What it's really like to be pregnant: The dirty looks and speed racers

Hello my lovely readers!  Happy summer solace to you all. Today's post is for my currently and previously prego sisters out there who have experienced the speed racers and dirty looks...who am I kidding it's for the rest of you too who can use a chuckle at the end of a long work week to kick off your weekend right.

As I've mentioned in a few of my posts before, pregnancy comes with lots of fun wobbling, struggles of sitting up, getting up out of bed and the magic act of your feet disappearing. So you can imagine we the pregos of the world, minus the crazy marathon running champs out there, aren't exactly the speediest individuals of the bunch. As you can imagine the extra weight does keep us down and hey by the time you get to the end of the pregnancy, a foot massage is truly a gift from the gods as is any opportunity to sit your bum down especially on the bus, subway or street cars. Unfortunately being in this state has been a sad realization for many of the fabulous mothers I know out there where people will avoid eye contact and outright ignore you being in need of a seat in exchange for their own comfort. This of course doesn't just apply to us, it applies to the elderly and disabled as well. It's sad it what it is. I have to say though, I have been very fortunate to cross paths with many of the kinder individuals in this crazy city who are quick to give up their seats no matter how tired they look when they see me standing there and I'm always so grateful to them for it regardless of whether I accept the kind offer or not. It shows that kindness does still exist. So at this point you may be wondering "well what's with the post then?!". Well I'm getting to it.

As many of you may be aware I am one of the lucky individuals out there who is able to work out of my home office which is especially convenient when I need the extra snooze time. I do go into the office to get some face to face interaction from time to time to relieve my cabin fever and these tend to me my awesome days of social observation as well. Yesterday was one of these days. I arrived at the street car stop and when it arrived I started to wobble my way over to the door to hopefully get a seat. All was well (picture little turtle happy to be running a race) until a woman practically pushed me over in a race to the last seat on the street car.

Needless to say she beat me and avoided eye contact when I climbed my way up yet looked very pleased with herself for her achievement. I think I should have been upset or annoyed by her actions but truthfully I had to hold back hysterical laughter.  This "big stupid" was taking pride in beating a very pregnant woman to a seat! That's like being proud of yourself for beating the Elephant lady from Who Wants to be a Millionaire in an IQ test for God's sakes!!

I didn't say anything of course and I stood there in this busy street car when suddenly this young boy sprung out his seat so genuinely apologetic that he had not noticed I was standing and proceeded to give up his seat. I declined but thanked him. It made me smile that there are parents out there that are teaching their kids kindness so they don't grow up to be like speed racer on the other side of me. I will make sure to teach my child good manners so they will be just like that kind boy that put a smile on my face.

Now on to the dirty looks. When pregnant, any sane and caring woman will give up her love of intoxicated indulgences like drinking and smoking.  Sometimes even high heals, but believe me this last one is not by choice. We do not however, force all those around us to do the same. Which means we may occasionally go out to purchase booze or cigarettes for friends or spouses and heck even sit down in a bar and grab a bite with friends while sipping on a non alcoholic beverage which is still fine even when your baby is with you as long as your not in some crack den damn it!!  We are pregnant, we are mothers, we are not dead!  The dirty looks that we get however do not reflect this logic.

My husband is still a smoker and I do pick up smokes for him once in a while which gets me stabbing looks of hate unless I go to the corner store where they know it's not for me. Same with the liquor store, I know many of you who have experienced the hateful looks when you walk into the LCBO (funny enough not so much the Beer Store) to purchase booze for events. I know it's frustrating but you have to admit it's sort of funny. They probably are seeing an episode of intervention in their heads where you get home and turn into a belligerent drunk not caring about your baby's health. Have some faith people!! Give me a dirty look if you see me drinking or smoking but don't assume that's what I'm doing and punish me for it. It's not fair for you to judge my purchase the same way it's not fair for me to assume your face had an unfortunate meeting with a wall or an ugly stick causing you to look the way you do when I walk up to the counter. Mind you, I'm feeling bad for your face situation while you're wanting to lash out at me...at least my concern is genuine!

And that boys and girls, is my Friday rant.  To end it off, I share with you a picture of some dude who stopped in the middle of a one way street to jump on the hood of his car and danced his little heart out. I took this yesterday while enjoying a mean fish curry dinner with a dear friend of mine on a patio (Oh yea I did) here in the hood.  Where do I find these people?!

Happy Friday my lovelies.

Tash

The truth about pregnancy - Hello my name is, Natasha and I'm.... Obese? Really? Seriously?!

Oh the wonders of pregnancy.  I truly am enjoying the experience despite its levels of craziness at times.  I can tell you there is no feeling better than feeling this little munchkin kicking me in the ribs. Normally if someone kicked me in the ribs they`d have something coming but in this case I find it just precious and endearing.  Now on with this post!!

As you saw in my last post, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes a couple of weeks back and I won't lie, I've gone through the stages of denial, anger, depression and acceptance to come to terms with the it is what it is factor to be able to manage my situation.  For those of you not familiar with GD it can be a result of a few factors such as age, genetics, weight, diet and a number of other factors.  Genetics does a play a big part of it, the biggest in fact. Basically if your parents are diabetic, which both mine are, you my dear are pretty much shit out of luck. Moving on, having met my Endocrinologist I was sited three reasons for my GD issue. Genetics as the major cause, followed by age as I'm over 31 and Obesity..wait, what? That's right, Obesity. No joke!! Here's the proof.

 

Now I don't know about you but when I think about you but when I think of Obese I think of Honey Boo Boo's mom, bless her obese little heart.

Apparently that's not the case.  Obesity is decided on a simple BMI factor which considers weight and height. Listen, I'm not claiming to have been in the best shape of my life but I did not expect to be called obese by any means!! Believe it or not, this gets even better.  So there I am attending a GD class where I'm told about eating healthy and provided a "strict diet" that is supposed to keep my blood sugar in check.  Now if you know me you know at least three things about me:

1) I love, I mean LOVE food.
2) I'm a nutrition Junkie who's managed to feed ani-healthy eaters extremely nutrient packed foods and antioxidants while depriving them of their beloved junk food and fillers without them even noticing the switcheroo.
3) I know a lot more about food and the reaction one's body has to everything you put in your mouth than most people do. It's my obsession and my passion.

To top it off, I've had the fear of God in me about diabetes so I know how to prevent diabetes and control it like no one's business. Sitting through this class, I'm handed a guide that includes things like white rice, white potato and a number of other things that should generally be avoided as they lack the ability to truly feed your body well. I should also mention that I played dumb and started eating this "diet" fully knowing it would mess with my blood sugar and not keep me "fed" because well...I have a weakness and it's food and sometimes I try new things to see what happens. The diet, just so you know consists of 4 to 6 times what I'm used to as my starch and grain intake. Though I fully tried to consume the said amounts of food, I just couldn't do it. Upon finishing half of the given amount, I felt like I was suffocating or possibly suffering a heart attack. Needless to say, when I measured my blood sugar it was sky high. Given the fact that I felt overly full to the point of wanting to throw up and my blood sugar being frighteningly high as a result, I decided to go back to my regular portions, take out the refined starches (eg White rice and pasta) and only take it what I can (1/4-1/2 cup) of quinoa, brown rice and whole grain pasta. I also increased my vegetable intake as I love to do and it was business as usual and hmmmm lookie lookie what came down to normal levels! MY BLOOD SUGAR!

Next step, chat with the dietitian. Also keep in mind I've also been keeping a food log at this point. The conversation started as "Ummm wow you eat really healthy...I'm not sure what I can change" To which my inside voice remaining inside responded "what did you expect to see ice cream and chocolate all around?". Anyways she tells me that she doesn't want me going hungry, HA she obviously doesn't know me, so she wants me to not cut my "carbs" so much and spread it out over my snacks. I'm also told that "restricting my diet" with this "special diet" may cause a little weight loss but that she is afraid I will lose too much weight. Are you kidding me? I`ll have to have the Jerry Springer team break me out of this house with a crane if I eat on this special diet of yours!!

So far if you've kept up, I was told I was obese but now I'm told I can't be losing weight. MAKE UP YOUR MIND PEOPLE!! Just so we`re clear I'm still gaining about a 1 lbs /week or slightly more which is what's expected at this point. I should also put in a side note that I do see a naturopath on a regular basis and my balanced diet is also something that we've worked on that has worked for a long time taking into consideration my food sensitivities and my family history of diabetes along with my chances of becoming diabetic in the long run if I don`t get on it as well so I'm not just coming up with random food intake out of my ass :D.


Anyways I guess what this has taught me and led me to believe is that the medical world tends to generalize everyone and group them without any additional consideration (If I'm not hungry, full of energy, and I'm eating well then trying to force feed me that also pushes my blood sugars up and makes me tired is not the solution). Please don't take this as me discrediting the medical profession as this is not my intended goal. My point is you need to be open to other ideas and perhaps a more natural approach at times to help you keep your body healthy. What sense would it make for me to over feed myself to the point of discomfort then take insulin to force my body to digest the excess food? To be called Obese, a bit harsh, told that white rice and brown rice are the same (not true brown rice has the extra fiber that fills you up faster and keeps you full longer) based on generalization is questionable. Decide for yourself but given that I look and feel fabulous and our baby is perfectly healthy and active, I find it hard to believe that my clean eating is going to be more harmful that the millions of other prego sisters that are filling their bodies with junk (not judging just saying) that have the luck of genetics on their side that allows them to go through this experience without GD.

And that is my soap box rant for the day. To end this off, I shall show you a picture of a drunk dude I caught with his pants down pissing in front of my neighbor's car/house that I took after accusing him of indecent exposure and posting it on twitter for all to see.

Until next time!

The truth about pregnancy: It's all fun and laughter until someone pops a rib?!

Laugh together everyday.  This is one of the pieces of advice that's commonly given to you when you get married by those who have life experience. It's great advice seeing life is so full of things to smile about yet we forget to enjoy those moments and somehow get distracted by the things that aren't so joyful. 

Two things that you can always count on me for are being able to laugh things off and also being a Google self diagnosing hypochondriac. Two things that not normally tied together. Over the years, I've diagnosed myself with skin cancer, infertility, pregnancy when it was a flu, allergies etc etc.  Non were accurate of course but I still do it. It's a problem, but ultimately when I go to the Doctor, share my diagnosis and they look at me like I was dropped on my head and I question their qualifications, as if Google is a better qualifier than medical school, finally except that their diagnosis and remedy worked, I'm able to go back and laugh at myself about it.  This post sort of wraps these traits all in one painfully funny package. 

Val and I have always had a laughter filled relationship.  Especially when taking road trips we tend to find fun no matter where we're headed and part of this is always him quizzing me on the little towns that we drive by and sharing random "facts" with me which I'm never quite sure are true or not.  Luckily I'm able to Google most things now and validate his random stories before I fall for them sending both of us into insane fits of laughter. This trip was no different. We decided that for our "babymoon" we'd take a camping trip to Killarney which is a good five hour drive away. 

Once on the road Val once again started quizzing me this time on Sudbury.  "What is Sudbury known for" he asks.  I honestly had no clue which naturally amuses my dear husband and he decides to make a game out of this by giving me a clue.  His clue, "they have a statue of a beaver". So I start rhyming off anything that I think would justify having a giant beaver statue in the middle of town. Beaver damns, Beaver lodges, beaver tails, strip clubs (yea I went there), logging, beaver farm (I don't think there's such a think but hey why not). With each guess, Val's laughter grew more hysterical sending me into a laughing frenzy complete with tears streaming down my face and shortness of breath. The guessing game continues where Val says, "what's on the back of a nickle I said", a beaver he says okay so you want to take another guess? So I continue in between fits of laughter, "Nickle factory?"  Which sends us both into hysterics he says " Nickle factory? Seriously?" and the laughter progressed until suddenly I felt a pop in my rib cage and that was the end of my laughing. Four hours into our drive I now had an insane amount of pain in my ribs and it hurt to breath. Once I was able to position myself into a comfortably in my seat, I started Googling to see what the heck had happened and I finally self diagnosed myself with having a dislocated bottom rib. Reading further I found that there's pretty much no other solution other than having someone pop it back into place, which I was not about to do, and getting rest. Suddenly it dawns on us that camping is no fun when you can't move at all. Val also decides that I'm not a pregnant gimp which sends me into another laughing fit which at this point is horribly painful but I just can't stop. Visions of myself wobbling around all gimpy are just irresistibly funny to me. For the first time, I would have preferred being in a grumpy hateful relationship where laughter was not a common occurrence to save me the physical pain (Not a true wish but made perfect sense at the time). After a long debate of should we hit the hospital or continue on our path I stubbornly decided we shall continue. Did I also mention I'm as stubborn and a mule? I also decided this would be good practice for an epidural free birth (see mule comment above). Long story short, the insane amount of pain cut our trip short and we came back and I managed to see a Chiropractor only to find out that what I was experiencing  was actually a muscle spasm of some sort. Go figure my Google self diagnosis fails me again. I really have to stop doing that I tell ya. After 2 visits, a lot of stretching and icing I'm finally able to move again which is awesome but I tell you, with 10 weeks to go I'm wondering what other random rib popping surprises will peek their funny heads out of the woods. 

What I learned from this incident:
1) Camping at 7.5 months pregnant is probably not the best idea I've had
2) Listen  to Val when he questions my wanting to camp this far into pregnancy
3) I'm not super woman
4) Google is not qualified as a diagnostic tool
5) I'm not a Doctor
5) It's all fun and laughter until someone pops a rib