Second Trimester Recap

Wow, second trimester is all done! Where did the time go?

It’s taken me a while to put this together – as I’m now almost 30 weeks.

Here you go!

Weeks 14 – 27 Recap: (June – Sept)

Photo Updates: – end of the post.

Age of baby #1: 2 years old.

Lilly seems to think she has a baby in her belly.

She talks to the baby in my belly, kisses it and rubs cream on it 🙂

Maternity clothing: Oh yes and loving it. I seem to be doing really well at finding clothing at second-hand shops (normally a skill I am not good at).

Belly button: Still an inny.

Weight gain: gained a lot of weight this trimester. In one month alone, I gained 11 pounds…the exact month I gained 11 pounds with Lilly – weird, eh! Even though I gained most of my weight during this trimester, I ‘m still at a healthy weight for this pregnancy. It sure is challenging when you gain all your weight in one spot verses over your whole body.

People seem to comment on “how big you are” and I’ve come to realise that these negative comments aren’t meant to hurt you – but really, they do. I don’t enjoy when someone say’s “you’re getting big, are you sure your not having twins”. No shit I’m getting big – I have baby #2 in my belly, my belly is supposed to grow.  (Sorry for the negativity but it’s my reality this past trimester).

Sleep: what’s that?

July – August was terrible for sleep. I had numerous nights that I was awake for hours (4-5) just unable to sleep. The heat/humidity really bothered me this summer which made for most of my sleepless nights. Which then made for a challenging day at work the following day.

Early September – with the temperature dropping, I seem to be sleeping better but still up a few times a night. I’ve mastered the skill of walking to our little on-suite bathroom in the dark – only stepped on our dog Maclean a few times.  Poor girl.

Energy level:

June & July – still completely exhausted at the end of the day.

August – starting getting better. Late August was great as the temperature dropped and I could get outside for a good 30 minute power walk.

Work: Full time 8:30 – 4:30 (random extra hours traveling or weekend event). At 27 weeks, I was put down to working 4 days a week (work 2 days, day off, work 2 days, weekend).

Best moment during second trimester: My husband and I seeing our baby during our ultrasound. The baby had the hiccups….awwww.

Funny moment: Around 25/26 weeks I was at my doctor’s office waiting for my appointment and the baby decided to start a boxing match against itself. So, I watched and watched as my belly rolled, poked and rumbled from the inside. After a solid 5-6 minutes of watching this I looked up to see an older gentleman sitting across and over a few chairs watching too. He was laughing pretty hard at the site of my belly moving and said that I have quite the active baby.

Food cravings:

Ice cold water

Cold watermelon, red grapes, oranges

Home made reuben sandwich

Cold chocolate (Jr. Mints, Snickers, Oreo’s)

Food aversions: I learned I don’t like Hellman’s mayonnaise anymore – might just be a pregnancy thing but the thought of using it makes me ill.

Movement: This baby is just as active if not more active than Lilly. It’s crazy! Mid morning, afternoon and right before bed are its prime times. My husband felt the baby around 19 weeks pregnant and our daughter felt it around 24 weeks pregnant. She laughed and thought it was really “funny”.

Gender: Not finding out. No ideas of what it could be.

Any guesses?

Symptoms:

~At 16 weeks pregnant, I started to get pelvic ligament pain after running. Boo 😦

~Nausea all morning, afternoon and evening up until 20-23 weeks pregnant – on Diclectin.

~Around 23/24 weeks, I started to get pelvic ligament pain all the time (rolling over in bed is the worst, lifting my leg up stairs or moving an object on the floor hurt too)

~A little heart burn/indigestion at times (love Tums)

~Eczema around my eyes (not something I normally have) and it makes me look like I am sick.

Exercise:

~Running until 18 weeks

~July and August I worked out in our basement when I could manage in between the bouts of nausea

~Mid to late August I was able to get outside more and power walk for 30 minutes 3-4 days a week at night.

Fit MOM DVD workout once a week (lots of squats and arms)

June 2012 – start of second trimester – post workout (not pretty).

July 2012 – second trimester.

August 2012 – towards end of second trimester.

What has your second trimester been like?

Anything like the first?

First Trimester Recap

Third Trimester will be done every 2 weeks. With Lilly I only made it to 36 weeks, 2 days – so we’ll wait and see how many updates you’ll get!

Looks like I need to do a 30 week update sometime this week!

Cheers, Anna.

Fall Bucket List

I’m a big fan of writing to-do lists especially when it comes to workout out (I’m a planner). I’ve blog about it before here, it helps keep me focused and working on my goals.  Recently, while reading Bess Be Fit’s blog, I came across her post on Festively Fall Printables. I came across a Bucket List that Loves of Life shared on her blog.

I decided to take on a fall challenge because working, having a toddler, being married, oh and in my third trimester – I figured I needed to add something else on my plate 🙂

I though it would be a fun way to capture the next few months before baby arrives and blog about each item on the bucket list. We tend to do most of these things but now I’ll be more accountable to trying to get them all done before the snow falls baby arrives.

To get the Printable version – please go Loves of Life link here:  Fall Bucket List from Loves of Life:

This weekend we were planning on apple picking but it’s calling for rain Sat and Sun.

 Look’s like i’ll be adding “puddle jumping” to our buckets list.

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Do you have a Fall Bucket List?

What’s your favourite fall activity?

Want to participate in a Fall Bucket List Challenge?

Go to Loves of Life and print off her Fall Bucket List

Let me know your taking on the challenge by leaving me a comment below.

Anyone can do this; bloggers/readers.

Optional: Feel free to contact me with your “list” of completed items, a few pictures and a description ask to what you did, where etc.

I can then post your experiences as a guest post if you’d like!

pipersrunblog@gmail.com

Warm Quinoa Dish

I’ve been wanting to make something with Quinoa recently and decided to go back to one of my old favourites.

Warm Quinoa

 

(Simply Lovely Quinoa from The Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer & Tanya Barnard)

Ingredients:

  • 1 small onion – chopped
  • 2-3 cloves garlic – minced
  • 2-3 stalks celery – chopped
  • 6-8 mushrooms – chopped
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 – 28 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup vegetable stick
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/2 salt
  • 1 tsp pepper

Directions:

  1. In a large saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the onion, garlic, celery and mushrooms in oil until the onions are translucent.
  2. Add the quinoa and saute for an additional minute.
  3. Stir in the diced tomatoes (do not drain), vegetable stock, thyme, salt and pepper.
  4. Mix together, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until liquid has reduced.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Optional:

  • You can add carrots or other veggies if you’d like.
  • I used ginger paste instead of minced garlic as we didn’t have any on hand.

Quinoa is so good for you.  “Quinoa provides a complete protein, making it especially valuable for those who prefer to reduce or completely eliminate animal protein from their diets.

It contains all the essential amino acids, including lysine, which is crucial for growing and repairing body tissues. One cup of quinoa provides 9 grams of protein which is one more gram than a medium chicken egg.” Source.

Have you ever had Quinoa ?

Like /Dislike?

How do you use it?

 

Weekend without our Little

Two weekends ago, Lilly went to spend the weekend with her Grandparents and Aunt Laura. We had it planned for over a month but for some reason I just put it out of my head until the weekend arrived. I planned nothing….we planned nothing.

My mom picked her up Friday night and they made their way back to Halifax – just over an hour’s drive. Lilly had a wonderful weekend playing outside, colouring, putting “ponies” in Aunt Laura’s, hair eating and sleeping well. And telling her Grandmother “you can’t catch me” while moving as far back in the bathtub as she could.

My husband and I decided to take it easy. The only plans we had were to go out for dinner and a movie – and that’s literally all we did. We saw “The Words” with Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana. When it was over I turned to Sai and said that it went by really fast and I wasn’t expecting it to end so soon. He replied with “Isn’t that a sign of a good movie?”

The other thing we managed to do was sleep in both days! Wow – sure forgot what that was like.

Everyone had a great weekend. Success!

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When my husband was away last year (for school), I was on my own working full-time, taking care of Lilly and our dog. It was kinda crazy as I look back at it now. There was one weekend that I blogged about but never hit the publish button, until now…. about being on my own for the first time in ages. No Lilly, no husband and Maclean (our dog).

My weekend without my little: (as written back in February)

I honestly can’t remember the last time I was completely by myself. Lilly’s been in our lives for 20 months, plus 9 months in my belly and I’ve been married to Sai for 4+ years.

I wasn’t quite sure about this idea of her being an hour away but what did I have to lose? Lilly left with my mom Friday morning and didn’t look back. No tears, no asking for Mommy … nothing. She played with my sister, stuck stickers everywhere at my parents house (on furniture, Grandad’s face, the floor) and drew a picture for both Sai and I. Apparently, she had a wonderful weekend with her Grandparents and my sister.

I on the other hand couldn’t figure out what to do with a whole weekend to myself. No toddler, no husband, no doggie (she went to Halifax too). I had a few suggestions from friends:

  • Drink tea and read a book
  • Sleep
  • Friday: Bubble bath, wine, none kid friendly meal (chips and dip?), early bed – ALL to myself!
  • Saturday: sleep in, go shopping, talk to long-lost friends on the phone, exercise, scrub bathroom, fold laundry, nap / lay in bed and read, cook a delicious, time-consuming, non-kid friendly supper, another bubble bath and more of that bottle of wine, read, relax,sleep.
  • Sunday: RELAX!!!!! (run, read, knit, tidy)
  • More Sleep, laundry, housework, sleep, beer
  • Sleep
  • And go for a Long Run

Usually I like to go into a weekend with a plan, things to do, items to cross of my list, goals to accomplish. Nope, not this weekend, I just went with it.

Friday:

  • Came home and closed the gate behind me – guess I was worried that I would fall down the stairs at some point!
  • Cooked up some bacon wrapped scallops. They looked great but didn’t taste so great AND I burnt the extra bacon! Dam!
  • Had a drink: Malibu Rum and OJ – yum
  • Relaxed in front of the T.V. and did nothing
Saturday:
[I REALLY, really wanted to sleep in this weekend]
  • Woke up at 6:35 a.m., went back to bed.
  • Woke up at 7:47 a.m. (I was not meant to sleep in)
  • Blogged
  • Cleaned the house
  • Ran some errands
  • Had a delicious hot chocolate and morning-glory muffin at my friend’s work (while she was working)
  • Dropped Lilly’s library books at the Library (or I would have had to paid a late fee)
  • Had lunch at home, caught up with a friend on the phone
  • Went to a movie by myself! (The Vow). One of my 12 things in 2012 done
  • Put together a shelf – should have started the wine at this point in the day
  • Worked out – felt so good…showered
  • Talked to my hubby
  • Watched Criminal Minds on my lap top while drinking wine, eating cheese, crackers and grapes.

Sunday:

[Again, hoping for a good sleep in – even 8:30 would be great)

  • 6:30 a.m. woke up, went back to bed
  • 7:14 a.m. woke up….Am I ever going to sleep in again? or is my body just hard-wired to be up at that hour ?!?!?!
  • Cleaned the house
  • 10:30 am left for Halifax to switch cars and pick up Lilly
  • I somehow manage to sneak in the house without Lilly or my sister, Laura hearing me (bonus)
  • Lilly see’s me and jumps up and down (BEST HUG EVER!!!!)
  • Lilly and I travel back home (she didn’t nap as per usual)
  • 3 pm – Lilly goes for a nap, I unpacked the car and starting writing my blog post (never published until now).

Looking back, it was a great weekend completely by myself. Now, I don’t think this is going to happen very often, in fact it will probably not happen again for a long time. Apparently, it was just what I needed.

As much as it sucked being away from Lilly for a whole weekend, I think I am a better mom for taking a break for myself. selfish, sure. Necessary, yes. Being a single parent is hard….hard work. I still don’t know how people do this and work, and manage a house and have a dog …. etc

When was the first time your little one(s) stay away from home for the weekend?

What did you do?