Thursday, April 29, 2010

30 weeks realitiy check

Up until today my thoughts have been "I cant believe its only 10 weeks until we meet our little baby, how exciting!"

Then today I went swimming, as I have done twice a week, every week... and it was hard. I found it hard to catch my breath, breathing was hard as I couldn't seem to get enough air in my lungs, if the baby wasn't moving around, then I was having a Braxton Hicks Contraction or trapped wind. It probably had a lot to do with my attitude, I didn't really want to go, but Im glad I did, I suppose, after all exercise is good for you, right.

Im huge but its an approximately 3.5 lb baby right now, and its going to be at least a 7 lb baby in just 10 more weeks. So even though my skin is so tight that it seems like its going to separate at the seams, its going to expand much, much more in the next 10 weeks. Fun!

So today my thoughts are, "I cant believe I have to be this huge (or even bigger) and this exhausted and generally drained for 10 more weeks!"

And then of course, there is the panic attack about giving birth I had on the drive home from the pool this evening. I was feeling pretty good about labour. Dont get me wrong, I knew it would be long, hard and undoubtedly the most painful experience of my life (Ive never even broken a bone) but I was feeling fit and active and healthy. Now I ache from the rib cage to the pelvis and all I did was swim 7o lengths at the pool for an hour, how on earth am I going to cope with hours and hours of torso convulsions!?

If there was not enough negativity in this post, there are a series of thunderstorms set to roll in friday night supposedly dropping 4-8 inches of rain (10-12 in localised spots). The good news is, poor weather makes it easy for me to sit on my couch! And Im seriously looking forward to some couch time! Im sure all will seem bright in about 15 minutes after Ive eaten my dinner, though who can really get excited about spinach salad. hmmmm. I guess Ill just look forward to the peanut butter and ice cream Im going to indulge in (again) afterwards!


(imagine the passing of time!)

Well, no room for peanut butter and ice cream Im afraid, though its ok, I had some last night! My salad, however, was delicious. Spinach, two boiled eggs (got to get that protein in!), new potatoes, strawberries, grapes, sunflower seeds, carrot and parsnip salad. Delicious and healthy! Let's hope I don't wake up hungry at 2am (like usual!).

Monday, April 26, 2010

Parsnip and carrot salad

Not much going on here at the ranch. Danny left me for the West Coast, so Im on my own again. The man down the street brought me some fresh eggs, so that was very nice of him. Need to make him some bread now.

When Danny is away, I like to make food every few days and just be able to eat off of it for a while, so that I don't have to cook every night. So Sunday I made breakfast muffins for my 10am snacks, salmon and veggie pasta for 3 night's worth of dinners and parsnip and carrot salad to snack on during the day. Its such a delicious, yet simple salad, I just had to share! Its also a whiz with a food processor and almost better the next day too!


Parsnip and Carrot Salad

Shred one large parsnip and two carrots.
Mix together with the following;
Raisins
Parsley
Black pepper
Lemon juice
Orange juice
Apple cider vinegar


My garden is looking beautiful. My clematis have never had so many flowers and every year I seem to have a bigger and more bountiful crop of irises. I love the fact that I have all different kinds too, so that the blooming period is prolonged. I have a full vase of purple irises in my living room and you cant even tell Ive cut any! I also seem to have alliums in bloom, which were a new additive this year. Though the coreopsis has not bloomed this year, so Im wondering if it is a biennial and the ones for next year just arent ready yet.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

28 weeks photoshoot


Sunday we went to Rowan Oak to take some 28 week belly pics and here are the products...

















It seems that the third trimester has really hit me this week, though I am still in denial. The ridiculous nightmares have started again, and I mean ridiculous (panthers eating tigers in my back yard, uh huh, you read that right) and the tiredness, headaches and stomach aches are back with vengeance. But the huffin' and puffin' with difficulty getting in and out of bed/car/shower have all ceased and things just seem easier, which is strange as I am huge! Though I still wear normal (as in, non-maternity) clothes, so that must say something about current fashions. Im also big enough now that people (mostly men, strangely enough) feel comfortable commenting on my 'expecting' state, so I guess I no longer just look fat, eh!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Busy busy bumble bee!

I feel like I haven’t stopped since last week, so Im pretty tired. Ended up staying at work til almost 5pm Friday, which sucked and I was pretty wired and feeling crappy too. But I had a little lie down at home, though I didnt sleep, we ate a quick dinner and went to the violin quartet at the Ford Center. It was ok. Not really what I had expected. There were two ‘bands’ one classical (which we like) and one ‘modern’, playing things like Jimmy Hendrix and Robbie Coltrane (which we don’t like so much). Unfortunately the latter had a much larger role in how the evening was divided up, so that sort of sucked, and of course it was a late night, with us not getting home til after 1030.

Saturday morning started with the farmers market at 715am. Im so excited its open again! They didnt have much, but its just the act of meeting girlfriends and going to the farmers market to wander around with no specific purpose. I bought some Christmas tree ferns (bartered on the price!), some spinach, broccoli and greenhouse tomatoes. Meg and I then walked from there to town and ended up in the coffee shop where we met Tasha and Megan for a cup of tea. It was so nice! When I got home, Danny had already placed all of the bags of mulch where they needed spreading and we had the first palette of mulch spread by lunchtime. We then bought it loose, which is way more work, but cheaper. My back was killing me at the end of the day and we didnt even get it finished, but the back yard looks really really nice. In the evening we rode to Sonic and I ate a heck of a lot of food, ending with a root beer float! Although it all made me rather sick Sunday morning, guess Im just not used to fast food.

Sunday was nice, though still busy. I got up late for me, around 8am! Walked the dogs then got back into bed! I showered up and got all fancified and we went to the bakery for breakfast, where Danny beat me at cribbage! We did a belly photoshoot at Rowan oak and I conned Danny into grocery shopping with me. When we got home we did a few odd jobs round the house then Danny went to softball practice and I baked bread and cooked food. We had some friends over Sunday night to sit outside in the almost chilly spring evening air, it was so nice! I made rosemary focaccia bread and served with sliced mozzarella drizzled with pesto, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with seasoning, and a huge bowl of strawberries for appetizers. Then we grilled some steaks and had salad and wild rice. Yummy! They ended up playing Beatles rock band and sounded like they had a blast. Went to bed too late again and am exhausted today.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Belly news

On the belly front, we enter the third trimester this week; 28 weeks Thursday. Passed the most recent glucose test, so no gestational diabetes here. Which is good, because Im not good on diets. Don't know if its psychological or real, but I definitely am starting to feel more tired and feel like I have less energy these past few days, so that's a little disappointing. Practice contractions, or Braxton Hicks, are getting more frequent and are not just limited to the evenings now.

It has been a busy week for baby, though it seems to wear itself out! If it has a particularly active day, the next day tends to be more quiet. There have been some odd deformations in my tummy though, that's for sure.


Issues with having a giant protruding belly you are not used to:

You don't allow enough room when you open doors for yourself and end up having to squeeze through, side swiping your belly.

You get covered in food or water, whatever you are eating or drinking. Its like a built in bib.

You burn it on a hot saucepan because you forgot it was there and then get yelled at by your husband for applying an ice pack to the tremendously sore burn because you will 'freeze the baby!'. Oh please!



I have lots of wonderful pictures of my beautiful garden which is still teeming with creeping phlox, tulips, violets, columbines, irises, azaleas... who ever knew so much could bloom at one time! I just need to capture that husband of mine to get my pictures 'blog-ready' for you... I also planted 14 tomato plants, 4 bell peppers and the spinach, lettuce and snap peas are going strong! Time for squash, zucchini and cucumber seeds to go into the ground!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Doctor's visit

26 weeks 5 days doctors visit went well.

My blood pressure was 'great', announced the nurse, at 122 over 74.

I had gained 3 lbs, which she said was also great.

Uterus height was 'perfect' the doctor stated and we listened to the heartbeat a little while, but we were chatting so I forgot to ask the heart rate. It sounded strong though. We were chatting because he had a bike wreck caused by a dog, my biggest fear when road biking. He is ok now though.

Unfortunately I failed the glucose test for gestational diabetes, though Im not worried about it (and am sitting here eating a cookie!). I have to go back next week and do the longer, more accurate test (read: 3 hours of not eating!). No food since the night before until after the test, which will be over around lunchtime! I have usually eaten at least 3 times by then and drunk juice! Oh well, Im sure a little fasting wont kill me and it would be better to find out, so that I can amend my diet if necessary. Though I don't really see how I could do any more exercise or change my diet all that much, so hopefully the second test will be better!

He said there is nothing we can do about the excruciating tendinitis I have in my right hand, since it would require anti-inflammatories, but you cant take those pregnant, so I just have to deal with it.

He saw no reason we couldn't go on a short vacation at 32 weeks, so Key West, here we come! I really will be the beached whale! We have free flights on air miles and a free hotel on Marriott points, so it shouldn't put too much of a dent in our pockets, though I can eat through some spending money!

Nothing more to report. Feeling great, as usual. Hit the third trimester at the end of this week, so that's fun! Pregnant time seems to be flying by!

Friday, April 2, 2010

"Ribbit"

The story behind these little guys is rather cute... I have never planted crocuses anywhere in my garden. Don't get me wrong, I think they are adorable, but I was under the impression that it didn't get cold enough in Mississippi to grow such wintery bulbs. So who knows how they got there! My guess is by bird dropped seed. They are in a flower bed which we created, so are not like our pink ladies which must have been put in by our predecessors; the soil in which these crocuses live is 2 feet higher than it used to be. For several years I have noticed little shoots in their location and knew that I had not put anything there, but I am of the opinion that if it isn't a nasty weed or harmful to anyone, it can stay until we work out what it is; we have acquired lots of awesome plants this way! Well this year, we worked out what it was! Unfortunately, the night after I took this picture there was a deluge of a rain storm and they got plastered into the surrounding mulch, but I was able to enjoy them for a few days at least!




Thursday, April 1, 2010

Spring garden

And begins the onslaught of proud garden reflection. Better late than never. However, please realise my pictures do not do this beautiful garden justice.

The first thing to bloom this year was my Hellebore, or Lenton Rose. So beautiful! Its unfortunately up in a spot where I have to take a little walk to see it, but its always so worth it. This picture was taken over a month ago probably. By now the hellebore is around 2 or so feet tall and wide, and is branching out like a beautiful little flowering tree! I ordered some more, it inspired me so much, though unfortunately it takes several years to bloom.