be planting some cat deflecting plants in the spring along with setting up a motion detector sprinkler. Hopefully that will keep the little yard invaders at bay.

Surprise Surprise!

So I've been terrible about updating this. Funny thing is I have several drafts of things I started writing, and never completed to publish.

Well, now that the cat is pretty much out of the bag, I figure there is something that I have a lot to say about and would like to do it on the blog, as there are plenty of women going through the same thing and having interesting discussions and insights on it online.

I'm pregnant. 17 weeks ago... so by funny pregnancy math he is 19 weeks along. That's right, he. Saw that at the fist sonogram a little after 13 weeks. It's been quite the experience, and I'm not even halfway there... and then there are the next 18 plus years. Sigh.

So I wanted to start this off well now, because ever since Christmas my digestive system has been playing games with me. First trimester I was lucky. I'm unemployed, which I normally hate but it's worked out well for not needing sick days. During the first few weeks I felt nothing... other than the sneaking suspicion that I probably was pregnant. After a while I would feel this small queezy or nauseous, but I just watched what I was eating (occasionally refused to eat things), and the frequency that I was having snacks, and never had any vomiting. Then in my second trimester I took several flights, and the first two were miserable. Then got sick because of a smell, and I've gotten a little sick because of food a few times since then, but tonight was the worst. No dinner for me. I'm wondering if it was the bubbly grape juice pre-dinner, the sweet potatoes, the tilapia, the garlic and onion, or the slightly old red pepper I garnished it with. Everything was cooked, and we checked the temp on the fish pre-consumption, I have no idea.

Hopefully I can find the right mix for nugget and I so that I can feel his kicks and not just my digestive system's kicks soon.