27 weeks

I will be 27 weeks tomorrow! Only one week left of my second trimester. So far it's been a good thing that this era is coming to an end... because THE STABBING PAIN IS DECREASING!! Oh yes, that lovely stabbing pain I've had my whole trimester, brought on by mere sips of water in my super-compressed stomach.... I think it's because my belly is coming out more so he is hanging out more, and giving all my organs more room. I'm also discovering that at least one nap a day greatly increases my energy during waking hours... I think because my sleep at night is not so great. Nothing horrible, just not so great. I have a new need every ten minutes... something to eat? a whole bunch of water? stand up? walk around? lay on left side? do some yoga? I have been eating cream of wheat a lot lately... that and fruit is all I really want to eat. And whatever I can put butter on. If I don't drink water CONSTANTLY, I have really strong Braxton Hicks contractions.





It was nice for us to visit Charleston this past weekend... we walked around a lot fantasizing about how fun it would be to raise a kid in the Holy City. You know, if we were millionaires. I think if we ever won the lottery the first thing we would do is buy 27 Coming St. Ash spent the weekend working on the new Run Dan Run album, and I spent it doing whatever I wanted! Which meant mostly eating at my favorite restaurant in the world, taking some really pretty walks, taking some really long naps, reading some interesting books... I bought a really cool 1873 map of Charleston. Every single house and building is drawn on there... and besides the train stations, I'd say 90% of it is still there today.



I also bought a book I have seen recommended by Montessori, "Architecture Colors". It's pictured here with the other books I bought this week... it's hard to find books about native americans that aren't either horribly watered down or racist, so I snagged this one. The book "Ferdinand" is actually propaganda for hippies (it's about a bull who refuses to be a fighter and spends his time smelling flowers instead), and is full of gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations. Then there's a children's book about Duke Ellington (we listen to a lot of Duke!) and in every illustration you can see the music flowing through the air...






My in-laws got me this SWANKY new car seat!! It's a Britax Boulevard 70, and it's the kind that fits your kid from 5 pounds up to... whenever they graduate from car seats. You can also keep them in the rear-facing position for a REALLY long time in this seat, which is another reason I wanted it. You should watch crash tests of front vs. rear facing car seats... there is no contest.



And saving the best for last... LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE POTTY!! I got it at The Red Hen for $24. SCORE!!

Mei Tai completed!

I MADE A MEI TAI!! This is one of the oldest designs in baby wearing technology (thousands and thousands of years old). The pattern comes from Sew Liberated, of Durham, NC!!

Back:


Side:


Front:


The square of different fabric on the front is a pocket. You can either stick stuff in it (hankies, a cloth diaper, a slim cell phone) or roll up the whole wrap inside of itself and stick it in your diaper bag. That fabric piece was in a bag of scraps I found at my great-aunt's house years ago... that was all that was left of it and it fit the pattern piece perfectly. I had been saving it for something special! The brown and green were also just fabric I had lying around. This is definitely the best thing I have made so far... I actually tried to sew carefully, I actually pressed the seams and topstitched (I always skip those steps because I'm lazy), and I even changed the top thread AND BOBBIN color to match each part. It took all day today.

24.5 weeks

Picture from 23 weeks:



Weighing in at 140 now... I guess that means I can stop worrying about gaining weight! Only 3 weeks left of my second trimester. I was doing really well drinking my pregnancy tea but I stopped the last couple days... I have paid for it with severe stabbing pains after eating, especially in the evenings corresponding with stabbing middle back pain. OH THE AGONY when you're driving home all alone and your spine feels like it is snapping and you just want to pull over and lay on the grass for an hour.

In our Hypnobabies class we are learning about nutrition and it has made me pay attention a lot more. Even someone like me, who spends a great deal of time thinking about food and eating well, STILL has a lot of improvements to make during a pregnancy. For example, I am no longer having a "just this once" attitude about junk food, now that I know what it does to baby (I can count the indulgences on one hand but that is still too much). I am concentrating on protein intake a lot more (I only had 45 grams the day before yesterday, got it up to 90 grams yesterday). Turns out you can't take iron and calcium together because they block the absorption of each other (I KNEW multivitamins were stupid), and you can't get calcium from Tums because you need stomach acid to absorb it properly. I was happy to learn that the exercising I have been doing is good (pelvic tilts, inner thigh stretching, squats, and kegels). I have been drinking more water ever since I learned that my body cycles through all of the amnionic fluid every 3 hours!!!

The bigger he gets and the more he kicks, the more excited I am that he is eventually coming out of there!! Those sweet, baby kicks are worth all the back pain (though I have to say, pregnancy is overall annoying and a lot of hard work and I am glad I am doing it now while my body is super young and I can handle it better).

I tried to make cheese but I didn't think it was very tasty. I think that's because my favorite cheeses are all EXTREMELY salty, hard, sharp, and smokey while this cheese was more mild. My family loved it and inhaled the whole bowl, and it was fun to make (I can imagine kids getting a kick out of watching milk turn into cheese).

You take two quarts of whole milk and heat it in a double boiler until it gets frothy but NOT boiling:


You stir in half a cup of lemon juice:


You strain out the whey for an hour:



Then you add salt and herbs to taste and let it sit for a few hours before eating:


THE PIZZA STONE CRACKED!!!



I think I am storing my bread dough incorrectly, because whenever I bake the bread from the leftover dough, it is always tiny, dense, and not as tasty. I am just storing it in the fridge in a plastic bowl, with a cloth tied over the top. Maybe I should try wrapping the dough ball in plastic wrap? Or in a plastic container with a plastic lid (not wanting to go the disposable route).

A lot has been going on with the homestead this week, I will be writing a blog post over on my other blog soon. MY HUSBAND HAS BEEN WORKING SO HARD!!!