Thursday, February 21, 2013

Giant Baby!!!

So we saw the perinatologist today an this little guy is still huge! The ultrasound tech kept re measuring and saying how crazy it is that he is 3 1/2 weeks ahead! He weighs 5 lb 14 oz which is the size of a 36 week baby and I am only 32 weeks. Like Holy Moly!! If he keeps going at this rate they will consider taking him early. Could be good, could be bad..I dunno. Just gonna wait n see.

But otherwise he his super healthy, no blood clots for me or him which is what they've been watching me for. Thank God for that!

Guess that's all I got for today, been a pretty boring week. Just ready for this kid to get here :-)

Monday, February 11, 2013

Did You Know Babies CAN'T Digest Cereal?

I get a weekly newsletter from a blog called Thank Your Body | A Journey to Real Health. There are always interesting tidbits about living healthy and organics. I'm sort of an "organic wannabe" since I have not yet figured out how to incorporate and switch to organics/whole foods completely yet but I study it extensively! One of the reasons I want so badly to make the switch is because of my autoimmune disorder. Everything that goes into our bodies affects our health and what we put into our bodies at an early age affects what disorders/problems we may have as adults. One of the most common byproducts of poor nutrition and consuming processed foods is autoimmune disorders. I am fully convinced that the processed foods we as a culture consume on a massive scale are responsible for most of the ailments we are constantly trying to treat/heal when we aren't recognizing the source. Correct the root of the problem (food) and the results will improve the outcome. Instead, we keep consuming this processed junk that our bodies were not designed to handle and then we feed it to our children as babies and wonder why they have frequent ear infections, need to go to the doctor with every virus that goes around, need glasses, need braces, end up with juvenile diabetes or even cancer! It's ludicrous! And the answer is pretty simple but we refuse to change what we've always known. So I'm on a journey to do just that: change the way I and my family eat and reduce the amount of toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis. I want to be healthy and I want my family to be healthy because our bodies are God's temple and we should take care of them!

In my most recent newsletter from Thank Your Body titled "Do You Want a Beautiful Baby?", she introduces a book called Beautiful Babies by Kristen Michaelis who also has a blog, Food Renegade. If you pre-order the book, you get free access to Food Renegade's online course, Beautiful Babies. This book and course go into all kinds of nutritional information about fertility, pregnancy nutrition, breastfeeding (and why it's so important), and what to feed your baby so that they are healthy for life. Some of the information will amaze you! We've been told by pediatricians for decades that to calm a fussy baby or help them sleep longer we should give them rice cereal as early as 3 months! I cannot stress enough how WRONG this is! Babies cannot digest cereal. Their little tummies do not produce amylase (the enzyme needed for grain digestion) until after 6 months of age and even then they don't produce enough of it to properly break down grains. I found another article on the topic here: why babies can't digest cereal. It also gives some great info on why they can't have grains until after a year old and what other foods they shouldn't have and when it's ok to introduce certain foods into their diet. I'd love to be able to go back to my first pregnancy and have this information! If I had known that cereal literally just ROTS in their tummies, I would have looked at my pediatrician like he was nuts when he suggested giving my 2 month old rice cereal for his acid reflux (which he may not have even had if I had eaten properly during pregnancy and breastfed exclusively!).

If you can pre-order the book ($15) before March 18, you get the online course (a $199 value!) for FREE! I am so excited to read the book and take the course. I'd give anything to prevent my little one from going through what I have with my body and my health and what so many children and adults deal with today. So there it is ya'll, I hope you find the information as enlightening as I did!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

30 weeks...already?!

I've been completely lazy about posting lately but oh well, I'm pregnant tired and totally ready to be done! lol But I will miss it. My first pregnancy I moaned and groaned the entire time "Why would anyone ever say they enjoy this!?"...but now I really do. I don't know if it's because we were so afraid it wouldn't happen again or if this is just an easier pregnancy but I am enjoying it this time. I can sit on the toilet like a normal person without one of those granny seats that's up high (which I had almost my entire first pregnancy, couldn't get up off the toilet with my own strength!) and I can sleep lying down (had to sleep completely upright with my first) and I am not dealing with much back pain at all. I would have thought this time around would be much worse because I have so many medical conditions that I did not have with my first but I'm knocking on wood  and counting my blessings that all those seem to be "dormant" for now and I hope they stay that way!

I can't believe I am now 30 weeks. 3/4 of the way through!! WOO HOO! The closer it gets the more time slows down it seems but I know it will be here before we know it. Still hoping they choose to let me have him a week or 2 early since he is so big but if not that's ok. I will just have to bite the bullet and have a c-section if they make me wait for full-term. I hope that doesn't sound awfully selfish of me to want him here earlier. I have to remind myself that there is a reason they stay in there for 40 weeks and even though 37 is considered full term there must still be alot going on in there for the weeks after that for God to have decided  they should be in there that long. I just can't wait to finally have him in my arms!

On other fronts, had a second GD test done and all was fine. I passed the first but since we did it earlier than usual (due to his size) my doc wanted to do it again at 29. BP is good which is a relief since I started out with high BP at night earlier on but that seems to have cleared up. Hopefully it won't come back! My legs and ankles stay pretty swollen which is new for me since I didn't have that with my first but it's more of a minor nuisance than anything to worry about unless it gets worse then I'll start worrying about pre-eclampsia but I'm not going to go there yet. All in all I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I haven't had any significant anxiety at all which is amazing because I was a complete basket case before and right after I got pregnant. Another thing I pray doesn't come back! I had some post partum depression with my first but I'm praying and claiming that it won't be as bad this time! It's the worst feeling in the world to have a new precious baby and have thoughts and images of something happening to or hurting that baby go through your mind of no doing of your own. It's terrifying! But I also was home alone a lot with my first for a while and that contributed to it. This time I will have my husband home with me every other week during maternity leave and my 8 year old every afternoon when hub isn't home so that will break up the monotony and hopefully keep me focused and happy and not down in the dumps freaking out.

But anyways, here we are and so happy and so excited! Got a ton of stuff to get done before he arrives and I'm hoping I hold out until the very day before delivery so I get my entire 6 or 8 weeks off with my baby boy :-) God bless and hope all my fellow mamas-to-be are doing great!