Baby update! The third trimester...

Hello blog readers! it's been a bit over 2 months since I have written, and we are now firmly ensconced in the third trimester of this pregnancy. I am currently 32 weeks along (28 weeks in the photo above) and we are walking around with a big ole' bowling ball belly these days! The first trimester was easier then I had anticipated, the second was a glowing dream of lovely, and the third has been a mixed bag of exhaustion and elation. As the belly grows, so does the discomfort (as many of you know and remember), and sleep is not coming easily to me these days (hence me writing this post at 1:09 am!). I have been dealing with some pregnancy related restless leg syndrome at night, which to those of you who aren't familiar with it, is the uncontrollable need to move your legs/twitch when you are tired and just about to fall asleep, or even mid sleep, causing you to wake up... yeah, it sucks. I am usually awake each night from 1am- 4 or 5 am, the restless leg wakes me up and then I find it hard to get back to sleep for a few hours. Some nights I get 3 hours of restless sleep, some nights I get 6 hours of decent (albeit broken up) sleep, and most days I nap during the day to try to make up for some of that sleep loss. I am trying to be as gentle as possible with myself about it- when it first started happening, I was getting really frustrated with the inability to go back to sleep, getting upset and emotional. I gave myself a nice gentle talking to, and have been adapting- not getting upset when I need to get up and move to alleviate the restless leg, and not beating myself up for not being able to sleep. Just letting it be what it is, and get sleep where I can. I keep reminding myself that this is just preparing me for when my baby girl is here and brand new and needs me all hours of the night. I get up, make myself a warm cup of milk with ghee and honey in it, and go sit in her nursery in the rocking chair and organize her clothes, which is very soothing. My belly is so big at this point I am almost able to cuddle it in a way, so I wrap my arms around it and tell her how much I love her, even when I am exhausted beyond what I have ever experienced. The sleep issue has been my only real pregnancy road block, and for that feel ever so grateful- I remind myself many women feel awful throughout their pregnancies, and if all I have to deal with is some sleep deprivation I am still fairing terribly well. It also helps that I have THE MOST supportive spouse on the planet, who has effectively taken over all of the cooking, cleaning and other things that I used to do in our home, as well as rubbing my legs and back in the middle of the night for hours, even when he has to get up to go to work in the wee hours of the morning. I don't know what I would do without him, and going through this has solidified the fact that he will be an incredible, caring and loving and nurturing father, and really already is.

Our due date is December 12th, which sounds far away, but is quickly approaching- we are just about totally prepared (as prepared as one can be) for her arrival- her nursery is just about done, the car seat is installed, her clothes and diapers and such are all ready for her.  We've taken our birth classes, read our birthing books, practiced our breathing and spent many many hours taking about our birth plan and what we want, and more importantly perhaps talked about how to not get too attached to it because things happen and she'll come however she comes, according to plan or not. She is kicking me right now, reminding me that in these moments, she is the one in charge and I remind myself to trust my body and my mental strength.

So for now we are rolling with the punches- I have seen a lot of beautiful sunrises these days, due to the sleeplessness, and am reminded daily to be thankful even when I am so tired it hurts. This little girl dances away in my belly, and I sit with her and talk to her, knowing that in a blink of an eye she will be in the world and physically apart from me and I will miss the time she was in my belly. We'll see what the next 8 weeks bring, and you'll probably be hearing from me in the middle of the night as my life adapts to all these changes and we continue to flow on.

I hope you are all enjoying the transition to fall, and if you have some spare "sleepy" juju to send my way it's always appreciated. Much love.

a nourishing pregnancy tonic and a baby update!

Okay, I don't normally put photos up of myself on the blog, but I just love this photo so much and had to share the bump with you guys! We are 22 weeks into this pregnancy, and I am feeling so good, so blessed, and loving every second of it! My birthday was on July 27th, and we happened to have our 20 week ultrasound scheduled that day... most of you know, usually the 20 week ultrasound is the big gender reveal ultrasound. Needless to say, it was a fantastic birthday surprise to find out... that we are having... a baby GIRL!!!!!!! It was such an amazing moment for us, with so much excitement and many happy tears. Baby girl is doing great, she even flexed her little arms for us during the ultrasound to show us how strong she is! Doctor said she looks perfect- all her organs are normal, her arms and legs and 10 fingers and 10 toes are normal, everything is perfect and healthy. I have been feeling really good, no complaints at all, and she has been kicking and moving up a storm, which I absolutely love. She is even starting to do big kicks that Jared can feel when his hand is resting on my belly, which is really exciting. I have been making sure to get extra rest when I need it, which is a must when you are helping create a human, but I feel healthy and strong and happy. We took baby girl to Big Sur the day after my b-day, to introduce her to one of our favorite places, and Jared took some beautiful pregnancy shots of me (including the one above, which was taken at the top of Palo Colorado looking out towards Pico Blanco- it was about 100 degrees and smelled so heavily of sage, it was gorgeous), and we had a great day introducing our little girl to the smells and sounds of Big Sur. We are working on getting her nursery ready, and Jared is working hard on a hand made crib for his little girl, which, knowing his amazing wood working skills, will be beautiful. Everything is so exciting and happy, we are basking in it and enjoying the summer sun and all the fresh yummy summer fruits and veggies, loading this belly with all things healthy and yummy!

One thing I have been incorporating into my (almost) daily routine is drinking a cup of nettle tea. Nettle tea is a great plant source of calcium, magnesium, b-vitamins and iron, which are all hugely important when you are carrying and caring for a baby. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which help mama to stay healthy while doing the immense job of providing for the baby inside her. Nettle also gently helps sweep metabolic waste from the blood, which helps keeps it from going to baby. It has a nice green grassy flavor, and I really love it with a little bit of raw local wildflower honey. (Also, nettle helps with seasonal allergies as well, so if you are sneezing and have a runny nose from allergies, try incorporating nettle tea into your daily life.) Nettle tea is one way of supporting myself and my baby through this normal, natural process of pregnancy and childbirth.

I hope you are all enjoying the tail end of summer, soaking up the sun (vitamin D!) and eating all the yummy fruits and veggies that summer has to offer. Much love.

Chlorella shots with Chia seed chasers...

Today I want to talk about my daily superfood ritual- most days, I try to take a big ole' shot of Chlorella (a beautiful blue green algae, similar to Spirulina) followed by a big ole' glass of soaked Chia seeds. Most of you know what Chia seeds are (and if you grew up in the 80's and were super lucky, you had a Chia pet!!!). They are all over health food stores, touted as Aztec super energy food (which is true- Aztec and Mayan warriors would eat them on long journeys to keep their energy up and stay full longer). Since I am not eating grains right now (or gluten- ever), I have to make sure I am getting enough fiber to keep things running smoothly (wink). Chia seeds have a huge amount of fiber, besides being high in Omega 3's, and also contain a large amount of calcium, which is great for me too since I tent to avoid dairy most of the time. Chlorella is a blue green algae that has some amazing capabilities- it can bind to toxic chemicals (particularly heavy metals and Dioxin, chemicals that can be present in your stomach from the food you ingest, and accumulate in your fatty tissue). It is important to note that Chlorella only binds to metals and toxins that you have recently ingested (that are in your digestive tract at the time), not to metals and toxins that are already absorbed in your fatty tissue- so it seems that they will not "pull" accumulated toxins out of your body, but rather help to mitigate the ingestion of toxins as you eat them in food.  In terms of Dioxins in particular, the WHO reports that:

• Dioxins are a group of chemically-related compounds that are persistent environmental pollutants.
• Dioxins are found throughout the world in the environment and they accumulate in the food chain, mainly in the fatty tissue of animals.
• More than 90% of human exposure is through food, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish. Many national authorities have programmes in place to monitor the food supply.
• Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer  

(Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/)

Clearly, we don't want Dioxins (or heavy metals or other chemicals) in our bodies, and they need to be avoided especially in small children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. I am eating a fairly strict Paleo diet right now, and I try to eat about 4 tablespoons of grass fed Ghee (homemade) everyday (which is making my skin glow!). There have been some findings that even exclusively grass fed or organic butter has been found to have Dioxin in it- it is so prevalent in our world that even the most pristine environments may have Dioxin in the soil, and therefore it transfers to the cows grazing on the grass, and then transfers to the fatty tissue of the cows, and then goes right into that beautiful grass fed butter. But grass fed butter is a Paleo super food! What to do now?! I am not going to stop eating my Ghee made with gorgeous grass fed butter, because I have noticed an improvement in my health since I introduced it to my diet. But, it is possible that by making Ghee from the grass fed butter (which is essentially made by cooking out the milk fats and casein), I am removing the part of the butter that contains most of the contaminants. Just as insurance, I take a shooter of Chlorella a day, to trap up any toxins that I might have ingested, and then follow it with a big glass of Chia to move that bad stuff right out of my body. There have been some recent studies done in Japan on the effects of Chlorella and removal of Dioxins in breast milk in mothers who are breast feeding. Breast milk has been found to have high concentrations of Dioxin, and they found that taking Chlorella significantly reduces the amount of Dioxin that is present in the breast milk.  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17472477) I think that is just amazing! What an easy way to protect your baby from a chemical that is ever present in our system, and may be very hard to avoid ingesting. My thought is, if Chlorella removes Dioxin from breast milk, it probably removes it from your body as a whole- so why not take it?! It is important for pregnant women to remember- the toxins that are bound up by Chlorella are the ones present in your digestive system at the time, and not the toxins that have already moved to your blood and fatty tissues, so it is seemingly safe for pregnant women and won't "transfer chemicals to the baby" as some people have thought (but always exercise caution when taking anything as a pregnant or breastfeeding woman!!!)

I like to think of my Chlorella shots and Chia chasers as super food insurance- preventative care that I can easily do now to avoid getting sick later in life, and to help keep my future children safe from ever present chemicals in our food supply. It's all about preventative wellness- I want to do everything I can to live a long and healthy life, and Chia seed and Chlorella shots are a step in that direction. Let me know if you pick up some Chlorella or Chia (or both!) and what you think. Oh, and Happy Halloween!!!