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Diary of a Mama Wannabe

“Conceiving, Pregnancy and Baby Oh my!”

Category Archives: Health

April 4, 2011 Pregnancy; The Neverending Hangover

As I cried my way through Sunday (especially when we walked into DSW and the smell of leather-aka dead cow skin almost knocked me over) and pretty much talked to every single person about my horrid pregnancy I got a lot of advice. Some I had heard before, some that I hadn’t. They all came down to pretty much the same advice, which is:

1. eat often-keep that belly full because hunger doesn’t do anything to help nausea
2. keep food/snacks like crackers next to your bed in order to eat in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning
3. sleep as much as you can and take it easy because being tired is also not helpful
4. eat whatever your body wants because at this rate there won’t be much that sounds appetizing

and also some advice I hadn’t heard before:

5. sometimes a warm bath can be really relaxing and nice on your fatigued body
6. eat fruit, because the acid will help your stomach
7. in contrast, eat greasy food because it’s heavy and will line your stomach and help ease nausea
8. get Sea bands which are acupuncture bands that you wear on your wrists to help with motion sickness and morning sickness
9. drink carbonated drinks if you can’t handle water

What I found is that pregnancy is a lot like having a hangover. An extremely bad hangover, perhaps the worst one you have ever had. And it doesn’t go away. Ever. You know when you are hungover and all you can think about is throwing up? And then finally it magically happens, then you eat some greasy breakfast and return to bed for a little nap, then wake up refreshed ready for your next cocktail?? Pregnancy is not like this. This hangover does not go away. Great, you threw up? Still sick. Great, you had the truckers breakfast? Still sick. Great, you slept for 15 hours? Still sick. While nothing can cure this hangover, some things do help.

Last night was the first night that I didn’t want to kill myself. I realized I could no longer eat Saltines, as now the taste of it in my mouth is like paper maiche paste, so I opted for something else that would satisfy the 2 am, 4 am, and 6 am sickness: Rice Krispie treats. Yes, why hadn’t I thought of these before? My husband and I took a stroll through Walgreens last night at about 9 pm in search of Sea bands and the second I saw the Rice Krispie bars I knew I had found my savior. So last night I dutifully stocked them next to my bed and when my stomach wanted to murder me from the inside at 2 am I ripped open a bar and ate it, noisily in bed. Munch Munch Munch. Heaven. I didn’t feel instantly better, but it was filling, had substance and enough sugar to save my body from crashing. Again at 4 am, munch munch munch. Ahhh. Rice Krispie bars, how I love you.

Today I went into the world with my eye on the prize; I wasn’t going to let pregnancy kill me or confine me to the bed like it had much of my weekend. So today was the first day I truly ate every 2 hours. It totally helped. It totally is disturbing too, because I’ve never ate so much in my life. Granted, I am not eating big meals every 2 hours, but eating every 2 hours is kind of like eating all day, and eating all day is kind of exhausting. And it’s not as fun as I thought it would be pre-pregnancy because I can’t really eat whatever I want. Everything looks disgusting to me. Some days macaroni and cheese will look amazing, and then the next day, the mere thought of macaroni and cheese is enough to make me hurl. I find that most things look nasty and end up tasting nasty too, so I pretty much just stick to what I know my stomach can handle, and it’s mostly just bread. I’m pretty sure I’m going to give birth to a 10 pound ciabatta roll with a head full of butter.

I also did something that I never do…I went through the McDonald’s drive thru. I never eat McDonald’s. Ever. It’s been years. But for whatever reason I really REALLY wanted a strawberry shake, something about the unusual thickness made it seem really appealing. Like I was about to coat my stomach with some magic pink stuff that was going to protect my stomach from all evil. So I went through the drive thru and got a strawberry shake…and also a medium french fry. Holy shit. Why have I not gotten these sooner?! Every single french fry that entered my mouth, happily settled in my stomach and temporarily made my nausea go away! Joy to the world! I have never been so in love with a food in my life. As I sit here, all I can think about is McDonald’s french fries and how in agony I am because I don’t think I can get myself to another McDonald’s for at least 3 hours, and I don’t know if I’m going to make it. Oh. McDonald’s french fries. This may just be the best and worst discovery I’ve ever made.

More later. I need to figure out how to make McDonald’s french fries at home.

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April 3, 2011 “Real Pregnancy”

It’s time to get serious. I am over blogging about cute room ideas and baby books. My pregnancy has taken a rude turn and now my reality is much less rose-tinted. I hate complaining. I really do. I can’t stand being one of the people that I can’t stand. I don’t like to hear others complain and I don’t like to be complaining but I have no other outlet. My husband has already heard his own earful and now I must resort to this. I need to vent. I need to cry out. I don’t know what else to do at 5 am on a Sunday morning when the rest of the world is sleeping and it’s dark out and I want to vomit, can’t sleep and want to cry.

Current status? I am 7 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Roughly about a week ago was when I started to develop what I like to call “real pregnancy.” Up until that point my pregnancy was far from real. I had no symptoms except for having to pee 500 times a day. My boobs also ached a little bit but nothing unbearable. I was cheerful, happy, feeling blessed and blogging happily about my future baby’s nursery. Then “real pregnancy” hit me. Fast forward to now, which is the worst that I have felt so far.

I cannot sleep. My morning sickness is morning indeed, but the 2 am-6 am variety. Oh yeah and also the pm variety as well. After dinner it’s a guarantee that I am going to feel shitty for the next 12 hours (at least) of my life. First off, I cannot sleep at all. How can one sleep when their body feels like it’s being taken over my aliens from the inside that are trying to kill you? My life is being sucked out of me from my own body. My stomach is a combination of gas, cramps, bloating, queasiness and indigestion. My chest feels like it is about to explode. My ribcage feels like its being pushed up farther and farther each day and the simple task of breathing is a nuisance. My heart burns and every breath I take hurts.

Speaking of hurt. My boobs. OMG. My boobs deserve their own paragraph. I have never felt anything like this before. My stupid little A cup boobs feel like they are double Ds and feel hard as rocks. Do they look nice and voluptuous? No. They look like my normal A cups. But they feel like big bags of sand that are swinging around my chest heavily and painfully. It was really fun taking a shower and feeling like little pellets were raining on my chest. Not. How can water be hurting my boobs? WATER? Ughhhhhhhh. By day I feel like I need to protect my boobs with two bras and by night I want to die when I have to turn in bed. When I turn it feels like my boobs are being dragged through razor blades to get to the other side. And my nipples feel like they are going to pop off of my rock hard breasts. I cannot even imagine breastfeeding at this moment. I have heard scary things. Cracked, bleeding nipples. Sore breasts. Painful latching. I was (still probably am) gung-ho on breastfeeding. But now I am scared shitless. If my boobs can’t handle WATER how the hell are they going to handle breastfeeding?

I feel like crying. I feel like vomiting. I feel like screaming. I feel like throwing something against the wall. I feel like crying. I feel like ripping all my hair out. I feel like crying. Crying. Crying. All I can think about is how much I wanted this, and how much I need to stay strong and know that this WILL get better and that it will all be worth it when this baby is here. Or preferably when this baby is here and also has a sleep schedule. But lets be honest. All I can think about is how in the hell can other women in this world do this more than once? Are you freaking crazy???? How can people do this twice, four times, five times, 19 times and counting?? Are you nuts?? As of right now I will be lucky if I can get through THIS pregnancy much less thinking about the next! Ahh. The thought scares the shit out of me.

Not to mention that on top of all of this, I am 7 weeks, looking like 12 weeks. I cannot hide this pregnancy. I’m not even eating more than my normal crazy and yet my body wanted to explode and tell the world that “Hey! I’m getting fat!” I am certainly not going to tell anyone around me that I am pregnant, given that I am only 7 weeks and still have a great change of miscarrying, so until I can tell the world that I am with child, I’m just going to have to settle for letting people think I’m fat. Ahh!! Gaawwwd. I’m fat AND i’m miserable!

Excuse me, now I need to go eat a freaking box of Saltines and drink Sierra Mist and pray I don’t throw up.

 

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February 17, 2011 Another cycle, another chance

When I received my period last week I can tell you the honest truth, I was furious and wanted to pull all my hair out. I also wanted to cry out in frustration and disappointment. I tried every trick under the sun and still, no pregnancy. I got into a little rut to say the least. I drank every day of my period in bitterness, consumed lots of junk food and stayed in my sweat pants for most of the week. As I ate my dinner of potato chips, Swedish Fish and Gatorade last night I decided I had to stop. Being stressed is already one fertility issue, and then being unhealthy is another. Although I’m starting to feel a little depressed about not being able to get pregnant when yet again more people around me get pregnant, I need to still try to be positive, healthy and happy. So today I embark on another month and another opportunity. This could be the month. All I can do is try, and I’m going to start with getting back on track with healthy eating habits and being active. As spring is approaching I am excited to get outside again, breath in the fresh air and take some strolls through the park. I’m going to relax, cleanse my body and fuel it with nutrients…and hopefully that will be all my body needs to finally get pregnant. Only time will tell!

February 9, 2011 The Guaifenesin Experiment

Last month I stumbled across some interesting information online when I was looking for ways to make conceiving “easier.” When searching in a question and answer forum at babycenter.com about conceiving someone had asked if cough syrup would help her conceive. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I guess this old wives’ tale is true! A fertility educator explained, “One ingredient in certain cough syrups — guaifenesin — can help you get pregnant by thinning your cervical fluid, which enables sperm to travel through your cervix and fertilize an egg.” There’s no medical research, although when I did further research online myself I found that Guaifenesin is actually prescribed to help infertility that’s caused by thick cervical mucus. Well, that’s all the proof that I needed. How does it work? “Guaifenesin, a common ingredient in cough syrups, is an “expectorant.” That is, it relieves congestion by helping liquefy mucus in your lungs, allowing you to cough it up. And because it works systemically on all mucous membranes in your body, it can make your cervical fluid wetter, too.” So of course then I pretty much ran to my medicine cabinet and started searching for cough syrup. I didn’t have any, but I did have some Mucinex. So I checked the label, ding ding ding! Active ingredient? Guaifenesin! Score! (Mine was the 600 mg that releases every 6 hours but any Mucinex will work.)

So here is what I did as advised on the site, I took one each day during my fertile week (although I found on a different site to take it the week before ovulating, which I didn’t do) and drank lots of water. As someone who has been watching, touching (yes I know, gross) and learning way too much about my own cervical mucus I knew exactly what was normal of my body and what wasn’t. I can definitely say I was producing more slippery, wet, stretchy cervical mucus. My husband noticed too. Hopefully it helped! I get to test in 2 days! (So anxious!) Online there are so many women who swear by guaifenesin and have success stories about trying for months and not being able to conceive until they used guaifenesin. Hopefully I can become one of them!

If you are going to try this out as well, here are some things to know:

  • “The trick is to find a cough syrup in which guaifenesin is the only active ingredient, so check labels carefully. Many cough and cold medicines contain antihistamines that also work systemically in your body but have the reverse effect: They dry up mucus and diminish wet cervical fluid. And while you’re trying to get pregnant, there’s no reason to expose yourself to any other drugs unnecessarily, so find a product that contains only guaifenesin and no other active ingredients, including dextromethorphan (a cough suppressant) and alcohol.”
  • “If you’re taking the liquid form of guaifenesin, take 2 teaspoons three times a day around the time of month you’re expecting to ovulate. If you’re taking the pill form [ ], take it as prescribed for a cold.”

Also just a little tip from me; get Mucinex. It only has one active ingredient, which is guaifenesin, and it’s easy to take and get. It’s small and easy to swallow and can be found everywhere; Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, etc. A lot of cough syrups and medicines contain things to take care of headaches, sore throats, runny nose and other cold related symptoms. Obviously, we don’t need all that. We just need the guaifenesin! That’s why Mucinex is awesome, because all it does it thin out the mucus.

Here are the sites I used for the information for this blog but of course, go out and do the research yourself! There is so much information out there. All I did was type in “guaifenesin and conceiving” into the Google box and many sites, blogs, etc. popped up. It’s also fun to read the success stories. Good luck ladies! Let’s become believers!

Baby Center info What to Expect info

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February 6, 2011 Pre-Seed Helping Mama Wannabe

When trying to conceive, sometimes you just lose that sex drive. You would think having all that sex would be fun. Well in reality, it can kind of be a stressful time. Trying to have sex during the “fertile” period, before ovulation, after ovulation, when the pee stick says so, etc. can lead to sex that is pretty much what I call “making a deposit.” So naturally one of the things that happens for me, and I’m sure for many other women, is that I “dry up.” Not saying that I am usually Niagara Falls down there on normal occasions, but when trying to conceive I find myself more Sahara Desert than normal. I think between timing the sex and trying to have a lot of it to assure there’s lots of sperm in my bank, I really could care less about the act itself. My body doesn’t feel so sexy having planned, frequent sex and it just doesn’t produce any happy lady juice.

So what’s a girl to do? Use lube! Lubricants are great, however I quickly found out that pretty much all lube on the shelves at the store are sperm killers. Not only does it create a toxic environment for sperm, but it messes with a woman’s natural cervical mucus, which is really important when trying to conceive. (The cervical mucus is made by the body to be the perfect aid in helping sperm swim faster and better to the fallopian tubes. It also “protects” the sperm from some of the vagina’s acidic secretions.) And it can also act as a barrier, so sperm can’t really even get anywhere. Okay, so now what?

I found pretty quickly when reading on babycenter.com what other mama wannabes use. There is a lubricant out there called Pre-Seed that is said to not harm sperm. I started looking for it immediately. I went to Target; no. Walgreens; no. CVS; ding ding ding! I happily walked out of the store with my purchased Pre-Seed and a box of ovulation predictor pee sticks. (Pretty sure the old lady that checked me out gave me that “ooh you’re having sex” look. That’s the embarrassing thing about people knowing you are trying for a baby, because then they automatically know you are having sex like rabbits. Ugh.)

From the package and instructions (as well as their site online) they claim: “Pre-Seed’s moisture is delivered in a fluid with the same pH and viscosity (thickness) as fertile cervical mucus. It is also isotonic to body fluids, which means it will not harm sperm. Pre-Seed “fertility friendly” Personal Lubricant mimics natural body secretions for an optimal sperm environment.” It also claims that it is the first and currently the only lube out there that is safe to use when trying to conceive. It’s also cool because you can use this lube externally or internally. It comes with 9 little tubes that remind me of the cardboard or plastic applicator around tampons, except instead of depositing a tampon into your muffin, it deposits lube. It looked pretty scary and intimidating at first, and strange since it was “shooting” liquid up there, but whatever, I needed it.

Verdict? It wasn’t hard to use, in fact it was really easy. It also does its job. I also really liked the consistency. It was almost “soft” and pretty thin so it created a good “slip n slide” sensation instead of the thick, oily sensation that I get from KY. So here’s hoping that not only it did its job, but it helped my husband’s sperm do theirs!

Fingers crossed! Five more days until I can test! (P.S Ladies, if you go to Pre-Seed’s website you can get free samples!)


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February 4, 2011 Is it okay to raise Veggie Kids?

*A while back before my husband and I were actively trying we discussed how we thought we would parent our children. It was at this moment that I found out we had differing views on what our children would eat. It sparked for an interesting conversation, intense research and ultimately a blog. So here is my original post from my other blog that I am resurfacing. Enjoy!*

Lately I have been talking to my husband about kids; Mostly on how we plan on raising them. So far so good right? We talked about the normal stuff and we agree on religion, on discipline, on restrictions, and so forth. The one thing that most parents or soon to be parents don’t really discuss is food. What are we going to feed our child? Usually the answer is just “healthy” and the topic is closed. However, for my husband and I it’s not that simple. He eats meat. I don’t.

Usually this never affects our life since we are individuals. But what about the kid? This child is our hybrid. What are we going to fuel her/him with?

My husband easily responded, “They are going to meat.”
“Oh really?” Like he could just assume that.
“Well kid’s need meat.”
“Why’s it any different than an adult not eating meat?”
“Because it’s a kid.”

Hmmm. Not a good enough answer (or a good conversation honestly) for me. So I had to do some research on the subject to see if I could raise a vegetarian baby/child. Of course I could see the conflicts that this could cause. First off, his family already thinks I’m a weirdo because I don’t eat meat, so I’m sure they would think it was completely absurd of me to abstain meat from my child. Also, they would think it was unhealthy. So, is it? This is what I set out to find.

I found an excellent article from slate.com about the very topic of raising vegetarian children (even vegan children) and according to Dr. Storeygard, a pediatrician, kids do not need meat. What they need is enough protein and fat, which can be found in a variety of other ways. Like what? Peanut/almond/cashew butter, all nuts, all seeds (I nannied a boy who could sit and eat pumpkin seeds all day), whole grain breads, pasta, beans, tofu, lentils, legumes, and (although I’m not a huge fan) milk, eggs, cheese and yogurt. Actually a child could get more protein in a grilled cheese sandwich then in a piece of chicken.

The next concern was if it was “weird” to have a vegetarian child. Would my poor baby get judged and made fun of at school? Would their grandparents be annoyed at their diet? Would other parents judge me? Well the answer is no. It’s silly that was even one of our concerns to begin with. How many times have you met a child or knew someone yourself that was allergic to peanuts? Or was lactose intolerant? Or wasn’t allowed to eat meat because of their religion? Lots and lots of people and children have reasons to abstain from whatever. So my kid’s whatever is going to be meat. No issue! What am I going to feed my child you ask? What do other kids eat? Spaghetti with tomato sauce, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese, mashed potatoes, veggie pizzas, pasta, popcorn, apple sauce, fruit, oatmeal, veggies…should I go on? You get the point. There’s plenty of other things to eat out there besides meat. A normal meat eater is only suppose to eat meat sparingly anyways, so it’s really just one step lower.

And frankly I don’t care if anyone is annoyed at my child’s diet. Even if I allowed my child to eat meat, I would still request their grandparents not feed them hot dogs or McDonald’s chicken nuggets (Sick! Do you know what hot dogs are made of!?). So in the end, its all the same.

My husband and I have reached one conclusion; Our child won’t eat meat…until they decide to. I don’t plan on being a dictator, so if my child understands what meat is, and they want to consume it, they shall. Until they understand, I am their mother and I will do what I think is best for them.

 

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February 4, 2011 Kefir: Fertility aid or foe?

After my second cycle of not conceiving I decided I needed to take my diet one step further. I couldn’t just rely on what I thought was “eating healthy.” I wanted to also add nutrients to my body I was lacking as well as eliminating the extra toxins in my body that I didn’t need. I’m not saying I’m some super human now, I do still slip here and there (especially when it comes to cheese or carbs) but I do try to be cautious of what I put into my body. Along with my prenatal vitamin and extra folic acid, my sister in law told me to start drinking kefir. She swears by it and said that she needed it to help regulate her menstrual period after she had a miscarriage. A lot of women have irregular periods, regardless if they have had a miscarriage or not…you know the drill, cycles that come and go as they please, are never consistent and are hard to track. Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they stay for far too long. So she started drinking a glass of kefir every day and said that helped aid her body and get it “regular.”

So I looked into the health benefits of kefir, and by golly, there are many. Too many actually for me to sit here and list and/or remember. However the benefits that I did take notice were the ones relating to my lady parts. Did you know that kefir treats yeast infections, helps regulate periods, aides with urinary tract infections and eliminates vaginal odors? I didn’t either. Nice. On top of that the other important things to consider is that it is the strongest natural antibiotic without side effects. It clears the body of salts, chemical antibiotics, heavy metals, radionuclides and alcoholic products! This is awesome. It also promotes bowel movement as well as treating diarrhea and constipation, which is really helpful, to literally clear out your body of toxins as well as treating constipation (I hear this is a big one for pregnancy as well as post-pregnancy). So I started drinking tons of kefir. Tons. A glass of this a day and it with help get my body “baby ready” or in my case, “conceiving ready.”

Well, everything was great and dandy until I stumbled upon this information today: “Researchers found out that a woman may have problems with impregnation if she is too much addicted to the so-called kefir diet. Some women drink too much of kefir, and their PH shifts towards acid. The diet thus creates hostile environment for sperm in vagina.” –From pravda.ru (A National Russian News Site.) Okay. So now what? I am drinking tons of it, so does that mean my vagina is killing my husband’s sperm? I had to find out more. After some research on my beloved Google, I found that kefir is still overall very good for you and will not hurt your chances of conceiving…

However, too much too soon does indeed shift your PH level, therefore shifting things around in your gut. It then causes gluten intolerance (GI) like symptoms that also hurt the body. That makes me a little sad to be honest because I have been having TONS of GI symptoms, which also are pretty similar to pregnancy symptoms (gas, bloating, cramps, headache, etc.). Sigh. So that’s what happened to me! I started overdosing on kefir like it was going out of style and now my body currently hates me, i’m gassy as hell, I may have been “killing” my husband’s sperm and I am not pregnant. I also found out in research that one tablespoon of kefir is equal to a whole bottle of probiotics. Soooo, as much as I love my sister in law, she was wrong to advise me to drink a glass a day. If you’ve never had kefir before, there’s probably no real good reason why you need to start off with more than a couple tablespoons. (I say just mix a few tablespoons with some granola for starters.) Another good tidbit? Kefir is not only great for the female body but also for males. Kefir is fermented so it’s rich in vitamin E, which males need for fertility.

So now I know, you know, and I will back off the bottle of kefir! Here we go, still have fingers crossed for this month!

*P.S If you have never heard of kefir, or don’t know much about it, I highly recommend clicking on the links I have above for “kefir” and “health benefits of kefir.” It really is good for you and you can buy it almost anywhere now! It comes in so many flavors and can be found at Trader Joe’s, Cub, Rainbow, HEB, etc. It’s also good for smoothies and other things once your body is used to it! I’ll post some recipes up soon!

 

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