The Good Report Take 3

The Good Report:

• The birds chirping outside my window. I'm so glad that I'm a heavy sleeper and that ambient noises don't bother me.
• It's beautiful outside without being too hot yet.
• Pinterest- always something to keep me occupied.
• I know I mentioned it last time but that I have Thursdays and Fridays off!!!
• I live in a city with a beautiful river running through it. Saskatoon really is GORGEOUS in the summer time.
• Our childbirth classes start today. Bring on being prepared! 
• I have more energy than I've had in weeks, pretty cool.
• I am so thankful for the support that we receive from our family in every little way.
• I can't get over how amazing it is to not have coin laundry anymore! No more getting rolls of loonies and quarters from the bank! It's been over 5 months since we had coin laundry and I still think about it on a very regular basis. 
• Good friends! 

32 Weeks!

Size:

Our coconut is now weighing around 3 lbs 9 ounces and is roughly 16.5 inches in length. Can you believe that at this point our baby has started growing hair on their little head?! I'm curious to see how much he or she has at birth. Both Ben and I were pretty bald so I'm not banking on much. It is also interesting to note that if this little one is a boy his testicles have or are currently making their descent into the scrotum....neat fact... They also say that babies born at this point in pregnancy have a  really good chance of survival and usually grow up with minimal side effects from their early arrival. Of course I'd still be more comfortable with another 8 or so weeks of baking this little bun. Who knows what the future holds! 

Pregnancy Symptoms:

Still feeling fabulous! Breathing is getting a little more cumbersome, I'm looking forward to this little one dropping a little and relieving the pressure on my diaphragm.
I had another midwife appointment this week and everything looks great, baby is still head down, at this point the midwife said that it is possible but highly unlikely that the baby will flip. So it looks like the baby is set and ready to go. Only a few more appointments before this baby will be here!
Had another appointment with the dietitian again and everything is still going well. I feel so lucky that I've been able to control this through diet. I even allowed myself to cheat tonight when Ben and I were out on a date night and had ice cream and my sugars were still within the normal range!
Movement is still getting stronger and stronger. It's even slightly painful every once and a while, still the coolest feeling in the world!!!


Life Happenings:
Only 5 more weeks of work left! That's 20 shifts, 165 massages! I'm now starting to really really look forward to being off work. During this past week I got to the point where I just felt ready to be done.
Ben is one week into his new job and he is loving it! He has worked overtime every day so far but it's really nice that he has steady work, he actually appreciates the extra hours. I do hope overtime won't continue forever though, the poor guy will tire himself out. He's out the door by 6:30am and I'm lucky if he's home by 6:00pm.
We haven't had much time for much other than work lately. Ben has been pretty sore and calloused from all the new things that he has to do for work so we've been taking it easy and going to bed nice and early, I love it!

Weekly Highlight:
I have really enjoyed my morning routine that I blogged about here. It feels really good getting up and not feeling rushed.
Also the ice cream I had tonight was AMAZING!

Here is the 32 week belly!

This week I thought I'd show you a different view as well. As you can see it's slightly uneven. THe baby is mainly lying on the right side, it's definitely where I feel the majority of the movement.

My Favourite... Time of Day

I have a new favourite time of  day. It may only remain my fav for a week or it may be a lifelong love, who knows. Here is a detailed account of my favourite time of day for those that care...

• Our alarm wakes us up at 5:50am
• We let the snooze go once or twice, up by 6:10am
• Ben get's his coffee made and lunch ready
• I prepare my warm water and lemon concoction
• Ben leaves for work- this part usually includes a goodbye kiss
• I take my lemon water and the dog and head upstairs
• I remake the bed
• I get into the newly remade bed
• I sip on my lemon water leisurely
• I spend the next hour perusing the world wide inter web, like blogs, pinterest, anything that catches my fancy. 
• After my hour of bliss, so around 7:30am life begins and I have to get up and eat breakfast, shower and all those blah parts of morning. 

Boy do I love that hour of 'me time' 

Here is Rose enjoying our morning together. She likes to jump into the pile of pillows and just sit right behind me snoring like a baby. 

The Good Report Take Two

So my idea to make a list weekly of what I'm grateful for never really panned out. I think it's time to climb back up on the horse and give it another try, don't you!?

The Good Report:

• I am ever so thankful for the sun, and summer weather.
• Fresh fruits and veggies that are in season, delish and reasonably priced. 
• A dog who is fully house trained! She has been perfect at home for six months but still had the odd incident when we took her to my parents.
• Each and every meal of the day, oh I how I look forward to eating these days! 
• Ben has started his new job and he's busy and loving it.
• I have Thursdays and Fridays off work, need I say more.
• The little kicks and punches from our baby, they are so gentle, I wonder what this little one will be like on the outside.
• I think nesting is kicking in, something I've been eagerly anticipating!
• SUMMER IS HERE!!!! 

Well that's it for this week, who knows when the inclination to remember the good in life will hit me again. Hopefully sooner rather than later. There is SOOO much to be thankful for! 

31 Weeks!

So another week has flown by and we're at 31 weeks. I'm starting to think that the next 6-11 weeks aren't going to slow down as I've been anticipating. This morning as I type this update I'm sitting outside in the sun drinking my nettle tea. It doesn't seem to taste as bad in nice weather....Bring on the summer! 

Size:

Our baby is weighing in at about 3lb 5oz and 16in long. His or her weight would be roughly equivalent to 4 navel oranges....Apparently in the coming weeks he or she will be heading into a growth spurt and each day more and more weight is being packed onto that little frame. At this stage the eyes are actually able to dilate in response to light, how cool!? 

Pregnancy Symptoms:

Still quiet on the symptoms front. Belly is growing. Movement is pretty much the coolest feeling in the entire world, I'm quite certain that I'm going to miss all the little punches and kicks once I am no longer 'with child'. My breathing has definitely not gotten easier. Ben always thinks that I'm mad at him because I tend to breath really deeply and let out a loud sigh but really I'm just trying to get oxygen into my lungs, the only positions I'm able to breath comfortably is lying on my side or standing. One of these days I also want to count how many times a day I have to pee, it is pretty unbelievable, but at least not painful just a nuisance. Still not much pain, I had a little bit of low back pain by the end of my shift on Saturday, but nothing that doesn't go away after a nights sleep. I'm still feeling mighty blessed at how great I'm feeling! 

Life Happenings:

Life has been good and busy. I worked another full 40 hour week this week and I picked up another shift next week so I'll have one more week of almost full time before going down to 33 hours a week for the last 5 weeks. I'm finding that when I'm at work the days just fly by. Every day that I have off feels so nice and long. I'm getting excited to be off work and to have some time to relax and prepare for what's to come. Hopefully the baby waits till later than 37 weeks since that's when I'm working till and I sure could use at least a couple weeks of prep time. 

Ben is starting a brand new job TOMORROW. He is so excited and can't wait to get into something different. He will still be working evenings and weekends wrapping up some loose ends with his company but by the end of June he should be working a normal 9-5 Monday to Friday job and we are both so ready for it!

Did I mention that I'm loving the summer weather! Man I'm glad it's June!

Weekly Highlight:

Most definitely moving back home after spending a month living with my parents. It was great to be there and we really appreciated it since we didn't have access to our house for that whole time, but by the end of the month I was ready to move home. It's just nice having ALL of your clothes again, and having free range of my kitchen again. (Not that I didn't appreciate all the AMAZING meals my mom prepared for us). It's also nice to be able to have people over again. Last night we had a barbecue with some friends and the night before a poker night. We really enjoy hosting and it was nice to be able to again.

Here is the 31 week bump, growing by the day!

On a walk with my brother, sister-in-law, hubster and of course the dogs. It was the most beautiful day ever and if I hadn't have worn stupid shoes that gave me blisters it would have been absolutely perfect!

I thought I'd show an example of what my diet looks like these days. A plain bbq'd chicken breast, a spinach salad with oil and vinegar, and plain yogurt, a little added vanilla extract and blueberries and raspberries...yum!

30 Weeks!

Wow, 30 weeks always felt like the beginning of the end, I can't believe that we are finally here. 10 weeks left...well, between 7-12. I'm starting to get curious as to when I'll go into labour. I've read that Gestational Diabetes babies generally come early, I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Size:

Our cabbage is weighing in at about 3lb and is measuring roughly 15.75in from head to toe! This week the eyesight is developing although even at birth the little one's eyes will hardly be able to see right in front of his or her face. Otherwise, lots of weight being put on those little bones and hopefully some hair growing on that little head.

Pregnancy Symptoms:
Well I can still say that I have really no painful symptoms, however in the last week I have developed some serious breathlessness. This baby is so high up in my ribs I can barely breath. Whenever I have to sit I start to pant and there is absolutely no way that I can lay on my back for more than 10 seconds. That's really not so bad though.
I can't say that I have any other symptoms really... I still haven't woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I'm sure that's just around the corner. I feel bad that I don't have more to put in these categories.

Life Happenings:
We had another midwife appointment last week, and the little babe is still head down. I'm starting to allow myself to think that he or she may actually stay that way!
On another note, I only have 28 shifts left at work! I can't believe how fast these last few weeks have gone. I'm expecting time to slow down in the coming weeks as I get more and more uncomfortable.
We haven't had too much excitement in the last few days since we got back from our trip just mainly doing things inside since the weather has been slightly ghastly! I look forward to spending as much time as possible outside as soon as the weather smartens up.

Weekly Highlight:
Saturday night Ben and I had a date night and went to a movie. It was just lovely to get out and even though the movie was pretty awful it was a great night out.

Once again I'm so incredibly sorry for the terrible quality of this weeks photo but it will have to do. This is me at 30 weeks!

Here is a more aesthetically pleasing picture. What you see here is 4 POUNDS of delicious strawberries! Since my diet is so highly limited I have to enjoy the few things that I'm allowed to, and luckily strawberries are pretty good for blood sugar!

Banana 'Ice Cream'

I've always somewhat scoffed at women who complain about pregnancy cravings. I always assumed these women just used pregnancy as an excuse to indulge in their every whim. Well, I can say that I've been humbled in the last two weeks. I feel like ever since I found out about my issues with blood sugar ALL I've wanted needed is ice cream! The problem is that ice cream is NOT the best thing to indulge in when you're trying to cut sugars out of your diet. I did get some 'diet' (low fat/low sugar) ice cream which I have allowed myself to have once, but I'm still hesitant to have it as many times as I 'need' i.e. every day. 

Getting to my point....I found a 'recipe' on pinterest the other day for 'ice cream' made entirely out of banana's! I say 'recipe' because it's not much of a recipe, it's just frozen banana in a food processor with organic peanut butter and cocoa powder. I thought it was worth a shot so today I made up a batch and IT'S GOOD! I'm so happy that I've discovered an alternative to dairy ice cream that is still palatable. And since the only ingredients are banana's, peanut butter and cocoa, it's diary free, sugar free, and a good source of protein! WIN...WIN...WIN!

Let me share with you my process....

I started with 8 banana's that I already had in the freezer. I found since the banana's had already been pretty over ripe when I put them in the freezer that the banana flavour in the 'ice cream' was very strong. You can cut up ripe banana's,put them in the freezer for an hour let them freeze and use them that way. This will also minimize the banana-ee flavour.

I would recommend cutting the banana's before they are frozen. Peeling those banana's and cutting them while they were frozen was a little difficult.





I used a Vitamix (heavy duty blender) to mix up my banana's but I hear a food processor should work just fine. It did not take long at all for the banana's to become that frozen ice creamy texture. I then added my peanut butter and cocoa.

I used chunky peanut butter which accounts for the crunchy texture of ice cream. Another thing to keep in mind is that the longer you leave it in the freezer the more the texture becomes like ice cream.

I'm not going to say that this is as good as regular ice cream by any means, but when you've got the pregnancy cravings working overtime, and you're trying your darndest to eat well this does hit the spot.

If anyone tries this please let me know how you like it and any ways to improve it!