11 weeks 2 days

This early into the game, I gotta be resourceful. Klassy Maternity.

10 weeks 5 days.

For the mamas out there- when did you start to notice your belly grow? I know that the kid is no bigger than a kumquat (another food description for ya!) and weighs something like 2 ounces. Then why are my pants too tight already? I know I joke about eating all the time, but I've only gained 3 pounds in the past two months. I have heard that bloating is common, and yeah, I do feel kinda bloated. But I also feel just big. Why do you suppose this is? Is my uterus taking up that much more space? I started out this pregnancy being around 40 pounds overweight, so I don't really have a little pooch popping out of a flat tummy area like in those pregnancy magazine photos.

It's all so interesting, these body changes. I can't wait to see what pregnancy has in store for my body next. More acne? Torpedo tits? Perhaps some hemorrhoids? Ohh, the excitement!

mindfulness study.

When I went to the doc for my first prenatal visit, they gave me 2,710 pages of paperwork to fill out. Everything I've ever touched, worked around, smelled, or looked at was noted. In-depth family history of various illnesses was documented, along with a smattering of Ken's medical history. In with this paperwork was a sign-up sheet for an upcoming study on prenatal and postpartum depression. Since I have a long history of past depression, the thought of pregnancy related depression has crossed my mind a few times. It sounded interesting, so I signed up.

Someone from the study called me in for an introduction interview a few weeks ago, and I spent two hours answering all kinds of specific questions regarding my past and present mental state. I think they wanted to make sure I fit their needs for the study by having plenty of depression in my past, while being just fine right now. Apparently I passed with flying colors, because I'm in!

I'm pretty excited to be a part of this because it's a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy approach, which I've done well with before. They plan on mixing in some meditation, yoga, and other stress-relieving techniques too, so that's cool. Leave it to me to get excited about free therapy and yoga. Yay!

The study lasts a total of eight weeks, and starts sometime in mid-September. It should be interesting.

add it up.

I don't usually make a habit of counting calories, grams of protein, calcium, iron, etc. In the past, I've kept track of my daily food intake using Fitday just to make sure I was meeting my dietary needs.
The main things I learned when logging food (besides that I occasionally eat too much) was that as long as I kept my diet varied and included fruit, veggies, beans, nuts and grains, then I more than met my nutritional goals. So my mantra has simply been, "Eat! Enjoy!". Now that I'm growing a lil' vegan, I've found myself in need of keeping track a little better.

So, my new nutritional needs mainly consist of doubling my protein intake, and making sure I'm getting enough calcium. Eating enough protein has never been a problem before, and I refuse to become a vegan stereotype while pregnant! Getting more protein than usual just takes a little more planning on my part.

Main meals have been fairly well balanced, it's the snacks in between that I'm working on to make sure they fill me up with what I need, not just fill me up. Here are some of my higher-protein snack options so far. I would love to hear suggestions for more protein rich snacks!

Peanut butter on toast
Hummus on wheat crackers
Bagels (they average about 7g protein!)
Walnuts, cashews, almonds
Primal Strips
Tofurky sammich (yes, as a snack. I'm hungry all the time!)
Soy yogurt
Sunflower seeds
Smoothie with rice protein
Tofu "egg" salad
Tempeh "chicken" salad


As far as the calcium-rich foods, I'm incorporating as much for these foods as possible:

Kale
Chard
Collard greens
Enriched vegan milks
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Almonds
Soy yogurt

When I told the midwife that I don't eat dairy, I was expecting a lecture. But she didn't give two shits about it. She just told me to eat plenty of greens and maybe take the occasional Tums. I like her.

I'm good on meal planning, but I need quality snack advice, folks! I would love for you to weigh in on this, if you can.

Thanks!

9 weeks 5 days.

!!!!!!!!

Well, would you look at that. What a big change from my last ultrasound two weeks ago! Our sprout doesn't look like a wad of gum anymore. There's actually a noticeable head, arms and legs. The heartbeat is fine, everything's going good. Now I don't have to go back to the doc for another four weeks.

Speaking of sprout, I've noticed that pretty much every pregnancy book, magazine, and website refers to the different sizes/stages of an embryo using food comparisons. He/She's been a grain of rice, then a lentil, a pea, a cashew, and now a martini olive. Not just an olive, but a martini olive. Very specific. It's kind of weird, but then again, what else would you compare the sizes to? A pinky toe nail? A deer tick? Snake eye? Pencil eraser? I'm starting to understand the food reasoning now.

insatiable.

Despite a wave of nausea here and there, I'm pretty much hungry all the time. And if I don't eat whenever I feel the slightest bit hungry, the nausea gets worse! Considering I'm only in my first trimester, it may not be the best idea for me to consume as many calories as I've been packing away lately. I have been doing pretty well at making healthier choices since I found out a baby is growin' in there, though. No soda or caffeine at all. No MSG. A lot less sugar than before (but I'm still eating some sweets), and basically trying to make the most out of the calories I'm eating. But man, still. I'm ravenous. We have a really tight grocery budget right now, so I'm trying to be creative with eating without resorting to stuffing slices of bread in my mouth.

Am I seven weeks along yet?

I had another ultrasound today, one week after the last one. Our little lentil has grown quite a bit in one week, and you can even see it's little yolk sac accessory.

They measure how pregnant I am by two ways: the date of my last period, and the size of the lentil in the ultrasound. The latter is more accurate, as cycles can vary in length. So the midwife told me today that I am seven weeks, one day! I swear, I've been seven weeks pregnant for a month now. According to my cycle, I should be about nine weeks. At this rate, I'll end up giving birth in March 2012. And I guess I got that positive pregnancy test before I even conceived, right? Man, those tests are super sensitive.

Everything looks good so far. It's getting harder to sleep at night with the constant need to pee, and trying to sleep around the sore, giant boulders that reside on my chest. But hey, I haven't actually thrown up yet. So at least there's that. But my nausea is slowly getting worse, so that may be changing soon.
(mind over matter- mind over matter-mind over matter...)

a little scare.

When I had a miscarriage earlier this year, it started with some brown spotting. That eventually led to red bleeding, which turned out to be my body expelling a blighted ovum. Well, recently I had some of that ominous brown spotting. I called the doctor, and even though I was told that spotting can be common in early pregnancy, they still had me come in right away. She did an ultrasound, and our little lentil looks pretty normal. There's already a heart beat!

Since the ultrasound pretty much looks like a peanut in a hole to me, I asked her what things would look like in there if there were a problem. "If the baby was miscarrying", she said, "The sac wouldn't look so round. It would appear to be deflated, and it would be moving down toward your cervix." She went on to tell me that 3 out of 10 pregnant women experience spotting throughout their pregnancy. No need to panic unless I'm bleeding bright red, enough to soak a pad.

My appointment made me feel better about the spotting for about 20 minutes, until I had to pee and saw more spotting. I've been lightly spotting brown for four days now, and I'm still completely freaked out. My next appointment is in three days, so hopefully that will help to ease my mind.

...but it probably won't.