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Feeding the Ravenous Pregnancy Hunger

Monday, September 7th, 2009

I can’t even put into words how much I’m eating. Probably because my mouth is full of food. It’s been like this since the week before the pregnancy test. Shelton’s growing more concerned he can’t afford to feed me. I’m just growing more concerned I’ll keep finding food sources. For the most part, as I’ve said on here several times, I eat a very balanced, nutritious diet. Lately, I’ve given in to a few twinges for things that are rarely on my menu. Like beef tacos. And pizza. Twice. This weekend. Oh wait, make that three times.

Saturday was the kick-off of college football season. I am not a fair weather fan, but let me say that my OU Sooners let me down. Let me down hard. I’ve been anticipating football season since, oh, January! Why can’t football season last as long as lame basketball season or baseball season, both of which seem to go on for-ev-er! As the weather took a quick turn in to fall last week (usually Wichita holds out until at least the day before Thanksgiving), I decided that we needed a pot of chili. My mom came over to watch the game with us and have some of my chili (because I’d be embarrassed if the two of us ate an entire Crock pot worth of chili). After dinner she told me we needed to get some junk food in the house. And I’m not lying, the best thing I could come up with was a can of Orange Crush a friend had brought to me a couple of months ago. Shelton and I laughed and told her this is our junk food – chili and cornbread.

So, I eat, around the clock it feels like. I wake up to my stomach growling. And until last week, I went to bed that way, too. I reached out to the DietsInReview.com dietitian, Rebecca Scritchfield, and explained my ravenous state. I told her that before bed I got another hunger surge, but I was afraid to eat right before bed. However, on the nights that I did I slept better and on the nights I didn’t, well, I didn’t sleep well. This is her advice, copied verbatim from an email, and I was so grateful to read this.

BK: My question is – is there something I can/should eat as a little snack to quench that hunger, should I just let it go? What’s a smart move here?

RS: Definitely eat a bedtime snack. My recommendation is to eat something that is high calories to satisfy you without a large volume of food. Second suggestion is bland BRAT (banana, rice, applesauce and toast) because they are easy on the GI. Start with banana and peanut butter (300 calories) or peanut butter and toast (also about 300 calories). It should not have you feeling too full.

This does not mean to have half a tub of peanut butter. It means a regular serving (a tablespooon I think) on a piece of whole grain toast. This is what I’ve been doing, with a small cup of skim milk. It fills me, satisfies me, and I sleep well. I still wake up hungry, but not ready to eat the down comforter.

Another conundrum I keep finding myself in is that I’m out and about and hunger strikes. Right now. This second. Feed me now or I will DIE! If you’ve ever had your blood sugar crash, it’s that exact feeling. Shaky, empty, feed me now anything! This weekend I made my own trail mix and got an air-tight reusable container to store it in. It fits in my purse, along with some Kashi granola bars. This way I’ve got a healthy, filling snack that I can take anywhere with me and I can munch on that to satiate for a little while. I made my own because 1) I don’t need the M&Ms, 2) I don’t need all that sodium, and 3) I don’t need the extra sugar. So here’s what I used in my homemade trail mix:

1 cup raw almonds
1 cup raw walnuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup Craisins
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Feel free to use this and modify as you like. For the next batch I’ll probably add pistachios.

Basically, I eat when I’m hungry. I don’t gorge myself. I eat a normal meal at meal times and have smaller snacks throughout the day:
– Breakfast is a bowl of Raisin Bran or Cheerios or an egg white veggie omelet with a whole grain tortilla
– Lunch is a turkey sandwich with veggies on whole grain bread, leftovers from the night before, or a veggie quesadilla with salsa
– Dinner is ground turkey for pasta or tacos, grilled chicken with veggies, grilled fish with veggies and whole grain rice, veggie paninis

For snacks, I keep it pretty simple, and keep the house well stocked.
– A few pieces of light havarti cheese with multi-grain crackers
– Fresh fruit: apple/orange/banana/grapes
– a 0% fat Chobani Greek yogurt with fresh blueberries and/or almonds
– a handful of whole grain Goldfish
– blue corn chips and salsa

I really don’t want to gain more than the 35 pounds or so of recommended weight. So I’m trying to keep everything balanced and eat in moderation. Right now I feel like that’s an impossible task because I simply just keep eating. I even give myself some time – ask if I’m really hungry right now. I’ll sip on a glass of water for a few minutes and see if that won’t kill the urge. Sometimes it does, and sometimes I can literally hear my stomach bellow FEED ME NOW!

I’m also taking evening walks with Shelton – which is a great time for us to catch-up. It’s a moderate exercise that for my first trimester I’m comfortable with. I’m considering prenatal yoga once my second trimester starts.

Some of you might be giggling going – ahh, welcome to pregnancy. Hopefully some of you also find yourselves pregnant and hungry and this will help you navigate the pantry a little easier.

Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, pregnancy symptoms, prenatal yoga
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My One and Only

Monday, August 31st, 2009

This morning was our first ultrasound and I can tell you with all certainty that Shelton and I were far more nervous and anxious about this appointment than we were the pregnancy test. I didn’t even want to talk this morning; and Shelton kept doing it! I was just a ball of nerves and when they called our name to go back I thought I was going to lose my breakfast right there in the waiting room.

I was taken back and weighed – 138 pounds. This is up about six from when we started the IVF two months ago. We did my blood pressure and made witty small talk about how last night I told Shelton that if he didn’t come home with a chocolate chip cookie he shouldn’t come home at all. (He slept here last night!) Then I was left to undress from the waist down and prepare for my ultrasound. (This is vaginally – not goop all over the belly.)

The doctor came in and asked how I’ve been feeling. I told him and he said welcome to pregnancy! Had a nice ring to it. Then we started the ultrasound and within seconds he pointed on the screen to my uterus and the one “pregnancy sack” on the screen. Our baby!!! Just the one. No twins. Or octo-babies. A single baby measuring 5mm (.19″), with the tiniest little heartbeat fluttering so fast a hummingbird would feel inadequate. We heard the heartbeat and saw the little flicker at 105 beats/minute. Pretty amazing!

Everyone talks about this emotional moment the first time you hear the heartbeat. But neither of us had it. Are we broken? I don’t think so. Honestly, there was so much anxiety going in to this appointment, I think we both were completely confident we were going to hear “twins,” and then we didn’t and that’s pretty much all we could focus on. So while I was completely impressed with the fact that this minute being had a heartbeat and thought it was beautiful to hear it, my head was elsewhere.

Dr. T said our pregnancy is on track so far and looks healthy and viable. YAY!!!

We scheduled a follow-up sonogram for two weeks from now and left with a few tiny sonogram pics.

Shelton and I had a little embrace outside and assured one another we were OK. I dropped him off at work and as soon as I put the car in reverse I started sobbing. I felt like I’d lost something I’d never had. And the harder I cried over not having a second baby, the more I’d cry for feeling guilty that I wasn’t acting grateful for the one I do have. What a friggin’ mess! It was just this adrenaline crash and overwhelming bittersweet feeling. We’re disappointed. And thrilled. All at the same time. Part of me feels like I’d feel like this if I’d heard twins, too.

I’m over the moon that we have a healthy baby, and a healthy pregnancy. This baby is going to make us parents and change our lives in ways we can’t even see yet.

Tags: Embryos, Fertility Clinic, IVF, pregnancy milestones
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Pregnancy Week Six

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

I told Shelton today that I’m bored with being pregnant. How do you tell someone they’re pregnant and expect them to just sit by and wait nine months? How about you just go ahead and give me my baby already! Shelton laughed and agreed that I’m too impatient in general and that I don’t do delayed gratification well. There’s a reason I don’t shop online very often, I want to pay and get my stuff! So I guess I have to sit here for 34 more weeks!

Waiting for 7.5 more months or not, I’m loving this. As my sister advised, I’m embracing all of it. It still doesn’t feel real to either of us, I keep thinking I’ll wake up and find out I’ve waken from the best dream. The heartburn continues – so I have Tums. I am so fatigued and exhausted – so I sleep and take naps when I can. I’m ravenous – so I eat. All the things that any other day of the week would feel like a burden and a pain to deal with, I’m embracing whole heartedly. I want the heartburn, I want to feel tired, and I want to eat everything in sight!

You think I’m kidding?! I had two lunches today!! I’m eating a balance of everything I’m supposed to and limiting what I’m not supposed to. No real cravings yet, I’m not even sure when that’s supposed to start if it does. However, I did eat six meals of Mexican food last week. (YUM!)

Tomorrow is a big, big day! We’ll have our first ultrasound. We are big balls of nerves – and possibly more anxious than we were for the pregnancy test. One… Two…. THREE?! No idea what we’ll hear. We will hear a heartbeat and it’s nearly unfathomable that 26 days ago they were microscopic eight cell organisms – and tomorrow it will have a heartbeat. UNREAL!!!

I’m using the pregnancy week-by-week calendar on WhatToExpect.com. For six weeks it says the face is beginning to form: “Your baby’s jaw, cheeks, chin, eyes, ears, and nose are beginning to form.” From crown to rump the baby is 1/4” long, about the length of a nail head. It also explains why I pee ALL THE TIME… morning, noon, night and midnight! My kidneys are working more efficiently to rid my body of waste, and that means I’m spend half my day looking for a toilet.

BUT I’m only looking for the toilet to pee. I am over the moon that I have yet to get sick. I’ve read that 25 percent of women never do, and I have no qualms with that!

The progesterone shots continue. And believe me, I’m over it. O-VER-IT! On each cheek I have huge knots under the skin. Last night Shelton confused an old incision spot with the new incision spot and misplaced the bandage. An hour later he noticed blood on the back of my PJ shorts and I noticed a big oil stain on the sheets… where it had all leaked out. (The progesterone is in oil.) I really do look like a human pin cushion.

Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, IVF Shots, pregnancy symptoms, pregnancy week by week
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Pregancy Quote of the Week – Week 5

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Brandi to Shelton:

“Don’t be mean to me. I am a vessel of life over here!”

Tags: pregnancy quotes
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Pregnancy Week 5

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

First, thanks to so many of you who’ve reached out with notes of congratulations! I still can’t believe after all this time we were finally able to make this announcement and so glad that so many of you are still following our journey!

Sundays are my week-marker for pregnancy. As this past Sunday was the big pregnancy announcement, I didn’t make a “week” update post. Rather than wait until next week, I wanted to go ahead and fill everyone in where I am for now.

Yesterday I went in for my third blood test to monitor hCG levels (the hormone produced by pregnant women). I was at 9211!! According to the “What to Expect” book, upward of 7000 is normal. So I am raging over here!!!

Thus far I feel fantastic. That’s not to say I’m not feeling a few things I’d rather not, but in the grand scheme, five weeks pregnant isn’t treating me too badly. I tend to “crash” every day around 3pm and don’t really make a recovery. If it weren’t for my sister and new baby niece visiting this week, I think I’d head to bed before 10pm every night. I’ve had heartburn since before the pregnancy test. I’m have two or three Tums at a time once or twice a day. My breasts are enormous and as I explained in this post – reacquainting with my breasts – I’m completely fascinated by this growth spurt, and also completely over the itchiness, soreness and not fitting into any bras.

I also pee ALL THE TIME! You can count on me to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night between 2 and 4 every night. Now I’m going three times each night, which is quite disruptive to the REM patterns. And I pee all day everyday. I thought this part was supposed to wait until you had a seven pound mass sleeping on your bladder!

Finally, I’m ravenous. I could eat three families out of house and home and then ask for dessert. I’m maintaining my usual healthy, balanced diet. I’ve also given in a few times to a few things that I probably shouldn’t have. I had an orange soda the other day, have been to Chipotle twice, chips and queso, and some cheesecake/fudge brownie concoction (because it was my mom’s birthday!!). But seriously, I’m maintaining my typical ration of egg white veggie omelets, whole grain sandwiches with turkey and veggies, fresh fruits for snacks, Greek yogurt, lean proteins, skim milk every morning and buckets of water. Jillian Michaels’ pregnancy advice is that you only need to increase calories by about 200-300 per day and if you do this, and stay safely and moderately active, you shouldn’t have much of a baby belly to work off later. This is my goal. I don’t need Cheetos. The baby(s) doesn’t need Cheetos. My ass doesn’t need Cheetos.

I don’t want to jinx this – but I haven’t puked once. Not a single sign of morning sickness. Maybe this is what I get for having already gone through more than six weeks of shots, fatigue, nausea, pain, etc., maybe I’m just one of the 25 percent who won’t get it, and maybe it’s just waiting patiently for me.

The next big step from here is finding out if both embryos stuck around or if we’ve got a single. The ultrasound is next week and I’m growing more and more anxious every single day.

Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, IVF, pregnancy symptoms, pregnancy week by week, thank you
Posted in IVF Journey, Pregnancy | Comments Off on Pregnancy Week 5

Guess What?! We’re Pregnant!!!

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Folks, it’s official! We are beyond thrilled to be sharing this happy news with you. It worked… the IVF worked!!! We are very pregnant and just soaking up this really special time. Below is the post I wrote on the day we found out and the days following, and that should catch you up on where we’ve been in the past week. Believe that more posts are to come as I have every intention in chronicling our pregnancy just as we did the IVF journey.

Baby Or Bust goes Baby for the win!!!

Today is August 17, 2009. At 8:30 this morning I went to the clinic to have blood drawn to find out if I’m pregnant. At 8:45 I returned to my car where I sobbed uncontrollably, maybe one of the hardest cries I’ve ever had. I think I needed it. I really needed it! It wasn’t a sad or happy cry, it was the release of so much pent-up anxiety, nerves, speculation and even hope.

I couldn’t sleep last night, and the second we went to bed we both knew that was the case. After several deep sighs and tosses, Shelton told me to roll-over, scooped me up, and cuddled until I passed out. Surprisingly, I had one of the soundest night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks.

This morning my phone rang and “M’s” name flashed on the screen. I froze, and sent this IM to Shelton:

> PHONE IS RINGING!!! IT IS “M”!!!!
> MUST…. NOT ….. ANS…. WER….

Shelton responded:
> I’ll be home shortly.

We had agreed to find out together, and only together, since we’d already shared and been through so much.

Seconds later his screen name went offline and I sat here and chewed off my arm. Almost. I heard his car race around the corner and he came inside. We both made jokes about throwing up on each other. I asked him not to as I hadn’t done laundry in a month and these were probably my only clean clothes!

We’d asked “M” to leave a message so we could hear it together, but of all days, the message didn’t show up! So we called her, and waited on hold just about the seven longest minutes of our lives. La Maz breathing by both of us got us through the wait!

“M” answered and asked if we’d gotten the message with a very cheery voice. I told her I hadn’t. And she said, “Well, you’re pregnant! Very pregnant!” I eeked out a couple of tears, held Shelton, and yelled thank you!

Two words I’d never before heard and they were crystal clear – You’re Pregnant!

She said my hCG level was about 345 – they take anything over 5 to be pregnant and like to see 60. So very pregnant indeed.

I was told to return two days later to take another blood test, the hope being to see that number up about 60 percent.

We went back two days later, on Wednesday August 19, for a second blood test. We were expected to be in the 500s, I was at nearly 1000. Very good news!

It was Wednesday when I just couldn’t contain myself any longer, and much sooner than we’d anticipated, began telling family and friends. It was such a joy telling our loved ones, hearing their reactions and celebrating this long-awaited news with them.

We’re equally thrilled after more than three years to be making this post here and sharing the news with our BabyOrBust.com family. So many of you helped make this possible and we’re eternally grateful for your support.

Our due date is April 26, 2010; and in a couple weeks we’ll find out how many we’ve got.

Tags: IVF, pregnancy milestones
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