Tentative Thanksgiving Menu

It's almost that time! I love Thanksgiving Dinner, and we're so excited to be sharing it with my parents and brother this year. They fly in to Seattle on Sunday, and we're driving over to hang out with them there until Tuesday, when we'll all meet back in Moscow to get ready for Thanksgiving. I can't wait!


Last year, it was just myself, Bran, Jen, and Rachel at our Thanksgiving table, but this year there will be 7 of us with the addition of Mom, Dad, and Gregg. Our plan is to buy the same sized turkey as the one my husband bought last year (yes, he bought a 12/14 pound turkey for the four of us!) since after dinner from a certain angle you couldn't tell we had eaten any of it!

Here's the menu so far:

Appetizers:
Brie Cherry pastry cups (Ash)
Sausage Pinwheels (Ash)
Velveeta Dip (Bran)

Main Course:
Turkey (Bran)
Gravy (Dad)

Sides:
Mashed Potatoes (Bran)
Pretzel Stuffing (Ash, requested by Bran)
Green Beans (Rachel)
Sauerkraut (Ash)
*Baby Carrots (Ash)
*Corn Casserole (Ash)
Homemade Rolls (Mom)

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie (Mom and Jen)


*Not sure if I'm doing to make these yet, but we'll see. My husband's idea of Thanksgiving is that it's only a success if everyone is miserable by 4 o'clock, and I think that will definitely be so with all this food!

So Anemia, eh?

I had my 1 hour glucose test on Monday and the result came back negative for gestational diabetes - yay! But my doctor said that the blood test did show that I'm becoming anemic, which explains my recent bouts with dizziness, exhaustion, etc. So I'm adding an iron supplement to my prenatal vitamin.

Being the good pregnant lady that I am, I decided to google what foods are high in iron so I can make sure I'm getting lots of it from food, too. This is what my first search came up with:

Iron rich food	Iron Content	RDA % *	Calories
Cockles boiled	28mg	155%	50
Black Pudding	20mg	111%	300
Liver	9mg	50%	190
Fish Paste	9mg	50%	170
Faggots	8.3mg	46%	270
Kidney	8mg	44%	170
Venison	7.8mg	43%	200
Heart	7.7mg	43%	180
Mussels boiled	7mg	39%	90
Liver Pate	7mg	39%	190
Liver Sausage	6.4mg	36%	312
Goose	5mg	28%	320
Pheasant	5mg	28%	220
Shrimps canned	5mg	28%	95
Haggis	4.8mg	27%	310
Sardines canned	4.5mg	27%	180
Anchovies canned	4mg	22%	285
Whitebait	4mg	22%	310
Tongue Ox	3mg	17%	300
Pilchards canned	2.7mg	16%	130
Beef lean	2.5mg	16%	240

Seriously? Maybe I should have typed in "Food high in iron that I'll actually want to eat." Because when it comes down to it, the fact that boiled cockles and black pudding have lots of iron does not make me any more inclined to a) find out what those actually are or b) even attempt to eat them.

You'll be happy to hear that my second result was much more pleasing to my taste buds, and didn't make me want to go throw up:

Iron Rich Foods containing Heme Iron

	Excellent Sources		Good Sources
	Clams Pork Liver Oysters Chicken Liver Mussels Beef Liver		Beef Shrimp Sardines Turkey

Iron Rich Foods containing Non-Heme Iron

	Excellent Sources		Good Sources
	Enriched breakfast cereals Cooked beans and lentils Pumpkin seeds Blackstrap Molasses		Canned beans Baked potato with skin Enriched pasta Canned asparagus

Now, I have to tell you that the "excellent sources of iron" in the first chart made me a little nervous, since I'm definitely not a fan of liver. The second list sounds right up my alley, especially since my current diet is made up mostly of cereal, pasta, beans, and potatoes. I was very relieved to find this little warning at the bottom of the page:

Warning: Pregnant women should not eat liver because of its very high Vitamin A content. Large amounts of Vitamin A can be harmful to the baby.

Hah! Second google result blows the first one out of the water because not only did they give me a list of stuff I not only don't mind eating, but actually prefer, but also because they gave me reason to not feel bad for not liking liver. Awesome.

How big is baby?

We're 28 weeks. That means baby is the size of a............ Chinese Cabbage!
If you're going "What's a chinese cabbage?" you aren't alone. My guess is that it's a slanty-eyed version
of a regular cabbage. But keep in mind that a chinese cabbage is slightly smaller than it's American equivalent (that makes me laugh... everything is bigger in America!). So don't be alarmed when baby is the size of a regular cabbage in a few weeks.

How far along: 28 weeks

Maternity Clothes: So comfy! I'm loving all my sweaters and long sleeved shirts with this cold weather!

Stretch Marks: Starting to sprout a bit, but I just consider them an honorable battle scar.

Sleep: 11pm-3am-6am. That's my current sleep schedule. <--- ditto from last week...

Best Moment this Week: Getting the package in the mail that I'll tell you about when we talk about my current cravings....!!

Movement: She's currently curled up on the right side of my belly, and every once in a while she'll roll around and stretch out. It feels so funny! She's not letting her bigger size slow her down yet!

Food Cravings: You'll remember my Dunkin Donuts conundrum from a few weeks ago, when all I wanted was a boston creme donut from Dunkin and the closest store is about 300 miles away. Well, my in-laws overheard that I was having an insatiable craving for them, so when they got back to Maryland they overnighted a tin with a dozen dunkin donuts boston cremes in it! I called Bran as soon as I opened the box to tell him how excited I was, and when he came home for lunch to find me covered in chocolate and filling, he said I was "Glowing"! That was most definitely the best moment of this week.

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Nope! But my birthing class has me all prepared for when we do have labor signs!

Belly Button: It's slowly but surely disappearing.

What I Miss: Being able to breathe after I do anything! Like sit, stand, climb the stairs, you name it! Baby's growing and my lungs aren't too happy about it.

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: 28 week doctor's appointment tomorrow (I'll be taking my glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes - pray that it goes well!) and then birth class tomorrow night!

Weekly Wisdom: Have a husband like mine. We went to Hastings to rent a movie last night, and when we pulled into the parking lot there was a car with the hood up and a very frustrated looking couple standing out in the cold. Bran asked them what was up, and they said that though the battery was fine (the had tried jump starting the car, but it wouldn't even try to turn over) they just couldn't get it to start. Bran immediately climbed under the hood, did some banging around, stood up and told the guy to try and start it again. It started right up! Evidently they need to replace their starter... they were incredibly thankful, and I was incredibly proud of my awesome manly husband and his mechanic skills ;)

How big is baby?

27 weeks - a head of Cauliflower!

How far along: 27 Weeks! Only about 90 days left.

Maternity Clothes: Mother-in-law did it again - Jeff and Karen visited for the weekend and she took me shopping for even more adorable clothes! I love it!

Stretch Marks: Still no belly ones - no complaints here!

Sleep: 11pm-3am-6am. That's my current sleep schedule.

Best Moment this Week: Dinner at West of Paris with the Antkowiaks. It was lovely!

Movement: Bran and I read in our baby book this week that how much your baby moves has nothing to do with how healthy she is, and everything to do with her personality. Look out world, she's gonna be a wild one!

Food Cravings: Mmmm even if I had any, I don't think I would have bothered fulfilling them with all the yumminess we've gotten to enjoy with the Antkowiaks!

Gender: Baby girl all the way!

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Jen thinks it's getting scary.

What I Miss: Being able to breathe after I eat!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Birth Class tomorrow night!

Weekly Wisdom: When you're 27 weeks pregnant and your in-laws take you out to eat huge dinners twice in a row, be sure and leave "breathing room" when you eat. If you don't, you might have to lay down in the back of the car to make sure you don't pass out.

Dear Frankie

As many of you know, one of the "side effects" of pregnancy is raging hormones. As in, a normal woman's hormones make her behave like a... woman? Whereas a pregnant woman's hormones have the tendency to turn her from a perfectly normal woman into a fire breathing, bucket of tears crying, indecisive dragon.

Case in point? The movie Dear Frankie. I absolutely love this movie, and couldn't remember if I had seen it before when Jen recommended that we watch it as a "family" after house dinner. We all sat down in the living room, pulled out Tyler's uber cool mac monitor, and settled in for what we thought would be a normal evening spent watching a sweet Scottish film (thanks, Valerie!). Oh boy were the in for a surprise.

I've been known to tear up during really sad movies (as in, Life is Beautiful sad - not Old Yeller sad, sorry Bran.) And when I say "tear up" I mean my eyes will fill with tears and I might have a few make their way down my cheeks. This is not normal, though, as I'm pretty composed during movies*. Toward the heartwarming end of this movie, however, I began to sob. Not "tear up" or even cry - I was full on "I-can't-breathe-because-I'm-crying-so-hard sobbing. Bran, being the wonderful hormone-slaying husband that he is, knew that this was a perfectly normal way for me to respond to the movie in my state and just put his arm around me. Tyler didn't know what to do. Rachel was crying, too, but in the normal way. And the only reaction Jen came up with to my ridiculous emotional response was to full on laugh at me. She laughed so hard that she cried, too.

After that, they decided we'd stick to movies like I Love you, Man.






*The only exception to this rule is when Bran and I went to see Marley and Me shortly after I had my miscarriage last September. The way they described her miscarriage in the movie was almost exactly how mine happened (ultrasound to see if baby is ok reveals that the baby has been miscarried). I cried a lot during that part of the movie, but the funny thing is that I still cried harder during Dear Frankie.

How Big is Baby?

She's as big as an Eggplant!

How far along: 26 weeks - Less than 100 days to go! How crazy is that?

Maternity Clothes: I've been loving the long sleeved shirts my Mother-in-law sent me - they're so comfy!

Stretch Marks: Still no belly ones - no complaints here!

Sleep: Sleep? What's that?

Best Moment this Week: Yesterday, when Bran brought me a donut from work. It made me cry... lol

Movement: I'm telling ya, this girl is a mover and a shaker! Right now she's exploring WAY above my belly button, almost under my rib cage - it feels pretty weird!

Food Cravings: Chicken Lombardi! I made it two nights in a row this week, and it was so good! Thanks, Mom!

Gender: Baby girl all the way!

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Bran thinks it's funny..

What I Miss: Sleeping comfortably. I really want to get a maternity pillow, but they're so expensive!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Jeff and Karen fly in on Thursday!

Weekly Wisdom: Sometimes we can learn a lot from little ones - Evie, the baby I watch every day, has been so sick with everything from a fever to a HUGE swollen gland (like, golf ball size!). Even though she must be so miserable, she has had the best attitude about it! I was so thankful for her longsuffering nature this week, as it made things more bearable for both of us. It made me realize that I need to be more like this with my little pregnancy discomforts!

My wife is preggers

I stumbled across this blog just a few weeks after finding out that I was pregnant, and have been reading it's archives ever since. I came across this jewel today about pregnancy colds:

Through some inspired detective work I discovered that the ingredient Guaifenesin (which my computer just red-squiggled) is safe for preggies with coughs. Other ingredients found in over-the-counter medicines are bad and can result in neighborhood pets disappearing once your child is born and learns to walk.

But Guaifenesin, Guai-frickin-fenesin, is so benign and ineffective that even a woman suffering from acute bodily fetus invasion can safely take a half-dosage every four hours for no more than 24 hours.

It's an expectorant, which is the medical term for when you expect your cough to go away but it doesn't. Actually, to expectorate is to spit, as we know from Beauty and the Beast ("In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston/I'm especially good at ex-pec-tor-ating..."). So Julie will stop coughing and start spitting. Awesome.

I don't see a need to tell her that the only cough syrup at Walgreens that contained Guaifenesin and not 15 added baby-marring ingredients was the highly respected, sought-after Wal-Tussin brand. I will instead lie and tell her that the pharmacist described it as the cough syrup of the stars.

Seriously, check out mywifeispreggers - you won't be sorry.

Just another crazy day in our lives....

Bran spent all day yesterday (his "sunday" since his days off are monday and tuesday) working on his truck, which is what you can find him doing any time he finds some spare time. At some point yesterday, though, he must have gotten something in his eye or on his eyelash that decided to show up at 2am last night. He woke up in extreme pain that came and went, and after trying multiple times to flush his eye out with saline, I made the official decision that it was time to go to the ER.

One of the nicest things about living in such a small town is that not only is the hospital literally just down the road from us, but also that there is no one in the ER at 2am on a tuesday. We were checked in quickly and they looked him over for at least an hour (during which he managed to throw up and almost pass out... evidently some people respond to eye pain in that way!). The doctor couldn't find anything in his eye, but did detect some flash burn (no surprise there, since he had been welding). She gave him some medicine and sent us home with a note to see a local eye doctor this morning just to make sure things were looking better. We got home around 4am and he was asleep by 4:05... I was up for another hour, though, since Emmaline decided that it must be morning and was doing her morning gymnastics routine in my belly.

We both got a decent amount of sleep, and I was able to get him an 11am appointment with the eye doctor. He naturally woke up feeling worlds better, but we both thought it would still be a good idea to get things checked out in case he was just feeling good from the medicine. The doc looked him over and said everything looks ok, so now we're just going to hope that it stays that way!

And that was our little adventure for the day... I told Bran that the next time he needs attention he should just tell me and we'll figure something out instead of all the ER shenanigans ;)