Yummi Bears and Pose Prints

Taking vitamins has not come incredibly easy to me during these last few months. The first three were the hardest because I felt SO sick all the time and could barely stomach taking a pill, but managed to shove enough of them down that I think I did ok. Now that I'm in the third trimester, I take my prenatal every night, but have still had a hard time with one kind of vitamin/supplement in particular - Omegas! I've always know the importance of taking Omegas/Fatty Acids and felt that it was really important to take some while preggers to help with my little bun's brain development. The problem with most of the Omegas is that they come from fish oil and no matter what a company does to them, they taste like FISH. Lee doesn't seem to have a problem with the Omegas coming back to haunt him throughout the day, but I always have. This of course proved to be a HUGE problem during my 1st trimester, but I found a solution.....YUMMI BEARS! They are gummy bears made specifically for children in order to help them better take their vitamins, but I've found them to be super tasty for me too and a way to get in good Omegas without tasting any kind of fish. The YUMMI BEARS Omega 3,6,9 are derived from vegetarian omega sources...interesting. I buy them at Whole Foods, but I think Trader Joes now has a gummy Omega supplement as well, so check them out. When browsing the site online today for YUMMI BEARS, I noticed that they do have a gummy product for adults but I haven't seen them sold anywhere yet. Check out the link:

http://www.heronutritionals.com/

With my shower coming up in March, I've been searching online for cute shower thank you notes, came across the site Pose Prints , and fell in love. I haven't indulged too much in this pregnancy...well, at least not on buying things for myself or the bun. Food indulgence is a whole other subject ;) Since I've been a good girl and not gone overboard on my spending thus far, I'm considering going overboard on these thank you notes because they are too cute. Pose Prints offers invitations, baby announcements, etc. that you can personalize with a virtual person that you create to look just like you (or close) which is printed on the card. Check out the card that I designed below. Does it look like me? The cards aren't cheap, but something so different and clever that I pretty much can't resist!

Happy Birthday to a very special lady

Today I want to wish a very happy birthday to my Mom, Barbara!! I have always had a deep appreciation for my mom, but now that I'm becoming a mommy myself, my respect and admiration for her has grown even deeper. As I move into this journey of motherhood, I am pretty convinced that the phone calls to my mom will increase, her advice will become invaluable, and her reassurance and guidance, comforting. I am looking forward to the extended bond that we create because of the simple fact that we will both be moms (in just 9 weeks!!). Mom, I can't wait until we are both together holding my little man....it's going to be an amazing experience for both of us. He is lucky to have such a wonderful grandma and family to be born in to!

Below is something I read this morning that I felt was very appropriate for today:

IMAGES OF A MOTHER:
4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Mom doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother? She's clueless.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman?!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.

45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom thinks about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,

the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,

because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you.

belly button

I forgot to mention in the last post....my belly button popped out last week so now I have an outie!!

Sick and Pregnant!

Being sick and pregnant is the pits and I've been experiencing 2 long weeks of trying to get over being ill which is why I've been MIA from this blog for so long. It all started with a little cough about 2 weeks ago that turned into a fever, body aches, and a HORRIBLE cough that I still can't get rid of! The worst of it took about a week to completely go away, and then I pulled a muscle or maybe even ripped a muscle on my side from coughing so much. Talk about painful! Last Friday evening I couldn't even move from the couch and could barely walk without serious pain. It took all of this past weekend to get myself really feeling better AND I had 3 photo shoots to do. I managed to ice and heat my side enough that it really helped the muscle to get better. Today I'm feeling SO much better even though there is still a lingering cough that I'm battling.

Not that much has happened in the last 2 weeks since I've spent most of it in bed or on the couch. I did go to the doctor for my bi-weekly appointment when I first got sick and I go again tomorrow. I checked out very well at our last appointment, except for the fact that I'm gaining water weight like CRAZY! I gained 7 lbs in 2 weeks which made the doctor advise me to stay away from salt....NO! So since 2 Wednesdays ago, I have stayed away from my beloved pickles and olives and really tried to watch my sodium intake. The funny thing is, even with being so careful, I have NEVER been so bloated! My face is puffy and my feet are busting out of my shoes. In fact, some of my shoes don't even fit anymore. How can this be? I guess I'm just one of those people who holds the water and doesn't want to let it go. Consequently, I will be spending much of my time on the couch with my feet up for the next few weeks :) It's the only thing that makes them feel better.

The only other point of interest from my last visit is that my iron is a bit low. The doctor is encouraging me to get iron from broccoli, spinach, and red meat instead of taking a pill which is fine with me, except that she wants me to eat red meat every other day, wow! I have obliged thus far, but this is coming from a girl who's only red meat intake before pregnancy was 2 hamburgers a year. For the last 2 weeks, I've eaten more red meat than I have the last 5 years :) All for the sake of the bun!!

Speaking of the bun, he is growing so much which is obviously making my belly grow very LARGE. I need to post a new picture which I will do sometime this week. He is moving around all the time and sometimes his movements hurt a bit. Often, I can feel what I think is an arm or leg move across my belly which is amazing. Also, parts of my belly stick out at times and are harder than other parts which I assume is his head, butt or foot sticking out. Guess it could be a shoulder too! It's all very incredible and so far my most favorite thing about being pregnant. The more he jabs me and I can see my belly move around, the easier it is to deal with swollen feet, back aches, and sickness :)

More tomorrow....

It's getting BIG!

My belly that is...

29 weeks!!!

Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup

This post is intended to make everyone read and think before they eat, but especially my pregnant girlfriends. I was recently alerted to an article from www.healthday.com about levels of mercury found in high fructose corn syrup and foods that contain it. For anyone who has done or is doing research on vaccinations will know that claims of mercury being the cause of the high rate of Autism/ADD in our country is highly accepted as fact and also very plausible. So as we think about our future and make decisions about raising our children, I think it's important to consider simple things like what you're going to feed your kids. More immediately though, we should be thinking about our nutrition while we're growing our little ones inside of us. Our doctors tell us to stay away from certain types of fish because of mercury levels, but now we have something else to consider. We don't want to pass anything unhealthy to those little buns. So my advice ladies is to READ READ READ the labels of everything that you eat and drink while you're preggers, while you're breastfeeding, and when you start to feed your little bun big people food. There are already too many obstacles in life to overcome. We can reduce the risk of learning disabilities. Here is a link to the article:

http://healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=623456

3 months from today.....

My little boy is due to be born...today I'm officially 6 months pregnant, wow! I wanted to have a picture to post to go along with today's blog, but Lee has been so busy and we've barely been together long enough the last few days for him to take my picture. Maybe tonight.

All of my reading says that our baby boy bun is about 2 1/2 pounds now and could be up to 11 inches long. Well, I'll tell you that I've definitely started to feel a difference in the way that he moves. Instead of feeling little kicks and flickers of something in my belly, the movements are much bigger (stronger) and more intense. At times, parts of my belly actually feel harder than others and I can only imagine it's because our boy's head or butt is right up against me - wild! I can't wait until I start seeing the outline of feet and hands. Does that really happen?

In other news, I am running to the bathroom SO much these days and told Lee last night that I think if I wanted to, I could literally go every 1/2 hour.

Sleeping is getting a little more uncomfortable because I'm getting SO hot in the middle of the night that I can't stand it. Also, according to Lee, I now snore - ah! I have never snored before in my life (that I know of) and I KNOW that since living with him I haven't been a snorer. I've heard that this is a normal occurrence with pregnancy and find it very funny. I do admit that I have woken myself up a few times lately because of the snoring :)

Walking is going quite well - I've been following the Doctor's orders and walking at least 20 minutes a day except for Sunday when I did yoga and figured it replaced my walking for the day. It's actually felt really good to be active again and I highly recommend it to all preggo women.

So that's it for the first day of my 6th month of pregnancy. Wow, how time flies! Imagining holding our little boy in 3 months is so exciting and overwhelming all at the same time...I can't WAIT!