Wednesday, April 18, 2007

long time no blog

Hey there. It's been so long it almost feels like it's worse to post than to just forget I ever had a blog. But, I find myself with some time at the moment, so, meh, why not?

I'm about 24 weeks pregnant. Surprise!

It's supposedly a boy. Surprise!

Eve is still not potty trained. erm...surprised?

But, Eve is sleeping through the night (until 5 or 6 AM or so, at which point she sleeps in our bed for an hour or two more) more often than not these days, which is cool. Yay for her new Ikea bunk bed!

What else. Well, pregnancy this time around has been very different than time number 1. I'll leave it at that so I won't bore you with the details, but it's weird, I thought I knew what pregnancy was all about, but of course, I'm an expert on my pregnancy with Eve, and that's about it.

One exciting complication of life with Peanut (Eve named him, and she knew it was a boy before we did--now she goes around telling those who ask that "the doctor SAID it's a boy.") is I'm allergic to basically everything under the sun. I list it for you:

Milk sugar (more commonly known as lactose intollerance) causing me to need to avoid all milk products as well as anything made with any milk products.
Corn, causing me to need to avoid all corn in all forms, including in powdered sugar, all tasty hard candy, and baking powder. Good bye baked goods!

With just those two, I basically have to be suspicious of anything I don't make myself. Sometimes I get lucky and find a tasty store-bought treat and then sometimes I get unlucky, and seemingly completely safe favorites turn out to make me ill by some mysterious means.

Then, the list grows:
Grapes (good thing wine is out for a while anyway, right?)
carrots
shellfish
white fish (not Whitefish, but simply any white-fleshed fish. salmon seems my only safe seafood bet. Oh, and sardines, but those are kinda tough to eat for other reasons.
Asparagus (not sure on this one yet, it's still "in testing" -- as in, I don't like it so much that I'm going to keep trying to find out if I *can* have it, and just assume I can't and avoid it.)
Strawberries
One or more of the three berries in the frozen berry blend I have at home consisting of rasberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

This really is a ramble, isn't it? So, anyway, even when I'm really careful to cut those things out, I'll still mysteriously get ill for no obvious reason. This led me to visit a naturopath to try to figure out what I could eat and what I couldn't and at the same time feed myself and peanut so he grows to be at least as healthy as Eve (who came out at 8.5 lbs, and never lost weight, and has always been of the lovely, slighly roundish type.)

She put me on an evil diet that cuts out everything that was left that I could eat. No, not really, just all dairy (I had resorted to taking Lactaid pills so I could eat icecream, because darn it, I'm pregnant! and I could almost always get away with nice hard cheeses, like cheddar and swiss) mushrooms, anything fermented (all vinegars) and anything made with yeast -- like the bread that I toasted each morning for breakfast and slathered with peanut butter that I'm now also not supposed to eat, the same bread I often made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of for lunch. Oh, and sugar, so the jelly is out too.

I *am* allowed to have fruit, veggies, home-made yogurt (completely lactose-free after 24 hours of cooking!) non-processed proteins (most of the processed stuff, like lunch meats, bacon, hotdogs, etc. were out anyway because of corn) and whole grains. I can even have bread if I make it myself without white flour, yeast, or baking powder (you know, because of the corn) No, I may not have natural sugars like honey or molasses. I started chopping up dates to put in my oatmeal, because it just began to taste like glue completely plain with no milk and no brown sugar. It's acceptable now with dates and chopped almonds and a bit of yogurt, but it's still not really yummy. For dessert I puree mangos, bananas, and other fruit I've got laying about with the plain yogurt and then put it in the freezer just long enough to get kind of an icey crust on the top and sides. It's no Bryers, but then, I can eat it, and I can't eat Bryers, so it wins for the time being.

I've been feeling rather sorry for myself. Then again, I remember thinking and praying about not gaining so much darn weight this time around (60 lbs with Eve, and I'd only lost 52 of those by the time i got preggers again). My first trimester was really promising, since I had no appetite whatsoever, and didn't gain an ounce. Then, of course, once food appealed to me again, I started eating what I could that didn't include corn. I managed to do pretty well, but they do make some chocolate and icecream without corn, so I was making up for lost time fairly quickly. Since going on this even more restrictive diet a few weeks ago, I've managed to, I think, lose weight, which is a bit concerning for a pregnant gal, but at the same time, I think this time around I won't have trouble staying in the 25 to 30 lb weight gain range...that is, if I can even reach 25. I just have to eat more broiled chicken and almonds... because the fruit and limited selection of veggies doesn't seem to be doing much to help me gain at the traditionally hoped-for rate.

Aren't you glad we had this little chat?