Pregnancy in the Digital Age

Photo from pregtastic.com.

My Pyramid - Track What You Eat!

I recommend this to anyone who is pregnant or nursing, or really to anyone who is interested in tracking what they eat each day. As much as I care about what I eat I never take the time to write it down or count calories, as I find it tedious and rather annoying. I stumbled upon this website, though, as I was looking up things about breastfeeding, and I'm finding that it's actually pretty fun. I found it through this site, pregtastic.com, which is super awesome!

MyPyramid.gov has a special section designed just for women who are pregnant or nursing. It's super easy to start your own meal planner and it puts your results into a cute little graph. I really like that you can just type in what you ate into the search bar and a list of options show up. So pretty much whatever you eat you will be able to find on there.

I have only perused the website for a few minutes now so my opinion might change, but I think I'm going to try jotting down what I eat for a little while, a few days or so at least, and see if there is anything I am totally lacking in my diet that I should add.

Have fun eating!

Thank You!

I have heard from many family members and friends that they have been reading my blog and that they enjoy it. I don't get many comments on the blog itself and I do not have many followers so I was unsure if anyone was really reading it, but since I love writing on it I just continue doing it.

But thank you everyone for reading my blog! Blogging is such a fun way to communicate and share with others! I would love to read yours, too!

Week 22

This week baby is between seven and ten inches long and she weighs about one pound! I still cannot feel her move all that much, but I think I'm starting to feel her more. Maybe I'm just accustomed to feeling strange feelings inside of me that I'm not noticing this little baby. Hmmm. Everyone keeps saying that I'll start feeling her more as she gets bigger.

We got a second ultrasound yesterday because with the last one they did not get a good enough picture of her heart or of her spine. This time they got all the pictures they needed and the woman kept using the word "perfect" to describe our baby. That made us feel very good! We were showed the list of all the things they look for and everything was labeled "normal". Momma and baby are healthy girls!

She was being super cute! When we first saw the view of her profile she had her hand in front of her face as if she was inspecting her hand.

At one point she lifted her foot by her face and opened her mouth to nibble on her toes. That was pretty awesome. She also crossed her feet at her ankles; she was lying down just like I was. The woman doing the ultrasound told us that she has very long fingers and toes, and that was one of the first things that my family said about me when I was born. Maybe she'll be long like me. We'll see!

The next two pictures are of the same angle, but one is straight on and the other is from the side with the 3-dimensional view.

This one looks kind of creepy, but we know she's cute. I can't believe she's already so grown when I don't feel very different. This whole process is very odd to me.

I love this one. The woman kept trying to get a good 3D photo and this is the best she could get. She said the best 3D pictures they get when the woman is 32 weeks pregnant. But there's her little face!

Here's the growing belly in maternity jeans! I was oh-so excited to find jeans that fit me. I was skeptical to get the kind with the big belly flap like these, but I got them since they fit and it turns out they are super comfy. There is also a lot of room to grow into that big flap! I like that there is no real zipper so I can't ever forget to button my fly!

I have never had a belly this big; it is very strange.

Here we grow!

And last but not least for this post -- baby has a drawer full of stuff now! She got so much for Christmas this year, as I figured she would. We still have not started our room for her but this dresser will end up being hers. I cleared out a drawer for her and I didn't realize we had enough stuff already to fill it! This makes me very excited. :) She has a lot of cute "daddy" and "auntie" clothes so far.

Holidays, Kids, and Baby Bellies, Oh My!

This is our first Christmas tree ornament as a married couple. Thanks Mama Cheri!

We mailed out holiday cards this year for the first time, and I am so glad to have started this annual tradition. This is the picture we put on our cards. I apologize if I did not send a card to everyone; there are still some addresses I need to add to my address book!
Christmas was so great this year and it was awesome that Yohan was here to celebrate with us! Christmas Eve day I baked sugar cookies and make chocolate pie as we waited for Chad to get home. We had Christmas Eve at my aunt Cheryl's new house. The kids had a blast frosting and decorating the sugar cookies I made and we did a white elephant gift exchange this year for the first time; it was so much fun and I think we should do it every year! I forgot my camera so there are no photos from Christmas Eve (although many were taken by others).

Christmas morning we woke up nice and early and opened our gifts at our house before we went to my mom and dad's house. Chad didn't appreciate being woken up early.
As we walked into my parents' house it smelled like delicious breakfast and sounded like kids playing harmonicas. The kids each got one and boy did they like them. Our nephews and niece rock!

Karlie and Hayden made a nice little duo.There were TONS of presents to open! This photo doesn't come close to capturing the massive amount of gifts this year. It was crazy. We all had fun opening gifts.

The kidlets had fun playing with the paper and boxes.And picking their noses.

Tiffany and I managed to get a picture of our week 21 baby bumps. Now that we're growing so rapidly it will be fun to compare bellies along the way! Everyone is excited for two more girls.

Then it was off to the Ashbaugh household! Stefani got Wii Fit so we all had fun hula hooping for one another.

Chad's hula hooping is classic, but dummy me made the mistake of recording with the camera on its side and now I can't rotate it.

It was nice to see the other Ashbaughs who stayed awhile and played games. Charlie liked her new toys, especially Barbie.
She was our entertainment once we turned off the Wii.

It was an amazing Christmas this year! Happy Holidays to all!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Last week as my students were silently reading one of my girls called me over to her and whispered in my ear, "Are you pregnant?" I whispered back "yes" and nodded as I smiled and walked away. I heard her say under her breath, "I knew it!"

Later that day another student of mine asked me if I'm pregnant and I told her that yes I am and that Kati (pseudonym) asked me the same thing earlier. She said, "well, I was the one who told Kati! And plus, you know how I know? Because when you first came here you had a flat stomach and now you have a little bump!" Then as the lesson went on she kept asking, "Can I please tell everyone the good news?" So I let her tell the others; the other girl in the group was super excited and cheery and the boys just sat there. Haha. Boys will be boys.

Today the same student rubbed my belly before I left (for the last time... very sad day).

The other intern, Joe, received a card from a very creative and silly boy that in a part, read, "you are the coolest college, university man ever!" Hahaha. I so miss kindergarten because of the all the funny things kids say... but now I realize that kids still say the darndest things even in fifth grade. So cute.

Milestone: Finding out Baby is a Girl

The original plan was to find out the sex of baby around week 20. Then after talking with people who had not found out whether their baby was a boy or a girl it seemed too amazing to wait until birth to find out. I tried convincing Chad that we shouldn't find out but he really wanted to and everyone else (and I mean everyone!) wanted to know, so it was too hard to convince him to change his mind.

So I came up with a plan. At first I was thinking that he could find out and that I wouldn't. I have heard that this has actually worked before, where the woman never found out the whole pregnancy. I knew that with my family and friends knowing I would find out somehow and I DID NOT want to find out from someone other than Chad. So I told Chad that it was his job to find out if baby was a boy or a girl and it was his job to tell me in a special way. I gave him some suggestions but left it up to him.

On Monday after the ultrasound and the regular checkup Chad was texting and calling people like crazy... and NO ONE called me. I thought that was strange. After sitting in crazy wet traffic on the freeway for forever we made it to Karlie's last basketball game. Afterward we all said our goodbyes and Chad insisted we go to his parents' house because he "had to pick up some stupid thing for work". I didn't want to go over there because I was sleepy and had had a weird, rough, sad day. But we went.

We drove up and there were a lot of cars in the driveway and around the cul-de-sac. I looked at Chad and he grinned. We opened the door and lots and lots of family and friends were there. I figured everyone already knew the sex of baby but upon closer inspection at the decorations, they were pink AND blue... so still no one knew but Chad.

Once everyone was there and had said their hellos Chad ran upstairs with two balloons, an "It's a Boy!" and an "It's a Girl!" balloon.

We waited in anticipation to see which balloon would go flying in the air... and...

"It's a Girl!" was released!! I was holding my youngest nephew Ben in my arms (all I wanted all day was just to hold a baby and relax) and I leaned into him and started bawling. I had strong feelings baby was a girl because I knew that there was no possible way that daddy, grandpa, great-grandpa, and our Jamaican brother could predict a girl and she wouldn't be a girl.

So there you have it... WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL!

Happy parents-to-be.

Happy auntie.

Happy grandparents.

20 Weeks

20 weeks pregnant... and what an eventful week it has been!
Here's the 20-week belly:

And here's what Baby Corner shows baby looking like inside me:

On Monday we had our very first ultrasound and let me just say... what an amazing technology we have to be able to see our babies inside of us before they are born. It was an absolutely incredible experience to see baby moving around. It seems so strange though that I can barely feel a thing. I'm told that I'll start to feel her a lot! Here are the four pictures we were sent home with:
I wish we would have gotten a video of the ultrasound because no still image can capture the magic of what goes on inside of pregnant bellies. The two pictures on the bottom I like the best. Those are babies little feet; she was curled up, knees to nose, and her feet were together like that; so cute. And the picture on the bottom right looks like Homer Simpson eating a hot dog... gotta love it!

The 19 Week Post Pass Out Bump

Last Friday was a CRAZY day! To make a long story short, I fainted. I was in a new environment, trying to be professional, hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep the night before (or the entire week before), was wearing too tight of clothing, am low on iron... and I passed out. It was a very strange feeling that I will try my best to never let happen again.

We went to the ER and everything looks good. My blood is good, heart is good, and baby's heart rate is beating like it should be. Now so many people are telling me that they passed out once or twice when they were pregnant and that there were many times when they nearly passed out. Apparently this is more common that I thought!

So now I have learned... if my world starts to feel strange and everything turns white, I need to sit down. Or better yet, I'll lie down! No more bumping my head on filing cabinets for me!

Milk Making Cookies?!

Milk Making Cookie Recipe: Enjoy Your Own Homemade Lactation Cookies

Now that I'm about to the halfway point in my pregnancy I'm thinking a lot more about the post-pregnancy part; the part when the baby's here! I am a firm believer in breastfeeding and I stumbled upon this article a couple months ago. It's too silly and wonderful not to share.

Can cookies really help increase your supply of breastmilk? Although scientists can’t prove it, most mothers find that oatmeal, flaxseed and brewers yeast help increase their production of breastmilk. Since these key milk making ingredients are all in this lactation cookie recipe, (plus chocolate) there’s a good chance they’ll work for you! (Fenugreek is an herb that is proven to be effective as well.)

There are two companies selling these little milk making cookies for a small fortune, but you can make them using the homemade lactation cookie recipe with the same success. I did tweak a few of the ingredients to make them only slightly healthier, but they still have more than enough fat and sugar to make you want to wolf them down by the dozen.

Homemade Milk Making Cookie Recipe

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry four
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 -4 tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.

3. Beat butter, oil, sugar, and brown sugar well.

4. Add eggs and mix well.

5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.

6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.

7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.

8. Stir in oats and chips.

9. Scoop onto baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Article and recipe from Green Baby Guide.

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea -
Can this herb ease childbirth?
by Stacelynn Caughlan

First recorded in the 1500s, red raspberry leaf tea (Rubus ideas) has been used for centuries in Europe, China, and both North and South America. This popular tea has earned the reputation of "herb-supreme" amongst pregnant women. According to folklore it can relieve almost any discomfort of pregnancy from morning sickness to leg cramps. And there may be good reason for its reputation.

Red raspberry leaf tea is very high in an assortment of nutrients including calcium, iron, and B vitamins, all of which are very important during pregnancy. The herb also contains a variety of chemicals -most of which have yet to be identified- that produce a direct effect on the pregnant uterus. They have been shown to strengthen the uterine wall, relax smooth muscle, and help to make delivery easier and speedier by helping the uterus contract more efficiently.

Historically women have taken raspberry leaf tea throughout their pregnancies up to and including childbirth. Many mothers extol this herb's ability to make childbirth easier and less painful. In a letter to the editor of the medical journal The Lancet, Dr. Violet Russel wrote "somewhat shamefacedly I have encouraged expectant mothers to drink this infusion. In a great many cases labour has been free and easy from muscular spasm."

Some women also drink the tea throughout their labour, or suck on frozen cubes made beforehand. It reportedly helps expel the placenta, and its nutritional value is thought to be responsible for encouraging and enriching the mother's breastmilk. Many women continue to drink the tea long after childbirth as it is thought to help restore the reproductive system and continue to help nourish the new mother.

Studies have not yet been done to give us statistical data on the use of raspberry leaf tea, but as more women and health professionals discover its potential, its popularity will surely continue to grow. This is one herb that all pregnant women should have in their cupboards!

NOTE: Some medical and popular media make reference to raspberry leaf tea as something to avoid during pregnancy for risk of miscarriage. This notion stems from a study conducted in 1954 where fractions were isolated from Rubus sp. and applied in vitro to the uterine tissues of guinea pigs and frogs. The scientists discovered such things as one fraction acted as a spasmolytic whereas another caused uterine contractions. Herein lies the risk of isolating the parts of a whole. When used as a whole plant, neither action is exacerbated and the herb is deemed safe. If a mother is prone to miscarriages she may feel safer avoiding raspberry until the third trimester. This is an herb with centuries of safe use behind it, there is usually little cause for concern.

References:
C.J. Briggs and K. Briggs, Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, April 1997
Rosemary Gladstar, Herbal Healing for Women, Fireside, 1993
Richard Mabey, The New Age Herbalist, Gaia Books, 1988
Susun S. Weed, Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, Ash tree Publishing, 1986
Joy Gardner, Healing Yourself During Pregnancy, The Crossing Press, 1987

Stacelynn Caughlan is a Clinical Nutritionist and Certified Herbalist who specializes in Prenatal and Pediatric Health.

Photo from OH Baby!

Measure Your Life in Love

This has been one of the most rigorous, challenging quarters in my six years of college (pregnancy aside; that's the great part). I am surviving just fine but it seems that all too often I find myself stuck in a rut, trying with my all to convince myself to just be happy. It's the schedule, the commute, the work, the school, the everything combined. Nothing is necessarily going horribly, but maybe it's the lack of being at home and the long hours of sitting on public transportation that drains me. I'm drained. I feel rather empty. And I must find that something positive to fill myself back up again. I'm too positive a person for this; I can't let the little things get in my way.

So after an afternoon that involved tears and much thought about, well, many things, there have been some little things that have come along to brighten me up.

Upon arriving home from work I decided I needed something yummy for dinner so I headed to the store. I perused through some books as I passed the book section and I picked up a book titled something along the lines of Positive Quotes for Girls. I opened it up and I read a quote that went like this: "Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them" -Ann Landers. This made me think of my hard work a little differently; I have so much opportunity in my life that is sometimes completely disguised and unrecognizable. I have been working my ass off and what is it all for? It's for my beautiful, positive future is what it is for! Maybe I'm hidden from it now, but I am gaining so much opportunity in this, and it's all going to show sooner rather than later.

Then I got in my car to head back home, soup in hand. To my surprise the song to come on the radio was Seasons of Love from the absolutely beautiful musical, Rent. As I listened to the lyrics I couldn't help but smile. How do you measure your life? I pondered. What it all comes down to, I quickly realized, is that the only appropriate way to measure your life is in love. Although I cannot afford to splurge by treating myself to Hair this week at the Paramount, I always have the movie, both of that and Rent to indulge in when I need a little pick-me-up. So what am I doing now as I eat my soup and write this blog... watching Rent of course! It's helping...

As I sat down to write this blog I decided to check my Facebook, although there's usually nothing too exciting on there. My lovely friend with whom I worked last year updated me about some of my students from last year. She told me that one student is like a different child and that another is also doing well. "They're growing up and becoming what we hoped they'd be. You'd be so proud." I don't think I could have heard anything more perfect than that.

And then it just got even better. One of my lifelong friends, Whitney, just texted me "I bought your baby a Christmas present... I couldn't resist!"

I can miss past pieces of my life but I cannot live them all right now in this moment. What I can do during my now is live and be happy while keeping close the people whom I adore.

I can't control my destiny.
I trust my soul. My only hope is just to be.
There's only now. There's only here.
Give in to love or live in fear.
No other path. No other way.
No day but today.
Thank God this moment's not the last.
-Rent

Ms. Derry is truly amazing. Her optimism is contagious.