9 months

Wow, nine months! I have to admit, this last stretch of pregnancy is the worst.  I have not been feeling the greatest and I have way more bad days than good days now.  I feel like I can barely breathe, my ankles are starting to swell, I am retaining water and feel puffy, I am irritable all the time, I feel like I yell a lot, I want to cry over every little thing, I feel like eating everything in sight but once I eat I get sick and feel uncomfortable.... BUT we are finally down to 17 more days so I think I can deal with this a little longer considering I get to hold my precious little baby soon and meet him for the first time. I can't wait!

This past weekend was Memorial day weekend and I think I ate enough to last all week.  I love getting together with family but one thing that stinks is my family does not eat primal and they always go all out on the food when we have get togethers.  Being the preggo that I am, I ate and ate and ate.  In the back of my head I knew I shouldn't be eating that food and was actually upset with myself because I knew I would have to put my cheating weekend on my blog :(  I definitely paid for it because I was up sick all night last night.  My original goal was to only gain between 25-35lbs.  Well, I weighed in this morning and I am at a whopping 40lb weight gain! Did not want to gain this much with this pregnancy but I did...and I still have 2 weeks left too.  I am hoping some of the weight gain was just water weight from the bad weekend and I will lose some of that.  But if not I am not going to be too hard on myself.  I am still doing WAY better than my other two pregnancies, even though this is not where I wanted to be with this one.  I think since I only have a few more weeks of my pregnancy left, I will post picture/weight updates weekly now.

I am going to the doctor every week now.  So I had a doctor's appointment this morning.  He didn't really say much.  I have been contracting a lot and having lots of weird pains so he said he was going to check me for my next two visits to make sure I am not dilating. If I am dilating he said we will have a better idea if I am likely to go into labor early or may move the c-section up a bit.  As good as that sounds right now I am kind of hoping not to go early.  I don't want the baby to end up in the NICU like my second that was born 15 days early and it is kind of nice having it planned because we have babysitters lined up and we know who is watching the other kids. If the date gets moved I am not sure who will watch the kids when because my family has their vacation days put in already.  I am sure we will figure out something though, but it would just be nice to be able to go with the plan we have already.  But I guess when you have a baby, everything is unpredictable!

05/19/11 Day 18 of Challenge

Breakfast: Eggs

Lunch: Spaghetti (not primal but I am 9 months pregnant and really wanted it!!!!!)

Dinner: Steak, sauteed mushrooms, yam, and steamed broccoli

05/18/11 Day 17 of Challenge

Breakfast: Sausage, strawberries and banana

Lunch: Leftover chicken, celery, cucumbers and carrots

Dinner: Homemade chicken wings...I thought I had the recipe on here for this so I did not take pictures or anything but now I realize I don't even have this recipe on my blog! So next time I make these I will be sure to photograph them and post the recipe... and a salad

05/17/11 Day 16 of Challenge

Breakfast: Eggs and sausage

Lunch: Leftover Beef Burgundy

Dinner: Grilled chicken with sauteed mushrooms and onions, steamed broccoli

Beef Burgundy

I got this recipe from Mark's Daily Apple.  This was VERY good!


Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound bacon
• 4 tablespoons butter (or lard)
• 2 1/2 – 3 pounds of beef cut into 2-inch cubes. Rump roast, chuck roast, sirloin tip, and top or bottom round are all options.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons almond flour
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups full-bodied red wine such Cotes du Rhone or Chianti (I used the cooking Burgundy wine)
• 2 1/2 cups beef stock
• 1 pound white or brown crimini mushrooms (I used portabella)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Cut the bacon into short strips. In a deep saucepan, saute the bacon in 1 tablespoon of butter until bacon is cooked but not crispy.
Pat beef dry with a paper towel and add it to the bacon in 3-4 batches. Brown each batch of meat then remove from pan.

Set bacon and meat aside in the casserole baking dish you will use in the oven. Sprinkle salt, pepper and almond flour evenly over the meat. Bake meat in the oven without a cover for 10 minutes so the flour is absorbed into the meat and hopefully creates a slight crust on the outside. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 325.
In the saucepan on the stove, add 1 tablespoon of butter to the remaining fat from the bacon and meat and sauté the carrots and onion until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste, garlic, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Stir in the wine and beef broth and bring to a gentle boil. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes, then pour over the meat in the casserole pan. Cover the dish and cook in the oven for about 2 1/2 hours. The liquid should be gently bubbling the whole time. You’ll know it’s done when the meat is so tender that it easily pulls apart with a fork.
While the meat is cooking, slice the mushrooms and sauté in the remaining tablespoons of butter.

Here is a tip directly from Julie Child: Don’t crowd the mushrooms. If you cook too many at once the pan will fill with liquid and they won’t brown. Saute them in 3-4 batches, adding butter as needed. Set the mushrooms aside.

When the meat is done, remove the casserole pan from the oven.

Put a bowl under a colander and pour the meat and liquid into the colander so the liquid drains out. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Pour over meat and mushrooms. Garnish with parsley and serve.

05/16/11 Day 15 of Challenge

Breakfast: Eggs and bacon

Lunch: Leftover crab legs

Dinner: Beef Burgundy

04/15/11 Day 14 of Challenge

Breakfast: Sausage and eggs

Lunch: Salad with chicken

Dinner: Ok, so I cheated on dinner today.  Friday was me and my husbands 5 year wedding anniversary. We go to Red Lobster every year.  We only go to Red Lobster once and year and we go all out when we go there. So we got the lobster pizza for and appetizer, cheddar biscuits, cesar salad and I got the ultimate feast.  Tomorrow is a new day! I just couldn't resist!!

05/11/11 Day 10 of Challenge

Breakfast: Toast... I know this is not primal but I felt real nauseous this morning and didn't want to eat but I had to take my medicine and vitamins so that is why I ate a piece of toast.

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Salad and peaches

Snack: String cheese

Dinner: BBQ chicken, sweet potato and celery

04/10/11 Day 9 of Challenge

Breakfast: Eggs and sausage

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Grilled chicken breast and carrots and celery

Snack: apple

Dinner: Sausage and sauerkraut and steamed broccoli and cauliflower

05/09/11 Day 8 of challenge

Breakfast: Eggs and sausage

Lunch/snack: Banana and an apple

Dinner: Tilapia and carrots

33 week appt

I went this morning for my 33 week doctor appointment.  He didn't really say much.  He measured me and said "Wow Jackie, I think this is going to be a big baby"  He didn't say what I was measuring though. Throughout the pregnancy I have been measuring about 3 weeks ahead though.  The baby is coming 8 days early with the c-section too so I don't think he will be really big. My prediction is he will be right around 8 pounds.  I have not been doing well on keeping up with my blogging lately.  I was hoping to update it more throughout the 30 day challenge but I have been extremely busy.  And on top of that I have not been sleeping very well because my morning sickness came back.  I never had that happen before in the the third trimester! But I have read that it is common.  The good news is that it is not everyday.  It mainly happens in the middle of the night too.  Oh, and the leg cramps.  Hubby thinks the leg cramps are coming from not drinking enough water so my goal is to up my water intake too.

05/04/11 Day 3 of 30 day Challenge

Breakfast: Egg and cheese omelet

Lunch: Salad

Snack: apple

Dinner: Pulled chicken in BBQ and steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix

05/02/11 Day 1 of Challenge

Breakfast:  Eggs with bacon

Lunch: Grilled BBQ chicken breast and carrots and celery

Dinner: Chicken veggie soup and salad

8 month check in

I can't believe I am already 8 months pregnant.  7 more weeks until my c-section. I had to go to the hospital today to preregister.  It made everything seem so real.  She was talking about how everything would be going those 3 days in the hospital and it just hit me, baby J3 will be here soon!  I have gained a total of 33 lbs.  My original goal was to gain between 25-35 lbs.  Since I am starting the 30 day challenge this month I have a feeling I may actually stay within my goal! We will see though! It's starting to get a bit harder to move around and bend over and stuff, but for the most part I do not feel 8 months pregnant.  I am still wearing my t shirts around the house and not my husbands.  I think I had to start wearing my husband's t shirts around 5 months with my last two.  And I am still wearing my wedding ring! This really blows my mind.  I had to quit wearing it around 3 months with my first and around 5 months with my second. So the fact that I am still wearing it at 8 months just blows my mind.  I wonder if I will actually be able to wear my wedding ring in the hospital? Well, I guess not actually in the hospital because she told me today to not wear any jewelry for the c-section and she suggested just leaving all jewelry at home so that nothing happens to it.

New challenge New week

I know this totally defeats the purpose of a 30 day challenge, but I am restarting the 30 day challenge today.  Last week failed.  We started off really good then I got sick with a cold and then my boys.  Being sick made it harder to plan meals or even get up and cook meals.  Then it was the end of the week and I started feeling better then the weekend was here and we were having a birthday party for my little brother. So that meant Stromboli, chips and dip, cake, and ice cream.  So I decided to just restart today.  I think I got my punishment for calling a redo because I was up all night throwing up from eating so bad yesterday.  Lesson learned.  And I know this was not a good reason to quit and start over.  Life happens and I need to be able to say no to food when we are out.  The past is what it is so here we go again, Day 1 of 30 day Challenge.  Feeling like crap still today from SAD (Standard American Diet) food but I have my chicken in the crock pot cooking and making a big pot of fresh chicken vegetable soup.  Already feeling a little better watching my fresh chicken and fresh vegetables cooking and not thinking of all the processed junk I ate yesterday.