2nd Midwife appointment

Baby Blob is still too tiny to hear a heartbeat externally, so most of the appointment was focused on how I'm feeling. You know, tired and nauseated. One of the things I love about being with a midwife is the time they spend with you. I get half an hour to an hour of time for each appointment. Nothing is rushed, no question overlooked. While we were waiting, I jotted down some questions to ask. The big one being what about the nausea since ginger isn't appealing to me this time. With my first pregnancy I ended up losing eight pounds in my first trimester, and the only thing the ob told me was try vitamin B6 and if I didn't drink enough they'd put me in the hospital hooked up to an IV. This time I was given a slew of advice.

The first thing being to drink sports drinks and Smart Water for the electrolytes. (Yeah, just call me a hypocrite after writing a whole post about not buying bottled water) Target had the water and Gatorade on sale, so I stocked up today. The Gatorade is tasting kind of nasty, so I'm just trying to chug that and the Smart Water is, well, water. I was also advised to drink red teas (hibiscus, raspberry leaf, rose hips) so I bought some Raspberry Zinger (Celestial Seasonings) to make with the Smart Water. The second big one was just to eat whatever sounds good at that moment. The smell of food is only sometimes turning me off, but it was a huge problem last time. The bigger issue this time is that I still have to cook for and feed my toddler. His favorite food is hummus. The smell of garlic is very off-putting right now. I'm trying to save the hummus for when daddy feeds him. Some hints for finding stuff were to shop at a different grocery store for inspiration (I do most of my shopping at Trader Joe's, and one of the reasons is the store doesn't smell of food), and to pick up stuff in the prepared food section and eat it right away before the idea gets stale. Great in theory, not so easy with toddler in tow. I'll deal. I did stop at Costco today and impulse-bought some canned pineapple. Was still a good idea at lunch. (Last time I was craving pineapple juice and bought a container that was off, or my tastebuds were off, but this is the first time I've had any pineapple juice since, even if it was just in the can.) I made potato leek soup for dinner, which was mighty tasty.

The second big issue I brought up with my midwife is sleep. Part of that is #1's fault, but he has been doing pretty well since his molars popped through. A bigger problem is my mind won't quiet down (oh, and my husband breathes really heavily which keeps me up when I'm restless). She recommended chamomile tea and/or hops tincture. I need to find the hops tincture and see if that works. Regardless, last night my head hit the pillow and I didn't stir until the alarm went off at 5:10am. I didn't have to get up until 7, which was fantastic.

Wow, this is some post, but only one more point. DHA & ARA (fish oils Omega 3 and 6) are really important to the developing brain, but taking suppliments that are derived from fish is really harmful to the environment. I was trying to find vegetarian options, but they're ridiculously overpriced. I asked if I could just eat enough fish, but there isn't a good way to tell if I'd be getting enough and the fattiest fish are also the ones with the most mercury. So, I was told to just take flaxseed oil instead. So, I'm off to get that and my hops tincture this weekend.