So, for those of you who don't know, I've been vegetarian for about the last 8 years. I've never missed meat and I've never felt an urge to go back. So, when I started thinking about nothing but steak at around 16 weeks, I knew something was up. I have enjoyed and valued my vegetarian lifestyle, but that's doesn't even rate on the same scale as the one I measure the importance of a healthy pregnancy and a healthy future for my child. When I got pregnant I became okay with the idea that I might need to eat meat to sustain necessary protein/iron levels. My mom was anemic during both of her pregnancies, and as a result of that, my sister and I have been anemic/borderline anemic for much of our adult lives. So, I was working on the realizing it was time to start eating meat again, since I was already consuming as much iron as I could manage in veg form when I started craving red meat. Then my doctor called and let me know I'm a little low on iron. Well, that was the assurance I needed to confirm that I needed red meat. So I did a bunch of research on successfully integrating meat back into your diet (since you kind of forget how to digest red meat after about 5 years) and that evening I started with a small portion of rotisserie chicken. The next day I had a bit more chicken. The next day I had 4 oz. burger made with high-quality 90% lean sirloin. And the day after that, full size burger. For these first 4 days, about an hour after eating the meat, I had a minor tummy ache but that was it. No puking (as I had feared, and as some people experience), no nausea (thankfully, don't need any more of that), just some discomfort, and then I was fine. So I've since been working on getting as much iron and protein as possible. This is still coming a lot from greens and legumes, but I've definitely been enjoying the red meat and have been working to get to the place where I'm *not* in the mood for it. It's been about 4 weeks, and I'm not craving it. I'm still very much enjoying it when it comes (in the way that feels like this is what my body needs) and every two days or so it comes up, and I make sure to fulfill it, since babies are made of protein, and iron(and some other stuff). I'm feeling very happy with my decision, and I have no idea what I'll do after the baby gets here.
The other new development is in the baby kicks department. So, on all of the pregnancy progress stuff I've been reading, the material says that if you're on your second pregnancy or beyond, you'll start feeling the baby kick at about 16 weeks. If it's your first pregnancy, though, you have to wait until about 20 weeks. Well, that's just not fair. And, the overachiever that I am, I was determined to beat the curve. So, I tried focusing really hard on my abdomen for anything matching the description of what they were supposed to feel like. I'm pretty bad t focusing on those kinds of things, though, so I kind of forgot I was supposed to be noticing. Then, as these things almost always happen (the same way I realized what my heart murmur feels like) I was talking to a friend about how I didn't think I'd felt it yet when one happened. And huzzah, I beat the curve! That was at about 18 weeks. I'd been feeling that same sensation for about 10 days, but hadn't classified it yet. So, there, WedMD. I win. Thanks to Mel for the assist.
That's about all the interesting things I've got for now.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Baby Bumps and Feeling Fat
So, in the past few weeks, I've started getting the beginnings of a baby bump. I'm still in that lovely stage where no one but me can tell, though. Most of this is caused by the fact that my stomach wasn't flat before I was pregnant, so the changes are less noticeable, and it's early. I've been taking pictures weekly to track my progress, and in the pictures, I can tell a difference in my size, but I still feel like it just looks like a beer belly, not a baby belly. I'm still not sure if the difference is all in my head, or what. I'm trying not to be insecure about my belly, but some days are better than others.
As I've been trying to share my experience with friends and family who are far away, I've debated if I needed or wanted to share these pictures. On one hand, that's what they're for. On the other, I feel silly for sharing pictures when it may not be a "real" baby bump. I also wouldn't call these pictures flattering in most senses of the word. I mean, I'm specifically taking these to clearly show my belly in all it's curved-ness. Typically one attempts to cover such traits.
I'm mostly at peace with my current diet and appearance. I'm happy to increase my calorie intake by the recommended amount, and to make active healthy choices (more than normal), because it's worth it. Now more than ever. Occasionally, though, I start considering the (false, imagined) opinion of others around me. This is when things get rough.
Nonetheless, I share with you the first few weeks of pictures.
As I've been trying to share my experience with friends and family who are far away, I've debated if I needed or wanted to share these pictures. On one hand, that's what they're for. On the other, I feel silly for sharing pictures when it may not be a "real" baby bump. I also wouldn't call these pictures flattering in most senses of the word. I mean, I'm specifically taking these to clearly show my belly in all it's curved-ness. Typically one attempts to cover such traits.
I'm mostly at peace with my current diet and appearance. I'm happy to increase my calorie intake by the recommended amount, and to make active healthy choices (more than normal), because it's worth it. Now more than ever. Occasionally, though, I start considering the (false, imagined) opinion of others around me. This is when things get rough.
Nonetheless, I share with you the first few weeks of pictures.
12 weeks
13 weeks
14 weeks
15 weeks
16 weeks
Thursday, January 24, 2013
We're having a geek!
One of the many thing one must decide along the path of having a child is how to answer the age-old question (probably not age-old, since the technology to discover such things is fairly recent, but you get my point) "What are you having?." And the first step to answering that question is finding out.
Well, my first response is "a baby." But, I realize that's not what people are asking. They want to know if it's a girl or a boy. If it will play football, or be a cheerleader. If it will wear blue or pink. If it will be distant and manly in 15 years, or if it will be overly emotional and slutty.
Well, my first response is "a baby." But, I realize that's not what people are asking. They want to know if it's a girl or a boy. If it will play football, or be a cheerleader. If it will wear blue or pink. If it will be distant and manly in 15 years, or if it will be overly emotional and slutty.
I guess my main problem with this question is that I have no idea what my child will be like. And I don't think knowing the gender helps determine any of those things, or really anything at all. My child will wear any color they want. My child will participate in whatever extra curricular activities they want(resource permitting . My child will read whatever books they want, and when they do, I hope they'll think critically about the gender roles being implied.
The whole blue-and-pink phenomenon may have a few different roots. Some places cite it as a reaction to queer men being more open in the late 19th or early 20th century. We were scared, and we didn't want our children to grow up wrong, so we taught boys to be masculine and girls to be feminine. Other sources say colors were mainly undecided until WW2, when boys started dressing like their fathers and girls dressed like their mothers. Either way, at least until 1884 when our future president was pictured wearing this, social convention was that children wore gender-neutral clothes (frilly white dresses) until they were 6 or 7. And I don't see anything wrong with that. Why do we feel the need to place expectations on our children about behavior that is so far removed from their current place in life?
Another reason for gender-specific clothing that Jason mentioned to me was so people know. So when a stranger approaches you to tell you haw adorable your child is, they can feel comfortable picking a pronoun. When they see a pink bow on your head, they can say, "She's so adorable" and when they see the little blue overalls, they can say, "He's so handsome." And they can feel comfortable in not offending the parents. But I'm not offended, and it's never been my job to make you comfortable. In fact, I kind of like it better if I don't. I don't think there's anything wrong with being a boy or a girl. I don't think there's a reason to be offended if one is mistaken for the other, particularly at an age when the only difference is the shape of their genitals. I don't think my child's genitals need to rule their life. Certainly not when they don't do anything. Am I so wrong in thinking this?
So these are the thoughts that have been going through my head for the last month as I've slowly, and then all at once, announce the pregnancy. Because it's the first thing people ask (mostly). Even when we told the girls, Sarra's first question was, "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" which was then followed with, "I think it should be a boy, cause there are already too many girls in this family. We need another boy." How did these ideas get in their heads so early? How have we so failed to shield them from it, or give them the tools to think past it. In time, I suppose we will. And it starts, I hope with this:
We're not going to find out the gender of our baby (intentionally). We don't need to have an all-blue, masculine career-oriented wardrobe if it's a boy, and an all-pink, feminine, princess and fashion-oriented wardrobe if it's a girl. We also don't need an all-yellow wardrobe so as to be "gender-neutral" (seriously, most yellow is at worst ugly and at best lame). My favorite color is blue, and Jason's is purple. People wear clothes for lots of reasons. And this is what our child will do. So we're not going to ask about the gender, because to us, it doesn't matter.
We're having a geek, and that's all we need to know!
(Questions, comments, and discussion highly encouraged. This is not "the way it is," just my thoughts, and how they led me to a decision.)
(For those of you who are now dirtraught about what clothes to buy--geek-oriented baby clothes also highly encouraged. Star Trek and TARDIS onesies are *totally* gender-neutral)
So these are the thoughts that have been going through my head for the last month as I've slowly, and then all at once, announce the pregnancy. Because it's the first thing people ask (mostly). Even when we told the girls, Sarra's first question was, "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" which was then followed with, "I think it should be a boy, cause there are already too many girls in this family. We need another boy." How did these ideas get in their heads so early? How have we so failed to shield them from it, or give them the tools to think past it. In time, I suppose we will. And it starts, I hope with this:
We're not going to find out the gender of our baby (intentionally). We don't need to have an all-blue, masculine career-oriented wardrobe if it's a boy, and an all-pink, feminine, princess and fashion-oriented wardrobe if it's a girl. We also don't need an all-yellow wardrobe so as to be "gender-neutral" (seriously, most yellow is at worst ugly and at best lame). My favorite color is blue, and Jason's is purple. People wear clothes for lots of reasons. And this is what our child will do. So we're not going to ask about the gender, because to us, it doesn't matter.
We're having a geek, and that's all we need to know!
(Questions, comments, and discussion highly encouraged. This is not "the way it is," just my thoughts, and how they led me to a decision.)
(For those of you who are now dirtraught about what clothes to buy--geek-oriented baby clothes also highly encouraged. Star Trek and TARDIS onesies are *totally* gender-neutral)
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