THIRD TRIMESTER

28 weeks

Having reached 28 weeks as of this past Friday, I am officially in the THIRD TRIMESTER! It amazes me to think about the progress this baby has made (and that any baby makes) in such a short time. Since it doesn’t seem so long ago that the presence in my belly was so teeny-tiny I couldn’t even be sure it was there, it’s crazy that a few months later I can’t forget about his presence because he’s made my belly so big. There’s no time now that I don’t feel him in there, either squished way up at the top of my uterus, trying to squeeze under my ribs, or somewhere else, turning around or kicking, or even just resting. I can feel his body by pressing lightly on almost any part of my stomach.

As I know is normal (or am learning so), in the last week or so I have started experiencing breathlessness really frequently. Where a gal’s diaphragm usually needs to go down and expand out for her to breathe in and out properly, the baby is now occupying that space. This makes me feel like there’s just not quite enough air to breathe, and as a result I get head rushes very easily, and a throbbing feeling in my veins, even when I’m lying in bed trying to get to sleep. It’s such a strange feeling, and I know it’ll only get more intense as baby gets bigger. As my mom says, it’s nature’s way of making me want to finally have the baby!

Our prenatal class from last week was cancelled because we had a snowstorm that day. So we start it this Thursday. It’s six weeks in duration so it’ll be the end of February by the time we’re done. At that time I’ll want to have perfected my Kegel routine. I still only do it randomly, and it’s usually at work that I practise, because I have to stand for large amounts of time. With being so easily winded now though I need to take sitting breaks pretty frequently! The hours are great; the standing and lifting 10-15lb baskets of apples, not so much. 

 I've noticed I'm not gaining much weight at all in the past couple of weeks. I'm not particularly worried, but I do want to gain a healthy amount. Since I currently eat tons of healthy food, I don't see how I can gain at a much faster rate. The baby has measured normal at all the appointments we've had, so I assume that's the most important part.

Happy moving, little baby! Enjoy it ‘cause you won’t have that much room to do it soon!

Pretty Purple Vegan Coleslaw

There’s something about making a salad, even a simple one, that seems like a ton of extra work. Even though I love salad and want it all the time, I can rarely find real motivation to make one.  Maybe it has to do with needing to wash all the lettuce and everything else, not to mention all the chopping… Let’s just say that when a salad that someone else made is put in front of me I am completely and utterly delighted.

Yesterday I had red cabbage in my fridge, though, and got an idea for a really quick salad- Coleslaw! Somehow this one didn’t seem as daunting a task as making a garden salad; I don’t know why. I figured out a basic dressing recipe after consulting a couple different slaw recipes.

1 ½ cups shredded red cabbage

1 medium carrot, grated

½ red pepper, thinly sliced

Dressing:

¼ cup vegenaise or other vegan mayonnaise

2 tbsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1 ½ tsp sugar

Salt and pepper

Combine veggies in a medium bowl. Whisk dressing together, adding a little water to thin if necessary, and toss with slaw. Enjoy your pretty salad!

I had this with roasted sweet potato fries, and it was the perfect lunch. Don’t, however, eat an apple just before consuming this. I knew it was a bad idea to combine fruit (very easily and quickly digested) with high-fiber cabbage (very slow to digest); I was just desperately hungry waiting for the sweet potatoes to finish baking. It later resulted in a terrible belly ache lasting all evening. I’m still not recovered from it this morning. While I would usually try and use the belly-massage technique Patrick learned from a massage therapist once to help dispel the problem, it’s relatively impossible to do when there’s a baby on your intestines.  Plus, belly massage is something that should be avoided during pregnancy.

Next time, I’ll know better.