21 Weeks (or "Eating For Two")

The Pumpkin -- Benjamin -- is now about the size of a small grapefruit, according to iVillage.com (interestingly enough, before knowing this, I ate a whole grapefruit with brunch yesterday, hadn't had a grapefruit in quite a while). For BabyCenter.com he weighs about 12 oz and is about 10.5 inches long (which would mean he's gained about 2 oz. and 1/2 an in inch in the last week!). A small grapefruit who seems to be "popping" me one once-in-a-while. I say "popping" because his little kicks and punches feel like a big bubble popping.

Eating for two has been a bit of a challenge. I lost my appetite during the first trimester and I don't think it really came back until about a month ago. It's only in the last couple of weeks that I've had moments when I am suddenly really really hungry. Eating for two, of course, doesn't mean eating twice as much, it means adding about 300 calories to my diet. I'm not quite clear on what that means because I think I was eating more calories a day than someone my size needs before I got pregnant. So is it 300 calories more than I was eating or 300 calories more than the FDA recommended amount of calories for a woman in her mid-thirties?

Of course, what is even more essential is what helpful nutrients are in what I eat. For example, last week I read that a lot of brain development is going on at this stage of pregnancy and that omega-3 fatty acids are important to help build neural connections. One of the best sources of omega fatty acids, it would seem, is flax seeds (or as Brian calls it, birdseed). So, I now add a tablespoon of birdseed to my morning oatmeal after I cook it to make sure I don't burn off the omega fatty acids. Before I'd been using roasted almonds for the protein (which makes me think perhaps I should combine the birdseed and almonds to make sure I have the fatty acids and protein...) I know that I am also getting some through the olive oil in my salad dressing. To the oatmeal I also add a couple of table spoons of wheat bran , fruit (either dried cranberries or frozen blueberries) and almond milk. One of the articles I read on omega-3 fatty acids suggested (perhaps tongue in cheek?) that butter pecan ice cream is a good way to get omega fatty acids (from the pecans) and calcium so papa went out to buy some and served it to me for dessert this week. I thought I wouldn't eat it because I've been pretty much off sweets since the pregnancy started, but it looks like either my dessert stomach is back or Benjamin has a sweet tooth that he's sharing with me -- I ate it all. And last night I really really wanted a sweet treat, so papa and I shared a sticky toffee pudding from Trader Joe's (called English Toffee Cake, but it is indeed the Sticky Toffee Pudding I was obsessed with during our honeymoon in Scotland). Hey, it has dates and walnuts! More omega fatty acids and protein!

Calcium has been my real issue. A TV ad I saw over the summer keeps popping into my mind: a pregnant woman opens the fridge and has to choose between a slice of cake and a glass of milk and, of course, the glass of milk is what gives her the "Correct answer!" game show bing. I don't drink milk and, in fact, I rarely eat ice cream either, because I am blessed with that southern European trait of being lactose intolerant. Fortunately, I can eat cheese and yogurt without too much trouble. So, for a snack after my 11 a.m. class I tend to have cheddar cheese and crackers. I'm trying to eat more yogurt -- Trader Joe's now sells what it calls "Mediterranean Cheese Style Yogurt" which is basically what is called "fromage blanc" in France so yum!! (I'm afraid I am dreading life without Trader Joe's back in Cville... we will have to make some pilgrimages up to the DC area to stock-up). The calcium, it ends up, is less for the baby and more for me, because apparently little Benjamin is a calcium vampire: what calcium he doesn't get from what I am eating he will take from my personal calcium stores (like, my bones). Fortunately Tums (necessary for the lovely indigestion that pregnancy fosters) is also a good calcium source.

The other issue is vegetables. That hasn't been an issue for me in the past, but my doctor gave me a sheet called "The Right Diet When Eating For Two" and it suggests 1 dark green or dark yellow veggie, 2 rich in vitamin C (like citrus and tomato) and 2 other vegetables, so I am always trying to keep track of which ones I've eaten. The two rich in vitamin C is easy : since the beginning of the pregnancy one of few things I've wanted everyday is clementines or tangerines. I also often have half a cheese sandwich and a V-8 when I get home from work. Dark green: salad greens, particularly spinach. Are peas and haricots verts dark green? We eat a lot of those. As for dark yellow... yellow bell peppers? We get frozen roasted bell peppers at Trader Joe's (another item I'm going to miss), but there are usually more red peppers than yellow in the mix.

Ok, this post has gone on way to long, so I won't bore you further with the details of choosing which fish to eat and how many times a week (fish is good, but you have to limit intake due to mercury levels, particularly in farm-raised fish and certain large, long-living fish are a complete no-no) or our weekly steak dinner for iron. I must say, however, that writing this post has helped me realized that we're actually doing ok on the nutritional front. We'll just have to keep it up after Benjamin is born so we can teach him to eat a healthy diet.

-maman