Food, Glorious Food

Last night for dinner we had chicken and scalloped potatoes while the babies ate some veggies, fruit and cheerios/puffs. After it seemed like the food shoveling started to wind down I gave Abby a taste of potato and then started to walk away. Bad idea. I then had to stand there and share some potatoes for fear of the ultimate apocalypse cry, quickly distract her with a few puffs and then run into the other room and out of sight to finish the food myself.

Fun fact: garbage disposals can come in the form of babies.

I waited until about 5 and a half months before starting solids, partly because they’ve started recommending waiting until 6 months, partly because I knew once we started there was no going back, and partly because I had no idea how I was going to incorporate solid meals into their current milk/nap schedule while transitioning (sloppily) from 3 to 2 naps.

Our first attempt involved a few tastes of Stage 1 applesauce while out to eat with the family. Abby, surprisingly, took to it right away. Miles was a little hesitant and made a hilarious sour face. It wasn’t long before we discovered the big eater: Miss Abby. Only a couple weeks after they began to sample puree, Bryan made himself a sweet potato and let her try a bite. After that, she lunged herself with all her might toward his fork in hopes of future bites. This is when the food sharing frenzy officially began.

I’m not a huge fan of purees, personally, and while we started with them the goal was to have them on table foods ASAP (safely, of course) because I find the process of pureeing fruits and veggies kind of messy and time consuming. We did one meal per day (breakfast) for 1.5-2 weeks before adding the second (dinner) and then a week or two later adding a third (lunch), so by the time they were 6.5-7 months old they were eating 3 solid meals per day along with their milk and loving (almost) every minute of it. Trying to fit it in their schedule was tedious, but I also didn’t expect it to be so much fun. We started sharing soft foods from our plates like mushy bread and mashed potatoes, then puffs to practice chewing.  Then we moved onto things like cooked veggies, scrambled egg (yes, before age one because we have no allergy history) and pancake so by 8-8.5 months they were eating mainly soft table foods.

Here is where the fun really begins. Now, at 9 months, it is impossible to consume anything without the babies wanting a bite. Mostly of the time I will happily share. A couple weeks ago during the first ice storm the hotel we stayed in had free breakfast. Abby was so excited about the food she started to slide out of her car seat, so I sat her in my lap and placed a few broken up pancake pieces on the table. By the time I myself had taken a bite, she had finished the pancake and made a move towards the cinnamon apples, which she quickly grabbed and shoved into her mouth. If you read this post you’ll know I regularly share my Pop Tarts and oatmeal.

I’m starting to feel like the kid who gives up sweets and then hides in the pantry or bedroom in order to sneak a few without getting caught. That’s ok though because I know the picky phase isn’t far away, when all they want to eat is PB and J and macaroni and cheese.

Until then you can find me in the bathroom with my cookies.

The Very Hungry Preggapillar

Today I had a laugh at myself moment.

Everyone is familiar with the children’s story The Very Hungry Caterpillar, right?

As a quick recap, basically the caterpillar is hungry and he eats through foods every day of the week but is still hungry. On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry. On Tuesday he ate through two pears but he was still hungry. And so on all the way through Saturday when he had himself a caterpillar sized buffet and ended up with a stomachache. In the end he turns into a butterfly. (I wonder how hungry butterflies are)

A friend at work recently commented that since becoming pregnant, I talk about food an awful lot. This was proven when, at lunch yesterday, I declared what I was planning to have for dinner. Truthfully, I haven’t been this food obsessed since my teenage/college days of counting calories (God knows why because I wasn’t anywhere near overweight).

Today at lunchtime I took an out loud mental note of what I had eaten that day. Pop parts, a nutra grain bar, a cheese stick, some pretzels, a protein bar….and I was still hungry.

It was then that I nicknamed myself The Very Hungry Preggapillar. And here is my story (slightly exaggerated for dramatic effect, only bc I could never eat 4 yogurts at once):

One day, there was a young girl who just LOOKED at her husband and ended up pregnant with twins. (HA! KIDDING!) She awoke each morning feeling as though her stomach had been empty for days. So, she ate.

At 7am, she ate one half of a bagel with cream cheese, but she was still hungry.

At 8am she ate two mugs (yes, mugs – I did this once for portion control and bc I like refills) of cereal, but she was still hungry.

At 9am, she ate 3 cheese sticks, but she was still hungry

At 10am, she ate 4 yogurts, but she was still hungry

At 11 am, she ate 5 licorice sticks, but she was still hungry

At noon, she ate a sandwich, an apple, some doritos, some carrot sticks, two cookies, some Mike and Ikes and turkey pepperoni. She got a stomachache.

At 1pm, she was still hungry.

At 2 pm, she ate 2 bites of salad. And then the babies exclaimed “are you freaking kidding me mom? Are you trying to STARVE us to death? Are you prepared to live with that kind of guilt?!?!”

So she ate the whole salad….and a cupcake.

After 8 months of this, she was a big as a house.

The End.

I could totally get a book deal with this, right?

Pineapples and Batteries

I try not to be an avid Google-er. It can only make you crazy. I have in the past, however, read about eating pineapple during a certain point in your cycle can help with implantation. Thinking at the time that seemed improbable, I didn’t think much else of it.

Last night I agreed to sit (literally) while my friends’ baby slept during the transition of dad leaving and mom coming home. While checking the blog before I left, The Hopeful Pink Lady, asked if I had started eating my pineapple core. Pineapple core? Turns out the core of the pineapple contains an enzyme called Bromelain that can aid in the implantation of an embryo if eaten the day of transfer and the next four days after.

Crap, I was already one day late.

Now, I just want to throw in there that I am not typically superstitious. I walk under ladders. Black cats are free to cross my path. But darn it, I was not going to go 4 more days without something that might help bubbles and squishy implant. I think something about the time, money and stress of this whole thing makes you willing to try just about anything. (thank goodness she didn’t suggest I stand on my head as I ate it)

Easy peasy, right? I stop at the grocery store on the way to their house, buy said fresh pineapple and I’m home free and helping the little buddies nestle.

Except I have no idea how to pick out a pineapple. They all look the same to me. I pick them up and start to smell them, figuring that if I can’t smell a pineapple-y (yes I made that up) smell then its probably not ready. I ask a random dude next to me if he has any idea how to pick out a ripe pineapple. He states that he thought I was the expert, as I was picking them up and smelling them and all. Soon after I found an employee that explained its actually all about the leaves, though in my defense, the best one did actually smell pineapple-y.

Satisfied with my purchase and contribution, I headed back to my car to drive over to my friends house.

Except it wouldn’t start. My battery had died. At 9pm. In the Publix parking lot. And not just like almost turn over and die, like dead – like none of the interior lights turned on dead. It was dead. (did I mention it was dead?)

Well isn’t that freaking fabulous? At the END of the day that I’ve had 2 days off of work and ALL THE STORES ARE CLOSED, my battery dies.

Not to be outdone, I walked briskly to the Auto Zone nearby, caught the lady RIGHT before she locked up and plead my case. My car battery JUST died – its over there – pretty please can I get a battery. She hemmed and hawed and finally agreed that if I could get someone to jump it so I could drive it over she would sell me a battery and replace it. Thank goodness because I don’t think my “hey but I COULD be pregnant” card would have gotten me very far.

So, $120 later,  I had my pineapple…..and a new car battery. And you better believe that I cut that darn thing up even after I got home at midnight and ate my piece.

The offending pineapple.

Bubbles and Squishy? You better appreciate this.

The Right One

A good friend of mine got married this weekend.

Without getting into too much detail about her personal life (because that’s her story to tell, not mine), as I said to her once “you’ve been through a lot of crap to get to this point”. But through all of the crap she found her happy ending, and in the time she has been with this man she’s been the happiest I’ve seen her.

As someone who sometimes lacks the ability to be truly happy for another person while wrapped up in this infertility misery (and I don’t mean that I am not happy for them, I’m talking about the “I think I’m more excited about this than you are” kind of happy), her celebration and my self imposed break from stressing came at the right time.

She tripped over many relationship rocks, but always managed to steady herself, and at the end she found the person she tripped over all of those rocks for. The one that made the wait worthwhile. I felt lucky to be able to be a part of this journey, and of course the wedding was fabulous.

Ready to be a maid of the bride

Rockin out the pockets

Oh there was a wedding? I came for the cake

Sharing some of the love

Bryan and I had a blast dancing like maniacs and our silliness carried over to the car ride home where we made up fake lyrics to real songs.  The backstory on this one was that we passed a couple of girls eating Frostie’s on the way home.

To the Tune of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Once upon a time I had a frosty in here

And now its just a straw in a cup

Dunno what I did

I must have just sucked it all up

I was warned to give credit where credit is due : Bryan made up the second line.

And in response to a “DUI Crackdown” sign on the freeway – to the tune of “The Final Countdown”

It’s a DUI Crackdown

Wee ooo Wee oooo

Wee ooo Weee ooo Weee

(like police sirens)

We are 29 and 35 with a combined age of 12.

Anyway, what prompted me to write this post was at one point during the reception, I overheard a family member say that my friend had said something to the effect of (I’m paraphrasing here) “I’ve been in love with him my whole life, I just had to wait for him”. While it was a rocky road to get there, he was worth the wait.

It dawned on me then that this is much like what the infertility journey is about. It’s a long, drawn out, rocky and painful wait. Like failed relationships you get your hopes up that this is the one and when it isn’t it’s a hard thing to recover from. Sometimes you feel like giving up. Sometimes you wonder if it’s meant to be at all. She watched friends marry just as I have watched friends have children wondering if your number will ever be pulled, if you will be the last one in your circle, trying to fit awkwardly into the conversations about relationships and children. It’s a lonely feeling.

But she waited, and she found him. He was the right one.

My biggest congratulations, my friend. You deserve it. And I couldn’t be happier for you.

I still hope to not have to the be the last, awkward one trying to voice my opinions about things I haven’t yet experienced regarding child rearing, but I know that one day it will be my turn. Many people say that the child chooses us.

It will be worth the wait.

It will be the right one.

Potluck Post

Today is a little bit of everything

This morning, Bryan and I were downtown and stopped for a coffee at a little market. In the cooler were yummy looking chocolate truffles. Other than looking yummy, nothing looked out of the ordinary until I saw this:

They are the devil’s truffles! HAHA! (If you don’t understand my reference – note the price)

Yesterday, as we all know, was Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love passing out candy and seeing all the costumes. I didn’t dress up this year, and we didn’t dress up the dogs persay, but B did give Charlie a bit of hair cut:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also, I totally ate candy for dinner.

In other news, tomorrow brings what we hope is some good news: the results of B’s most recent SA. Fingers crossed for more swimmers.

Here’s hoping.

 

 

An Ode to the Juice Diet

For anyone wondering: no, I am not on a juice diet.

A few weeks ago, I believe while perusing Netflix, Bryan came across this documentary called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”  , a story about an overweight man with a skin condition (I can’t recall what it is) taking prednisone for it daily. He went on a juice only diet for 60 days, lost a bunch of weight, and was able to slowly taper off of the steroid. Another lady in the documentary tried it for 10 days and said it rid her of her migraine headaches. Its actually a very motivating story. And by juice I mean taking fruit and veggies and juicing them in a juicer…..and doing nothing but that for 2 months.

Just hearing that and I’m already dreaming of cake. And chocolate. Mmmmmm chocolate.

The theory makes alot of sense, really. It would be nearly impossible to eat all of the fruits and veggies that you can combine to make the juice, and by consuming them raw, you are retaining all of the vital nutrients by not steaming or boiling and adding several pats of butter. This guy, however, was able to travel across the US and make a documentary while doing it, so I think the “real life” factor was a little easier for him.

Bryan has given it a go a couple of times. I’ve seen him juice celery, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, apples, grapes, oranges, kale, ginger root, spinach and I’ve sure I left a few things out. The result appears less than appetizing:

(No goldfish were harmed in the making of this juice or blog post)

 

The first time I came home from work and he had gone to bed…..at 7pm. (In his defense, even the documentary guy said he wanted to do nothing but sleep the first 3 days)

Then there was the peanut butter. (peanuts are a vegetable, right?)

Kudos to him, though. He’s getting way more nutrients than me and my cup full of cinnamon toast crunch I sometimes eat for dinner. He mostly uses it to supplement now, and tries to get me to drink some all the time. I did take a bottle full to work once, but only after I got him to agree to make it like 90% fruit.  It still looked like algae, and when I tried to suck some out of the bottle I couldn’t because a piece of lettuce had gotten stuck and blocked the top.

Anyone else on board yet? 🙂

So to you, juice diet, I write a short ode (in the form of a haiku). Ahem.

I drink my green juice          

It is so healthy for me.

Hey wait, is that cake?