Embarrassing Pregnant Moments

I woke up hungry this morning.

Like at 3:30 this morning.

And not just, hmm, I could use a snack. It was a, hmm, I'm going to chew my arm off if I don't get up and get something to eat.

And it hasn't stopped all day. I pried myself out of bed at 4:30, after trying for an hour to go back to sleep despite my rumbling stomach, and had a small snack.

I had a bowl of Cheerios and a granola bar before leaving the house. (7:00)

I had my Fage yogurt and granola when I got to work. (9:00)

By 10, I was hungry, but was in a meeting.

By 11, I was in another meeting with my boss and finally had to stop and look at him and say, I have to go get something to eat, I'm sorry.

So I went to the kitchen and got my sliced up apple from the fridge and went back to his office to eat my apple and finish the conversation we were having.

When I got there he was talking with our CFO and I just sat down to eat my snack.

In addition to being so hungry I could cry, I was also contracting pretty seriously and it was very, very uncomfortable.

Well, apparently I was actually moaning through the contractions, while stuffing my face with the apple. I looked up to see both men staring at me and I just started laughing because I realized what I had been doing. It sounded like I was really enjoying that apple. I also blushed terribly and had to explain the contractions.

Really, I am very, very lucky to work for a small family company. We can make jokes about things like that and not worry too much about crossing a line.

I gave up on sticking to the lunch I brought with me, my PB&J on a 100 calorie Arnold's thin bread roll, and went to Wendy's. I had to silence the beast in my belly. She was such a hungry girl. Hopefully that nice, fat, heavy calorie lunch will do me for the day and I can have a normal dinner.

Destroyed it...

Happy Mama

The snob in me is now happy. 

For the love of Fage (Fa-yeh)

Apparently I am now officially a Greek Yogurt snob.

I used to eat plain, non fat Chobani and add my own fruit and granola. If I didn't have the fruit or granola it was a little hard to eat, the flavor is rather strong and I didn't care all that much for the ones with the fruit included.

Then there was a run on the plain non fat Chobani and every grocery store I went to was out, completely out. By the third week I gave up on the Chobani and tried Fage.

It was much thicker than the Chobani, and had a much milder taste. I ended up liking it much better than the Chobani.

It's not as popular though and not as many stores carry it.

I usually do my grocery shopping at the Walmart Market near Baby A's daycare because I can save a significant amount of money shopping there over the mainstream Grocery Store for the staple items. For fresh produce and bakery items, I love Publix. But when it comes down to it, the same list at Publix is around $150 and at the Walmart Market it's under $100. That's a big difference.

Walmart finally started carrying the Fage brand of Greek Yogurt but prior to that I would make two trips. One to walmart for the bulk of my list and a second to publix for the specialty items and my yogurt.

Well, this weekend I was short on time, I had a lot to do and couldn't justify the drive to Walmart much less the two stops, so I went to the closest and most convenient store.

The bad part is that the closest and most convenient store to my house is Kroger. They're in the middle price wise, but they don't carry the Fage.

I figured it was ok and I'd just go back to the Chobani and, hey, there are other brands too, why not try some of those?

It is not ok.

I suffered through the Chobani yesterday but really didn't enjoy it and today I tried a different brand, Oikos, and that was terrible. I had to throw it out. Maybe I had a bad cup. It was thin and watery and just tasted terrible. I threw it out and got a Pop Tart from the office snack supply.

I'm going to have to stop at Walmart on the way home tonight and get my Fage. I can't substitute. I'm a Greek Yogurt Snob.

Stages of pregnancy

Just my two cents.
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Whoohoo! We're pregnant!

whoo (pause to vomit) hoo, we're pregnant!

whoo (pause to vomit, take a nap, vomit again) who's idea was this?

 Pregnant schmegnant, I got this.

Hey, my pants don't button, cool.

No! don't touch the boobies!

WTF - I'm already in maternity clothes?

Hey, maternity pants are awesome.

Why the hell won't maternity pants stay put?

Wow, what's that little tickle in my belly?

Hey, there's a heel poking me! Cool!

Holy shit kid, stop kicking me.

WTF - I just sneezed and peed my pants.

So, these braxton hicks things just keep coming, don't they?

Go ahead, say something about my size, I dare you.

How many weeks left??

Ugghh, we have 10 weeks to go??

Ahh!! we only have 10 weeks left??

I'm so excited to hold my new baby!

Holy shit. What were we thinking?
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Then you can just keep alternative those last four, counting down the weeks until you get to:

I. Am. SO. Over. This.

And then you have a beautiful baby after 12 or so hours of pain and torture.

Again, just my two cents.

If this guy can do it, why aren't we all???

I left work early last Friday to do a few things before having to go get Baby A from daycare. Driving home I saw an old man walking down the side of the busy street outside my subdivision. Traffic was pretty much at a stand still due to construction and so I had some time to observe him before I actually made it up to him.

For quite a while I sat in my car, creeping up on this old man, thinking I should offer him a ride when I finally get up there. My subdivision was the likeliest place this guy was going and even if it wasn't near my house (huge subdivision) it wouldn't be that far out of my way. 

He was moving slowly, we all were, he was hunched a bit, with a slight limp.

As I got closer and closer I started to notice other things.

His new and solid walking shoes.

His hat and light backpack, not fully loaded by any means.

And once I was closer, the bottle of water with ice in it in his hand.

I also noticed his left hand curled in and that the limp was on his left side. Clearly he had suffered a stroke at some point. I realized that this man was right where he wanted to be and that he didn't want or need a ride from me. So, I passed him and drove home.

An hour later. I was getting ready to head out the door to pick up Baby A from daycare.

And guess who I saw. 

The same old man, climbing up the very steep hill outside my house. I couldn't believe it. From where I saw him, it was a mile and a half to my house. I've mapped it and I've walked it before, in a non pregnant state, but really, right now, it's probably not something I could do. Especially when you take into account that in order for him to have gotten where he was on his route when I first saw him, there was likely another mile or two added to the total. 

I was in awe and had to call out to him. I said 'Hello!! You've walked quite a long ways. I saw you out on Holcomb Bridge!'

He stopped, smiled and waved, 'Yes! I have. It's a long route I do and I try to do it as much as possible.'

We chatted a bit more and then he kept going and I got in the car to go, but couldn't resist snapping a quick photo of him as he climbed our hill.

How awesome is he??  :)

The fine line between healthy and happy

In the effort to find a breakfast menu for Baby A that fills her, is healthy and is something she likes to eat,  I have experimented with a few healthy muffin recipes.

The first one was a banana and oatmeal one that I thought was only ok. Baby A was a big fan though.

The second one was basically a veggie muffin. I know you've seen these, shredded veggies baked in muffins, posing as desserts. This one was actually pretty good. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hearty-Breakfast-Muffins/Detail.aspx

I didn't add the coconut because I don't like coconut and I used raisins instead of cherries. I also skipped the pecans because these are for Baby A and I'm not actually sure if she's had baked goods with nuts, I don't typically use them, so I left them out just for good measure. I really enjoyed these but Baby A wasn't as enthusiastic about them. They're lower in fat and calories than the banana oatmeal ones but I thought they were tastier. 

I also did a zucchini bread that I am really enjoying. I substituted applesauce for the oil and cut the sugar in half. It still came out really good. I was worried it wouldn't have any sweetness to it, but I managed to eat half a loaf by myself with no trouble. I haven't had Baby A try that one yet. My husband made his 'special' oatmeal for her this morning so tomorrow we'll try the bread.

In addition I've been going for greater variety to help add to the overall quantity, ending in something I know she loves, i.e. strawberry yogurt. Normally, I give her plain greek yogurt with granola added in and some fresh fruit if it's in season. I try to keep the processed sugars to a minimum and while Yopliat can advertise all they want about how healthy they are and how many people lose weight eating a low fat yogurt for breakfast or a snack, if you actually look at the sugar content on those, it's pretty high.

However, back to the title of this post healthy vs happy. The discussion I had with my husband about her eating was mainly centered around the fact that she does eat very well, not huge quantities, but if we can get her to eat the healthy stuff first (the bowl of cheerios with a banana) and then top it off with some yummy yogurt that I know she'll stuff in there no matter what, maybe that's worth the sugar.

She is a funny girl though. She just doesn't overeat, and I hate to try and break that habit, it's a good one to have. She's so set about it that she has given back a half eaten oreo because she was full and didn't want to finish it. My husband just about disowned her at that point.

Mostly I"m just trying to figure out what she needs versus what she wants and how to put something in front of her that I don't have to stand over her and say 'take another bite, take another bite, take another bite, take another bite.' Yes, if I gave her waffles smothered in syrup every day, she'd scarf it down without a word from me. Yes, I will occasionally resort to that when I have to get her out the f-ing door and I don't have time to play around. But really, I need to be teaching her to eat the healthy things too and not to take half an hour to eat one muffin. I'm just not always sure how to do that. 

How to quietly starve your children

Apparently I haven't been giving Baby A enough to eat in the mornings.

In my own defense, I think this is a recent phenomenon. She is a little girl. As in, petite, she's tiny. She's two and still wears 12 and 12-18 month sized clothes. She's just little.

She's a very good eater in terms of the variety of things that she eats happily and that we feed her regularly. She gets lots of vegetables, lots of fruit, lots of good healthy snacks, and yes, she gets a cookie if she eats all her dinner. However, she is also not an over eater. She stops when she's full and every once in a while I over do it in terms of what I sit her down with for a meal. So, I get into a routine of quantity and apparently forget that she is actually still growing and as she grows, will need more food to sustain that.

Baby A has been rather cranky lately at Mama T's. Everything has been a battle and all this week she's just been unhappy.

The other morning my husband made her breakfast, which he does occasionally. He eats oatmeal many mornings and adds peanut butter, honey and sliced bananas to it. Baby A loves this. So that morning he made her usual amount and she scarfed it down before I managed to finish my own bowl of cereal. That evening my husband and I laughed about it and thought, well, maybe we need to give her a larger portion.

So the next morning my husband increased the quantity. She ate it all. Not as fast as the smaller portion and there was definitely a little slow down at the end, but she ate it all.

I got a text and a picture from Mama T:

Having a Happy Day!

Wow, do I feel like such a crappy mother. 

To be fair, it's not like I'm not feeding her. She's getting a bowl of cheerios with banana sliced into it, or an english muffin, or about 1/2 a cup of plain greek yogurt with another 1/2 a cup of granola mixed in. Plus a full glass of milk. 

So, I raided allrecipes.com for some more healthy, mildly sweet, breakfast options that I can start adding to her diet since she clearly is needing something more filling.

This whole parenting 'learn as you go' thing can really suck sometimes.