10 Weeks Pregnant!

The biggest thing on my mind today is that I've just passed the 10 week, 2 day mark. I'm sure it seems insignificant to everyone else. But to me, it marks the end of my very first pregnancy 5 and a half years ago. It too was a Saturday and we told a whole bunch of people that day. The miscarriage didn't happen until the next day, but this day was the beginning of it. So, passing this day is a big milestone and it was for each of my 2 subsequent and healthy pregnancies. It doesn't really get much easier. I think getting through Emma's pregnancy was the hardest, obviously, because it was so soon after the miscarriage and I wondered if I could even have a baby, as crazy as that sounds now! Tailyn's was easier, but it was still hard. This one has been hard as well and it shows me that I really do care about this baby (which was honestly questionable at first and it sounds awful to even say that!).

So, miscarriage is not something you can predict or really prevent. So, all I can do is try to be as healthy as possible. I'm taking my USANA Essentials and my BiOmega (fish oil) everyday. I drink my Mangosteen juice everyday. I'm getting better at exercising again (I was 4x a week before I got pregnant). And I'm obviously avoiding all the bad stuff that I'm not supposed to have. And now that I'm eating healthier, I'm avoiding trans fats, sugar, refined flours, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup. And that has to be huge for not only me, but also for the baby.

So, today, I'm just having a quiet celebration. I'm excited to be passing this milestone (hoping that the pregnancy remains healthy) and patting myself on the back for being so healthy for me and for the baby. If you ever plan to have kids or have more kids, please get healthy right now. Change your diet. Start taking the right supplements now. Your baby and your kids will thank you when you are healthy for their kids.

9 Weeks Pregnant

First of all, the exciting news! We heard the heartbeat on Tuesday - before 9 weeks even! That's how healthy this baby is! LOL So, we told our 4 and 3/4 year old, Emma and she has not stopped talking about it. It is so funny! She's gotten us totally excited about the baby (hearing the heartbeat helped me a lot too) and now I'm ready for the adventure ahead!

So I promised to talk about why I'm feeling so great now. First I have to give you some background. I had absolutely NO idea I was pregnant until I was past 5 weeks pregnant. I am usually completely on top of those things. Both girls were very planned and I knew and got a positive pregnancy test before I was even 4 weeks pregnant. And we were in Disney World, so I wasn't really paying attention to things. I should have been tipped off when I fell asleep at 10 pm in an Irish Pub with a very loud (and good) Irish band playing only 10 feet away from me. I fell ASLEEP! I am a night owl. I couldn't believe I did that! So clueless! I also almost threw up after going on a "build your own" roller coaster at Disney Qwest. I love roller coasters and never get sick. So, this was totally out of character for me.

Anyway, we got home on Thursday night and when I woke up on Friday, I realized that I still hadn't started my period. But it didn't occur to me that there might be a reason. My cycles had been pretty all over the place last year and I figured that for some reason I was having a long luteal phase (the time after ovulation before your period). And as I walked to the bathroom, I couldn't figure out why I was having a long luteal phase. Seriously, I asked myself that. Then it hit me. So after taking 4 tests, we pretty much figured that we were indeed expecting our third child.

And then it all hit me. The next day I got a little flu bug so I felt awful for the next 36 hours. And then the next day I got a cold that lasted for 2+ weeks. So fun! Anyway, after the flu went away, I got morning sickness all day. It was no fun. I wanted no food. I was praying that I could get a feeding tube inserted so I could avoid eating. Nothing sounded good to me and I just didn't want to eat. I did not think I could make it through the first trimester.

Okay, let me interrupt for a minute. Since August, I've been taking USANA Essentials which have been great and fortunately, I kept taking them and they are as good as a prenatal since they have 800 mg of Folic Acid. (Most vitamins only have 400 mg and you need 800 mg when you are pregnant). In December, I started drinking Xango (Mangosteen juice). But when we went to Disney World, we didn't take it with us, so I was without it for about a week. I immediately started taking it when I got home. I take 4 oz a day, but had a lot of trouble that first week with the flu, the nausea and the cold.

But I'd heard that Xango helped with morning sickness, so I was determined to get it down. I knew I couldn't do it on an empty stomach, b/c I tried that and didn't feel well. And sure enough within 2 weeks, the morning sickness was gone! And I couldn't believe the energy I had. Don't get me wrong, if I don't get enough sleep, then I'm tired. But if I get enough rest, I really have enough energy all day - no naps and I stay up until 11 pm usually. And for the nausea to go away this early was shocking to me! With my 2nd daughter it stayed with me until at least 12 weeks. But to have it be gone before 8 weeks, was crazy. The only thing I'd done differently than my last 2 pregnancies was the vitamins, diet and Xango. I'm convinced that if I'd had the Xango all along, I would have avoided the morning sickness altogether. But since I was off of it for more than a week, it took a couple of weeks for it to work again. And we ran out the other day and I didn't have it for a couple of days and I got nauseas again for the first time in more than 2 weeks.

So that's why I'm feeling so much better these days. You better believe that I don't forget my Xango! :)

8 Weeks Pregnant

Here I am. 8 weeks pregnant. And still in shock! We were not planning this pregnancy, in fact, I'd just finally convinced my husband that we were done having kids. :) But God had another plan for our family and I'm not going to lie, it's taken some time to get used to it. But I'm slowly coming around. I look at other expectant moms and I look forward to that round belly, to feeling the baby kick. I'm trying to block out being woken up in the middle of the night by my 2nd daughter kicking me. :)

Okay, so how does this relate to healthy living? I began my healthy living journey (thanks to my best friend, Ali) in August of 2005, so just about 5 months before I got pregnant. I was tired of my kids having horrible poop (diarreah) and eczema, among others. So I asked Ali what to do. Mind you, I had asked many times before and never really followed through with any of her suggestions. She was also still learning new things as well, but by last year, she really knew her stuff and I was finally ready to not only listen, but implement - for my kids - not for me, really.

I was unwilling to give up my Peppermint Patties, ice cream every night (literally), and whatever other sugar that I wanted. Ali teases me because I used to eat Special K (trying to be healthy), but I would put a good 2 heaping teaspoons of white sugar on it. Seriously, who was I kidding? I've been hooked on sugar cereals since high school, probably. Ranging from Lucky Charms, Frosted Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Krispies, Ohs, among others. So I started my day off with sugar. :) Then I'd often have a Breyer's yogurt (have you seen how much sugar was in there??) and for dessert start on the Peppermint Patties. That was when I was nursing Tailyn (my 2nd). When I was nursing Emma - it was the yogurt and then Vanilla Wafers. And every night, I'd have my Breyer's Light French Vanilla ice cream. :) Every night. When I was pregnant with Emma, it was with Magic Shell on top. I finally gave that up about 2 years after she was born. That was hard to give up.

Okay, so now you see where I was coming from. I was a sugar queen. But I didn't go out and buy candy bars or stuff like that and I had Special K for b'fast. I wasn't overweight either, believe it or not. I just liked my sugar. So, when Ali sat down with my family and explained what sugar really was - that it wasn't food that your body could digest and that our body basically viewed it as a toxin, I knew I had to get it out of my kids' diet. I knew it was fueling Tailyn's diaper rash and Emma's eczema and not helping their bowel movements. And they didn't eat candy all the time. I'm talking about the white flours (we ate a whole wheat bread), the white rice (we usually ate brown, anyway) and the white sugar (in particular: High Fructose Corn Syurp and Corn Syrup) and the white potatoes. I couldn't believe that our wheat bread actually had High Fructose Corn Syrup! So, I went to the store and bought all new food. Seriously. I was disgusted and didn't want that crap in my house anymore. **Please note, that I am a very black and white person, there are few grey areas in my life and I'm also an extremist. When I decide to do something, I don't usually start slowly, I jump in with 2 feet and go whole hog.***

So, as I took it out of my kids' diets, I slowly started taking it out of mine. After all, I was a sugar addict. So I still had a few Peppermint Patties and a few nights of ice cream. But since I'd gotten rid of everything else, I really wasn't eating any more refined stuff for the most part. It took probably less than a week for me to just stop eating it all together. Maybe I snuck a few leftover cookies or something, but I pretty much quit cold turkey. No more Special K, b/c that had corn syrup and white rice. No more Peppermint Patties, obviously. No more Breyer's ice cream.

At the same time, we added in our USANA vitamins. I was tired of trying to find a cheap vitamin that supposedly was a good one. Do you know how stressful that is? You don't know who to trust. You don't know if you're really getting what it says you are. And we couldn't really afford vitamins. It was driving me crazy. So, I asked Ali, and she said she gives USANA to her family. I knew that if she used it, it must be good. After all, she wouldn't give Jackson anything less than the best and Paul too. So we switched.

It took about a month or 2 for me to notice a difference. But slowly, I noticed that I wasn't getting tired in the afternoons anymore. I didn't need a quick power nap. I was going all day long like the energizer bunny. It was great. And I knew it was because of the elimination of the refined foods and the new vitamins. It was great.

So, I am so thankful that I'd already made those adjustments to my diet and lifestyle before I got pregnant again. This is going to be the healthiest kid on the block. And I know how hard it would be if I tried to do this while being pregnant, because I know my sweet tooth and I know my cravings and I'd never be able to live without ice cream, etc. But because I already went through withdrawal and all that stuff, I didn't have to go through it while being pregnant, which would be so hard!

That's all for now. Next I'll share how I felt my first few weeks being pregnant and why I feel amazing now!