July Goals: my grades

First time making goals and evaluating myself. My grades are totally subjective to my own self-evaluation.

1. Start Registering.
Grade: A+
I believe I have registered for the essentials (and then some). I spend hours reviewing lists, reviews, advisories, etc. I also had to factor in how cute things are! We are now registered at Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Just search my name and/or Alex's name, and you can find our registry! It's super fun to look at all the pinks and purples and other girly things.

2. Make a healthy meal plan:
Grade: A-
"Healthy" is such a relative term. Alex and I have successfully (so far) cut out sugar in high amounts-like cookies, cake, ice cream, etc. We still eat chips and some other foods that are 'junk' foods, but we have already noticed a significant (positive) different in how we feel. We've also mostly cut out dairy: every now and then we'll have some cheese on a sandwich or a slice of pizza, but it isn't an everyday thing.I have noticed our recovery time from being sick has improved since we have cut out sugar. I feel good about our current plan. Here's what a typical day looks like:
Breakfast: Eggs, bacon (usually nitrate-free), and toast. I've recently started making my own cinnamon raisin toast, and it is  now my favorite bread to have with breakfast! We also start the morning with coffee. I put coconut milk in mine, and Alex puts honey and rice milk in his.
Lunch: Sandwiches and chips and fruit, or leftovers from dinner.
Snack: fruit and/or veggies and peanut butter. Recently I've also indulged in a healthy cereal. I feel super-full after eating it!

Dinner: Varies-typical meals consist of a protein, a carb, and a vegetable or two. Dessert is often some kind of fruit. We recently found a super delicious watermelon at the farmer's market that is super sweet!

3. Exercise 5 times per week.
Grade: C
I started out exercising 4 days a week pretty consistently. Then we went on a trip, Alex came back with mono, and I had some sort of cold a few days later. I thought I had mono, but my blood test came back negative. We took it easy and didn't do much in the form of exercise for about a week and a half. Definitely with good reason-I didn't want to push myself and delay recovery time. I am now feeling almost 100%, and am happy to have started walking at the park with in-laws again.

4. Road Trip:
Grade A
We did successfully travel 10 hours to our destination, and 8 hours back (we were in a hurry to get back) with no noticeable dehydration or swollen ankles! We took a number of breaks and I drank LOTS of water! We ate a lot of fast food, so that wasn't the best of decisions, but I did get plenty of protein, and enjoyed some sweet potato fries at Burger King :). It was really good to see family that I hadn't seen in a really long time. It was also kind of sad to see my grandparents-my grandpa didn't really know who I was when I came up and said hi. It was nice to give my grandma a big hug. We celebrated their 60 years of marriage together. We also got this awesome picture of our family:

5. Update Birth Plan:
Grade: A+
I went back and made the birth plan gender-specific, and put Adara Grace Barberi on the top of the page, so now it is her own personal birth plan. I am attending a comprehensive class in August, and plan to take a lot of notes and make any changes to my plan as needed. My mom is attending the class with me! The current plan is to have Alex and both mom's present when I'm delivering. My mom's there for me, and Alex's mom is there as reassurance that the baby part of the birth plan will be carried out-especially the no vaccine part. I've heard this isn't an issue at Maury Regional, but after giving birth I don't want to have to think about enforcing our preferences for our child. If any of you want to see a copy of my birth plan, you can see it here. Feel free to let me know if wording should be changed, or any other suggestions. I'm not one to get upset about advice. If I don't like it, I still won't be upset that you gave it to me.

Overall Grade: Still and A. I'm pretty happy with the progress we've made this month.

This post is part of a link up with my friend Kelli's Blog at She Learns as She Goes.
Stay tuned for August goals coming up later in the week!

Sick and Pregnant: What to do? (plus a photo update)

I have been very blessed up to this point to avoid anything even resembling sickness. Since Alex has started working at the hospital, he's been sent home more than once for various ailments, and I've caught it from him maybe one other time. Therefore, when he was sent home with mono on Monday of last week, I didn't think twice. Mono is contagious even before the symptoms show up. So there was really nothing I could do.


Thursday I woke up with a sore throat, which continued to get worse until sometime Saturday afternoon. Then I got the sniffles which have continued through today. I've checked my temperature twice, and haven't had a fever. Exactly the same symptoms Alex had all through last week. Thankfully, he's now feeling much better, and has been super-helpful taking care of me.

I finally called the doctor this morning, left a message, and the nurse practitioner returned my call this afternoon.I explained my symptoms, that I knew to rest and drink water, and asked if I should be doing anything else. She said they typically don't do anything else except sometimes follow up with an ultrasound just to make sure the baby is okay.She emphasized to stay hydrated, but that there isn't much else to do. The nurse practitioner said that my doctor is out this week, but that she will check with one of the other doctors to see if  another ultrasound is recommended. If so, they will try to schedule it around my next appointment later in August. She said she will call me again in a few days.

**EDIT UPDATE**
The nurse just called back and said that I do have to get blood work done. Something about needing labs for the pediatrician and another something about an overlap between mono and 36 weeks. I didn't totally understand what she said, just that I'm going in first thing tomorrow morning.
**END EDIT**

So the only thing that changes is that I won't be exercising until I start feeling better. I may still do some stretching, but I'm not going to worry about walking until I start feeling better. Avoiding sugar was already part of my routine, and I was already drinking lots of water. According to some online sites (and yes, I did check to make sure there was some credibility), mono doesn't pose a threat to the baby unless I have a really high fever, which I don't.


As for the baby, she doesn't seem phased as far as I can tell: still plenty of movement at regular intervals.

Also, here's a 23 week photo update:

22 week appointment

So far, everything is going great! So many exciting things going on. God has blessed us so much!

My doctor's appointment was short and sweet:

I was weighed in at 138lbs. I don't actually remember what my starting weight was, but the doctor commented on me "finally putting on some weight" and how I am where I am supposed to be now. The doctor asked about my appetite-which I said has been huge, and said I'm fine as long as I'm eating healthy foods.

Blood pressure good, other vitals good, baby heartbeat at 158 (I think. It was one fifty-something). I'm measuring right at 22 weeks. I'm feeling the baby move, so that's also a good sign. I'm having no swelling, bleeding, or other concerns. The doctor again encouraged me to drink lots of water and wear sunscreen.

They sent me home with an orange drink and some instructions about drinking it for the next appointment. I'm going to be tested for gestational diabetes. I'm going to be eating very healthy-as I should have been all along-to help keep my body from becoming diabetic. Alex also has a bio-metric screening coming up for work, so we're being healthy together. I already cut up all my veggies in the fridge so that I have easy-access to a healthy snack.


OH AND ANOTHER SUPER EXCITING THING HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!

As I was falling asleep, I could feel Adara moving around inside me a lot, so I put my hand on my tummy to see if I could feel her. I could, but just for a moment! I felt something like a  kick against my hand, and then I couldn't feel her anymore. I kept trying to see if it would happen again so I could show Alex, but nothing yet. Plenty of movement, just not anything I can feel from the outside.

It's amazing the love I'm feeling for our child. I was excited before, but now the fact that we are going to have a little girl is starting to feel even more real!

Mid-month goals update

It's nearing the middle of the month, so I'm going to evaluate how I'm progressing with my goals:

1. Start registering for a boy or girl: We found out that we are having a girl!! As for registering, I have set up an account with Target and diapers.com, but have not put anything on them yet. I'll need to get on that soon. I found theis super cute purple Minnie Mouse themed set! (photos from here).

So if I don't end up getting these, that's OK-there are SO many cute car seats, high chairs, strollers, pack 'n' plays, etc. So many options, I don't know how I'll every decide! I may have to call on the aid of my wonderful husband to help me narrow down my options.

2. Make a healthy meal plan: For the past couple of days, we've actually been doing well! I'm probably more excited than I should be for only two days, but the beginning of this month was TERRIBLE! We had so much junk food in the house, and we were eating it every day throughout the day! I have finally found good lettuce at Aldi! I actually want to eat salads now! haha, so that's been my lunch sometimes.

 We've also stopped eating so much sugar, and tried to eat at home often. Cutting out mostly  processed stuff helps a TON.  I also found a yummy, decently healthy muffin recipe. The whole website where I got the recipe is "real food" oriented, and I'm scouring this site and other similar ones for ideas.

source

3. Exercise Five times per week: Hmmmm.....Well I haven't been a total slacker, but I haven't accomplished five days-usually three or four days a week. I have walked with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law twice this week at the Maury County Park, and I have gotten on my elliptical while watching cake boss. Today it is raining...so I'm GOING to get on the elliptical again! At least I get to watch people making cake while I'm exercising...

4. Road Trip: Haven't gone yet. Will update when this happens.

5. Update Birth Plan: I haven't actually looked at my birth plan this month. My doctor's appointment is next Tuesday, so I'll probably blog about the appointment, and check on my birth plan then.

So far so good! If any of y'all are trying to keep goals, let me know how you are doing!

Name: Noble, beautiful, unmerited favor

Friday at 3pm was my scheduled appointment. My mom, Alex, Alex's mom, and myself were all in the waiting room.They did not start on time, but this is typical for afternoon appointments.

The nurse called us back and I felt like time had slowed down. I'd been counting down the minutes to this appointment ever since I had scheduled it two weeks ago.

The ultrasound person started off by checking everything medical-she said something about the brain, heart, kidneys, checking for a cleft pallet, fingers and toes, the spine, where the placenta was (and was not), and did some measuring. She didn't see anything to worry about! The baby weighs 12 oz and her heart rate was 155. The doctor will review the ultrasound with me at my next appointment two weeks from now.

Then she asked if we wanted to know the gender. Of course we said yes! She first said that the legs were very close together, but then typed on the screen "It's a girl!" She put an arrow up on the screen, and pointed out the "girl parts" so that we could see how she could tell. A few more ultrasound pictures, and then we had to stop because our beautiful girl flipped and decided she didn't want to be observed anymore.

We have a dvd of the ultrasound, but all of our pictures are actual print outs. I tried to take pictures of the ultrasound pictures with no real success. Feel free to come visit me and see the pictures in person.

Her name: Adara Grace Barberi. Adara in Hebrew means noble, and in Greek it means beauty (according to our baby book and some online sites). Grace (at least the shortened meaning) means unmerited favor. I love it. It's such a picture of our life: Beautiful, noble, unmerited favor. We don't deserve all the wonderful things God has given us. We don't deserve this beautiful baby girl growing inside of me, but God has given us abundant blessings. We can never glorify Him enough.

21 weeks down, 19 more to go!

July Resolutions

My friend Kelli Taylor has a blog that I enjoy reading every time she posts. She has started a monthly trend of posting "5-6 resolutions to work on throughout the month. After the 30-31 days, I'll grade myself and share my "report card" with you all here." She also encouraged us to start our own reports, if desired. Being a stay-at-home-wife as well, I thought it would be a great idea to start making monthly goals for myself.


July Resolutions


-Start registering for a boy or a girl: On Friday, Alex, his mom, my mom, and myself are going to the 20 week ultrasound to find out if we are having a boy or a girl! I'm so incredibly excited! I've started researching baby stuff, but  I'm excited to start registering for gender-specific baby stuff. This resolution will be super-easy to accomplish!


-Make a healthy meal plan: Today I consumed almost a whole bag of Cheetos. Not the best baby food (or adult food, for that matter). I need to plan better! The baby can taste the food through the placenta now, and I want our child to enjoy eating veggies and fruits! Also, I feel much better when I don't consume junk food.


And if any of you have known Alex or myself for any amount of time, you know all about our yo-yo dieting lifestyle. Neither of us like this pattern, but haven't found a great healthy balance yet.


-Exercise 5 times per week: Again, baby is major motivating factor. So many people have told me that exercise helps with labor endurance. I thankfully have an elliptical machine at home, and a mother-in-law who goes walking with me a couple of days out of the week, so that helps.


-Successfully go on a short road trip: We're going to North Carolina to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. I have to take walking breaks during the drive, and we're travelling with family.  I'd like to have a plan ready before we hit the road.


-Buy more maternity items: some wonderful people have helped me with maternity clothes, but there are a few things I've put off buying that I need to get!


-Update birth plan: I will do this until I I know it is ready. My wonderful husband has already spoken with someone in Labor and Delivery, and it sounds like the birth plan will be no biggie. As encouraged, I have a meeting with a lactation consultant this month, and a long class all about the birth process next month. I'll blog an update on both!


I think my biggest challenge will be documenting everything!