My Stomach, The Liar

I was pretty sick my entire pregnancy with India, so now that I'm at the halfway point with this pregnancy and only getting sick at night, I'm thankful.

But today, I'm going to talk about something I don't talk about with hardly anyone because I don't want to be seen as a whining, hormonal, prego: my stomach is a liar. 

Let me explain. 

Some people experience morning sickness, or what should be termed Anytime of Day Sickness, or perhaps, All Day Sickness, and lose their appetite.  Some have an appetite, but can't decide what to eat.  Some can't eat very much without losing their lunch.  My stomach does something different: it lies! 

Not joking, my nausea manifests as extreme hunger with nausea.  Yes, when I'm preggo sick, my stomach tells me I'm hungry and I need to eat.  So, like I normally do when my body asks for something (like chocolate), I eat.  And I eat well.  A full meal.  My stomach is mostly happy and I'm ready to relax.  But no, what's this?!?  Soon after I eat, my stomach starts growling and grumbling and asking for food??  No big deal, right?  I'm probably just hungry. 

Lies. 

My stomach is actually plump full, but my body is telling my mind something very different.  Maybe it's just used to eating two suppers (yes, when I'm not pregnant, I eat more than my husband).  Either way, it lies as much as Paula Abdul did as an American Idol judge. 

Pregnant, sick, nauseated and "starving" in my usual position on the couch.  2010.

Have you ever tried to deny yourself something your body was asking for every minute, for hours, for days, for weeks, for months?  Like sleep or food?  Yep, not fun.  Sometimes I give in, sometimes I just go to sleep because the desire is so strong, and sometimes I barrel through it, getting sicker by the minute, all while crying to my husband and writhing on the couch about how "I'm so freaking hungry". 

He knows all about my lying stomach, but encourages me to do whatever I want.

Is there such a thing as pregnancy Prader-Willi syndrome?  Because I think I have it.

What happens if I give in and eat?  I gain weight.  Massively.  Because, of course, my body doesn't need the food at that point.  I gained 17 pounds in the first 10 weeks of my pregnancy with India, because of this "lying stomach syndrome".  I finally figured out around week 10 or 11 of my pregnancy that my stomach was lying and I needed to fight it.  You can maybe imagine my disgust when I discovered that.

It was and still is quite a difficult feat to ignore my screaming, nauseous body.

Maybe you think I should just give in and listen to my body.  That's nice advice, but according to the above of gaining 17 pounds every 8 weeks, well, I would easily gain over 85 pounds and that's not taking into account all the water weight I gained at the end of my pregnancy with India.  I could easily go over 100 pounds if I "listened" to my body.  And remember, I'm not really hungry or needing the food an hour after my last meal.  And it doesn't work to eat something healthy, like a piece of fruit...that just makes me sicker.

Maybe because of my lying stomach condition I already gain a lot.  Thankfully, I lose it all right away too, but it is slightly stressful and frustrating in the mean time because I feel completely powerless to gain and eat in a healthy manner.

In the end, no, I can't eat like I normally do and I can't listen to my body to know when I'm full.  I know that.  But I do have to make some sort of amends with this pathological liar called my stomach.

And for the most part, I think I'm doing an alright job.

Has anyone else been blessed with a lying stomach?  Or had to eat insane amounts of food in order to avoid vomiting?

How to store bulk grains, beans and rice

I love bulk foods!   Buying things like rice, oatmeal, quinoa, and dry legumes can add up if you buy them pre-packaged by the pound. 

But, if you are thrifty, you can save a lot of money by buying foods from the bulk bin, reduce packaging waste and still have food that tastes great! 

At a local grocery store, one pound of pre-packaged steel cut oats costs around $4.  I buy my steel cut oats for about $1 a pound, which is a significant difference to say the least!

I'm a grain addict, and love to make my own cereal, so I'm always buying new grains. 

The problem I encountered was storing all those grains.  I wanted something attractive and I didn't want to have to spend lots of money on plastic containers that were plain and boring.

I decided to recycle old jars I had collected and cleaned.  Jars from salsa, pickles, applesauce - anything! 

Here's what I did....

First, do something with the jar covers. 

-Paint 'em, cover the labels with marker or Mod Podge some decorative paper over them.

Decorating jar covers to store bulk food in.

Second, name your grain.

-Print off the names of the items you're storing using cool fonts (you can download awesome fonts for free here), or find some other way to label your jars. 

Third, decorate!

-Mod Podge, paint, magazine clippings, chalkboard paint, tile, anything! 

(Pssst....I save many of the cards I'm given and re-purpose them for projects like this.)

Lastly, DISPLAY!

Stored bulk rice, grains and legumes

Happy bulk food storage! 

Merry Christmas!

We're ready for Christmas around here!  Christmas is my favorite holiday - not because of all the celebrations, but because of the traditions.  This year we have over seven family Christmases, but we will only go to three or four.  Our goal is to participate in one celebration per family, so we still have time to celebrate as a little family of three.

I like to have most things done and prepared ahead of time, so we can enjoy all the running,  um, I mean celebrating! 

Laundry is done (mostly)?  Check.

 

Christmas music is playing? Check.

Baked goods and appetizers finished?  Check. 

 (If you're wondering what's in the Zip-loc; it's jiao zi - one of my Dad's favorites.  It's LABOR INTENSIVE.  I only make it at Christmas.  Because I love my Dad. And to the purists, who don't like my folding...my excuse is I don't have a crimper).

Dishes are clean?  Check.

Presents wrapped? Check.

 

India's Christmas dresses washed and ready for wear?  Check.

Is a healthy, happy little girl ready to be overstimulated, overtouched, overtired and turned into a little grinch on her first Christmas?  Um, wait.  Is that a booger sucker in her hand?  Yes it is.

Yeh, she's got a stuffy nose - although she thinks the booger sucker is her new BFF.  A baby with a cold wasn't on my original checklist. 

Oh well.

At least we have an easy excuse for when Great-Great Uncle So-and-So is the umpteenth person to get in her face, snap a flash picture, try to grab her, throw a toy in her face, scare her with a loud laugh, and then make her cry.  When Great-Great Uncle So-and-So asks why she won't go to sleep in the midst of it all and if he is upsetting her, we can say, "No, she just has a cold".

We wouldn't want to hurt Great-Great Uncle So-and-So's feelings. ;-)

So, from my house to yours, wherever you may be, I hope that in the midst of family and food, you can find some time to reflect upon the real purpose of Christmas. 

 I pray regularly for my readers, and my prayer for you today is that you know this God who is with us this holiday season, in a way that you have never known Him before.

God bless you all and Merry Christmas!!!

This ain't your average milk & cookies (lactation cookies)

I recently came across a cookie recipe that is used to help increase breast milk supply. Lactation cookies.

Yes, breastmilk.

I'm trying to build up a supply of breast milk to use when we go out and have a sitter for our daughter, India, or for when I have to work and my husband watches our daughter.  I also donate breast milk (if you're interested in donating, check out Eats on Feets for more information) and want to be able to continue to give.

Before I begin with the recipe, let this be said....

I HATE PUMPING.
LOATHE ENTIRELY.
DETEST.

Of course, I'm very thankful for my nice, electric breast pump, but it's so inconvenient to sit down, pump, wash everything up, store the expressed breast milk, and then wait for all the equipment to dry before putting it away.  And then do it all over again.  I'm lazy.  I'd rather attach her to me - no mess, she's full, less time, we're both comfortable.

Whenever I would pump, I never get a full feeding.  Approximately 3-4 pumping sessions would equal one feeding.  When India was younger I could pump and not notice a difference in my supply.  But now that my supply has settled, I can't just throw a pumping session in while she naps, because she notices and gets really mad that I'm not giving her all that she wants.

The best time to pump is of course, when I miss a feeding.  Well, the reason why I would miss a feeding is because I'm usually in a public place and therefore cannot pump while whoever is watching India gives her a bottle (I just get to deal with leaky, letdown boobs).  I often find myself using up more of my frozen supply than contributing to it.

This is the tea I normally use with great results when I want to produce more milk.

However, when I stumbled upon this recipe for Major Milk Makin' Lactation Cookies from one of my favorite blogs, I knew I had to try it.  I wanted cookies and I wanted more milk (punny, right?).  This was perfect!

Here is the process.

Tired baby? Check.

 Mixing dry ingredients

And sleeping baby :-)  That didn't take long.

 This is where I may of may not have eaten a few spoonfuls. And maybe said spoonfuls were really good.  I don't know though.  Because it's all a MAYBE.

 Pretty maids, all in a row

 Finished product!

The taste test? They did taste a little flaxy at first, but I enjoyed them overall!  When Dallas came home, he was very excited to smell chocolate chip cookies!  So I let him have one, and immediately his nipples started leaking milk.

No, not really.  He did like them though! 

This recipe yields about 3 dozen, and I can say we ate all of those within a week! 

The Milk Makin' Verdict?  I would say they helped.  It's not like I had an oversupply or anything, but it did help me slowly add an additional pumping session after India goes to bed and before we go to bed!  Now 2 pumping sessions produce enough milk for one bottle for India!

Was it worth it?  I will definitely make these again.  They are relatively healthy, taste good & did what they promised to do!

Here is the recipe again, and here is a post detailing galactagogues and how and why these cookies work.  Let me know if you try them!

Don't be jealous...

...of my frozen pizza with Buffalo Hot Sauce. After all, I couldn't share because I'm pretty sure a frozen pizza is single serving.