Pregnant Nom-Noms

Yesterday was our second week of Bradley Classes.

If you're unfamiliar with the Bradley Method then you should check out the website, which will do a far better job than I would of explaining the concept behind the class.

We made the decision to take this course based on research in birthing practices. I may take a blog post to write about the more detailed aspects of this later, but for now let me just say that I love doctors (there's quite a few in the family) and hospitals; and I'm not birthing our child under a shed, in a barn, or anywhere that medical professionals aren't ready and waiting with their expertise and pain medication, should it be necessary. 

What I really wanted to write about was how the class has tackled nutrition during pregnancy. Again, we're only in the second week, but so far this has been my favorite part. Their approach to a pregnancy diet is a balance of good-for-you-type of foods with an emphasis on protein. (80 - 100 grams a day, to be exact, which is A. LOT. of protein.) 

The biggest relief was that the focus is not on weight, which before having a more vested interest in the whole world of pregnancy, it seems was pretty much all I heard about. 

You know, fun facts like: There's roughly 2,403,209 potentially life threatening pregnancy complications that can come from gaining too much weight, or too little weight, with the bonus that if you gain too much your baby will have every allergy known to man and will be a hermit; and if you don't gain enough, (s)he will have no immune system and also be a hermit.

*Deep breath.* Anyway...

It was extremely freeing for both my practitioner and Bradley instructor to say something along the lines of, "Look - some women gain way above average, some gain hardly anything. You really shouldn't focus on the scale as much as you should focus on what you're eating." 

The truth? It's hard to undo years of being overly-conscious about my weight and instead, allow my body to tell me what it needs, listen & act accordingly. 

Now, obviously, discernment does come into play, my body does not (unfortunately) need Milano cookies or (even more unfortunately) Java Chocolate Chunk three times a day; however, it could probably really use the peanut butter or cheese or spinach or yogurt or (insert healthiness here).

To finish this post, here's a few pictures of what Baby K has been craving lately. By the way, you'll notice a lot of organic, before you think we're snobs or independently wealthy, I'll just throw out there that we decided purchasing a few key organic things was worth sacrifices in the budget elsewhere. (More thoughts on this may also be part of that health-related blog post mentioned in the beginning.): 

On a banana or an apple, but my most favorite is on a piece of whole wheat bread with turbinado sprinkled on top and a glass of milk. 

Those are all boiled, and have turned into a frequent snack. Before you get totally sicked out you should know that it's totally wrong to judge a pregnant woman's cravings, and eggs are a freaking amazing source of protein.

Okay, Baby K has NOT been craving Kale. I only put it up here because my Bradley instructor is awesome and gave us all bags of this stuff from her garden. Kale is apparently the healthiest food you can have... ever. Now I just need to figure out a way to get it down.

Cheese just makes me so happy all the time. 

My nighttime snack has been any and all kinds of cereal. I've attempted to keep it to the healthier options (i.e. not Reese's Puffs) with much success. Also, I didn't take a picture of it, but I've been putting back almost a gallon a week. I was never a huge milk person before being pregnant, and now I tend to drink glasses straight up and/or incorporate it into as many meals as possible.

VEGETABLES. The only way I've been able to eat them is cooked and thoroughly seasoned with salt, though; which isn't as good, but it's better than nothing. For some reason I've been going Leslie Knope on the thought of salad, recently.

Most common breakfast - fruit & yogurt smoothies.

That's all my recent pregnancy thoughts in a nutshell, I'm sure there will be more to follow. I'd love to hear your own thoughts on nutrition (pregnancy-related or nutrition in general). :)