The good and the not so good...

I've had lots of things I've wanted to blog about but never seem to make the time or when I try to start I don't feel like writing all these words that are in my head! But it's a good way to unload and I want to share! Also, really sorry there's not many pictures - I don't know what pictures I'd add to these topics... maybe I'll try to get creative and add something! (so if there are random pics that's why)

First, just in general everything is so great! I feel good, baby seems to be doing great... she is like a little kangaroo jumping around all the time! There is nothing more amazing then feeling your baby kick inside of you. This morning when Robby climbed in bed to snuggle and wake up he put his hands on my tummy and felt a couple of good strong kicks! "I feeled it!" he said. It's neat for him to be able to feel his little sister in there! Last night I went to a movie (Breaking Dawn - woo hoo! it was so fun!!) and baby was more active than ever! It felt like she was doing a can-can line for like 45 minutes!! So crazy!

I'm 23 weeks now and have another midwife apt on Monday. I love my midwife and feel so lucky that I found her! I said this on facebook but at my last appointment after I asked questions and we chatted for about 45 minutes she said, "ok, I'm just going to have someone come in to do some body work and massage on you!" So for 15 minutes she had her massage therapist daughter rub my feet and my back... I was speechless and soooo happy. :)  I just feel like the level of care and attention I get from her is far better than anything I've seen before - at least in my experience with the three doctors I had during my pregnancy with Robby. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Dr. Savage too but she doesn't have an hour to sit and just chat with me as most doctors do not. Also, midwives focus a lot on nutrition and the overall mental health and well being of the mom and spend a lot of time just building a relationship of trust so when my birthing time comes we'll be ready. I just am so happy with her - it's great. :) I want other people to know that this kind of care exists! If you are pregnant - consider a midwife!!! There's still a range among midwives too and I think home birth midwives probably spend the most amount of time with their clients but still it's better than the 5 minutes per apt one of the OBs I saw was giving his pregnant moms.

So some of the wonderful things about pregnancy right now are:
feeling the baby kick!
having a cute round tummy & not just a squishy one :)
appointments with my midwife
thinking/planning/day-dreaming about my birth
looking at adorable baby girl clothes!
talking about baby names (even if we can't totally agree on anything!)
imagining what this little person inside of me will be like, look like (blue eyes like her dad, maybe?)
being pregnant with my best friend so we can talk all we want about it and not get bored
when Robby asks things like, "when the baby is 3 can she watch Kung Fu Panda? So I can watch it with her?" and "when the baby comes can she sleep with me?"

Hopefully that list illustrates I'm ecstatic about being pregnant and life is good!

Pregnancy comes with a few downsides and I just wanted to elaborate on some of these and share some things that I've learned or have been thinking about. Not trying to complain just wanted to get this out there!

Weight gain - yes, it's inevitable, you're having a baby you're going to gain some weight! It's just been frustrating that I'm gaining so much MORE weight than I did with Robby! I know people say sometimes with their second kid they gain more faster... it's been especially hard since I had just done a bunch of work losing weight at the beginning of the year and was probably my skinniest ever just before I got pregnant. Which my awesome sister in law points out that could be part of why I've gained so much! I'm just trying to focus on eating as much healthy food as I can and limit the treats as much as I can. I know I shouldn't stress about my weight gain and if I'm eating good foods then I'll gain whatever the baby needs me to and hopefully I'll be able to lose it not too long after I have the baby! I remember how awesome breastfeeding was for losing all that pregnancy weight! Hopefully that works again! I'm just saying, the numbers on the scale just make me a little nervous right now!

Craving sugar - this goes with the weight gain and I said I am trying to not eat a bunch of junk and at first that wasn't too bad but the past few weeks I've just been craving sugar like crazy!!! This is so not helpful. I am usually a chocolate girl and can have one or two pieces a day of dark chocolate and be totally satisfied. Lately, I'm gobbling up any chewy sugar sweet candy I can find! Well, not everything but way more than I should especially if I'm trying to slow down my weight gain! Becca mentioned sometimes if women aren't getting enough protein they can crave sweets - I've looked at my protein intake and it definitely could be improved so I'm working on that to see if that helps! Also lots of protein is super important during pregnancy! I have a whole nother (how do you spell "whole nother" sounds normal when I say it but writing it??) post I'm formulating in my head about diet! :) 

Hemorrhoids- I can't believe I'm writing about this in a public space but if anyone's made it this far down into this post they are probably safe to share this with. :) I didn't have this problem when I was pregnant with Robby but did a little bit in my recovery. I know lots of people get them and it's normal but nobody talks about it! So! Just wanted to share the advice my midwife gave me for this and it has seemed to help a lot! I've used witch hazel pads and put a drop of two of Lavender oil (from the sample kit she gave me!) - the lavender oil acts like an anti-inflammatory. Also, something my midwife & her assistant called BF&C which means Bone Flesh & Cartiliage - they said to ask for it at Good Earth and I did and came home with a small jar of it in an ointment form. Also, my midwife recommended taking baths & putting epsom salt in there which also helps with my skin being a little itchy and my muscles being a little achy. Win win. So I wouldn't bring this up except for when I mentioned what I'd learned to someone else she said, "I wish I'd had known that!" and I knew I couldn't keep the info to myself.


I'll try to take some better pictures of my tummy and post those soon! I took a belly pic every week with Robby - this time I seem to never take them!

Prenatal apt & monthly forum

I had my second checkup with my wonderful midwife, Sherri, last Thursday. We had another good hour long visit and talked about all kinds of things.

One of the things we talked about were using essential oils to solve some of my pregnancy symptoms right now. She actually sells DoTerra and gave me a little 3 pack of essential oils for free which was great and I've already used them a bunch. Peppermint, Lavender, and Lemon.
Peppermint - great for headaches (which Tara ps my midwife says is fine to use while pregnant)
Lavender - to help me sleep and STAY asleep better
Lemon - Rob's used on his cold sore; good for upset tummies/digestion
A few drops of all 3 in a capsule is supposed to be good for allergies which Rob has bad right now so I made him take it 2 times and we're not sure the effectiveness yet but we're willing to try!
Anyways it sounds like there are a million uses for even just these 3 she gave me alone! I know people who use these instead of medicines and I love the idea of having something safe and natural to use for me and my family. I'm definitely interested in learning more about them.
Here's a little chart of different uses of some of the essential oils:

One of the best things was hearing the baby's heartbeat and having Robby listen to it with me - he was so excited! "The baby's heartbeat's COOL mom!"

My blood pressure was normal this time which is good...

Weight - can we talk about the fact I've gained 13 lbs (+maybe a few more if you count vacation lbs that I'm choosing to not count) and I'm only 16 weeks. I was freaking out thinking I'd gained 5 lbs in a WEEK and calmed down a little when I realized it was over a month but still - with Robby I'd gained 0 by this point. I'm not sorry and I'll gain whatever lbs I need to and I feel like I'm eating when I'm hungry and not gorging on treats or anything so it is what it is. But I don't love it. Speaking of gaining weight and nutrition...

Sherri's Monthly Forum

Once a month Sherri gets all of her clients together and does a forum on a subject that's important to cover and then has couples who have just had their babies come and share their birth stories with the group. I know my nutrition isn't perfect but holy cow guys, it can get overwhelming thinking about all the stuff you should/could do.

We learned about the HOPE diet:

H- High Fiber - should be getting 30 grams a day, most people get like 8


O - Omega oils - can be found in flax, hemp, or chia seeds (were some we talked about); I'm taking high quality  fish oil pills Dr. Dummar gave me


P - Probiotics - plain yogurt, we didn't understand too much about them :)


E - Enzymes - help us digest our food, in raw fruits and veggies, can take supplements

There's a ton I could say but I'll just say the thing we are working on now is having a good, healthy green smoothie every morning with flax seed in it to help with fiber and omega... trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, raw foods...

Also, Sherri said by your 4th or 5th month of pregnancy you really should be OFF sugar! Did you hear that? OFF SUGAR! Wahh! Ok, I do see that the more fruits and veggies we eat the less we crave sweets - I haven't even wanted chocolate for days which is good - but I'm definitely not OFF sugar! And there are different levels of OFF sugar - like no treats, or not using any products with High Fructose Corn syrup or sugar in them which is pretty much everything besides raw foods. :) (like when I did the HCG diet) At least that diet helped me be much more aware of what has sugar in it and look for/make my own no sugar or low sugar options. So I'll be trying to cut sugar out of my diet more and more but I'm sure I won't be perfectly OFF sugar.

So I haven't been able to convince Rob to do an early ultrasound and now ours is only 16 days away so I guess I can wait... waiting is no fun! But that's ok. Gives me something to look forward to!!