The Heartbeat
Today was my second prenatal appointment and we heard Spot’s heartbeat! It sounded like a little train chugging away really fast. It was amazing! It’s hard to believe that I have this little person growing inside of me. All I usually feel is just nauseous and tired, but hearing the heartbeat makes all of that stuff irrelevant.
Bring on the Stretchy Pants!
A couple weeks ago, I noticed that I couldn’t button up my jeans anymore. It was a bitter sweet moment because I realized that I won’t be able to fit into them again for another 7+ months. But this does give me the excuse to shop for clothes. (Not that maternity clothes are anything great, but any excuse to shop is good)
Currently my favorite items of clothing are anything with an elastic waistband. Sounds lame I know, but I swear, they’re so comfy! And at least they’re not the kind of pants that have that huge piece of fabric that goes all the way over your belly. I’m sure those types of pants will come in handy some day, but I not quite ready to commit to that yet.
Goodbye normal wardrobe…hello STRETCHY PANTS!
I Have to Eat What?
My first prenatal appointment was last week and when I talked to the nurse about my cravings for pasta, she said “Oh, well, you’re craving pasta because your baby needs the energy to grow. Pasta provides fast energy in the form of carbohydrates. Protein is actually what you need to be eating. You should be getting around 75 grams of protein every day.”
If you don’t know what 75 grams of protein equals out to be, it’s a lot! Let me break it down. Every day I would need to eat the equivalent of one of the following:
- 10 eggs
- 10 oz of beef
- 2.5 cups of cottage cheese (eww!)
- 1 lb of shrimp
- 20 tbsp of peanut butter
Currently I estimate that I get about 60-70 grams of protein but that’s mostly due to this great protein powder that I found that I can make a shake out of which for each shake has 25 grams of protein.
Also, seeing that morning sickness is actually an all day thing, I find it hard to believe that I would even be able to keep 75 grams of protein through “real” food in my body. For now, the shakes and my small meals throughout the day will hopefully cover me until the second trimester where I’ll actually feel like eating more protein rich food.
Protein’s not the only thing I need to be adding to my diet though, there’s a whole list of things that I need to eat up on! Iron, folic acid, calcium…the list goes on.
Why do they call it "Morning Sickness"
The other day I woke up to the smell of frying bacon which my dear mother-in-law had just made with breakfast. I love bacon, but unfortunately the smell made me nauseous and had me running to the bathroom to gag. Later that day while driving to the store, Luke decided to have a “Maple Leaf Cookie” which smells like maple syrup rather strongly. I had to stick my head out the window like our dog to keep the nausea down.
I think there is a trick to this “sickness” though. I’ve found that if I keep food in me at all times, not get too full, or too hungry the nausea isn’t as noticeable. There’s nothing like eating all day long to pack on the pounds huh?