PHAB Lifestyle A blog dedicated to a healthy balance

This update is a few days late.  I was officially 18 weeks on Wednesday but the hubs was away on a business trip and I had no one to take a pictures for me.  This week was a busy one being a single parent for 3 days.  J wiped me out…I was pretty tired by the end of the day.  I could not imagine being a single parent…it would be so hard!  So thankful for the hubby! MAH!

How Big is the Baby?

This week the baby is the size of a large bell pepper approx. 5 1/2 inches long and weighing around 6 ounces.

However I feel like my belly is the size of a WATERMELON!  I look at pictures of me when I was pregnant with J and I was way smaller at this point.  But they say subsequent pregnancies you will show earlier but this is crazy!

How I’m Changing

Well the belly is defiantly getting bigger that is for sure.  The boobs have stayed the same THANK GOODNESS!  I am a little afraid of what they are going to be like once I have the babe and my milk comes in! ACK!  I have not stepped on the scale this week, I keep forgetting because usually I am not a scale kind of girl.  I will report next week how much I have gained.  At my last appointment I think I had gained just under 10 pounds in total so average.  I do feel like I probably have gained a little since then since I noticed some love handles yesterday.  But I am fine with any weight gain because I know how and what to do to get my body back into shape once the pregnancy is over.  Plus the weight I am gaining is for a reason, and I am cool with that.

How I’m Feeling

For the most part I feel pretty normal now.  Most of my energy is in the morning before my 3 o’clock slump.  Buy that time I need to put my feet up and rest for a bit before supper.  Since the hubs was away last week and all it did was RAIN I did not get any walks in.  Which is a real bummer since getting a nice walk in after supper and some fresh air feels great.  But the weather is turning around this week so I should be back to my walks again.  I am also going to start doing a prenatal exercise video.  I need to start scheduling in some exercise in the early part of the day when I feel best.  I have noticed that my stamina has gone way down and I find that I can be out of breath fairly quickly when I do exert myself.

I have not really felt any movement yet from the baby.  My placenta is anterior which means it is sitting at the front of my belly and will act as a cushion for any of the baby’s movement so I won’t probably feel anything for a while yet.  My doctor said probably around the 24-25 week period before I start to feel anything.  With J I think I was already feeling him at this time,  Nothing major just little pokes or fluttering’s.

I have experienced quit a bit of round ligament pain this week…OUCH!  I experienced it with J as well.  I really feel it if I get up to quickly from sitting or bend or stretch myself the wrong way.  I have to be careful when I get out of the car and out of bed as well.  I just have to remember to move a little slower now.  Which is hard because generally I am a pretty busy person.

What I’m Eating

My appetite has definitely come back.  Food is my friend once again.  There is not much that wigs me out anymore.  I am actually craving greens again and have had a salad for lunch almost everyday this week except for once when I was craving eggs and made a very yummy wrap!

So good!  I am still craving fruit and eat plenty of it too.  I am so glad that all the summer fruits are slowing creeping into the supermarket now.  I can’t wait to get me some cherries!  I felt this week that I am hungry a lot.  Also I have been making sure my meals are little smaller because if I do eat too much I pay for it dearly later!  So I do A LOT of nibbling.  Also anything heavy, rich or creamy does not sit to well with me either and I find that I am later reaching for the Tums…not fun.  So I am trying to avoid those foods. 

Odd and Ends

My 20 week ultrasound is in 2 weeks!  I am excited and nervous all at the same time.  I am really hoping that we can find out the gender and then I can start planning out the nursery!  I already have crib bedding picked out if it is a boy or a girl.  The waiting is driving me crazy because I have all these ideas running through my mind and can’t do anything yet.

We do have boy/girl names picked out that we really like.  We will keep that a secret and it will be revealed the day the little one is born.  We have to keep something a secret since I will be shouting from the roof tops what the gender is when I find out! HA!

For Fun

10 Weeks vs. 18 Weeks

Yup I have grown that is for sure.  Belly is bigger and so is the butt and boobs!

It was a busy day today.  It started off with taking J to pre-school this morning.  I was also the parent helper in class which is always fun!  The kids loved my mini muffins as well most of them had two

I am also 18 weeks today.  However, I will have to post my update on Friday.  My picture taker is away on a business trip!

But I thought I would share some of the things that I am enjoying right now, hence the title!

I am back to eating greens again and loving them!  Yipee…I saw this salad on Healthy Tipping Point and just had to make it because well Caitlin said so.

It is so darn good and refreshing I loved it and will be making it again before the week is out I am sure.

It is filled with all my favourites:

• Organic Spinach
• Organic Strawberries
• Watermelon cubes
• crumbled goat cheese
• raw cashews
• and a drizzle of Creamy Balsamic Dressing

TRY it you will love it!

Reading….

I like to crawl into bed at night and read for about 30 minutes before I turn out the light.  It helps me relax and I can fall asleep much faster.

Right now I am just about finished reading Tina’s book Carrots ‘N” Cake.  I read her blog daily and I love her approach to healthy living.  I can really relate with her.  Plus I am loving all the recipes she gives at the end of each chapter.  Great book Tina thanks for taking the time to write it!

This one is kind of random and a pregnancy thing.  But I love the body butters from Bath and Body Works. 

Right now I have Japanese Cherry Blossom and it smells wonderful!  I make sure to slather it on my belly and entire body after ever shower in the morning.  It makes my skin soft and supple and I smell nice too.  I did this when I was pregnant with J and did not get one stretch mark!  Mind you they say if you are going to get them you will get them and there is nothing you can really do about it!  But hey I say something is better than nothing.

Snackage…..

These homemade protein bars are the bomb!  and super simple to make.  I whipped up a batch today for the first time and my goodness they are good!

I found the recipe here.  You throw all the ingredients into the food processor to mix and they are no bake just put in the pan and into the fridge…easy!

These bars taste like a healthier version of a Reese’s Peanutbutter Cup and I LOVE Reese’s Peanutbutter cups but this is minus all the bad stuff.  I have been trying to scout of healthy snacks for me to have so I stay away from the bad stuff.  Plus J loved them too.

So now I have these and my kale chips.   Better than eating chocolate bars and chips!

Well time for me to go and curl up with a book…good night!

Today my day was filled with lots of little things.  Now that I am feeling better I decided that I wanted to get busy in the kitchen and I did.  Since this whole week is is going to be filled with rain…it is the perfect time to be in the kitchen and cook…I love it.

Now that I am eating greens again I just had to make some Sour Cream and Onion Kale Chips. 

I saw this recipe on Angela’s blog and knew I just had to make it!  I love Kale chips done in the dehydrator.  This recipe caught my eye and lately when I read or see something about a tasty food the pregnancy hormones kick in and I just have to have it!

Angela was right these turned out fabulous!  I made them with her little modifications like the cooking time (140 degrees for 4.5 – 5 hours) and the little bit of extra salt,  it worked out perfectly!

It was so darn hard to wait for them to “cook” plus my house smelled good too.

As I took them out of the dehydrator I could not stop eating them…so good!  I have two full bags of them for snacking on.

While these yummy kale chips were still cooking I also got my bakers hat on.  I am the parent volunteer for J’s class tomorrow and with that you have to bring a snack for the kids.

I made a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Mini Muffins. I searched the internet for a recipe and got it from here.

J and I taste tested them after they were done and boy are they good!  I think the kids are going to love them.

I also received my copy of Kraft Foods What’s Cooking Summer Edition in the mail today.  Well I made the mistake of reading it.

I saw this recipe and thought boy would that be good for an after supper treat.  I had all the ingredients so why not?

It was super simple to whip together.

• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• 4 Squares of Bakers Semi Sweet Chocolate
• Scoops of Ice Cream or frozen yogurt

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, then add the chopped peanuts and let toast a little.  Then add the chocolate squares and remove from heat.  Stir until the chocolate melts. 

I also added a sprinkle of sea salt to the peanuts.  They were unsalted and I felt a little sea salt would really make this taste awesome and it did.

The end result is an awesome and tasty crackle topping for your ice cream!  You could also do this with pecans or almonds as well.

I put my topping on some vanilla frozen yogurt.

This pregnant lady enjoyed every bite!  There is extra topping left over that can be kept in the fridge and heated again later for future servings.  Yum!

Well it is late and I need my rest…good night!

We got the cutest little bike for J.

The hubs picked it up at MEC.  It is a push bike and helps little guys to get coordination and balance and prepare them for a peddle bike.  We thought this would be perfect for J to learn to balance himself.

He seemed to like it.  But it has become kind of a love hate relationship.  Sometimes he loves it sometimes he does not! 

We thought we would get him practicing around the house first. 

We did buy him a helmet for when we do venture outside.

But to get the helmet on was quite the struggle at first!  HE DID NOT LIKE HIS HELMENT! and still doesn’t.

But I must say he looks so darn cute,  He is still pretty wobbly on the bike but in time he will get the hang of it I am sure.  He is a good little learner!

This afternoon we are off to the park with some friends…I wonder if we should take the bike along??

On Fridays my favourite bakery Prairie Mill Bread Co. sells this awesome bread – Apple Caramel and it makes the best French toast ever!  So every once in a while I pick some up and make a special weekend breakfast.

This bread is amazing!  It has chunks of apples, ooey gooey caramel and is moist and so delicious!

This bread is addictive and does not last long in this house! 

I was looking forward to this yummy breakfast since yesterday. 

I mixed 3 eggs, 1 egg white, splash of milk, cinnamon, chia seeds and vanilla for the dredged.

I topped my slices with fresh strawberries and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

You don’t need a lot of toppings with this bread since the flavour is so good.

Breakfast was enjoyed with a fresh cup of hot decaf coffee.

YUM!

So now that the announcement has been made I thought I would start blogging the rest of my weeks of pregnancy to share with whoever maybe interested. 

How big is the baby?

From the one website that I read weekly apparently he or she is the size of a turnip and measures anywhere from 5 to 5.6 inches.  However, I am feeling like it is much larger!

How I am changing

Well there is definitely something growing in there that is for sure!  My belly is getting bigger.  This is my second pregnancy and I must say that I am showing earlier this time than when I was pregnant with my son.

One thing for sure and my hubby is happy about this one is my boobs are HUGE!!  I have grown two cup sizes and had to buy new bras twice already!  I am really hoping that they stop until the baby is born…they get in the way and are heavy!  Just saying!

I have been wearing maternity cloths now since I was about 13 weeks.  It is just way more comfortable on my tummy.  Plus my big butt cannot fit into my once favourite skinny jeans anymore.

In my first trimester I was nauseous pretty much everyday all day and pretty exhausted most of the time.  But since about 14 weeks that has pretty much all gone away, thank goodness!  I do still have the odd day that I might feel off but for the most part I feel pretty darn good.  I am trying to work exercise back into my life.  I am however, taking it easy with just walks and some at home Prenatal DVD work outs.  I still feel I need to take little naps sometimes during the late afternoon but if I can’t it usually means and early bedtime.

One thing that I am experiencing is varicose veins!  I have been blessed with the hereditary gene of bad leg veins and since becoming pregnant they are popping up on my legs.  I have had treatments in the past and looks like after the baby is born I will be going in for some repair work again.  It sucks but what are you going to do.

How I am feeling and what I am eating

As I mentioned above I am feeling much better.  In the beginning with my nausea my appetite was not great.  My once healthy eating pretty much went down the tubes and fast after 7 weeks.  I could not even look at a raw salad without gagging!  My main foods that I was happy eating was A LOT of fruit, toast with peanut butter and jam, crackers, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  It was hard for quite awhile.

But now I am happy to report that my appetite has pretty much come back.  I have taken to eating salads again and my favourite veggie sandwiches.   I am still hording the fruit and drinking a TON of water.  I feel like I am always thirsty these days.  Right now I have been craving oranges and eat about 2 of them a day.  So good!  I am also really liking strawberries as well.  I have not had an major cravings but we did have Chinese food for supper tonight.  I have not had Chinese food for years so yes I am eating some stuff that I would not normally eat.

My energy levels are getting better and I don’t feel nearly as exhausted as I once did.  If I have had a real busy day with J I sometimes need to put my feet up in the afternoon and rest but other than that doing good.

Odds and ends

I had my third prenatal check up the other day and got to hear the baby’s heartbeat on the doppler.  It made me feel so much better and I breathed a sigh of relief!   Since I don’t feel the baby move yet it is nice to know that everything is going ok.

My next ultrasound is in two weeks.  This is the big one where they check to make sure the baby is growing properly and everything is all there.  Plus we can hopefully find out the sex of this little one!  I am a planner and need to know…NO team green in this house! 

Once I know what we are having I will swing into nursery planning mode…will it be blue or pink?  Only time will tell!

Hello again….I disappeared for a bit.  My days have been a little busy the last few days and in the evening I like to put my feet up and rest instead of blog.

I am in the process of doing a post about the fabulous trip that me and the hubs went on recently but it is taking a little time to put together.  I have a TON of pictures that I need to weed through and see which ones I want to put on the blog so bare with me

For now I thought I would do a little bragging and show a few NEW things I have received recently!

For Mother’s Day and an early Anniversary present my hubby surprised me with these…

This picture does not really do them justice.  It is really hard to take a great picture of diamond earrings!  But they are beautiful and a total of 2.28 carats!  I LOVE them and have been wearing them everyday since I got them!

I also got my 40th Birthday present very early!!

My brand new 2011 Dodge Journey!  I LOVE my new wheels!

My old car a Dodge Caravan was due back on it’s lease this year so me getting new wheels was going to happen sometime.  We were just trying to decided what we wanted and we decided to go with the Journey.  We managed to find exactly what I was looking for so we jumped on it.

It is fully loaded with every bell and whistle and has AWD.  I really wanted an AWD car again for our Alberta winters!  Plus the heated seats will keep me toasty warm too.  The best part is my touch screen with navigation and satellite radio and I can use my cell phone hands free with the car.  It is awesome!

I have been driving it for almost a week and I LOVE it.  I look forward to hopping into it everyday to drive around town.

I am officially 17 weeks today!  I will do the details of that in another post.  More to come later…

Sorry for the long absence but I believe I had a really good reason!  However, I could not share the reason until now….

As you can see we are expecting another little munchkin!    I am currently 16 weeks pregnant.

The blog took a back seat once I became pregnant because my first trimester was not a great one and my healthy lifestyle kind of went down the tubes!  It was pretty rough from about 7 weeks until around my 13 week mark.  I was doing good until the nausea and fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks!

My healthy nutrition went kaput and I was eating a lot of carbs and fruit which was not that bad really but not great.  I thought how could I blog about my daily nutrition and fitness when it was not happening and then everyone would know that something was up!

My appetite has been slowly coming back thank goodness and I am starting to feel like myself again.  I still have some bad days but mostly good.  In my first trimester I could not eat a raw vegetable if you paid me!  Give me a salad FORGETABOUTIT!  But I can now happily report that I have managed to have a few salads in the last few weeks…yayy! 

Surprisingly with my not so healthy eating my weight gain has not been at all bad.  So far I have only gained about 9lbs since becoming pregnant.  I had a doctor’s appointment today and everything is going good.  My next ultrasound will be at 18 weeks.  Of course I have to know what we are having…I am  a planner so I NEED to know!  I really hope we can find out.

When the hubby and I found out we were expecting number 2 we planned ourselves a little getaway at the last moment.  I will blog about where we went next….

Last week in my photography class we did our night photo shoot.  We got to go to the top floor of one of the buildings on campus and shoot some dusk and night shots.  It was a lot of fun playing around with my camera in the dark and getting to know the settings and what they will do. 

All these shots we done in manual mode with me playing around with the ISO, shutter speed and aperture.  They are pictures of our downtown city sky line.

I think a few of them turned out pretty good for my first crack at it.  I really need to play around with my camera more there is so much to learn.

The long line of blurr at the bottom is the c-train going by in the picture.

Playing around!

One of my favourites I think.

These last two are now facing the west towards the campus and the construction cranes.

I only have two more classes left.  I have still yet to take my photos for my final!  Guess what I will be doing this weekend.  Hopefully we will have some nice weather too!

Mmmm..Yup that would be SNOW!  It is officially spring and we have snow! Bah!

Mind you I DO live in Alberta and really does Spring ever really start here??  Sometimes I wonder. 

As you can tell I am a tad bitter about our weather today!  Not only that it is going to be like this till Wednesday!  Sheeesh! 

However I did have a very yummy breakfast this morning.

Two protein pancakes topped with Naturally Nutty Toffee Peanut Butter, sliced banana and a drizzle of real maple syrup.

YUM <3

Something else for me to look forward to today…my hour long massage I have booked for this evening! Ahhhhh…can’t wait my shoulders are tight.