Pregnancy Update & Food ideas

It's been 3 months.. WOW. Well, here's what's happening. We went on May 5th to the 20-week ultrasound and found out we are having a girl. Kaylan Elaine is due for arrival on September 20, 2006 if I make the full 40 weeks exactly. With our birthdays of 10/20 and 11/20, this was totally freaky and we'd love for 9/20 to be her birthday! I've already been feeling her kicking, punching, and rolling. Eric even felt it last weekend - finally. We've been doing a lot of thinking, researching, preparing for her arrival. I'm weighing in at 172 pounds this morning, which is about 7-10 pounds over. The limit set by my doctor is 176 pounds. I'm doing my best to keep it steady and let her take over the weight I've gained. Eric and I've fallen into some bad habits. It is very difficult to control healthy eating with the pregnancy cravings of salt, sugar, carbs, and fried foods. For a while I was able to handle sugar (dumping wise) in a more regular quantity, but that's been changing this past month. I'm becoming nauseous with less and less sugar (usually in the form of B&J Oatmeal Cookie Dough ice cream), which less sugar is good, but it doesn't stop me for WANTING it. We still avoid lettuce, fries, and bready sandwiches. We go for thin slice or wraps. I avoid pork, except for ham and beacon. Eric avoids shrimp and scallops. We found that the frozen Angus meatballs work really well for a lot of meals and it only takes 1 ½ at most to fill either of us up. Another really good find was Wickles Reli****'s relish with chili peppers. It makes tuna or chicken salad "good eats". I've also started making pizzas with flour tortilla shells. You have to mix spaghetti sauce with a can of tomato paste to thicken, but it works out to an ultra-thin crust pizza. I don't know if this is considered proper eating, but it's easy and quick to make.

Christina, Congrats on your upcoming motherhood. I take it that Eric is post-op as well...? Ragu makes a pretty good pizza sauce. It's in a small jar so you can use what you need and put the rest in the fridge till next time. No mess of mixing in tomato paste. Instead of using flour tortilla's, try the low-carb wheat ones or lo-carb flat wraps. The wraps are an excellent source of fiber also (I find them at Kroger or Walmart Neighborhood stores). If you go to RedLobster.com, they have a link to their recipe for their lobster pizza. Yummy! Of course, if Eric doesn't do well with seafood, you may want to substitute the lobster with chicken. Other food ideas... Ragu makes a no sugar added spaghetti sauce and a Light Parmasean Alfredo sauce. With the spaghetti sauce, I use multi-grain/tomato & spinach/low carb pasta with ground sirloin (as low fat content as I can find). With the Alfredo sauce, I use spaghetti squash and diced chicken breast. Want something quick? Try a grilled cheese sandwich using Velveta Light, Wonder Light Wheat Bread, and Country Crock's Light spread. For my ice cream fix, I have some Healthy Choice ice cream bars in the freezer. Only 90 calories each. Best wishes to you, Eric and baby Kaylan, Sherri

It sounds like things are going pretty great for you. I am so glad to hear that your having a girl. I love being a mommy to a little girl. Unfortunantly for us we won't be finding out what we are having till the end of July or first week of August. It seems like the days are going by so slow. The pizza idea sounds delicious. I go from wanting to eat, getting something to eat and then not wanting it. Pregnancy is so nutty and the second time around has been 100% different. I hope everything continues to go great and having her on 9/20 sounds so cool. Although October is my favorite month. LOL My birthday is 10/13 my daughter's is 10/18 and my niece who was born last year will celebrate her 1st birthday on 10/02. Have a great day... Shannon

Christina - Congrats to you and Eric! My "baby" girl is 9 and I can't imagine life without her! I'm trying to think of "sweet" options for you . . . have you tried those fat free/sugar free jello puddings? You can make it with that Carb Countdown milk for a low cal/low carb treat, they are yummy. Do you like cottage cheese? I was on a kick a few weeks ago. I mixed creamy cottage cheese (I think it was Friendship brand) with thawed wild blueberries (I get the mega frozen bag from Costco) and a bunch of Splenda. Really mixed it up good. Seriously, it tasted like blueberry cheesecake! You could even sprinkle in a couple of lowfat graham crackers for the "cheesecake" crust or layer it to make a parfait! Just a few ideas - good luck! Sandy