Finally, my four-month-long blanket project is completed, with three weeks to spare. May our baby spend many warm, colourful, and tactile hours with this.
P.S. Our baby has reached FULL TERM STATUS at 37 weeks! We made it! He could be born healthily at any time now. We're just hoping he waits a little longer so Patrick can save just a bit more money.
Springtime rapidly approaches, and sometime, anytime, in the next 4-5 weeks we will have a baby.
Patrick took this past weekend off for us to have a last solid couple of days of time spent together. It was our version of a babymoon; we slept in, cooked, watched movies, took the dog for an adventure… it was pretty great!
On Friday our obstetrician told us the ultrasound had been great, and there are no problems. He is just a small baby; in the 30th percentile. She said the blood flow from the placenta was perfect, and matched how it was last ultrasound.
I sorted out the cloth diaper conundrum on Friday as well. Mom and I visited a shop near the city and spoke with the owner who had lots of information and suggestions. I originally planned to use a newborn size pocket cloth diaper rental kit from her for the first 8 weeks, then switch to the regular one-size Babyland pocket diapers I was going to buy more of (I already have a few). She ended up convincing me to buy, instead of renting anything, a different type of pocket diaper (Charlie Banana) which is a higher quality that works better and can be resold later, and also is made so it can actually fit newborns. I went with 6 of those and 12 organic cotton prefolds with 2 Bummis (aren't all the names just great?) newborn covers, which should last us fine for the first couple of months.
In other news, we decided to have a doula at our birth, and have met with her once already. We first met her when she sat in on of our prenatal classes along with another doula. She is not fully certified or trained yet, but is passionate and seemingly experienced, and most importantly, easy to talk to. We both felt from the start that if we used a doula, it would need to be someone we felt a positive connection with immediately. I am really pleased about it. We’ll probably meet with her a few more times before the birth. She gave us some great books, including Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, which is transforming Patrick’s and my whole understanding of childbirth. I spent the entire morning reading this in bed today. It’s a must-read for anyone.
Back to the baby laundry! I’m washing all our 0-3 and newborn size clothes and receiving blankets today. We finally have a washer.
And keep moving, tiny one. Keep kicking me in the ribs all you want, I know I'll miss it some day. You don’t have as much room as you used to, but savour these last weeks in your little cocoon…
So begins the last month of preparation for our little guy! And little is apparently what he is. Our obstetrician saw that my fundal height had been a little behind for the past month or so but in the last couple of weeks started to to fall a bit more behind (31 cm at 34 weeks). She assured me I shouldn't worry and the size of the baby has nothing to do with how I've eaten or anything. But she is sending us to get another ultrasound before she sees us again, just to measure baby again and double check that everything's fine. Ultimately, he'll likely arrive as a six-pounder. No complaints there.
Today I work for four hours and am then free to knit and nest as much as possible in the next month, or however long until babe gets here! The lifting is getting really hard, especially with the nerve pain I'm getting in my sitting bones. Not to mention just awkward with my winter jacket and big belly in the way.
I have gained just over 24 pounds as of today.
Now if they would just call about that ultrasound, I'm excited to see our baby one more time before he's born!
Coming up on 33 weeks! Belly has grown substantially in the past two weeks, as I’ve had confirmed by everyone I know. Fundal height measured 30 cm, at the last appointment when I was 32 weeks, which is quite normal.
I often try to figure out what position the baby is in, and usually can’t. It just doesn’t feel like it could be the shape of a human. I try to use the hiccups as a guide to where the head is sometimes, and it still doesn’t always make sense based on where I’m getting kicked. Maybe it’s some other animal instead of a human!
I’ve gained about 23 pounds so far. I am more into smoothies now than any other time in the pregnancy which is fabulous because the Vega powder we use has tons of protein and iron and other stuff, all in one scoop. It’s like extra multi-vitamins in food form.
The more I think about the fact that there are 7 weeks left, the weirder I feel. I am enjoying this last bit, because I have the knowledge that without a doubt, a bomb is soon going to drop on our lives and change it forever. I am of course nothing but excited for this, but am still going to enjoy the last few weeks getting everything ready (I have so much left I want to make!) and resting.
I have been able to cook more during the last few weeks because my iron stores have begun to replenish themselves. The difference I feel since starting the supplement is amazing. Still breathless, but less heart pounding, better sleeps and much higher overall energy. I have made things like granola bars; Shepard’s Pie with lentils, bulgar, and veggies; vegan mac and cheese; Miso Soba Noodle Soup; and lots more salads. It is great that I’ll be finished work at the end of February so I can keep this up while Patrick continues to work like crazy to the finish, so he can have a few weeks off when the babe is born.
I need to get off the computer now, I am making Squash-stuffed Canelloni for dinner! Happy kicking and hammock laying, my precious little baby!
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!
Baby's big brother, waiting patiently? Or grieving?
I love thinking about my tiny barefoot vegan. It’s hard not to, in fact, as he spends a lot of time wedging himself up partway under my ribs; his very favourite position, and though it doesn’t really cause pain, it does feel pretty weird. He also seems to prefer one side of the womb in particular so I only ever feel him under the ribs on that one side.
At our prenatal visit last week (26 weeks) the fundal height was 23cm, about 1 cm behind average. The doctor said that was most likely due to the fact that he was positioned sideways. I can’t believe how much he makes me giggle! His heart rate was 155.Which I take as a hopeful sign that, with Patrick’s help, I haven’t been doing too much accidental sleeping on my back.
Thankfully it’s getting closer to our last visit with this doctor, who we’ve come to find rather difficult to communicate with.She asked us which obstetrician we wanted to be transferred to as if we already would have known. Since we weren’t familiar with the list of available obstetricians, we did not know who we wanted. Little things like that seem to happen when we talk to her that make me feel weird, since she’s been doing this for so many years. As our healthcare guide, why would she not assume that since it’s our first ever pregnancy, we don’t know how all these processes work? I also had to look into the public health prenatal classes myself; I don’t think she was going to volunteer any information on that to us at all. Anyhow, it doesn’t help to gripe about the doctor. I think maybe she got wary of us when we began questioning the idea of a 28 week RhoGam* shot.When I told her at the last appointment that I had decided against the second injection and only plan to get one after the baby is born and blood-typed, she proceeded to almost literally shut down the session, quickly saying “see you in 4 weeks” and making for the door. Unfortunately we had more questions for her. It’s like she wants to be an authority figure and has a hard time admitting she doesn’t really know much about a certain subject. Perhaps we’ll seek out another physician after baby is born.
As symptoms go, they are relatively the same. My January work schedule is fabulous, totalling 25 hours a week, with 4-6 hour day shifts. I tire more and more easily, my hips continue to get more stiff and sore under the 16 pounds of belly weight I’ve gained, and when I walk I have frequent pain in my pelvic bone as it shifts to accommodate that weight. It sounds dramatic! Though it can be uncomfortable I am actually feeling great. I’ve continued to eat really well and do my best to snack throughout the day. Snacking is the best way to go, as I eat very slowly and it’s hard to eat big meals without getting bored or the food getting cold.
Tomorrow two things will happen: I will go for blood work and a glucose test in the morning, and in the evening we’ll attend our first prenatal class. I am really excited for this, as I’ve been feeling the urge to start mentally preparing for the practical aspects of parenthood without really being sure how. It will also be great to meet other first-time parents!
*RhoGam, or WinRho, is an injected dose of immune globulin, a blood product made from Rh Negative blood that has become sensitized, meaning it has formed antibodies against Rh positive blood cells (which 75% of humans have) that have been introduced to it. In accordance with the nation’s health program, it is typically given at 28 weeks to Rh negative women in case of any blood mixing to take place in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy if the baby’s blood is Rh positive. The way this would work is: since the mother’s blood would begin to develop antibodies against an Rh positive baby’s blood if shared, the dose of immune globulin, or pre-made antibodies, would attack any of the baby’s blood that had made it into the mother’s system in place of her own antibodies, so that her blood would not continue to produce more, which could then attack a second, future baby’s blood more aggressively, causing potential health problems. The injection at birth would lower the chance of sensitization from 16% to 2%, and an earlier second injection at 28 weeks would lower that chance to 0.4%. The catch for us is that the 28 week injection of WinRho, even if there are no antibodies already present (most likely), would be able to cross the placenta and attack the baby’s blood cells in a similar fashion to what my own blood would do, except it wouldn’t be necessary. We would rather find out the baby’s blood type at birth, as it could be negative, making it totally unnecessary to take any injection at all. I will still be 98% protected, even if I do have another baby, which isn’t likely. We did get a call from the Rh Program Administrator after we told our doctor we were doing this, who confirmed with us that we would most likely be fine without the 28 week shot. What a relief! It’s been a long few months of investigation into this and I’m finally feeling resolved with it.
Happy 2012! With all of the unbelievable things going on in the world, I actually feel weird pairing those two words together. This year is an ominous one to put it mildly, and I have such strong emotions, hopes, and fears when I think of everything that's happening. We have the beginning of a world war developing overseas, and more political outrage and poverty than ever. As I watch the United States gearing up for another election and continue to learn how much the media manipulates and twists information, I see the world is faced with two options: to remain enslaved by rich, powerful people who use very nasty ways to achieve very selfish goals, or break free from participation in these awful lies and wars that serve not the people but the power-hungry corporations and governments whose “care” we are in. Yes, I live in Canada, but things are not much better as our country likewise creeps more toward being a police state. While I am pretty much in the dark on most things political, I have learned to recognize some common tactics used in the media to warp information and attract followers to a certain side. For instance: there is only one man in Congress who insists on telling the truth about what’s happening in the world and exposing the dark agendas of the US political system, truly showing he cares about the people who live in the country and demonstrating respect for the original constitution. He is a sort of hero for thousands, but in every news video I’ve seen (except alternative “truth” news sources, fancy that we need that these days!) he is either called dangerous or crazy, or simply IGNORED, and it is held that he simply can’t win the election “so don’t vote for him”. Except that he actually has many thousands of dedicated supporters who fund his campaign, with no need for corporate sponsorship whatsoever. I am nervous of what will happen to him even though I desperately want this beautiful man to win the election. Check out this eerie video of the predictions he made in 2002.
But 2012 also represents the most exciting and transformative year yet in mine and Patrick’s lives. It seems a crazy time to bring life into the world. But in another way, maybe it is necessary. Having a new baby will perhaps remind us to return our energy to our most important goals. For us that is getting rid of any debt, being able to take care of ourselves by growing our own food, and further simplifying our lifestyle, especially now in a way that lets us focus on our baby as he enters the world. There is no time like the present to pursue this goal as rapidly as possible. It is crucial to me that our son sees us being true to ourselves from the beginning, and not sitting back, involuntarily participating in a consumerism and debt based culture. He will someday develop his own world view, but I can’t think of a more important sense of awareness to start him off with than that.
I am starting to need more sleep again. While my energy returned a bit after I began the second trimester, I now once again require a minimum of 9 hours sleep at night, sometimes more. I’m not really able to take naps during the day; they don’t seem to fit in anywhere. Perhaps the need for more sleep also comes from the fitfulness of the sleep I do get. My hips are extremely sore after a few hours of laying down, and I continually catch myself flipped onto my back. The placenta is at the back of my uterus, so it’s not the best thing for the baby’s weight (not that it’s much right now; just over a pound!) to be on top of it; that can slow the baby’s heartbeat. Plus I feel the weight, and it makes me uncomfortable too! The body pillow that Patrick’s parents gave me helps a lot and makes sleep way more comfortable. Once my belly gets bigger, too, it will be much harder to accidentally roll onto my back. One other thing about bed: it’s gotten way harder to sit up and get out of the bed! I currently sleep on the inside (next to the wall…our room is pretty small) but we will soon have to reverse this so I can get out of bed to go to the bathroom more easily.
The holidays are coming up, and while I don’t really have much time off work, I am for once looking forward with much ease to simply spending time with Patrick and my/ his family. Besides all the generous help with maternity clothes, my family is giving me the most wonderful gift this year, and that is no Christmas gifts between Patrick and I with anyone else. We have wanted to try this for a long time, and this seems to be the ideal year to start. Patrick and I currently have very little time apart from work to do anything but either cook dinner, do laundry, or watch the occasional movie. Patrick more so than me, as my energy level makes me call it quits on cleaning up more quickly. He works more hours than me in the first place, and has been incredible about doing dishes every single day, as my back gets sore so quickly and I simply can’t seem to muster the energy to do more than a few sink-fulls a week. So for the holidays, we are doing away with the stress of being out and about among the masses of consumers, and settling in, perhaps, to an actually clean and orderly home for some happy and quiet cooking, game playing, movie watching, reading and knitting time among our favourite people. My cousin will be visiting after a year away in Alberta, which makes things even more exciting. A wonderful holiday indeed!
I am about 115 pounds. I admit that sometimes, especially at work, I don’t take the time to snack quite as often as I should. Though I am within the perimeters of a healthy weight gain, I am still near the bottom end, so have been trying to up my calorie intake. So far today I’ve had oatmeal with dried fruit, hot chocolate made with organic soymilk, and two pieces of toast with peanut butter on one and nutritional yeast on the other. For lunch I plan to have leftover parsnip and celeriac soup, crackers and hummus, and for snacks a Larabar and a smoothie with blueberries, banana, fruit/veg juice and flax oil. I’m not sure how easy it will be to gain weight in the third trimester, as I’ve heard accounts of women both being more hungry and less hungry. Guess I’ll eat up while I can! Geez, I sound weird listing everything I’m eating! Pregnancy makes you do strange things.
I arranged for us to begin taking prenatal classes in January with Public Health. We start either on the 12th or the 31st. I really can’t believe how fast everything is moving. Have I really been pregnant for almost 6 months? This little one just doesn’t stop growing, and before I know it he’s going to be here and continuing his next stage of growth.
Almost as soon as I lay down to go to sleep at night, the baby starts kicking/poking in a weird way, near the surface, that tickles like crazy, to the point where I eventually burst out laughing, waking up Patrick, who drifts into sleep mode very quickly. Oh, that little one. Already showing signs of being funny.
He weighs about a pound now and should be getting close to a foot long… I can’t believe that! I remember when he was the size of a raspberry! That’s including his legs stretched out, though.
We had an appointment on Wednesday, the 7th, and everything still measures normal. Belly measurement is 22 cm, heartbeat was 144. I can hear the heartbeat whenever I want now, and have shared it with some family members.
We are still inconclusive about the RhoGam/WinRho injection. I wish there was an easy answer.
I wake up every morning and remember you’re in there, baby, and moving around and growing, and it brings such a wave of reality and a flood of hope. In a way it’s like a drug; it’s the ultimate reason to keep plowing through work and everyday life. I can’t forget for one minute about the small new life that’s taken shape, separate and yet inseparable from my own body.
Last night we had a veggie stir-fry with mock chicken and cashews over brown rice with a lovely orange/ginger sauce. So delicious! The recipe for the sauce was from The Everything Vegan Pregnancy Book. I always eat a lot of stir-fry when I make it. Even though it's full of nutrition, it's so easily digested that I'm hungry again in a few hours. Oh well, I never mind having a snack.
Anyway, despite my generous sized helping, we had some cooked brown rice leftover (actually this was because I forgot that Patrick had made brown rice on Sunday and refrigerated it for use this week, and so I unknowingly made another pot, hence the leftovers) so this morning I threw it in a pot with some soymilk and let it cook for awhile, and then added some maple syrup and a pat or two of Earth Balance. It brought back memories of the rice pudding my mom usually makes at Christmas. But you totally don't have to wait for a holiday to enjoy this creamy dish as breakfast any time of the year.It's a nice change from oatmeal.
Rice Pudding
Cooked brown rice, enough for however many servings you want
Soymilk
Cinnamon
Maple Syrup
Vegan butter
Throw the rice in a pot and add enough soymilk to cover the rice completely. Cook on medium low heat and stay close to the stove, as you will need to stir it often to prevent a skin from forming on the top. Let cook for about 30-45 minutes, depending on how creamy you want it (or have time for). The rice will absorb all of the soymilk eventually, and you will want to keep adding more, a few tablespoons at a time, continuing to stir, till the milk is absorbed and the rice is as creamy as you desire. Serve it into bowls, add maple syrup, brown sugar if you like, cinnamon, and a dollop of vegan butter (I have to admit this is my favorite part!).
I forgot some weird symptoms in my last posts. Nothing terrible, but my hips hurt a lot, I wake up at night feeling very stiff and sore in my hip joints and often feel like they need to be stretched during the day. I suppose it's the weight of this kicking boy babe! Another odd one is nasal congestion. I have generally sneezed a lot more than usual throughout this pregnancy and often feel like I'm coming down with a cold, but never do. Once again, vegan power!
I do miss writing! So many thoughts passing through my head but mostly I've been paying acute attention to the activity in my belly, and there is lots of it. A few weeks ago I realized that my normal clothes simply don't fit anymore. During the past two weeks or so, I've made a few trips to Frenchy's (second-hand store) and my mom has helpfully taken me to a number of stores to shop for real maternity clothes. With some amazing sales, birthday gifts from both Mom and Dad, and help shopping from my mom and sister I have gratefully stocked my wardrobe for the rest of the pregnancy. I actually never thought I would have to buy maternity clothes specifically. I guess I hadn't thought hard enough and needed to be pregnant to realize that I do, in fact, immensely appreciate that there are clothes out there made for this. I have to admit that trying clothes on to fit both me and baby felt just as special as wedding dress shopping! Not that I put a ton of effort into either. But thank goodness!
I've been feeling tired at work and am glad that my hours will come down a tiny bit in December.
No swelling to report yet!
Baby kicks a lot, everyday.
Patrick bought two storybooks, Goodnight Moon and The Giving Tree, and we've been reading Goodnight Moon to the baby every night. Perhaps he'll show signs of comfort and recognition when we read it to him after he's born! We love the book more every time we read it.
I've been eating healthy and have gained about 11-12 pounds so far. Last night we made spaghetti with lentils and portobellos in the sauce with sauteed kale on the side. So good! I'll share the kale recipe when I have time.
What a feeling! I can’t believe we’re halfway through already. On Monday the 14th we had our big ultra-sound day. The papers we were sent said to show up 20 minutes early, so even though our appointment wasn’t till 8:30am we left for the hospital at 7:50. By 8:10 we were sitting in the waiting room in Diagnostic Imaging, and good thing we were early because five minutes later we were called in by the technician. As she brought up the image (I had a terrible view, the screen was close to my head but perpendicular to the bed I was on) and began getting shots, she said “Have you felt movement yet? Because your baby moves like crazy.” I suppose having a small athlete can only be a good thing, meaning it’s healthy and energetic! And I sure have felt the movements. Ever since last Monday when I first felt that bubbly feeling, the little kicks and punches have continued to get stronger and more frequent. The baby seems to move more after I eat, which I find cute.
And speaking of cute, it is just the word to describe the little baby we saw on the computer screen. I was totally relieved to see it looked like a normal baby human silhouette snuggled in there, with a little face (on which I could actually notice some features that look a little similar to my own), a sweet little belly, and lively arms, legs, hands and feet. What a crazy feeling to finally see your baby’s picture after feeling it and hearing its heartbeat but still insatiably wanting more confirmation all these weeks!
Everything seemed to be fine, although the technician wasn’t really disclosing any information, per protocol. From the measurements she took, they came up with the same due date as we had figured out with my mom, off by only one day! They said the baby measured 19 weeks and three days, which was completely bang on.
As for the sex… ‘Tis a boy! For awhile she couldn’t get any shots to help determine the gender, as she needed it to flip over. She sent me to the bathroom in hopes that it might be inspired to do so. As much as it was moving around, though, it stubbornly stayed in its spot. After turning me on my side, she told us she was pretty sure it was a boy. I asked again later for confirmation on this, which she couldn’t give, but she said she’d be very surprised if it was a girl. I guess the strong male genes in Patrick’s family win out. I, as I said in the last post, honestly couldn’t care at all what the gender is. I am starting to get very excited to meet this tiny babe whom I feel so attached to emotionally and –obviously- physically. I have to watch my thoughts, though, or I get too emotional and start to feel run down. My thoughts start to wander way into the future and I have to just stop thinking or I stress myself out. I can’t invent any of this before it happens; being in the future or the past is my most potent source of unhappiness. All I have to do right now to feel peaceful is rapturously enjoy the fact that my baby son is still in my belly right now, in a state of pure innocence and unable to be cared for by anyone but me. Oh, geez, I am crying just writing about this so I have to change subjects.
I am starting to feel tired at work most of the time now. I worked an extra-long 8 hour day today, 9 on the clock counting my lunch break. It actually wasn’t too bad, considering it’s a full two hours longer than all my other shifts, which I feel pretty wiped by the end of.
I am also succeeding in gaining weight now, as I am ten pounds heavier than the first trimester when I didn’t gain anything. That seems to be pretty much right on target with how it should be. Not too fast, not too slow. Go vegan diet!
Think I’ll leave it there, as the news of the tiny one’s gender seems important enough to have a post to itself. We are more excited than ever, and my belly keeps getting bigger. Absolutely no denying there’s a new life in there anymore.
Approaching 19 weeks on Friday and all is well. Our prenatal appointments at my family doctor remain uneventful. Yesterday we had an appointment. The doppler lets us hear the heartbeat more reliably every time, and yesterday's attempt also showed that the baby is moving around a lot, as we kept losing the sound of its tiny heartbeat. It! I may only be able to call it "it" for another couple of days, as Monday we will very likely discover the sex! Although I'm excited to find out the news, I have grown to love feeling this little androgynous "it" in my belly and am very fond of its ambiguous identity. When it comes down to it, I have no particular feeling on which it is. When I try and think of names, girls' names come to mind the most easily. When I look at clothes, I am drawn to the boys' items. I can honestly say (and I wouldn't have predicted this- I used to strongly prefer the thought of having a girl) that although I have always gotten along well with little girls and have often dreamed of raising one, now that I have a baby in the works I am completely neutral in my desire for one or the other. The few dreams involving infants I've had so far usually didn't indicate which it was as I was still pregnant, and I've had one dream each of giving birth to a boy and a girl. In both dreams, I might add, I was unable to muster the brainpower to take care of either baby. Very bad dreams, and so I don't take either of them seriously.
Going back to the Dr.'s appointment, here are some stats, for anyone's comparison: The belly measurement she took was 17.5 cm this time, and was 14.25 or so last time (four weeks ago; 14 weeks). The heartbeat was 144, fluctuating from 156 last time. This makes my mother suspect it could be a girl, as it is said girls have faster heartbeats than boys. Who knows!? I am getting very excited indeed, especially to witness the babe in all its glorious activity on the screen.
Other than that, I have been eating quite well. I have not had as much time or energy to cook as I'd like though. Today on my day off I baked some Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sarah Kramer's Vegan a Gogo. Not as healthy a dish as I could have made, but what the heck, they tasted fabulous. We've been going out to top up groceries really often, so we are eating good food. This morning Patrick brought me breakfast in bed with tea, fresh pineapple chunks and a "McMuffin" sandwich with vegan sausage patties and melted Daiya cheese. I have been making veggie fried rice lately, a mixture of onions, veggies, jasmine rice, sesame oil, olive oil, and Braggs in a frying pan, and sometimes some World's Best Meatless Chicken Breast thrown in. Delicious indeed. Hummus and pita chips got me out of a few desperate hunger pangs this week, bought at the farmer's market.
The one vegan pregnancy book we've invested in is "The Everything Vegan Pregnancy Book". While quite a bit of this information is stuff I've already come across before, either from reading on vegan nutrition or pregnancy, it is nice to have a resource that contains both in one. With info on how much of each important vitamin I should be getting and listing food sources for them, it definitely reassures me that my diet was fine to begin with, and with a bunch of recipes at the back it gives me some great new food ideas to punch it up.
While everything is going fabulously, there is one small issue we have started talking about. Since I have an RH negative blood type, I have been told I need to get a shot of RhoGAM, an Immune Globulin treatment that would prevent my bloodcells from creating antibodies against a future baby's potentially RH positive bloodcells (not this baby). I was told by my doctor that I will need to get a dose of it at 28 weeks, and then again after the birth. We began wondering yesterday about this drug and the possible side effects, and it turns out there is a lot of controversy surrounding RhoGAM and its possible side effects on the internet, and some RH- women opt to not get the shot during the pregnancy to protect the baby. This is what we are leaning toward, but we need to do more research before making a decision, which I will cover in the next post.
Until then, sleep tight and keep kicking, tiny one! You are now the length of a mango.
