Quest for no high fructose corn syrup or gluten continues...

Why oh why do they make it so difficult to find a product that does NOT contain either artificial color, sweetener, sugar or high fructose corn syrup?! I thought that I had always been a healthy eater (just don't look in our pantry of shame), however after close inspection of my label on my low fat yogurt, my organic peanut butter and all fruit spread, all I found were sugars, loads of sugars and high fructose corn syrup! It made me sick! Literally. I am striving to eat as close to the earth and all natural as I can throughout the remainder of this pregnancy and I'm looking for good quality, natural, wholesome products, which of course will NOT break the bank.

So far here is what I have found:

1) Bulgarian non-fat yogurt to replace my Yoplait or Stonyfield Farm light yogurts. The Bulgarian yogurt is the absolute best tasting yogurt that I have had in YEARS, ok, maybe the yogurt that we had in Paris was equally as nice, but this yogurt is terrific. Its not as creamy as our gelatin yogurt we're used to, but it spreads very nicely over sweet fruits and even more nicely as a base in my morning smoothie. What's better yet is it is only 90 calories, no fat (hence the non-fat) and has 10g of protein! Perfect for this poor girl who is not doing so well on her calcium and protein intake.

2) Nuttzo multi-nut butter. Again, I'm a peanut butter ADDICT, and one of the things that irked me was all of the sugar and sodium content in the "natural" or "organic" peanut butter I was choosing. I stumbled upon the Nutzo multiple nut butter yesterday while shopping at Whole Paycheck and thought, WOW! Almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, brazillians, valencia, sunflower and flax seeds, Oh My! What an amazing product full of nutty delights and Omega 3's. What's even better is that the spread is chunky (I like the chunky spreads, not the smooths) and its relatively low in calories, for that many nuts anyway (180 calories, compare to 200 calories, and a whopping 16g of fat, however only 2g are saturated!!)The taste is just FANTASTIC too! If you're a nut lover, you have to check this out. Don't be turned off by the price, you'd pay that for a quality fresh almond butter. (Curious minds want to know, $10)Check out their link here: http://www.gonuttzo.com/

3) Food For Life's Brown Rice Gluten Free Bread For several years I ate only gluten free products because it made me feel less bloated and seemed to help my digestive problems. Since I feel nothing but bloated these days I thought I would go back to buying the gluten free breads. The breads have no refined flour or sugars or yeast, which most people who have gluten tolerance problems have problems with the refined white flour. It doesn't mean it sacrifices on taste though. These breads are so yummy! The brown rice variety is sweetened with organic white grape juices. The breads are very dense, not the fluffy kind that you can squish up in a ball, no yeast to make them rise, so don't be alarmed if your toast feels like a brick. I love it. The Millet flavor is by far my favorite. You can also find these in the freezer section at Whole Paycheck.

Now if only I could somehow sway my hubby into eating more like this....He's a man's man though. I'll never expect to see him happily munching a piece of millet bread in the morning. It would be a nice surprise though!

A quarter of the way there! Yippie

I just realized that I am a quarter of a way through the pregnancy. Only 75% more to go! Today is NOT one of my better days. I've been up since 3:30AM with the quasies so bad that I had to get up in the middle of the night to make myself a piece of toast. It was kinda cute though because Mojo (our Chi) actually woke up with me and we snacked on the piece of toast together. One thing you need to know about this dog is that he is the LAST ONE out of bed every day. Waking up in the middle of the night just doesn't happen with him, so I guess he coupd feel my ill energy and wanted to keep me company, or maybe it was just the smell of the toast. Today though I am as green as I was probably two weeks ago. I honestly think there is something to my theory that the worse your sleep is during the night the worse your queasies will be the following day. I'm just trying to hold out all day at work. Despite my first notion of really wanting to stay home and work from home, I trudged in here and have painted my happy, (don't bother me) face on. Please, please let me stay the full day and not be sick.

I miss Mike. He's been in D.C. since Monday and its just been incredibly lonely. Jeesh! I've come a long way from the days when we first moved in together when I was going mad because I never had any alone time or space. Lots of things have changed, so much for the better.

Lil Drummer Baby

Baby and I had another doctor visit today, actually the first time we're seeing a doctor since we started going. I don't know if this is bad, but, I was supposed to see my Dr., Dr. Jick, but I called and rescheduled and they told me that he wasn't available so I got an appointment with his colleague, Dr. Park. When I showed up today for the appointment they didn't have me in the books. I was a little irritated, but they accommodated me so I guess it wasn't that bad. I had another ultra sound since I have been bleeding/spotting after prolonged exercise. I was never prepared to see what I saw on the monitor.
I looked over and saw Baby W rocking out, waving its hands all over the place, bopping up and down, waving arms again. I'm hoping its not learning how to throw tantrums in Utero already. It was funny though. The U/S technician was even laughing saying she was a "REALLY" active little baby. I have to stop doing that. I called Baby W (she) when we have no idea what it is, but its so hard to not give it a gender. Pardon me if I slip every once and awhile and say "she" or "he" it doesn't mean I know the gender at all.

All looks good except a little spot on the yolk sack which hasn't fully adhered to the uterine lining. The Dr. is not worried about it at all, however she has requested that I just rest or take it easy for the duration of my first trimester. She would rather see me walking, stretching or meditating (her words not mine) instead of running or hiking until the next appointment when I'll be officially beginning the second trimester.

On another note, Mike and I went crib shopping this weekend. Top on my lists for absolutes were sustainable wood, non-toxic finish and no moving parts. I wanted as eco friendly as possible, after all, the child will be spending more than 85% of its time here. We also wanted something that would convert to a toddler bed with/without rails, and possibly a full size bed. What I ended up falling in love with almost a marriage breaker. The Young American's line and almost $1000. I pouted. Tried to argue the value and almost had a major problem on my hands when the salesman said we didn't have to pay for it all at once, but we could put it on layaway. I was like, "Done! Sold!" Mike looked like he wanted to kill me. I happily vowed to him that we would continue to look elsewhere for something more affordable. I think we found the crib, and after much research it is all of the things I wanted and much much less. Almost a quarter less, so I saved my marriage after all. Well, not really. He promised me if I went for the "more affordable" crib then I could have my slider rocker that I fell in love with. Ah, marriage. Its all about compromise.

Nothing to really update you on...

Things are going well here. I'm managing to fend off the all day sickness that I've been having, or at least being a trooper about it. I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely am disgusted by chicken though! This is relatively new to me, as I used to eat chicken pretty regularly. Now I can't stand the smell of it, the sight of it or even the thought of it. I have to completely detach from the notion that eggs produce chiken as well, otherwise I'd have absolutely no protein. My big YUM of the day today has been kidneybeans! OMG I just couldn't get enough of them, but this is today. You can be certain it will change tomorrow.

I promised a posting of the 8 week ultrasound. Sorry its like 2 weeks late. So, what you are looking at in the U/S is an upside down floating(or as I like to call em, "swimmer") with its head towards the bottom of the page. I think those are little arm and leg nubs, or at least that's what the technician told us. There's also a placenta somewhere in there, but don't ask me which one it is. I keep joking with my husband that I think Bun looks more like our dog Mojo than either he or myself. Do you see the resemblence? Hee hee hee...

Love at first sight....

Yesterday Mike and I had our first glimpse of Baby Withers during our first ultrasound. I was so nervous and excited all at the same time. When I heard the heartbeat (162bpm) it melted my own heart. Everything looks wonderful, the baby and all the support functions are doing really well (I believe the technician actually used the word, "excellent", to be honest). I was shocked when I got on the scale. It looked like I had put on 3 pounds already, however I forgot when I normally weight myself its without clothes, and this time when they weighed me I had heavy jeans on, a sweater and my shoes. No need to freakout completely! I haven't been exercising or running as much the past two weeks because of the nausea and sickness too so I don't doubt I put on a pound or two. I am going to try to be more disciplined this week and really get out at lunch and workout as well as run 3-4x a week. I did sign up for a bootcamp class in the mornings, but being sick in the mornings its really difficult to get motivated to get out of bed and workout.

I'll post the ultrasound pictures as soon as we have them scanned in.

So green....

Everything today is making me ill. The site of food, the smell of food, the taste of food, sitting up...Why can't I just be lying down curled up in a ball under the covers back home? I thought I was going to be lucky and get away without having any morning sickness. Guess not. The all day queezies have progressed on towards full blown sick and right now the only thing I can do to keep from hurling is sip gingerale and sprite. Even my bananas and crackers are not working. HELP!! I won't be able to handle another month of this!! The one good thing about the morning sickness is that its distracted me from being so worried...I guess that's a good thing right? Monday we have the ultrasound appointment. We're just praying for good news and hopefully be able to hear that heartbeat for the first time. I think maybe after I hear the heartbeat I'll be a little more at ease.

I can't get enough of these little tickers

They're so dang cute! I can't wait until I can comeout in public on facebook and post it to my profile!


I was a little tired yesterday. By the time I got home all I could do was passout. I managed to sleep on the couch, the floor, the chase and then finally the bed. I'm sleeping much better at night now, however I am still waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I also find that I am still sleeping on my belly and my right side alot. I suppose its not a big deal right now but I really should be trying to break myself from it.

Yesterday's dinner consisted half a mini personal pizza from Pizza Hut, left over from Sunday night, see, I'm not gorgeing on food. I'm still portion controlling things, and my left over blueberry pancake. I got my blueberry pancakes after all. =)

Baby's First Half Marathon

Yesterday "Bun" and I ran our longest pregnant run to date by running in the Orange County Half Marathon. I have to admit, I really wanted to press myself and run the full marathon, but in hindsight, I am so happy Mike talked me into running only the half. Since I had been nursing this shin injury post LA Marathon, well really before LA actually now that I think about it, I was not properly trained to run the half, let alone try to be stupid enough to run the full. The half was PERFECT for us. I had it in my head that I would be just fine if I ran a 9:30 pace and kept my heart rate relatively moderate. I averaged 157bpm, which although is higher than the recommended 140bpm, I was not out of breath and really wasn't even breaking much of a sweat. I kept it nice and easy through the whole race. Of course I went out way faster than what I should have because I wanted to go out with the 2hr/4hr marathon pacer, but the guy was running an 8:30 pace, NOT what he should have been running, 9:00. Oh well, it was better off that I let them go off, nothing to "compete" with.

The race was a gorgeous first half. I have to admit that it was a little daunting to see the runners so far ahead of me when we were in the wetlands, and it was a little discouraging, but I kept telling myself I wasn't doing anything other than enjoying the run and the scenery. The smells were absolutely delightful too! Magnolisa, jasmine....so pretty. Its funny because having the heightened sense of smell can be both a blessing and a curse. Yesterday it was a blessing.

One week from today we go for our first ultrasound and check-up. I'm so excited to finally have the opportunity to ask all of the questions to the doctor. I'm really anxious! I finally am starting to move out of the "denial" phase and am moving on to the acceptance phase and starting to get excited. Its still incredibly overwhelming though. I'm not going to deny that. I'm scared about what is going to happen after the baby comes, how we are going to manage our lives, etc. So scared. I keep telling myself that millions of people do this every day, Mike and I are no different. Right?