Pregnancy Journal: Getting Ever Bigger!

Well, I’m almost 25 weeks along now!  And I still feel much further!

It’s interesting…things stretch more easily after you’ve had a baby already.  I was sitting out in the sun earlier this week while my kids played, and as we were in the backyard, I rolled my pants up and pulled my shirt up so my belly would get some sun.  So I was sitting there, getting sun, feeling the baby move around.  And I felt the baby kick me way up high, like right up by my breasts!  There’s no way the baby should be up high that early!  Soon after I felt the baby kick very low, too.  This is an active baby who moves around quite a bit!

It makes me feel much more sore and tired than I did in other pregnancies at this point.  I feel like my body’s been fully taken over by baby!  To think I still have 15 – 16 weeks…!  There are days that seems like an eternity, and days it doesn’t seem long at all.  I definitely have energetic days…and not-so-energetic days.  For some reason a lot of my friends said their third pregnancies were their hardest, too.  I’m not quite sure why that is.  But, my body has definitely been “taken over” and it can be hard at times.  I’m pretty sore!  (Luckily I got a massage this week again. )

I’ve been studying how big babies really should be, and what makes them healthy.  It seems that the hormones in milk and meat, as well as lots of sugar makes babies big, but unnaturally so.  Those are the babies that are 10 lbs. or more, but fat and who need a lot of watching after birth.  Those are babies who need to have their blood sugar tested and frankly, just aren’t that healthy.

But on the other hand, natural fats — like real butter, raw milk, grass-fed beef, and so on — seem to grow big, healthy babies. 

I don’t think a baby’s weight matters too much (unless it’s really small or really big), what matters is how the baby got to the weight it is!  Babies who are “well fed” in utero will be the perfect size, regardless of whether that’s on the small or large size.

I’m anticipating this baby being bigger than both of my last two.  They were 7 lbs. 6 oz.; and 7 lbs. 5 oz.  But I didn’t even learn about traditional foods until the very end of my second pregnancy.  We didn’t get into grass-fed beef until my son was 3 months, and didn’t get into raw milk until he was 9 months!  Most of our “real food” journey was actually after he was 9 months old and starting solids.  We dabbled a year earlier and became convinced of the need (that would be around April 2009), but it took awhile to get where we needed to be.

This time I’ve been drinking lots of raw milk, eating raw egg yolks, grass-fed beef, drinking kombucha, and taking FCLO daily.  I am really curious to see how this affects how big my baby is, and how healthy s/he is too!

I’ve been tackling aspects of nutrition over at Babble recently — pregnancy from a “traditional foods” stand point.  I’ve been generally surprised at the reaction!  Although there are some who spout the standard FDA lines, many people seem genuinely curious and eager to hear more.  And those posts have gotten quite a lot of hits!  I am excited to think that perhaps more people are becoming open to traditional foods, even in the mainstream.  Of course, with the way this country’s health is going, you’d have to be blind not to notice that something’s wrong!

I also launched my newest ebook this week, Against the Grain: Delicious Recipes for the Whole Food and Grain-Free Diet, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t.  It’s on sale through tomorrow, 25% off with GRAINFREE25.  Owing to the busy-ness of that, I didn’t post a recipe this week.  Sorry.  I’m also gearing up (already) for my next book, which I’m planning to be comfort and crockpot foods!  (I think that’ll be a really fun one to test!)

I also had a midwives’ appointment this week.  They confirmed that I’m not crazy to feel so big and like the baby is active.  They noted I had gained 9 lbs. and grown 6.5 cm in just four weeks!!  I’ve never gained that much (in either category) in such a short time!  I’m measuring 2 weeks ahead right now.  They also noted how active the baby was, as they were trying to feel for position (head down this time!).  And yes, they’re pretty sure there’s only one!

We talked through the births a lot this time.  Why I made no progress for so long last time, what I’d like to do differently this time.  They encouraged me to write out my birth stories and what I wish had happened, as well as comfort measures I’d like to use this time.  I won’t really remember or be able to communicate my needs very well in the moment, but if I’ve written a list in advance I can just point to it and say something vague!  I’ll share that list with you once I’ve got it.

Finally, I’m starting to think about all “the end” kind of stuff — who will watch my kids, what I’d like to have in the freezer, and so on.  In the next couple of weeks I’ll be making decisions about that.  I’ll definitely share my freezer plan!

So that is where I am now!