Mamas Worldwide

Oliver and Leo's Colorful Bedroom

Christina — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:08:46 +0000

I just posted a Before & After of Oliver and Leo’s bedroom over on AmiExpat.com. We recently bought a house in Germany and I’ve been consumed with renovating and decorating over the last year.

In the room, I’m proudest of the magnetic chalkboard wall. It was four days of work, but very worth it. The kids love playing with it.

The editors over at Apartment Therapy ohdeedoh have selected Oliver and Leo’s room as Entry #1 in their Small Kids, Big Color Contest. Voting on our entry ends Thursday, November 17, at 11am EST (5pm CET). If you have a few minutes and feel so inclined, please head over and vote for us to go on to the finals (you have to register to vote). Thank you!

Head over to the Before & After post on AmiExpat.com for more photos and details on how I decorated the room.

Breastfeeding after reduction surgery - the second time around

Christina — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:50:33 +0000

I wrote previously about breastfeeding my first child after having had breast reduction surgery as a teenager. We successfully breastfed for 27 months, until I stopped producing milk due to hyperemesis during my second pregnancy. Because I had to pump and supplement during the first six months of Oliver’s life, until he started eating solids and I didn’t need to supplement anymore, I was prepared to have to do the same with my second son, Leo. If my milk hadn’t dried up, and Oliver had wanted to continue nursing, I had planned to tandem nurse. Pumping to increase my supply in the beginning with Oliver was such a pain. I knew toddlers are much better at increasing supply than a breast pump, but that didn’t work out due to my illness.

I ordered the herbal supplements to increase milk supply that I had used previously, Shatavari capsules from Ayurceutics and Motherlove More Milk Special Blend, and I brought them with me to the hospital when I went in to labor. As soon as I was back in my room after the birth, I started taking the supplements.

Breastfeeding didn’t get off to the best start, because Leo was on the newborn station and wasn’t released to me until 3 days after the birth. I went up from my room in the maternity ward every few hours to try and nurse, but he wasn’t interested in latching on. I pumped colostrum for him which the nurses managed to get in to him with a dropper, but I was very disheartened at the time. He had already lost 10% of his birth weight.

When he was released and came to join me in my room, he latched on immediately and I didn’t have to pump again. By the time we left the hospital, he had gained some weight, and when the midwife came to check on him a few days later, he was growing well.

I haven’t had to supplement at all and he wasn’t interested in solids at all until shortly before turning six months old.

It was a great feeling to be able to provide everything Leo needed this time around. If I have another child, I think I may even try it without the herbal supplements in the beginning to see if I can do it completely on my own. Each pregnancy builds your ability to produce milk, as does extended breastfeeding.

For more information about breastfeeding after reduction (BFAR), I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Defining your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery and visiting BFAR.org.

Thoughts on Parenting

Christina — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:25:58 +0000

My New Years Resolution this year was to get back to blogging, on all my blogs. So far, this hasn’t worked out great, Leo is crawling and during the hour nap that he takes in the morning while Oliver is in preschool, I often try to do things like shower, do laundry, wash dishes, or just catch up on reading articles on the internet. It was while doing the latter that I came across two articles that point straight to the reason that this blog ground to a halt earlier this year.

I started this blog because I had parenting issues I wanted to write about that didn’t fit in with the theme of my expat blog. Along that line, I realized that what I wanted to do most was to build a community where parents from around the world could share their experiences, good and bad, in a supportive environment. I wanted to bring parents together.

The Problem

As I read more and more parenting sites, I saw that most of the popular sites aim to divide us and I became quite jaded towards the idea of parenting blogs. As we see in the news media, extremism gets more ratings than moderation. But we do it to ourselves as well.

The two recent, “in the news” articles that affected me, are the introductory post of Mayim Bialik (the actress who portrayed “Blossom” and now has a PhD in neuroscience and practices Attachment Parenting) on the TODAYMoms blog and the article in the New York Times by Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.

It’s not necessarily what was written, but the comments, which I found so disappointing. So many commenters full of vitriol and personal attacks against the author and other parents. As the child of a Tiger Mom and as an AP parent, I’d like to comment on both these articles.

My Parents

My mother was a very critical, typical Asian “Tiger mom,” and expected only the best. If I came home with a 96, I could expect to be asked why it wasn’t a 100. My father, however, was a typical American dad. To be honest, my feelings now are that my mother was too strict and my father was too lax. I love them both, but that’s how I saw it.

In high school, I completely rebelled against my mother’s strictness, and my father allowed me to do whatever I wanted. Even as a grad student, my mom wanted me home by 10pm, while my dad would allow me to stay out all night. I turned out okay in the end, my brothers and I all turned out well-adjusted and successful, despite having a Tiger mom and an American dad (the “despite” was a joke).

My Own Parenting Choices

I’ve chosen to be an AP mom. Actually, I chose to follow my instincts. I didn’t know a lot of parents when I had my first child, so I didn’t have any idea what to do. I just did what felt right. Six months in to parenting, someone mentioned to me that what I was doing was called Attachment Parenting. I looked it up and thought, yes, this is exactly right. Here are some thoughts about what I read said about the AP lifestyle in the comments to the TODAYMoms blogpost:

We co-sleep. My husband and I and our two kids. Oliver sleeps in a toddler bed pushed up against our queen sized bed, we’ve got a bed rail on the other side, and follow safe co-sleeping practices. For critics who wonder how a marriage can function if kids are in the marriage bed, there are plenty of other places to enjoy a marriage outside of the bed. It’s pretty exciting to brainstorm how and where you want to do it next.

We extended breastfeed.

In public. Breastfeeding in public isn’t the same as urinating or defecating, it is feeding a child. Eating in public is perfectly legal. I might not want to see everyone out there eating in public, depending on their table manners, but generally I manage to ignore what other people are doing at their tables.

Another point made, is that it is for the mom and not for the child. You cannot make a child breastfeed, especially when they have teeth. If a child doesn’t want to nurse, the child will bite and no mom wants that.

Finally, there was criticism that many parents can’t do everything that goes with being AP. That’s not what AP is about. AP is mainly about taking biology into account. Our children are biologically wired a certain way, they are still the same, biologically, as a child born 10,000 years ago. It was best then for a child to be upset to be away from it’s mother.

Now, we are no longer hunter-gatherers, we live in a modern society and can’t raise our children exactly the same, but we can take the biological needs of our children into account and try to fit them into our lives as best we can. AP means listening to your instincts about what is right for your family. If the family can’t sleep all together because the kids or the parents are light sleepers, or you prefer to have sex in your bed with the kids tucked safely away in their own rooms, then it’s okay not to cosleep. If you can’t breastfeed because of health or mental or any other problems, it’s okay. Formula is not as good as breast milk, but it is acceptable. It is not poison. I was raised on it and so were most of the kids of my generation. I can’t carry my kids as much as I’d like because of back problems. That’s okay. You do what you can.

In the end, I know a lot of families and a lot of children. I don’t know a single family who parents exactly the same as any other family, and all the children I know are turning out fine.

What are your thoughts on parenting?

Leo's Birth Story

Christina — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:42:51 +0000

Leo just turned six weeks old on Saturday, so yes, it’s taken me a while to get around to writing up our birth story, but it’s been a busy time.

The Induction

Leo was very big. His ultrasound estimates were putting him at 5 kg (11 lbs), so the doctors wanted to induce before I was full term. At 37 weeks, I went into hospital for an induction and three days later, I checked out, still pregnant. It was three days of contractions, afterward I was exhausted and disappointed.

A week later, I went in for a second induction. The first time I had been given the medication orally, which they planned to start out with the second time, but I asked for the medication in gel form to be put on my cervix. Within a few hours, I was getting nice strong contractions and my cervix had started dilating. I was in labor.

A Bad Reaction to Pain Medication

The midwife on duty wanted to give me some pain medication to help me sleep, so I could get some rest before the big show. One of the side effects was possible nausea, and I raised objections, since I was already pretty nauseous from HG, which I’d suffered from the whole pregnancy. She said not to worry about it, gave me the injection and sent me back to my room. By the time I’d gotten to my room, one floor up from the delivery area, I was dizzy. I made a quick trip to the bathroom to prepare for bed, and by the time I got in bed, the room was spinning. I vomited several times and got no rest that night. I felt miserable and don’t recommend this type of pain medication for anyone suffering from HG. Feeling the contractions would have been much more restful.

Getting the Epidural

By late morning, things had progressed enough for me to stay down in the delivery area. I was given an enema (I recommend these, they aren’t that uncomfortable and you don’t have to worry about pooping during the birth), then the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. It was the same doctor that had done my epidural for Oliver’s birth, and the insertion of the catheter into my spinal column had gone really well that time, so I had no worries. I scrunched up, which is very uncomfortable when you’ve got a big belly and are having contractions, but I figured it’d be done in no time. It took 6 tries to get the catheter in. Every doctor and midwife who saw me afterward said it looked like someone had used my back as a pin cushion. I don’t think it was the anesthesiologist’s fault, my back is a mess, but in hindsight, this was the worst part of the birthing process, much more painful than the birth itself.

The Birth

Because of his size, the doctor was worried about injury to Leo’s shoulders during the birth. In fact, I had been offered the choice between being induced and getting a c-section. There weren’t any openings for a non-emergency c-section for several days though, so I chose to be induced immediately. At this point in the birth however, I asked the doctor if it was too late to change my mind. He said it’s never too late.

Around 7pm, my cervix was fully dilated. At the same time, there was an emergency c-section and both gynecologists were in the operating room, so the anesthesiologist came in to my delivery room to help out. The midwife manipulated my legs to help Leo make his way through the birth canal while I pushed. Within a few minutes, the birth was over.

Saturday evening, thirty hours after I started getting contractions, Leo was born, weighing in at 4510 grams (almost 9 lbs, 15 oz).

A Scary Beginning

I looked down and saw that Leo was limp and purple. He wasn’t breathing at first and was immediately whisked off to the pediatrician. His 5 minute Apgar score was good, so there was really nothing to worry about, but all I could think about was that I wanted my baby.

He was doing well, but was put into the newborn station for observation for his first 3 days. It drove me a little crazy to be apart from him, but I was having trouble with my right leg, so I was kept busy with my own issues.

It seems while Leo was being born, his head knocked my lower vertebrae out of alignment and irritated some of the nerves in my pelvis, so for the first few days, my right leg was numb and tingly (like when your leg falls asleep), and weak. I was seen by a neurologist and got an MRI done of my leg and pelvis, which ruled out anything permanent. At six weeks postpartum, I’m getting sharp, stabbing pains in my back. My leg tires out quickly and the sole of my foot still gets numb occasionally. It doesn’t sound like it, but I am making progress.

The End of HG

I had read accounts that as soon as women suffering HG to the end had given birth, their nausea was gone. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me. The nausea improved day by day. Two days after the birth, I was able to go without anti-nausea medication. I got a bit motion sick in the car on the way to the neurologist, but managed without the medication. By four days postpartum, the nausea was completely gone. My husband asked me how I was feeling that morning and when I answered, “Okay,” he said that it was the first time in 8 months that I hadn’t said, “Terrible.”

A Difficult Homecoming

On Tuesday after the birth, we were released, and as soon as we got home, we heard that my father-in-law was not doing well. Rainer and Oliver jumped in the car within an hour of Leo and my homecoming and made the five hour trip to my in-laws. My father-in-law passed away that evening.

It wasn’t an ideal start as a big brother for Oliver, with us bringing the baby home and then “sending him away,” but it couldn’t be helped. Once he was back, he ignored the baby. It took two weeks before he wanted to touch or kiss the baby. Now he’s a great big brother though. If Leo is crying, Oliver is very concerned and tells me to hurry up because the baby is sad. He gives the baby a kiss when he leaves for day care and when I pick him up, and at bed time. He’s very gentle and thoughtful towards Leo. I try to have one-on-one time with him as much as I can, which isn’t a lot, but as Leo gets older, he’ll be able to have mom’s attention more and more.

Interestingly, with Oliver’s birth, I had a lot of trouble remembering much of the details, but with Leo’s birth, I can remember every little thing. Perhaps it was because Oliver’s birth was more painful and traumatic (Leo’s went pretty smoothly and I didn’t even have to cry out once), or maybe because it’s my second time around.

Have you found you can remember one birth better than another?

CARES travel system

Maria — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:59:34 +0000

It is summer, which means travel time in our home. In the past, we have flown with our car seat and go-go-kidz, which I still love and lend out to my friends quite frequently. Now that The Boy (TB) is getting bigger, however, I decided to invest in acar seat cover and CARES system. I use the cover and check the car seat, which is usually free.

Early on, I held off because I thought the curve of the seat would be uncomfortable for TB, but I have to admit, I love the CARES system, and so does my son.

When we boarded, I quickly slipped the main portion around the seat, and then looped the harness through his seatbelt. It took very little time, and we were able to board as a family instead of separately. (We normally tried to have one parent board with the car seat and the second board later with TB.) The harness and strap were easy to adjust.

CARES fits kids 22 to 44 pounds, which makes it a great addition for children on the airplane. It is also nice during layovers, because the system folds back up in to his six inch sack. At a meer one pound, it is a great travel companion.

The picture I am posting is slightly misleading. I snapped this picture prior to take-off, and when I looked at my son in it, I realized that the portion that attaches to the seat back was not low enough. We also further tightened the harness to fit his slight frame. According to the installation instructions, the red strap should be just above a child’s shoulders.

The CARES system is available for purchase in the US ($74.95) and UK.

(This post is cross-posted at www.piecesofmymind.com.)

Waiting for the Birth

Christina — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:15:44 +0000

On Friday, I hit 39 weeks pregnant and will be checking back in to the hospital for a second attempt at inducing labor. The first attempt, last week, was unsuccessful.

I’m still dealing with nausea from HG, although it has eased up a bit. If I don’t go anywhere and take it easy, I can manage with two 50mg tablets of dimenhydrinate, but I still get incredibly motion sick in the car and have to take an addition two if I want to go anywhere.

Because the baby is so big, the doctors wanted to induce at 37 weeks. We ended up waiting until last Wednesday to check in to the hospital for the induction. I knew there was a possibility that it wouldn’t work, but was hopeful. The first day of medication gave me fairly light, regular contractions, which built over the second day to being pretty strong contractions every 2 minutes by the second evening. When the doctors examined me, however, my cervix hadn’t lowered or effaced at all and as soon as the medication ran out, the contractions would begin to subside.

I came home Friday, still having strong contractions about every half hour, but they gradually stopped and there have been nothing more than Braxton-Hicks contractions since.

I felt decent Friday morning, but by Friday evening I felt the two days of contractions in every muscle in my body (and most painfully in my cervix, which I’m sure was battered and swollen after two days of being pressed upon by the baby’s head). Even my arms and legs were sore, which I found surprising. I had problems sitting and standing and even rolling over in bed, on Saturday, but by Sunday I was feeling well enough to venture out for a large ice cream sundae (although I demanded an ice cream shop that we could park directly in front of — no walking for me!).

I’m back to “normal” now, I suppose, and feel ready to give it another go. The doctors all tell me this time should work, that the second induction is almost always successful when the first fails. I’m not sure what will happen if it doesn’t work. The OBGYNs at the hospital say they won’t let the pregnancy go beyond my due date. The baby’s head size is off the charts, so I’m a little nervous and hoping the birth won’t be too difficult and I’ll have a quick recovery.

I hope you’ll keep me in your thoughts on Friday and this weekend and that I’ll have some great news to share next week.

Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update

Christina — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:26:31 +0000

I had thought I was improving. I’ve thrown up a couple of times since my last update (when I had gone almost a month without vomiting), but I have been doing a lot more recently. I had thought that my increased activity meant I was doing better, but I went back and reread all my postings on living with hyperemesis gravidarum (excessive nausea and vomiting in pregnancy), and found that I’ve been steadily increasing my dosage of anti-nausea medicine when I had thought I was taking the same amount now as I was back in January.

Now I think my body has just adjusted to the side effect of fatigue that I, at first, had with dimenhydrinate (aka Dramamine), allowing me to take enough to be somewhat active. In January, I wrote that I was taking 2–3 50mg tablets a day. Now I’m taking 5–6 on good days, up to 8 a day on bad days.

I can generally manage doing stuff like going shopping, or maybe some light housework or gardening every other day, with a day of rest needed in between to recuperate. I’m managing to cook most of the time, so I’m off my steady diet of ready-to-make meals (thank goodness!), but I still can’t drive more than a mile or so and get really motion sick in cars (despite 5–6 Dramamine a day!).

The baby continues to be very large. I was a large baby, so the docs think it’s just genetic (I was born at 36 weeks and was 8lbs, 4oz). They’re planning to induce me at 37 weeks because the baby is so big (it’s estimated at 8 lbs right now). I’m really looking forward to an end to the nausea and fatigue and motion sickness. I can’t wait to have my freedom and mobility back (something I think most new moms aren’t thinking when it comes to giving birth, but that’s HG for you). I’m looking forward to not being dependent on others pretty much all the time and being able to get back to being myself. So, unless the doctors change their minds, I’ve only got 3.5 weeks to go. The end is in sight. Phew!

Happy Earth Day!

Christina — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:13:20 +0000

I thought for Earth Day 2010, I’d highlight some of our previous reviews and posts having to do with living greener. If you’re looking for more ideas on how to live greener, check out my 15 easy tips for going green and saving money. I’d also like to recommend a couple of books for newbies (more experienced environmentalists will probably not get a lot out of these books, but they are nice to have as a reference):

Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices — this is a good book if you’re new to green living and aren’t sure where to start.
Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home — this book introduced me to cleaning with essential oils. It has great tips, but you can also find these tips on the internet.
If you live in Germany like me, I’d recommend 50 einfache Dinge, die Sie tun können, um die Welt zu retten und wie Sie dabei Geld sparen, which gives lots of tips that are more geared towards life in Germany.

And now, here are some of our past posts:

Book Review: Maybe One — on the case for having smaller family sizes
Magic Nuudles — Toys made from cornstarch
Green Toys — A San Fransisco-based eco-friendly toy company
Eco-Paint — Eco-friendly fingerpaints
Eco-dough is an Eco-do! — Eco-friendly play dough
The Mooncup Reusable Menstrual Cup — a way to stop contributing tampons and pads to landfills
Crayon Rocks rock our world! –easy to hold, edible, soy crayons
Goldi pacifier — a pacifier made of pure, renewable rubber that is toxin-free

Do you have any tips you’d like to share?

Fighting Pregnancy Acne

Christina — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:03:49 +0000

Before getting pregnant, I’d always heard about “that pregnancy glow.” Little did I know that the “pregnancy glow” is caused by increased oil production due to hormone fluctuations. For women who have oily or combination skin, pregnancy can mean a return of acne like you haven’t dealt with since high school. For some women, pregnancy can be the first time they’ve had to fight acne.

There are a lot of wives’ tales about how to deal with acne, as a clinical trial statistician, I thought I’d help weed through those tales and give you some tips on what has actually been proven to work.

First, you need to know what you are dealing with. Blackheads (open comedones) and whiteheads (closed comedones or milia) are caused by oil trapped in clogged pores. Blackheads are exposed to air, causing the clog to oxidize, while whiteheads are covered over with skin. Pimples are clogged pores where bacteria has entered the clog and is feeding on the oil and dead skin cells, causing pain and irritation.

The main thing needed to fight acne is gentle cleansing and exfoliation. Harsh cleansing and exfoliation can actually increase oil production in the skin, causing the acne to worsen. Many cleansers claiming to fight acne actually contain irritating ingredients to make them “feel” like they are working. Skin care products should not cause your skin to tingle, that isn’t a sign it is working, that is a sign that your skin is irritated. After cleansing, your skin should feel clean and normal, not dry, tight, or tingly.

Everyone reacts differently to ingredients, but common skincare ingredients that are irritating include: ethanol, denatured alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, sd alcohol, ascorbic acid, camphor, eucalyptus, menthol and peppermint.

Another common misconception is that eating chocolate causes acne. There is no evidence to back this up, but there is some recent evidence that high glycemic index foods may increase acne. If you find excluding a certain food works for you, then it may be possible that you have a sensitivity to that food.

Eating well and staying hydrated improves skin function, which can have an affect on acne, so it is important to drink enough water and eat a healthy balanced diet high in antioxidant rich foods.

Recommended skin care routine:

Use a gentle, water-soluble cleanser. I recommend using cleansers formulated for sensitive skin rather than for oily or acne-prone skin, as they tend to not include irritating or harsh ingredients. I don’t recommend bar soaps, as the ingredients used to keep the soap in bar form can clog pores. A few cleansers I recommend are: Boots Expert Sensitive Gentle Cleansing Wash, Olay Foaming Face Wash for Sensitive Skin, Paula’s Choice One Step Facial Cleanser for Normal to Oily/Combination Skin, and The Body Shop Aloe Gentle Face Wash for Sensitive Skin. These aren’t the only good cleansers out there, look for fragrance– and dye-free cleansers without irritating ingredients. If you have body acne, use a wash cloth to wash the affected areas morning and evening.
Exfoliate. Topical scrubs are often harsh, look for a gentle one, or just gently massage skin with a damp washcloth. BHAs, or salicylic acids, are the best chemical exfoliants for acne-prone skin. Some people may be concerned because BHAs are related to aspirin (which is verboten during pregnancy), but the amount absorbed through the skin into the blood stream is negligible. I like Paula’s Choice 2% Beta Hydroxy Acid Liquid because you can buy a pump spray from the site to screw onto the bottle, allowing you to spray the liquid onto hard to reach areas like the back.
Topical disinfectant. There is no need to use a topical disinfectant if you only have blackheads or whiteheads, since there is no bacteria involved in these blockages, but if you are fighting pimples, you will want to include a topical disinfectant in your skin care regime. Benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil have both been shown to effectively disinfect the skin, with benzoyl peroxide being found more effective than tea tree oil.
Remove blockages. Gently removing blackheads, whiteheads and pimples manually is pretty much the only way of quickly getting rid of them. The key word in that sentence is gently. You can get a facial from a licensed esthetican who does extractions. You can also buy a comedone extractor tool to do this yourself at home, or you can cover two fingertips with tissues and gently squeeze the pore to release the blockage. Just be sure not to be too overzealous removing blockages. If it doesn’t budge with gentle pressure, it should not be removed. You don’t want to damage the surrounding skin or cause an infection in the pore.
Sun exposure. One of the treatments German doctors recommended for fighting acne is 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure every day until the acne gets under control. Light therapy is a legitimate treatment for acne, although in the US, it is generally done with lasers. During my last pregnancy, while gentle cleansing and exfoliation helped, it wasn’t until I tried the sun exposure treatment that I completely rid myself of body acne. Germany is at a fairly northern latitude, so if you live nearer the equator, I would recommend lowering the time of unprotected sun exposure. Only you can decide if you’re willing to risk sun exposure. Personally, I felt, given that I am of southeast Asian descent, have a medium skin tone, don’t burn hardly at all, and given the limited time I would be doing it (just a few weeks), that it was an acceptable risk for me.

For advice fighting non-pregnancy related outbreaks, there are other options available, I would recommend reading Paula Begoun’s advice on fighting acne at any age. She also has a great blog post on how to correctly pop a pimple.

Are you dealing with acne? Do you have any advice?

Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update

Christina — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:37:02 +0000

I haven’t thrown up in 24 days!

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I have been suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum this pregnancy (I didn’t have it with my first), which causes excessive nausea and vomiting.

I had thought that a lot of the fatigue I felt must be caused by lack of nutrition, but it’s apparently a separate symptom entirely, because I still am pretty tired all the time and don’t have a lot of energy or endurance. I also still have plenty of nausea and dry heave regularly. I’ve tried seeing if I can cut down on the amount of anti-nausea medicine I’m taking, but I haven’t been able to lower my dosage at all. The motion sickness is still there, and I still wouldn’t trust myself to drive further than my local supermarket (which is walking distance, but would be a long walk, okay well, not walking distance for me right now, but when I was healthy).

Following the drastic 20 pound weight loss of the first trimester, I’m now gaining weight and am currently 16 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I think my body must be in post-famine mode, because I am always hungry. I can eat a huge meal and an hour later I’m hungry again. I’m craving fatty, high calorie foods, and I was pretty shocked to find out that between my doctor’s visit this morning and the visit two weeks ago, I actually lost 2 pounds, because I feel like I should have gained at least 5!

The baby is huge. I know ultrasound measurements aren’t super accurate, but the average fetus is 2.5 pounds (1.13 kg) at 29 weeks and this baby is being estimated at 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg). It’s measuring overall at 34–35 weeks. I’m being monitored for gestational diabetes, but my pre– and post-eating blood sugar levels have been fine over the whole pregnancy, as has my blood pressure (averaging 90/60) and my hemoglobin A1c test (plasma glucose concentration over 3 months), which turned out well within normal levels. The levels of amniotic fluid are good too, another indicator against gestational diabetes. My doctor says she’s not worried because the baby is big overall, not just carrying a lot of extra weight in the abdomen. Maybe this means he’ll be born a few weeks early? I can hope, right? (Just in case you wonder if the estimate of ovulation is off, I was using an ovulation monitor when we conceived and know the exact date of ovulation, plus early ultrasounds all matched with that date).

I’m finally feeling like the end is in sight, and that, along with the coming of spring, has lifted my spirits considerably. I still spend a lot of time in bed, but at least I’m not all that miserable anymore.

Mamas Worldwide

Oliver and Leo's Colorful Bedroom

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Leo's Birth Story

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Waiting for the Birth

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