Cross-posted from my morning sickness blog....
Wow, I didn't realize how long I'd neglected to update this blog! My other blog has been going through a flurry of activity lately, so I guess this one got shoved onto the back-burner.
Things are well! We saw our midwife (one of them, actually, as we have two) last Tuesday and had a ton of fun with her. This is the first time we've seen this midwife as a midwife - last time we saw her in-office (last pregnancy) she was still a student/apprentice midwife. Now she's licensed and out on her own! Pretty cool! And she does a great job. We're hoping that both midwives will be able to make it to our birth.
Speaking of birth, our birth team is finally shaping up! We have two doulas (tentatively, still working out details) who happen to be two of my very favorite people in the Phoenix birth community, and I am incredibly excited about that!! We also have a toddler-chaperone.... but only if the birth takes place on a night or weekend, LOL! So we'll hope for a due-date baby (which is a Saturday).
I have started doing my pregnancy exercises in earnest (tailor sitting, kegels, pelvic rocks, squatting) and am trying to get a walk in when possible (it's a lot harder with a toddler in tow!). I'm trying to practice the principles of optimal fetal positioning too, so I'm doing my best to sit on the floor or my birth ball and to lean forward while sitting. I do NOT want a posterior or breech baby birth!! I also dug out my Hypnobirthing CD and have started listening to it at bedtime. (This is on the principle of, "Since it didn't work last time, I guess I should do more of it!" LOL) Seriously, did relaxation really work for anyone out there during labor? I tried to practice relaxation during my last pregnancy, but it all went out the door with the first serious contraction. Well, maybe it will work better this time... I'll let you know. After all, I really do have a horribly hard time with meditation of any kind (my mind starts making grocery lists), so maybe it's just me.
I have been reading "Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way" and enjoying it. Oddly enough, I never got around to reading it last time. One interesting thing in it that has gotten me thinking is its emphasis on high protein intake. I've been contemplating the "protein vs. carbs" debate and thinking that quite possibly we Westerners have gotten it all wrong by focusing on a high-carb diet. If you look at it, most of our diets are extremely high-carb. I don't know how it got that way (possibly a combination of lobbying by the grain industry and the low-fat diet craze), but it seems to be true. However, I have noted the following:
- High protein seems to be much better for morning sickness. Even now, at 25 weeks, I get nauseated after eating a high-carb snack/meal (like waffles or fruit smoothies), but do not get nauseated after eating a high-protein snack/meal or a combination protein/carb meal.
- I feel better after eating a protein-heavy meal (eggs, cottage cheese) than a carb-heavy meal (cereal, waffles, toast, etc.). I have more energy and don't tend to crash and burn like I do with the other.
- My mom is using a low-carb-ish diet to control her high blood pressure.
- High protein intake is one of the key components of the Brewer Diet, which is used during pregnancy to prevent pre-eclampsia
Anyhow, this isn't a pitch for low-carb diets... After all, my DH made himself good and sick on a low-carb diet (apparently one's body can go through a really weird reaction if one eliminates carbs, which he did). And when I tried to do that diet with him, I lasted.... hmm, maybe 48 hours? I'm definitely not a no-carb or even super-low-carb person. It's just a thought that our incredibly and maybe overly-high-carb diets (focusing on processed grains to the exclusion of higher protein and/or fruit/vegetable intake) might not be the best idea after all. Thoughts, anyone?
Moving on from diet.... Other than that, I am doing well! My nausea improved once again after my chiropractor's appointment on Monday, so I am a believer in chiropractic treatment for nausea (I'll post about that soon). We are keeping busy with church and home improvement projects, as well as finishing our yard project. We are toying with the idea of throwing a "come see the house" party, which would be our first ever, and are also getting ready for a flock of family birthdays/anniversaries and more houseguests. June will be a busy month!
I hope that you are all doing well! I will do my best to check in more often. Have a great weekend, all!
Re: diets...
ReplyDeleteAt the start of this year, my husband and I decided to go low-carb. I dropped 10 pounds in no time (like 2 weeks)... then gained 5 of it back, even though I was eating more and more low-carb stuff, and scrupulously avoiding carby stuff. My husband never lost weight, but he cheated more than I did. I just didn't feel well, though, and he felt worse than usual (which isn't saying much, since he always feels bad). So, we gradually moved back to our regular diet.
Recently, we've decided to try the Blood Type Diet, and things have been going well. [A friend suggested it to me, and feels it was a life/health/sanity saver for her -- after starting on it, she felt good for the first time in her *life*] I feel "cleaner" inside (although I haven't lost any weight so far); and although my husband doesn't admit to feeling better, I can tell he does feel better. For one thing, he hasn't had acid indigestion since we started (if he sticks to it), and he usually has that on a daily (I should say "nightly") basis. He also isn't taking as much ibuprofen and similar stuff for headaches (which is also huge!). And I can tell he feels better.
He's type O and I'm type A, so we have a lot in common in what we should or should not eat, and a some divergence in what we ought not eat. I try to focus on what we both can eat as much as possible. For instance, he can have beef and I can't; but we both can have turkey, chicken, rice and most vegetables, so I'll usually fix that for all of us, and sometimes fix him some beef, as well.
So short story long ;-) maybe it's not "carbs" so much as the types of food. When we were on the low-carb diet, we ate a lot of all types of meat, as well as a bunch of dairy; according to the blood-type diet, pork and most dairy is "avoid" for both of us, which may be why we felt so bad and didn't lose weight like we were led to believe. Anyway, it may be something to check out -- not sure you'd want to go hard-core on it or anything while pregnant, but it has intrigued me and seems to work for me, and definitely worked for my friend and her family.
-Kathy