Nausea, No Meat and Animal Crackers…OH MY!!! Exploring the eating and feeding patterns from Preggers to my Lucky Lil’ 13 =)

when I was only a mere 15 weeks along

Just a few days ago Juliette became 13 months old, and I find myself still in disbelief that my little baby could be actually over 1 year now.  Should we still be counting the months at this point?  It seems like most people do when it comes to pregnancy and babies.  Actually with pregnancy you count weeks, and unless you’ve been pregnant before, when most people ask, “how far along are you?” you tell them by the weeks, not months.  However, I soon found out that you had to convert those weeks into the amount of months for the everyday person.

Looking back on the long road it took to get pregnant, and then how it finally happened, it seemed like such a dream to me.  I was full of a fantastic bliss during those first few weeks that I found out I was pregnant.  I was living on cloud nine for quite some time, just beaming with smiles.  I was teaching at the time, and I found that the pregnancy even gave me a newfound patience with my trying and troublesome homeroom class at the time.  I was about 6 weeks along when I found out, and I only told close friends and family members, before we decided to announce it to the world at that safe 12-week mark.  It was December and all the lovely Christmas songs, décor, and shopping was in the air.  Just in time for the holidays, I did, however, start to get some of those dreaded first trimester symptoms that pregnancy brings on.

First off, I had to switch from my comforting and awakening morning tea in my handy little to-go cup (for my hour long drive to work) to a can of coke…the only thing that seemed to help my unsettled stomach.  Parts of my body, (and ladies you know which parts these are), were already bigger and swollen, which lead to no more button fly pants and more elastic ones until all maternity clothing started.  Then there was the appetite and change in food.  Since I was young I can remember, whether pregnant or not, most people relied on those every handy saltine crackers to be the cure for that nauseas stomach, especially that one you get during your first trimester (and not just in the morning, though that did seem to be the worst time of day for it).  Of course, in my case, (because it never seems  to be that easy for me), saltines were not the cure, they actually made me feel more nauseated.

I tried to eat whatever I could hold down for breakfast, usually some type of dry cereal and then I would head to work not feeling too hot, and still hiding my growing tummy from everyone at work (except my closest teacher friend my principal).  Let me tell you…it was not easy hiding it from my other fellow coworkers or my 140 students or so, who began to ask why I always had coke now in the morning, and why started to chew gum from time to time.  I had heard somewhere that gum could help with that sour stomach and for me, it did.  Cinnamon flavored Trident was now my new best friend.  But, when you teach at a catholic middle school (that doesn’t allow gum for its students) and one of the teachers suddenly starts to chew it, the students will notice, as they usually notice everything!  My explanations?  Well as for the coke, it gave me that extra caffeine I needed to get me through my early mornings.  Explaining the gum was pretty funny, I told the students that it was a special prescription from my doctor for a dental gum condition I had, which also explained my late arrivals and/or early leaving some days for those many OBGYN appointments and blood work you need during that first trimester.  They actually bought this idea, and even asked me how my mouth was and if I was going to need surgery, ha-ha…silly kids.

I was still having lots of trouble subsiding my churning stomach though, as I wasn’t a puker at all, but wished I were for once, just to have some relief…I just always felt like I was going to puke.  Then on an absurd day, right around Christmastime, on one of our last days before our vacation we had our annual Christmas party with our sister elementary school.  On this day, we had snack time with the student visitors.  For this, we always passed out juice and animal crackers, which I hadn’t had much of since I was a kid myself, but now all of the sudden they looked better to me than any other food I could possibly think of!  So, as we began passing out the snack, I grabbed myself a few of these sweet crackers, and even had some apple juice to boot….and wow!!!  Who knew that a second graders snack would be my new cure for my rumbly tummy.  I felt like a new person!  That same weekend, my husband dashed off to BJ’s and bought me any economy-sized tub of animal crackers.  I kept a stash of those crackers on my nightstand, in my purse, in the car, in my desk at work…it got so bad that I began to pop those lovely little crackers as much as my favorite TV doctor, Gregory House, popped his vicodin pills.

What’s even stranger, is that throughout my pregnancy I seemed to revert to the many simple foods I loved as a child.  Grilled cheeses, anything with eggs (egg salad, eggs over easy…which I used to call “dippy eggs,”) an English muffin with peanut butter, mac’ and cheese, French fries, white grape juice, Jell-O, and many others…it was quite funny.  I craved many carbs, veggies, and fruit in the beginning too…so dinner was quite challenging as I could not eat any meat or fish throughout my first four months of pregnancy.  I also loved all things bitter…especially those with vinegar.  Bigger meals were very hard, as just a salad of fruit or greens, or some pasta didn’t seem to fill me up very much.  One night I even fell apart crying on the kitchen floor as I was so hungry, and couldn’t figure out what to eat, (besides an animal cracker or bread), that didn’t make me sick.  I think my husband was getting tired of it too, because even though he would try to make his own dinner, but it was so bad that I couldn’t take the smell of any meat either, so I would either brave the cold outside to get away from the smell, but he wouldn’t have that as I was carrying his unborn child, so he stopped cooking the meat as well.  Speaking or smells…oh good God the smells when I pregnant!  I will have to save that for another entry, because it was very, very bad…so bad, I think I am still going through it.

Soon though, that 12-week mark came and I was able to announce it to my students and the whole school at the Monday morning assembly that I was preggers!  It was very cute, they all clapped and cheered for me.  As that week went on, many of 8^th graders were like “I knew it,” and some of the girls tried to call me “Mama,” which I politely told them “please do not do that, I am not your Mama,” (seriously? NO!).  A few teachers even said they had a hunch I was ‘with child,” as I came in many mornings looking quite green.

Then soon, after many food mishaps, my nausea eventually started wearing away by the 4^th month, and I was able to slowly start eating more food again, like meat, especially hot dogs, I seemed to love hot dogs…so hot dog day every Wednesday at school was something to look forward to!  Throughout my whole pregnancy though, I could not eat any beef or eggplant…and so I began to wonder, would I ever be able to eat those things again?  All things considered though, I didn’t have it too bad with the food part of it, I have heard about woman who had it much worse…and the nausea did subside.  After all, I did only actually vomit once, but always had the feeling like I was going to in that first trimester.

Luckily, after I gave birth I was able to eat beef again, and any and everything I used to eat after a few weeks  I could even drink alcohol again (after all those breastfeeding mishaps and having to give that up, I needed a good stiff drink).  I really thought too, that I would miss alcohol much during my pregnancy.  I remember toward the end, I would occasionally miss a glass of wine, or a nice cold margarita in the summer.  And oh gosh, how I could’ve used a nice strong mixed drink toward the end of the last trimester due to all those horrible aches and pains at the end…but more on that at another time too.

Now, I can proudly say that Juliette is officially over a year, or 13 months to be exact…and we are both very healthy eaters.  She even started to spoon-feed herself yesterday, which is still very much a learning process, and very messy one at that.  Plus, while Juliette has that cute little baby potbelly and oh-so squeezable thighs, while I am still trying getting rid of the last little bits that are left of mine.  She is a very good eater, not at all picky and loves cheese (just like her Mama) and bananas too.  The challenges of eating don’t change though, as once you are post-preggers, you will have to restrict yourself to not overindulge.  You will once again feel bad about those McDonald Frappe runs and Baby Ruth bars that felt like a wonderful sweet indulgence and were “OK” while pregnant, but not so much post pregnancy.  At least now though you can have that nice glass of wine or a margarita again (or whatever drink you so desire).  And trust me, you will need that drink once those minutes of the day have worn you down and your baby is soundly asleep (if, hopefully, they do sleep well)…at that point you can put your feet up and have that nice relaxing drink, if you can still stay up by the end of the day.

In conclusion, whether you count months, years, days, minutes, etc…just know that while its hard to figure out what you can eat while that little one is growing inside you, it all goes back to normal.  Your baby and you will be able to eat as much or as little as you need…even when you are still craving something unusual like a peanut butter cheesecake (thanks Lisa) on your daughter’s  Lucky 13^th month birthday.

and so the spoon-feeding begins

Any funny cravings (pregnant or not) or weird pregnancy food choices you had?  What about your baby?  Please share on the comments below if you’d like…

very proud of herself =)
(so is her Mommy)

Got Milk???

Got milk???

Ahhh the joy of spending $30 a pop on a tub of formula…did we really have a choice in the matter though?  Actually we didn’t after a rough first 8 weeks with Juliette.  It’s a great debate…formula vs. breastmilk, and I have to admit I believed that breast was best.  My daughter did get breastfed at least for a little while, not as long as I had hoped, but there was reason for that.

Let’s back up a bit here, I believe in a woman’s right to choose in many ways.  Now, I am not going to go out on a limb (like Mr. Bloomberg did) and decide to take away formula from any place, but I will say that choices are there and they are made for a REASON, not just for convenience.  Unto the whole nursing issue, I was so very excited preparing for all of the things motherhood brought upon me, and one of the most important things was my ability to breastfeed (and my bigger cup size too might I add).

When I first started to breastfeed Juliette it was not easy as I had hoped, but I told myself that it was going to be ‘ok,’ I wasn’t expecting it to be.  A nipple-shield helped a lot at first, especially with that precious “liquid-gold” colostrum that comes in those first few days.  Then, as the milk came in, the shields were used less as Juliette latched on much better.  Unfortunately though, this is not where the story ends.  I so wish I was like one of those women who easily popped their baby on their boob and delightfully fed them on each side.  I envied those women!!  This was not the case for me…the first problem was, Juliette never seemed full, and was also quite colic after almost a week at home with us, especially at feeding time.  After one very worried trip to the ER, many pediatrician appointments, a meeting with a lactation consultant, and joining La Leche League, I began to also pump my milk.  They all agreed that, most likely, our somewhat discontented newborn wasn’t getting enough milk or and when she was, she wasn’t getting it fast enough.  Every new mom will learn that all babies lose weight once they come home from the hospital, but she wasn’t gaining any and loosing too much.

I admit that it was frustrating, (not to mention those very, very sore and leaky nipples to boot), and I was quite worried and felt somewhat inadequate.  But, I would not be defeated!!!  So, after her feedings, I would pump, then hydrate, try my best to replenish my insatiable hunger, and by the time this process was done I was left with maybe 15 minutes or perhaps 25 minutes, (if I was lucky), before her next feeding.  So, there I was exhausted, feeding her directly from the breasts, then offered her some from the bottle with pumped milk (if she was still hungry), then burped her (she was a very tough burper), followed by pumping, eating/drinking for myself, and then having barely any time left to do anything for myself, like brush my hair or go to the bathroom.  Still, I was not giving up, I was determined to do this.  By her next doctor’s appointment she seemed to be getting enough now, however she had begun to spit up a lot more and was having an even harder time burping.  On top of that, she still hadn’t gained much, but (AH-HA!) something was working because she hadn’t  lost any weight!  Unfortunately though, due to the gassy, non-burping and constantly spitting up baby Juliette had become after just a few weeks, they suggested changing my diet.  So, I gave up dairy first, which wasn’t too bad.  My husband stocked us up with many new types of food for my diet, after a week though, still no change, so then they suggested to try to soy free diet.  Well, I really feel very badly for anyone who can’t eat soy, because it’s in almost EVERYTHING!!  This diet was hard, but I pressed on and kept at it, sent Steve to the store almost daily to find something to eat that way soy free and filled me up…but still no change, and a lot more crying and spitting up.  Next up, I tried a soy and dairy free diet, this was the hardest one, but I was doing this for the better of my child, so I still didn’t give up!  Much to my chagrin though, no change with Juliette.  She was not so happy at feeding time especially, and the poor thing couldn’t keep anything down.  I went back to my regular diet and just exclusively on the breast and she would cry and cry and cry and not even want to eat.  What was happening?  Was she self-weaning already?  What did she want?  It was so hard to tell!!  Would there ever be a resolution to this?  Will I ever enjoy my new daughter?  Why can’t I just feed her my milk?  Bottle or breast is best?  Why does she cry every time she is nursing?????  So many questions and I NEEDED ANSWERS!!!

Finally, after six long and stressful weeks of this…she was diagnosed with ACID REFLUX, and with the right formula and meds, she was like a new baby!  I couldn’t believe it!!!  Why didn’t we know this before?  Apparently it is VERY common, and my younger sister and mother-in-law even had it when they were babies…who knew?  Finding the right formula and meds wasn’t easy either, and I even kept trying to sneak in my pumped breast-milk too, but every single time I did, she puked and had a sour stomach.  Plus, because as this point I was just pumping, my supply was going down.  So, I finally and unfortunately stopped breastfeeding after 8 weeks of putting my all into it!  It was very sad day for me, and I shed many tears over it, but no one could say I didn’t try, because I did everything I possibly could.  My loving husband was very supportive of the fact that I had to stop, and he was my biggest supporter through all of this.  In conclusion, I did not have a choice but to give up nursing my baby, unless I wanted to make her sick everyday…I think NOT!

I started to enjoy Juliette so much more, and from that moment on there was stress here and there, but nothing so bad that we couldn’t handle it.  Burp cloths, bibs, and wipes became my new best friends, and burping every 2 ounces was much better for my hard to burp baby.  As she became an adorably happy and, might I add, very full baby, who by her third month was in the 95th percentile for weight, and has stayed around that same mark since, we knew we did the right thing for her.

So, trust me, they made formula for a reason, not just for women who chose not to breastfeed (which if you chose that too, I have no judgment there either because breastfeeding, even if it agrees with them, is serious business), but it was also made for those babies who couldn’t be exclusively breastfed.  It was a long road, and once she started solids her acid reflux kept getting better, her spit-ups diminished, and she now loves practically all food.  Skip to the present time…today was her last day of her beloved soy formula, which took us so long to find the right one after those six weeks.  Today it’s all whole milk.  This was a 3-week milk  project, adding more whole milk and less formula every week…and I was quite nervous about it, because of all her problems feeding in the beginning, but I am happy to report that so far, so good!

So, all you new moms hear me out- DO NOT be too hard on yourself, if for whatever the reason, you can not breastfeed, because you do have choices.  I tried my very best, and still do hope to be able to breastfeed (for a longer period of time) with the next child, when that time comes.  But when that day does comes, if it doesn’t work out I am not going to be too hard on myself, because I have a very happy and healthy baby now.  And if you are successful in breastfeeding easily, congratulations to you, I am very jealous!

Got milk?  Yes, we all do, but it comes in many different shapes, forms, sizes, and brands, and yes you do have the right to choose!  Please remember that ladies, your baby’s health and happiness comes first, and don’t be too hard on yourself like I was…it’s unnecessary in the end! J

PS: Any questions about acid reflux, feel free to ask me anytime!  I had a hard time finding enough information out there about it, and while I’m no expert, I can try my best advice to help.

11 months later and we are pregnant! Or are we?? GET THE DIGITAL TEST…and get a new OBGYN!!!

It’s such a fantastic and quite gleeful statement to spread around, “We are trying to have a baby!!!”  Little do you know, that statement will come back to bite you!  Trust me, it will, unless you are one of those women, and I know them too, who have an unplanned pregnancy or go off the pill and are pregnant a mere week later.  That was not I, not this time around anyway.  I’m that girl who always dreamt of having a baby and being a Mom, I believe this is one of the roles I was born to fulfill.  I’ve known this ever since I was five years old and would willingly help my Mom take care of my little sister with any of the many baby tasks.  So, Tara you are really to blame for my baby fever!  My husband always knew this about me too, as I would constantly remind him, “I need to have a baby before I am 30!”  So the moment my well-to-do and responsible husband decided we were financially secure enough to give it a go, you better believe we jumped on it, pun intended.  And although it was not as easy as I had originally thought it would be, we just made the cutoff…I was 36 weeks ‘preggers’ and just about ready to pop when I had just turned 30.

A brief back-story is needed here: I had to switch gynecologists since we had moved to a new town, and had taken a referral for a new nearby doctor, without first looking into it myself…MISTAKE!  I’ll save the whole story for another day, but I was misdiagnosed and that misdiagnosis caused much unnecessary stress to both my husband and myself for many months.

So there we were, trying for many months. I had this weird misdiagnosis, was very stressed, and after a few tearful talks with my husband, we finally stopped ‘trying’ and just went back to ‘having sex’ and ‘tried’ to stop worrying about it.  It was actually quite a relief, as I stopped charting my ovulation schedule and we just went back to our regular lives, so to speak.  The last tearful breakdown I had was somewhere around Halloween 2010, when I had thrown myself into my work and didn’t even think much about getting pregnant anymore.  Funnily enough, by Thanksgiving I noticed my sense of smell increasing : the turkey scent I always so enjoyed kind of made me nauseous.  I also had a few times on my way to work when I had to pull over and spit out some of my daily tea, plus my boobs hurt so bad I couldn’t even sleep on my stomach anymore, and on top of that my period was 10 days late.  I finally came clean about these symptoms on that 10^th day to my husband,  (I didn’t tell him sooner because I didn’t want to jinx it!), and he ran to the store to get a pregnancy test!

While I was waiting, I called one of my friends who was just about to have a baby, and another friend who already had a little one.  They both were excited and said all signs pointed to yes, but they also told me, (which I already knew, but like my husband, I was just so excited!), that it was best to take those tests in the morning…something having to do with urine being easier to read in the morning.  Anyway, Steve got home and I ran to the bathroom to take the test, and I had one solidly clear pink line, and the other (as you need two lines to be pregnant) was there but it was a much lighter pink, not invisible, but not as dark as the other.  Now, I had taken these before but had never seen two, just one, so this was a good sign, right?  How were we supposed to know??  I was skeptical and gave my friends both a call back to which they both told me again all sign point to yes and to take it in the morning, however this time to take the DIGITAL test!!!  It was more expensive, but it would be worth it.  Well, Steve ran back out and we waited until morning, don’t ask me how we slept, because we didn’t get much as both of us were ridiculously smiley that whole night.

I woke up 10 minutes before my 5:00 a.m. alarm just glaring at the clock, for once gladly awaiting that sound most of us hate to wake up to.  My little mini dachshund dog, Layla, always gets up with me, she goes outside first and then I go to the bathroom.  Alarm went off and I happily threw on my coat and boots and took Layla out, I practically skipped back in and she must have known something because she was very quick outside for once.  I’ve never been so excited to pee in my whole life!!  I peed onto the strip and waited for the longest moment of my life…which led to the happiest moment of my life! (At that point, at least).  My shaking hand finally got still when that digital test read “Pregnant.”  AHHHHHHHH!!!  We, (both Layla and I), jumped into the bedroom and onto the bed to wake Steve up with the good news: it had finally happened, we were going to have a baby!!!

We were both blissful all morning and it was so hard to keep it to myself at work.  I looked for a new OBGYN online during the little bit of free time I had at work and found one I seemed to like, and called to schedule an appointment, luckily they fit me in the next day!  I called my parents that morning, as did Steve.  They were all so happy for us, and I told my sisters (who both adorably cried) and my two closest friends on my way home from work.  It was a wonderful day, as was the next when it was confirmed that next morning at my new doctor that I was in fact, scientifically and all, PREGNANT!

So, take my 4 pieces of advice if you are planning to have a baby:

1) Don’t go on and on to people about the fact that you are “trying” 

2) Find your own doctor that you can trust and feel very comfortable with

3) Be patient, I know it is hard, but some women get pregnant after a week, and for some it may take years, for me it took 11 months

4) Save yourself a lot of time and energy and take only the digital pregnancy test, as it is the most accurate…and while you are at it try to hold off and take it in the morning, because it’s the best alarm in the morning that you will ever hear!

Introduction

As I watch my newly 1 year-old daughter adorably walk, or should I say stumble and stomp around the house and hand me her little Rosita toy with a huge smile on her face, I cannot help but think, has it really been over a year since I gave birth to her?  There are many, many, many huge things that happen throughout the course of someone’s life, but just like the corny Faith Hill Christmas song states, “A Baby Changes Everything,” don’t roll your eyes just yet, because it’s very, very, very true in so many ways.  We have all heard people say that, but until it happens to you, (and as much as your mother tells you), you cannot understand that statement.

We have had many ups and downs during Juliette’s first year of life.  Not only during her first year of her life do things change though, because as every mother can tell you, everything truly changes for a woman is once she actually becomes pregnant.  That’s not to say it doesn’t change for the man as well, but no offense guys, until you’ve gone through waiting for that period not to come, peeing on that stick, feeling overwhelmingly nauseated, having rock hard breasts, getting so grossed out about even the thought of raw chicken, the purely blissful feeling of that baby growing inside you kicking for the first time, or the unbearable back pain and heartburn (just to name a few)…not to mention giving birth, guys you have it easy!

Now that I’m a proud stay-at-home Mom, I have decided to start writing about the many highs and lows from pregnancy to birth and all the way through Juliette’s first year, and hopefully beyond that as well.  Since there are already so many blogs and books out there, (no offense to “What to Expect When You Are Expecting” and “What to Expect the First Year (and Second Year, etc.),” but I find it to be the most comforting when I read things written from a first hand experience perspective, in the most realistic terminology.  And what more life altering experiences are there than pregnancy and raising a child/children?  Don’t get me wrong, I have read all my “What to Expect…” books religiously so far, but what I love most is when I read something that makes me feel like I am not alone, other moms go through these same things too.  I hope that this blog will ring true and spark the same feeling in other moms or mom-to-be’s out there, because what I have found from all of my readings is that there is not enough no-nonsense narratives about the unusual situations you are bound to encounter for a first time mom.

And I have to make sure I give credit where credit is due to the people responsible for this blog.  This is dedicated to my beautiful, unique and extremely active daughter Juliette Maria Giunta, because without her this now stay-at-home Mom and former middle school English teacher wouldn’t be writing this.  And finally, a huge shout-out to my devoted and wonderful husband, Steve, whom without his love, support (and sperm might I add) none of this new life would even exist.  I hope you will enjoy reading what I would like to call “Juliette’s World.”  (cue Juliette’s beloved “Elmo’s World” theme song, if you don’t know it yet, don’t worry every new mom soon will).