Updated pregnancy photo

Emma drew a pictures of our family. I am the tall figure in the middle. My petite 6'2" husband is on the right. Emma and Mandy, in all their tininess, are on the left.

(the "Bad hair day" magnet is the least of our problems)

This is the part of pregnancy that a woman starts to feel huge. I don't care if you tell me I am not huge, because I know for myself (and from this picture) that I am. My womb looks rather square and I only have 1 large boob, but other than that, the picture is pretty accurate. When I showed my kind and caring husband this picture after Emma went to bed, he laughed. 

I whined, "Am I really this large?" 

He laughed again. "Well, you aren't that tall." He reassured. And then with concern he pointed to the picture of himself, he asked, "Are my legs really that short and fat?" 

"Yes," I told him, "Yes, they are." 

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24 weeks... 16 to go.

It's hard to believe that I am already 24 weeks pregnant. I am glad the time is going by quickly and part of the reason for that is that I feel good. Having lived through such horrid pregnancies with the girls, I know what to appreciate -- and appreciate it I do! The difference is because I changed my eating habits, finally figuring out that my body goes very hypoglycemic (like gestational diabetes) during pregnancy. To counteract the symptoms of nausea, I don't eat any sugars (a little natural sugars are okay in fruit and milk) and I avoid high fat and high carb foods, and apparently the Mongolian BBQ is also a bad idea. If I jump off the wagon and indulge in my favorite foods (like the Mongolian BBQ Thursday night), I get terribly sick as my blood sugars go wacko and it takes a full day/night to recuperate. It is pretty good incentive to stick with my almonds, cheese, protein shake, eggs, oat bran, and lean meats, and of course greens! Yes, it is annoying and not altogether tasty at times. I'm looking forward to a huge chocolate milk shake on day 1 after this baby is born!

I wanted Jeff to take some picture of my growing belly. Even though I avoid sugar, I am still adding pounds with high protein foods. The baby is growing stronger and his kicks show on the outside now. That is really comforting as I know he is getting bigger and is healthy, safe inside.

I really would rather hide behind the camera. But I recently read an article written by a photographer who was lamenting not having any pictures of  with her mother. The mother had died young and the daughter was so sad that she didn't have anything other than fading memories to remember her by. The motive of the article was to encourage the photographer to step in front of the lens from time to time. 

This is what happens when we try to do a photo shoot. Check out Emma's face. She is so annoyed with her sister for not properly posing for the picture. I took family pictures for a friend and fellow photographer on Saturday (they are posted on my photography blog). We are doing a trade and she will be doing our family pictures in the Fall, after the baby comes. I am looking forward to that since our last family pictures (besides timer portraits which are always fun) were at Sears when Emma was just one year old. You can look at those on this post and this one. Time flies when you are having fun...

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How are you feeling?

I know how to do sick pregnancies agonizingly well. This time around, I've learned more about my body and how it handles food and I feel much better than I did during Emma's and Mandy's pregnancies. I can rate how I feel on a scholastic scale of "A+" being skipping around in a field of daisies and sliding down rainbows and an "F" would find me with my head in the perpetually dirty toilet bowl. Lately, I've been at about a "C+," not failing, but not skipping through daisies either.

I would never presume to say that my pregnancy diet would work for all women. On the contrary, I believe a woman's body tells her exactly what she need during pregnancy and she should listen to it. I felt like punching well-meaning nurses who tried to tell me to suck on hard candies and eat ginger in bulk when I felt nauseous. Severe nausea really doesn't make a lady very pleasant. 

I don't eat sugar. No desserts. No dried fruit. No juice. No Pepsi. No sugar in my tea. (*Insert tears*). I try to eat less than 5g of sugar per day. To put that in perspective, a slice of wheat bread has 2g of sugar.  I limit white carbs and only indulge in things that have lots of whole grains. I haven't had any large quantity of sugar in about a month, except for the other night when I honestly couldn't resist my favorite pear cobbler. I paid for it dearly the entire next day with nausea and vomiting. 

Another thing that throws me completely out of whack are high fat foods. As good as they taste going down, my blood sugars can't handle the extra fat and calories (most likely because they turn into sugars in the body). On Wednesday I had a Chicken Cordon Blue sandwich from Arby's. It has 473 calories, 6g saturated fat, and 7g of sugar which I found out just now when I looked it up online. Plus I ate curly fries. Delicious. It was so yummy, but I spent Thursday very, very ill.

I've made a diagram to show you what I mean. I am a nerd. There is no avoiding the truth any longer....

When my blood sugars are off, I feel very nauseous, which leads to vomiting which depletes my nutritional balance even more making me feel gross and perpetuating the cycle. With careful eating and rest, I can pull myself out of the vortex, but it takes about 24 hours. It makes dessert and high fat foods seem really unappealing. 

So, to feel at a good "C+" grade, I eat plenty of protein, grains, and greens. Green bean casserole made with hamburger is my favorite. I wanted to eat that for breakfast this morning, but for the sake of my family and their nausea, I ate eggs instead.

To maintain balance, I also take this homeopathic herb supplement from Alternative Health and Herbs (www.healthherbs.com). It includes Alfalfa Leaf, Catnip, Peppermint Leaf, Cinnamon Bark, Ginger Root, and Lobelia. I take it 3 times a day. It doesn't cure severe nausea at all, but it does seem to help with the mild yucky feeling I get before meals.

You may be sorry you asked how I was feeling, but maybe something that helps me could help you. You never know. Thanks for asking. Today I am very thankful to be feeling pretty good.

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