Week 39: Day 2 ~ 22lbs gained this pregnancy!

So this morning I weighed in at 156 - that's a 22lb gain. I might weigh less tomorrow if I can manage to stay 100% raw today, because when I'm 100% raw 2 days in a row I usually go down about 2-3lbs from previous weigh-ins. It's interesting to me that my "goal" for this pregnancy was a max gain of 25lbs - something I just basically pulled out of a hat at random, I had no idea if it was even realistic or not. I doubt I'll gain 3 more lbs before the baby comes unless I start eating alot of crappy food.

Weeks 1-10: 134 to 141
Weeks 11-20: 141 to 141
Weeks 21-25: 141 to 144
Weeks 26-29: 144 to 149
Weeks 30-34: 151 to 152
Weeks 35-38: 153 to 154
Week 39: 156
Weight gain so far: 22 lbs.

No signs whatsoever that the labor is even near - I never lose my mucus plug or break my water so I don't really expect that to happen. Last night I had quite a few contractions that were a bit more painful than normal BH's but I've never had any of my babies early, so I certainly didn't expect to go into labor last night, at 7 days before my due date. When I'm about 2 days overdue, then I'll start seriously thinking about it.

Another one of my kids came down with this sickness we've had for over a week now...he has a fever and is feeling miserable, you can tell. So far they've all gotten it except for my oldest DD, and I'm hoping she at least gets it soon so she can be done with it by the time the baby comes. I highly doubt I'll get it because my immune system is hopefully working much better than theirs due to my high nutritional intake.....so that's good, at least. I just hate to think of sending them all to the babysitter's for 5 nights when they're coughing, fever, miserable, etc. I don't know even know if the babysitters will WANT them to come. I'm trying not to stress about it - I know that God has a perfect plan for this birth, and for me.....He knows my needs and will take care of them....far more than I could even ask or think.

I piled the kids in the car and took them to the video store where we got Shrek III, Santa Claus 3, and James Goes Buzz-Buzz.........they're feeling so miserable it's nice to have new movies to watch. Then we went to the farmer's market where I bought another big box of 72 oranges to juice for $19. I bought a box just TWO days ago and we finished the last of those oranges this morning. I'm really hoping this makes a difference in their getting better...I tell them that it's medicine and will help their bodies fight the germs, so they're especially eager to drink it. I explained to them that we need to get them better before mommy has the baby so they can go to the various homes that are waiting for them. It's so cute how they drink in whatever I say as 100% truth - it makes me realize what a big impact I have on their little lives!

Something interesting about fresh-squeezed OJ that I read this morning. This is written by Storm Talifero, who is the husband to Jinjee - she's the one who inspired me to go raw way back in August of 2006. From http://www.thegardendiet.com/

Feeling Satisfied on The Orange Juice Diet:

It is almost impossible to feel deprived when you are living on the most delicious food in the world. Look at a glass of Orange Juice. It is the most lovely color. It is so thick and full of nutrients that you can't see through it. And to think that it comes from a tree! Trees give us oxygen for breathing and they give us the ultimate food for our bodies! You are drinking Tree Juice! It is totally addictive in a positive way.

Orange juice is the staple food in our home the way bread is in many homes. When we run out of oranges we feel like we've run out of food! When I am hungry, orange juice is what I crave. I like to drink it sitting in the sun. It reflects the light so beautifully. It almost absorbs the light, bringing an extra dose of sunshine into your system. I think of orange juice as liquid sun, liquid gold. The orange's magical alchemy of turning earth into gold also works within our body turning our sludge-filled cells into clear bright building blocks making up a vibrant and dynamic being. The orange is made from earth, water, sun, and air, ~ it contains all four main elements in it. It is a perfectly balanced food.

I can't think of anything that tastes better than orange juice! It goes down so easily, like breathing. It digests almost instantly, giving you instant energy. And it keeps you energized for a long time. If all you drank in a day was three glasses of orange juice you would almost certainly have more energy than most people who eat three square meals.

Week 39: Day 1 ~ Jeans getting tight!

I pulled on my favorite staple maternity jeans today and yowza, they're getting tight! Granted, they were fresh out of the dryer and usually do stretch & loosen throughout the day, but they've never been this tight out of the dryer before, either. The green camo pants I'm wearing in the picture to the right no longer fit me either. =( I also feel a little bloated - and I wonder if it's because of the salt in the SAD food I've been eating. It's OK though, by this point in previous pregnancies I am bloated BIGTIME so being just a little bloated, I'm OK with that!

I will be weighing tomorrow for the weekly weigh-in, so I don't know what I weigh at this point in the game, but I've been eating something junky & cooked every day......so eating about 90% raw at this point.

Yesterday I had a bologna, mayo, and cheese sandwich and after that, ate some saltine crackers with store-bought cream cheese frosting! That stuff is absolutely discusting BUT obviously not bad enough that I didn't want to eat it. I was craving something really chocolatey and sugary, and since I have taken great pains to keep that kind of stuff OUT of the house - I had to settle on the crackers & frosting. LOL. I'm so glad though, that I remain stubborn when I go shopping and just refuse to put that kind of stuff in my cart - it's so much easier when there isn't Doritoes or ice-cream or most of all, chocolate staring me in the face.

Last night, though, I realized that I seriously could go into labor at any time. And here's the straight facts: do I honestly want to go into labor with a bunch of junk food in my stomach, clogging up my system, and making things more difficult with the birth? No way, not after working this hard the entire pregnancy. It's like D-Day is almost here, and this is going to be the crux of the matter, the tell-all, be-all of whether eating raw makes a difference or not in giving birth. And eating SAD is not helping matters ANY.......my goal is to have a completely clean system when I go into labor, meaning at least a week of 100% raw behind me.

So today once again, I start over - and I love that each day is a new, fresh beginning. Naptimes are always the hardest for me because everyone is having quiet time & I'm on the computer.......munchies are a serious problem. So I've got some stuff in the dehydrator today - sweet & sour chicken. It's received raves, so I'm going to see for myself...supposedly it mimics the stuff you get at Chinese restaurants. I'm always a bit skeptical when people claim it tastes "so much like" something because it seems like everyone always has a different idea of what something tastes like anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

I've been on a major OJ kick lately - I found this cheap little citrus juicer at the thrift store for $6.99 - it's actually mexican, with mostly spanish words on the box. It was new, though, and since then we've juiced almost an ENTIRE box of oranges!! My kids are loving it and are really sick right now so I've been happy to give them as much as they ask for. I just stand there juicing and giving them cupfuls until they're not asking for more. I even taught Rachel (8) how to do it, and last night she made OJ for Dad, DD-3, DS-6, and herself. That's alot of juicing; I think she did it for half an hour straight, LOL!

This morning I had 40oz. of fresh squeezed orange juice - some call it "nectar of the gods" because it's like drinking golden sunshine. Soooo good! Then about an hour later I juiced 3 grapefruits and that was very good too - not as sweet, but I just feel so clean and light after drinking it. I am definitely looking forward to doing an OJ fast someday....I don't know if I can while I'm nursing, but it'd be more nutritious than the master cleanse probably.

I'm starting to not be able to do as much during the day - I do have energy and mostly in the mornings/afternoons, so I make use of that, but it's harder. Today I completely cleaned the toy/computer room which was a disaster - I think I've mastered the art of cleaning the entire room without having to get up off the floor, LOL! I have several bags of things I'm sorting around me, as well as a trash bag, and then I throw the toys into the toybox from wherever I'm sitting, toss the books into the book basket (I know, bad mommy to be throwing books!), and everything else that doesn't belong in that room gets tossed onto the couch or computer desk. That way once the entire floor is cleaned, I can clean off the couch & computer desk without having to bend over much. Vacuuming is the hard part, the effort is great to push that thing around, and then most of all to go around the corners of the room dragging the vacuum cleaner behind me. I know these things will soon be a memory of the past so it's not so bad.

I can feel the twinges of the cervix doing something down there - and am very uncomfortable in most positions - I wonder if the baby has dropped. I love that I'm not getting checked for dilation at all this pregnancy, but at the same time I wonder.....but it's kind of cool to wonder. Am I dilated to 2? 3? Nothing? Seems like with baby #6 it'd get a bit easier, like it's only been 19 months since the last birth so maybe my body will give me a little break this time. =)

DH is going out of town tomorrow for two nights - he'll be 3 1/2 hours away by car from tomorrow morning until late Friday night. It doesn't really bother me, though - I figure if I do go into labor he's just a phone call away, and I usually take 8 hours to get to the point where I need to go to the hospital anyway. And also....I don't know if this is normal or not, but part of me knows that even if he didn't make it, I'd be OK and in good hands. I really like the midwives that will be there for my birth, and know I could get through it without him there if I had to. I feel really prepared this time, psychologically and physically - I've eliminated almost all factors of the "unknown" that usually plague me at this stage.

Week 38: Day 4 ~ A wonderful Thanksgiving!

I had a wonderful day yesterday!! For some reason it's much easier to stay 100% raw when I'm around people - I think it's because the accountability is there, because everyone who is close to me know the way that I eat and I have to live up to that image. Ha ha! Serves me right for blabbing it to everyone. =) I'm glad though, it really does help, especially on holidays like Thanksgiving when there is a ton of favorite comfort traditional foods that hold good memories and family times - it can be hard to resist that.

To make my point, today my father in law brought over some leftovers that we had left at their house accidentally and I seriously considered eating some. There was no-one around but my children - and if there had been something I really love in those leftovers, I probably would have not been able to resist. But, there was just turkey which really doesn't appeal to me without gravy, and mashed potatoes which don't really appeal when they're cold. They brought potato rolls and also pumpkin pie - neither of which I like much either, but the kids enjoyed. So it was all good, but my point is that when I'm alone it is much harder to stay on target with my goals.

I've gotten a surge of determination the past two days, and have been 100% raw both yesterday & today. I just finished eating an entire pineapple, which was delicious and the perfect amount of sweet & cold. I love eating simply like that, one fruit for an entire meal - and I know my body loves it too. I miss eating the huge watermelons in the morning. =(

So yesterday it was quite awesome to see the difference it made for me to eat raw as opposed to how I would've felt eating the Thanksgiving food. There was green bean casserole, two kinds of rolls, cranberry stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes & gravy, turkey, green salad, whipped cream fruit salad, and then three kinds of pies with two kinds of ice-cream. My sister in law brought a second fruit salad of just organic fruit which I about ate the entire thing, LOL - but that's OK - nobody wanted that one because it didn't have the whipped cream in it. Between that & a big half plate full of the green salad, I was quite satisfied. Just in case, I did bring some heads of greens, bananas, and apples to blend together in my MIL's Vitamix, but I didn't need to.

After the meal several people commented at how overstuffed and uncomfortable they felt, with indigestion, sleepy from the turkey, etc - and I knew I would have been probably twice as miserable as they were, if I had given in & eaten regular food. Just because I'm so pregnant & have eaten pretty well up until now.....it would have set me straight on a crash course to being miserable. As it was, I had enough energy to take care of the children & their needs, and that in itself is one of the reasons why I am eating this way in the first place. I love how I feel when I've eaten 2-3 days in a row 100% raw - it's like I am giving my body a great big hug and I feel like smiling all the time.

My weight seems to go up immediately once I eat anything cooked, and then it goes back down after even one day of eating 100% raw. So this past week it was even at 157, but this morning back down to 154...probably because of the salt and water retention, I'm guessing. So for this week it's going to go down in the books as being at 154, which is a 20lb weight gain total for this pregnancy so far. Here are the stats:

Weeks 1-10: 134 to 141
Weeks 11-20: 141 to 141
Weeks 21-25: 141 to 144
Weeks 26-29: 144 to 149
Weeks 30-34: 151 to 152
Week 35: 153
Week 36: 153
Week 37: 156
Week 38: 154
Weight gain so far: 20 lbs.

I'm starting to get harder contractions - they're exactly like Braxton Hick's but they're harder, more painful. Sometimes I even have to breath through them - and the breathing techniques I've learned from the hypnotherapy CD are AWESOME; they work really well and give immediate relief. I'm soooo curious to see how this birth goes!!

I've started wheatgrassing again - I bought three trays from the wheatgrass company online, and organic soil so that I can have a continual supply. Right now I juice 2oz. in the morning on an empty stomach and then wait 30 minutes until I eat anything else. It's not exactly the most pleasant taste - I usually shudder once I've downed it - but the benefits so far outweigh the taste that I am going to continue with that until I just can't stomach it, which hopefully will be never. My plan and goal is to up that 2oz. to maybe 4oz. a day - and I think I can do that with the bigger supply I plan to start growing. The problem is trying to keep the kids away from the grass - the older ones are OK with it, but my 19 mo. old doesn't really get it, LOL. We'll see how it goes.

I'm starting to feel ALOT of pressure to get everything done! I don't know how it'll be when the baby comes, like how much time I'll have, but I really need to have all the laundry done & folded in their drawers so I can quickly pack their bags. So today I did a TON of laundry and tomorrow I'll be folding it all. I washed the baby carseat so that's taken care of, and I found a really nice dresser on craigslist for $20 that hopefully I'll buy tomorrow - right now all the baby's clothes & blankets are piled in his bed.....not good. =)

I still need to get a touch-lamp that gives off a very slight, soft light during the night so I don't wake up DH, baby socks, some kind of fan or noisemaker so I can sleep when the babysitter is watching the kids in the other room, a baby bath (found one on craigslist for $3 which I will be picking up tomorrow), and that's about it. 11 more days!!

Week 37: Day 4 ~ Back to The Basics

Wow, it's getting close!! Just 18 days left until my due date.....it's going by fast, and will go even faster since next week everything is all topsy turvy as far as our schedules go. My kids are now officially out of school for the next 9 days ~ and we have Thanksgiving on Thursday. Also I think DH has the day after Thanksgiving off so it'll be a nice long, relaxing weekend. On Sunday a friend of mine is putting on an encouragement shower for me of around 12 of my closest friends, so I'm really looking forward to that ("Mama" I wish you could be there!!!!!!!).

I've been listening to my hypnotherapy CD not as faithfully as I'd like, but I am really thankful for the peace of mind & anti-stress it has been to listen to it. It walks me through an entire "perfect" birth - and over & over I hear that it will be a time of calmness, serenity, peace.....that I will let my body do what it needs to do and not stress about anything. It has sounds of crashing waves and tells me to imagine myself on the beach in the warm sun, and that each contraction is like a wave peaking and then receding. I have no idea what it's actually going to be like when I am IN labor - I might want to chuck it out the window - but for now, leading up to it, I am really at peace and not worried or stressed about how it will go. And that is really nice.

The only problem is we can't seem to find someone who could be available to come in the middle of the night if need be. Everyone who would be willing to do it has small children or lives too far for it to be very convenient. Sigh......I really was spoiled with my last two babies having a "nanny" who was specifically waiting for the baby to come so she could come over at night!

So my weight gain has gone up really fast this time - but I've also been eating one entire meal cooked for the past week. It's not even a meal, it's like I'll eat cheese & crackers and then chocolate, in a stretch of maybe 2-3 hours, then will eat strictly raw for the rest of the day. I've been at 156 consistently for the past 2-3 days, so that's what we'll log in for this week:

Weeks 1-10: 134 to 141
Weeks 11-20: 141 to 141
Weeks 21-25: 141 to 144
Weeks 26-29: 144 to 149
Weeks 30-34: 151 to 152
Week 35: 153
Week 36: 153
Week 37: 156
Weight gain so far: 22 lbs.

I just received a HUGE order of raw foods that I made online - I only do this maybe 3-4 times a year, and it's so nice to get new supplies. I got:

5 lb. Sesame Seeds
4 lb. Coconut Flakes
1 lb. coconut butter
1 gal. Agave
2 lb. Cocoa Powder
5 lb. Sunflower Seeds
8 oz. Macadamia Nuts
1 lb. Cashew Nuts
6 oz. Italian Seasoning
1 lb. Hazelnuts
5 lb. Golden Flax Seeds
2 more trays to grow wheatgrass

It all arrived today! I'm excited to have these supplies to last me through hopefully the next 2-3 months - I don't eat alot of nuts, but I plan to make alot of sesame seed mylk (chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, mocha!), chocolate pudding w/coconut flakes & agave, and I blend the flax seeds in my smoothies often. The sunflower seeds lately I've been going through quite fast because they're delicious to munch on in the evening when I'm hungry.....they're not so heavy as nuts are so I can go to bed with a lighter stomach still.

I also took the kids to Fred Meyers to stock up on organic greens today. Oh my gosh, I read last night in Victoria Boutenko's "Green for Life" and it compared the nutrional value in organic greens vs. conventional greens. I am serious - I am going to ONLY buy organic greens from now on. Here's some of what I learned - it's hard to explain what the "points" mean but it gives you something to compare to anyway:

Spinach (organic vs. conventional):

Organic Iron - 1584.0
Conventional Iron - 49.0

Organic Calcium - 96.0
Conventional Calcium - 47.5

Organic Potassium - 237.0
Conventional Potassium - 84.6

Lettuce:

Organic Iron - 516.0
Conventional Iron - 9.0

Organic Calcium - 71.0
Conventional Calcium - 16.0

Organic Potassium - 176.5
Conventional Potassium - 53.7

I bought a lot of greens - kale, spinach (they didn't HAVE organic!! But I bought it anyway; some is better than nothing!), green leaf lettuce, romaine, and swiss chard. I figure that's a pretty good variety and I'll put the milder tasting lettuce in my smoothies with 2-3 leaves of the more intense tasting greens to balance it out.

So back to the basics - what I titled this post - means that I'm going back to what I ate this summer. I was at summer camp and for an entire two weeks I ate basically nothing but green smoothies and lots of fruit. I had some veggies & nuts mixed in there and guacamole once in a while as well as thai coconuts, but for the most part it was green smoothies with fruit.....no fancy superfood supplements. I do feel good when I have the supplements BUT 1) it's alot of work to put all that stuff in there and 2) it doesn't taste that great. It's tolerable, but not anything to write home about by ANY means - and therefore, with those two factors, I drag my feet making them. And then find something else to eat, raw or not, and then end up skipping my greens altogether. In the summer all I had was simply greens, and fruit. Nothing else. I think I will continue to add in ground flax though, because it fills me up fast and gives me those important oils/fatty acids I need for the baby & breastfeeding. And I'll continue with my chocolate avocado pudding & sometimes chocolate shakes.

I was usually on the run during summer camp and didn't have time to sit & eat a whole meal of raw food - so I would make a big 72oz. green smoothie in the morning that consisted of 1 big bunch of greens plus lots of bananas, apples, and whatever other fruit was in season. That would last me through about 2pm, then I'd make another one and that would last me through about 8pm and then I'd eat maybe some fruit or something. So basically - two bunches of greens blended, plus fruit.

I'm really getting determined and panicked that I haven't been 100% raw during the last trimester of this pregnancy. I feel like I need to go into giving birth knowing that I have given it EVERYTHING I can to make it the best it can be - including the best start for this baby, for breastfeeding, for recovery. Anything less and I'm going to be afraid of how it's going to go especially with no help. I feel like if I do what I can, then God will do the rest - I have peace about that. But only if I do what I can, the best I can, and not slack off and start eating SAD here & there and feeling crappy like I've been doing.

I've been feeling pretty miserable, but I know it's because of the bad cooked food choices I've been making. Heartburn comes back when I do that, and I sleep very uncomfortably. I'm curious to see if things will improve if I drink alot more green smoothies or if this is just how the last few weeks of my pregnancy are going to be. The baby makes me really uncomfortable, I can tell I'm really "ripe" so to speak - so that part is getting to be a little grating. But not too much longer now!!

Enough blabbing for now - my next appt. is on Monday and I've got my free massage right after, I'm so looking forward to that! Babysitter lined up and everything...woohoo! I'll let you know how it goes.....it's going to feel great to be able to say I'm at 38 weeks in my next post. =)

Week 36: Day 6 ~ I figured it out...

I figured out why I'm having a hard time staying away from cooked food right now. It's a total sedative for me, something that drowns out my problems. There is something very comforting for me about sitting at the computer just chowing down on something SAD - something not even very special, but like cheese & chips, or cheese & crackers. Something munchy that I can just eat & eat & eat and not feel full (not like a meal).

Right now DH has been gone all day working at a fundraiser for our church, and I'm about to go absolutely batty from the kids. They're running around like banshees (or however you spell that!) screaming and playing and just pretty much having a grand old time. It's grating on my nerves, my end-of-the-third-trimester nerves....and seriously, I'm going to be putting them to bed all half an hour early tonight. And what is my brain telling me? That I should just sit here & chow down on something that will make my brain feel good but my stomach feel awful in about an hour. I'm not going to do it, that's why I'm writing in here.....for accountability! It really does work.

I've been working hard to clean the house today - I don't know where I got it from, but I had a bunch of energy so I cleaned the living & dining, hallway, and all bedroom floors. Then I vacuumed the entire thing, swept all the hard floors (kitchen, entry, both bathrooms) and folded 4 baskets of laundry & put them away. Then I did all the dishes the poor little failing dishwasher could hold - so the kitchen is almost clean. There's another half of a dishwasher full of dishes waiting.

After all that I'm dead tired cuz you know the thing that happens when you clean and your house looks so nice AND you have five kids ages 8 & under? Is that the kids decide it's time to start playing with everything (cushions especially - remind me never to get a couch with loose cushions again!) & basically making messes all over again. Yay! The table is clean - let's get a huge bunch of paper and start cutting out snowflakes so all the little pieces can get on the floor. LOL. So besides just cleaning, I've been re-cleaning and re-cleaning all day. I think that's the most tiring of all. But I'm not complaining - because I LOVE my life, I really do!! It's a good life full of happiness and I wouldn't trade it for anything. =0

Week 36: Day 5 ~ Victory & Super Candy

Today was the first day in a while that I've been 100% raw the entire day. It was a struggle but I'm glad to say the day is almost over & it's been a victorious day for me. I feel so good about that. It's hard to get out of the habit of doing something, especially something as addicting as cooked food. It was almost too easy just to reach for the Ritz crackers w/cheese this morning that I've been having the past few days...but instead I forced myself to get on the Raw Food Talk forum and check out the newest recipes everyone is talking about.

I found one called "Super Candy" and that sounded right up my alley, LOL, what with my struggle lately not to dip into the kids' Halloween candy. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand except for some weird sounding chinese stuff that the recipe said could be omitted, so I made it. YUM!! It tasted sooo good - like a candybar almost - more like a truffle or fudge, probably. I made a nice pan of it, a loaf size pan. I have to be careful with that kind of thing, though. It is easy to eat quite a bit (I ate a good-sized 2 x 2" piece) and then since it is alot of sweeteners, my blood sugar gets out of wack if I don't eat something else that's more balanced shortly after that. I think it's the Agave & Honey. I waited too long, and then was getting irritated & harsh with the kids. Next time I'm going to be more careful.

My doctor's appointment was yesterday, and they called to cancel & reschedule for today because my midwife was delivering twins. THEN this morning they called about 20 min. before I walked out the door - I had gotten all the kids up (it was an early appt, earlier than we normally get up!) and was running around busily trying to get everyone ready.....and asked if we could reschedule for Monday. Normally I wouldn't be all that miffed - and I wasn't, really - it's just that I asked my sister in law to watch the three little ones this time and I had to keep calling & let her know it was rescheduled, then rescheduled, THEN rescheduled again. I felt really bad having to do that to her, because I know how it is - you plan around that for your day, plus you tell your kids that friends are coming over, etc.

But tonight the midwife actually called me (before it was always the secretary calling to reschedule) and she said they want to offer me a free massage because of the hassle! What a cool thing - I know my OB office would NEVER have done that. My midwife actually went to school for massage therapy, so it's going to be a really nice treat. I'm looking forward to that!

Tonight I had a rough time before DH came home. Mentally & physically I feel like I can do everything I need to right now....I can take care of the house & the kids, etc. etc. But since DH told me that he's actually not going to be able to take any time off of work (I was really counting on him taking at least 5 days)...........I've been kind of stressing about the recovery part of giving birth. I think it's because I can control my diet right now, I can control how I feel now - I know even if I do "too much" it's not that big of a deal. But afterwards, with the possibility of hemorraging if I do too much looming over my head, knowing that I need to heal & rest.....I'm a bit uncertain as to how much I'll be able to handle.

Basically I've arranged it so that I'll have five nights without the kids - but one of those nights could very well include the night I'm giving birth, so I could just have four nights without them to rest. That's just not very much time to recover and be able to take care of them all - I mean, my milk will barely be coming in...I'll be really engorged, and nursing has always been a struggle for me from the beginning. Not to mention that it's always a possibility that I'll need a c-section, you just never know.

So DH's encouraging me to find a young girl from our church who can come after school to help for a couple of weeks, and I agree - that would be so nice. I think I could get through the morning & afternoon alone with just the younger four (older two in school) if I knew someone was coming around 3pm who could clean, maybe cook dinner, help the kids with their chores, and just let me go to my room with a LOUD fan to block the noise so I could sleep, nurse in peace, or whatever. I'm liking that plan alot. DH could then bring her home after dinner and he could put the kids to bed. Our church arranges 5 meals for new moms, so I'm planning to have that start after the kids come back home - so that'll take care of the meals.

It's getting so close now & I'm getting excited, but trying not to be too eager. After all, I do have 25 days left and that is actually a pretty long time. On Wednesday I went to my Dad's 54th birthday and my sister who had a baby boy last Christmas had two big bags of clothes & blankets for me. I could have cried, it was soooo perfect!! I've really been low on baby boy blankets and really needed more of the gowns & onesies......and that is exactly what she gave me. We're trying very hard not to spend extra money on things so I was planning to just see if the thrift stores had any I could get for cheap. She actually made a ton of the thin & thick fleece blankets out of adorable baby boy & Christmas prints last year - and those are perfect for lining the little bed I have next to mine for the baby. I think I probably have maybe 15 blankets and about 18 gowns now.

So I sorted all of those last night and put them in the wash, then got out two packages of the teeny tiny diapers for him and stacked them in the diaper stacker. His bed is all ready, the clothes are washed (need folded now!) and tonight I bought nursing pads & one more package of onesies. Oh yes, yesterday we went to the thrift store and I found a big bag of bottles & pacifiers (boy colors!) for $1.99! I was really happy about that - those pacifiers I was planning on spending about $8-$10 on alone, because I always need more than one or two. They get lost so easily.

I can't wait to hold this little baby, kiss his downy head and snuggle with him in bed. Remember how they sleep, all curled up in a ball on their tummy with their little bottoms sticking out, snug over their feet? So sweet!! They grow so fast, and I'm going to work to cherish the first month when he's so little and precious.

Week 36: Day 2

I've been really struggling lately with eating just plain & simple junk. And it's amazing - my house goes completely to pot when I do that!! I think it's because I get into this mentality of sitting at the computer like a zombie, munching away on whatever it is I'm eating at the moment....and then afterwards I feel like crap and don't feel like doing ANYTHING. Pretty much exactly like how I felt before in previous pregnancies. Especially being this far along, everything becomes way more heavy when I eat cooked food, every step becomes heavy, every time I bend over my tummy is just like a brick. When I stay on raw for 1-2 days 100%, I start feeling bouncy again and able to just get right up & get to work on the housework. Everything is much easier.

I think there's something to getting close to the finish line that is making me feel not as urgent as before. This whole pregnancy I've known my history, I know that I tend to gain very fast and ALOT - and now that I have 3 1/2 weeks left I figure unconsciously that I can't gain all THAT much. So might as well give in to cravings.

My weight is staying pretty steady at 153 (weighed yesterday), but I feel like my clothes are getting a bit tight. Not surprising, considering all the chocolate I've been eating!! But also...my tummy is getting really big, to the point where few of my shirts actually cover my belly like I'd like them to. Here's my weight stats for the week:

Weeks 1-10: 134 to 141
Weeks 11-20: 141 to 141
Weeks 21-25: 141 to 144
Weeks 26-29: 144 to 149
Weeks 30-34: 151 to 152
Week 35: 153
Week 36: 153
Weight gain so far: 19 lbs.

Mostly what I do is this:

I wake up in the morning, and don't feel like making anything elaborate to eat like a green smoothie or anything that involved cutting alot of ingredients. So I just don't eat much....like this morning I made about 45oz. of fresh squeezed orange juice and that's what I had until about 11:30. Then I made guacamole and ate that with three giant carrots, but now it's almost 1pm and I'm hungry again. This is the hardest time of day because all of a sudden a meat & cheese sandwich with mayo sounds really good..........and then chocolate again. DH came home from Europe with 8 HUGE chocolate bars, and you know how their chocolate has a reputation; it is the best, better than any US brands for sure. So that's been my downfall, I think.

Each day I do get in a LARGE green smoothie with 3/4 pound of greens mixed with my supplements, all the yummy things needed to make a healthy baby. So that's good - I feel good about that. I think it's just the moments where I do eat cooked that I concentrate on, and then feel like I'm eating like that all day, but I'm not.

Interesting, two things. At my doctor's appt. last week, she said I had the nicest looking tummy she's seen in a long time, that I definitely don't look like I've had six full term pregnancies. It was as she was feeling my tummy for the position of the baby....I think she meant my skin, which would make sense because I've been dry brushing for the entire pregnancy and I don't think I have more stretch marks this time. Usually the stretch marks are added with each pregnancy, but we'll see when I'm actually at 40 weeks.

The second thing is that the previous two doctor's appt.s they asked if I'd been sick, because the white blood cell count in my urine was higher than normal. I had been eating SAD the day of, or the day before those appts. and know that my body was fighting off the effects of that. But at my last appt, I'd been 100% raw for five days and there was no comment about white blood cells. I asked her, and she said it looked completely normal. Interesting!! That tells me that my body was back to "normal" and had gotten all the SAD stuff out of it's system.

****I am writing this later in the day*****

After I wrote the above, I was kind of in a funk and ate more chocolate plus the sandwich I referenced. Then a couple of hours later, I loaded the kids in the car and drove to the Farmer's Market because I was just insanely CRAVING greens. I didn't have any on hand except for a few leaves of romaine which does not cut it. I bought like 8 bunches of greens - romaine, spinach, green & red leaf lettuce...the more milder tasting greens. I put an entire pound of greens into my vitamix & added in my superfood stuff - then 3 bananas & an apple. My 18 month old baby girl just comes running when I make it, so she shared it with me and it felt so good to drink that. I'm only having that for the rest of the night - it's 72oz. so it'll tide me over.

Then tomorrow - my goal this week is to have a whole pound of greens (comes out to about 1 entire bunch of spinach and 1/2 bunch of romaine) each day. And no cooked food. Think I can manage that? My wheatgrass has fallen to the wayside a bit because I need to buy one more tray so that one can be growing while I'm harvesting the other. I also need to get some organic soil to use, and just haven't made it to the store for that yet. I know both the wheatgrass and the green smoothies (with MSM, Maca, Vitamin C, Green Powder, Bee Pollen, & Ground Flax Seeds) and wheatgrass will provide me with a huge amount of high grade nutrition to prepare my body & my baby for giving birth.

I've heard that greens really make your milk rich, and I am so hoping that will be the case this time. I really want this baby to thrive on breastmilk so that I never have to buy formula again, and I don't have to worry about feeding him until around a year old. The only way to do that is if I take the responsibility to be as 100% raw as possible. As soon as I eat cooked food, my body goes into "defect" so to speak and doesn't run as well.