Only two more weeks until I’m out of my first trimester! This has been the longest first trimester and I’m so ready to move on to phase two of my pregnancy.
your baby’s the size of a plum!
The average fetus at 12 weeks is about 2.1 inches long and .49 ounces. Now that she’s got pretty much all her parts, her main job is to keep on growing.
Your baby at 12 weeks:
Most of her critical systems are fully formed!
She’s about to enter the growth and maturation stage, in which her organs and tissues will grow and develop rapidly.
She’s now developing her reflexes — if you poke her body, she’ll likely move.
She’s opening and closing her fingers and curling her toes, too.
Her brain is developing fast!
(source)also note we have no idea if it’s a boy or a girl but thebump.com refers to everything as she/her.
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How I’m Changing
I’m starting to look more pregnant! My bump is starting to develop and I’m excited for the day when it is a noticeable bump and I no longer look like I have just gained weight. Other than that I haven’t noticed many other changes at this time.
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How I’m Feeling
Last week I had horrible sinus congestion and post nasal drip, but this week things are better and my morning sickness has started to lighten up. I have had a little bit of nausea and I still have afternoon (and sometimes morning) fatigue but over all I am starting to feel better.
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What I’m Eating
I am happy to say that my food aversions are starting to die down and I am slowly getting back to normal meals. Over Christmas I was addicted to veggies and homemade vegan ranch dip; if there hadn’t been a house full of people on Christmas Eve I could have finished off the veggie and dip plate all by myself. I also have been eating lots of beans in chili, in wraps and in curry.
Vegan Wedge Salad with Tempeh Bacon
Homemade Three-Bean Veggie Chili
The Addicting Veggie Platter
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Random Facts of the Week:
Overall weight gained: 3.5 lbs
Crying fests: um all the time when I watch tv or movies
Food cravings: veggies and vegan ranch dip and sriracha (on everything)
Number of pants that fit: 5
Maternity clothes purchased: 4 tops and 2 bottoms…..how many items returned 1 top and 1 bottom from Gap
Photos taken of the cat with our new camera (just prepping for the bebe): 200
It’s that time of year again when we all start to think about our goals/resolutions for the new year. I honestly haven’t even started thinking about it but I wanted to first take a moment to reflect on my resolutions from last year.
Attend a blogger conference. This goal was supposed to be an easy one but then a number of various things happened and we ended up having to cancel our trip to PDX and the other conferences I was interested in going to all happened to fall on weekends we already had plans.
Do an overnight backpacking trip on the Long Trail. ACCOMPLISHED. Neil and I did one over night backpacking trip this year on the Long Trail. It was a great night and I look forward to doing it again when the bebe is big enough.
Run a 5k. ACCOMPLISHED. I ran my first 5k this past summer in Portland ME. I actually have signed up for three races since then two of which I won’t be running due to pregnancy related reasons and the third is still up in the air.
Blog with a purpose. ACCOMPLISHED, but always working to improve. I feel like I have really worked hard this year to blog with more of a purpose and have more high quality posts.
Embrace Health Counseling. ACCOMPLISHED, but always working on. I have really come a long way with my health coaching and I been working on expanding my coaching every day. This year I worked with some really amazing clients, attended a health coaching conference, and have been working on new ways of coaching via online and teleclasses.
Other things I want to do in 2011:
Create a “grown up” bedroom – one that has a bedroom set, a style, and is a place that the Hubz and I can retreat to; a space of our own. ACCOMPLISHED.
Revamp my blog- make improvements to the layout as well as the features. ACCOMPLISHED.
Update my health counseling blog….rather have the Hubz do it. ACCOMPLISHED.
Get to my happy weight by trying new activities such as P90X, hiking, running and yoga. Was on my way and then we got pregnant and weightloss has been put on the back burner.
Spend more time reading. Do you have any book recommendations? ACCOMPLISHED, but still working on.
Spend more quality time with the Hubz- make a conscious effort to have 1 date night a week. ACCOMPLISHED.
Overall I am really proud of my accomplishments this year and I look forward to the next.
Starting in January myself and Health Coach Nicole Culver will be hosting a teleclass series for the new year.
This five-week teleclass program is designed to start your 2012 off on the right foot; moving you toward a life of optimal health and wellness. Each week covers a key theme that is essential in achieving optimal health. The topics of the 5 weeks include: the knowledge and tools to losing weight naturally without deprivation, the know-how to shop and prepare foods that nourish you, the steps to take to manage your time so you can take care of your body both inside and out, ways to exercise that you’ll love and how to boost your self-confidence.
I unfortunately still haven’t taken any pregnancy photos, partly because I’ve been lazy and partly because my husband has been working crazy long hours and hasn’t been home before I go to bed to take a photo of me (self portraits are just a fail). I have been feeling bloated the past week and I am really starting to feel round around the middle. I have gained three pounds since becoming pregnant and yet I feel like I have gained 10 because my body is changing so much and my clothes aren’t fitting the same (or some at all). I am trying to just be calm about it but sometimes I just feel upset that my favorite dress doesn’t fit right or the fact that many of my tops and bras (which I need to buy new ones of) are too tight across the chest and of course the fact that I currently only have three pants that fit well.
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How I’m Feeling
This week I have had really horrible sinus congestion and postnasal drip which has been driving me crazy. From what I have read the nasal congestion can be due to hormones, the same hormones that are causing me morning sickness, mood swings and fatigue. My morning sickness (rather all day) is still happening and I’ve been particularly tired out in the afternoon lately. I have to say as much of challenge as morning sickness, fatigue, ect are I am really happy that I am having these symptoms because it means the hormones are working and I am growing a healthy baby. I am hoping that in the next 3-4 weeks I will be feeling better and the morning sickness with subside.
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What I’m Eating
I have been eating crazy meals. I have been on my own 8-10 days out of the past two weeks because of the Hubz crazy work hours so I have just been making food for me. Last night I had creamy corn with nooch and hot sauce, a lemonade and a potato (you can see why I didn’t blog about that). Other meals this week have been a bean quesadilla (which my stomach hated), pasta with nooch and broccoli, soygurt with berries and granola (which I have had for almost every breakfast as well) and a tortilla with avocado, chickpeas and corn. I also have been munching on tons of clementines.
My major food aversions are garlic and onions. The smell makes me nauseous and it’s awful because I LOVE garlic and onions. I also am having quite an aversion to leafy greens. I am hoping that come the second trimester these aversions will calm down and I can get back to eating normally but until then as one of my midwives says don’t stress some days all you want are mashed potatoes and thats okay.
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Random Facts of the Week:
Overall weight gained: 3 lbs
Crying fests: 1 huge one and lots of tears while watching Christmas movies
Food cravings: citrus
Amount of exercise: 0 <– working on workout goals for the upcoming week
Number of pants that fit: 3; 2 jeggings and one pair of Loft pants that luckily still fit
Maternity clothes purchased: 4 tops and 2 bottoms
1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? I am not a huge fan of either but I’d have to say hot chocolate.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? all gifts are wrapped
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I prefer white lights
4. Do you hang mistletoe? We don’t.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the weekend or two after Thanksgiving.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I don’t really have a favorite holiday dish but I love veggies with ranch dip which we always have at holiday parties.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Every Christmas Eve I was allowed to open one gift and it as always the gift from my Great Aunt Fran. She would send a box of goodies with some interesting little toys and my favorite peanut butter filled chocolate from the chocolatier down the road from her.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? the truth? what do you mean! I Believe!
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We still open one gift on Christmas Eve usually from my Mom and usually it’s PJs
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We decorate it with white lights and ornaments that we have acquired over the years, some from my childhood and others since Neil and I have been together.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I like it. I dread huge snow storms and icy road ways but plain old snow is fine.
12. Can you ice skate? I have no balance for skating. I took lessons as a child and never really got he hang of it.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don’t really think I’ve ever had a favorite gift. I really loved our 2009 trip to Disney for Christmas which was our gift (we just did stockings that year).
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Being with my family.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? My Mom’s Peanut Butter Balls.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting together with my cousins.
17. What tops your tree? A vintage tree topper (that my husband hates) that was my grandmothers.
18. Which do you prefer: Giving or receiving? Giving, I love to give gifts and watch people open them.
19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? Yummy!
20. Favorite Christmas movie? All I Want For Christmas, I could watch it over and over….hmmm maybe I’ll go watch it right now.
21. Saddest Christmas song? Blue Christmas.
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Fairytale of New York by The Pogues.
Our last day in NYC started with a trip to our favorite spot the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We didn’t do any of the tours this trip but we browsed the store getting ideas for my “to read” list.
After spending a good 30 minutes at the Tenement Museum we headed a few blocks over to Babycakes to pick up a morning treat. We debated over the doughnuts and the cinnamon rolls but ultimately decided to go with a biscuit with jam and cream and a spicy cheeze biscuit. The biscuit with jam and cream was super delicious, I wish we had ordered two so we wouldn’t have had to share. The other biscuit was okay, I bet it’s better when it’s straight out of the oven.
After that we walked around a bit.
Then we headed to Eataly.
I could have spent hours in Eataly just looking over all of the products. We debated dining at Le Verdure, the vegetable restaurant but decided there was somewhere else we’d like to dine more. So, we picked up a bunch of little items for stocking stuffers for my parents and a few treats for us before heading on our way.
We ended up walking just a few blocks and found ourselves heading into Pure Food and Wine for lunch. This restaurant has been on my NYC Bucket list for years now and I’m so glad we finally decided to try it.
We both looked over the menu trying to decide what we would order (everything sounded amazing) but ultimately decided to go big or go home and we both went with the 3 course lunch. We were given three options to choose from for each course (salad, entree, dessert). To make the most of our experience Neil and I decided that we would each order something different and share everything so we each were able to try six different things. I’ll forewarn you now that all of Neil’s photos of the dishes he ordered were too out of focus for me to post and mine do not do the food justice.
Salad Course: I ordered the Caesar Salad (romaine lettuce, nori, pumpkin seed macadamia parmesan, lemon)and Neil ordered the Mediterranean Salad (arugula and kale, kalamata olives, tomatoes, pumpkin seed macadamia parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette). The Mediterranean salad was good but not great, but the Caesar salad was incredible. I could have just eaten a giant bowl of Caesar Salad and been a happy girl.
Entree Course: I ordered the tortilla wraps (spicy sun-dried tomato filling, corn cilantro guacamole,tomato-lime salsa, cashew sour cream) and Neil ordered the zucchini and tomato lasagna (sun-dried tomato sauce, pistachio basil pesto pumpkin seed macadamia ricotta). Both dishes were amazing but I have to say that we both favored the tortilla wraps.
Dessert: I ordered the lemon bar (almond coconut crust, tart lemon custard) and Neil ordered the tiramisu (vanilla cream layered with coffee sake almond cake). For this one I shared a bit of my lemon bar but didn’t have any of Neil’s dessert because of the coffee. I have to say it was a tie though because according to Neil they were both amazing.
We ended our night with a quick trip to the Whole Foods beer store so that Neil could pick up a few homebrew items and then we caught a taxi to the airport where we hungout until our flight. We eventually arrived home at midnight to find our car wouldn’t start and ended up spending 2.5 hours at the airport waiting for a service truck to arrive. Not a great end to an amazing weekend but oh well!
Saturday morning started out bright and early with a trip to Prospect Park-Brooklyn for the NYRR Jingle Jog 6k. Once we arrived at the starting point I found a place to watch and Neil headed off to his corral with the 6,000+ other runners.
Neil with the teal shorts #3212
Neil finished the race in around 35 minutes which was wonderful for his first race back since his head injury, I’m so proud of him!
After the race we were both hungry so we headed back to Manhattan to our apartment to shower and get ready for the day. By the time we were ready it was 11am so we headed out for brunch at Caravan of Dreams. When we arrived we were the only people there and ended up having a nice and quiet meal just the two of us.
After looking over the menu Neil and I decided to go with a brunch option which is served with a house salad, choice of fresh orange juice or sangria (or virgin sangria) and coffee or tea.
Decaf for me and regular for him. Wonderful coffee.
Virgin Sangria for me and regular for him. (I shared some of my berries since the regular was lacking).
Salad for both of us. The salad had a ginger-sesame dressing on it that Neil loved but I just wasn’t a huge fan of; I’m not much for ginger unless it’s in a smoothie of cooked up in a stirfry.
For my entree I had the Polenta Platter which came with Tomato, ali-oli, sautéed greens & vegetables, black beans. My food was absolutely delicious! The greens were nice and garlicky and the polenta was lightly griddled and delicious.
Neil had the Scrambled Tofu with red cabbage, carrots, cauliflower & onions and whole wheat sourdough toast. Neil received a huge plate of food and he loved it. I stole a bite and it was really tasty.
After brunch we walked around and did a little shopping, eventually finding ourselves back at Chelsea Market. Neil had wanted to do some Christmas shopping when we were there on Thursday but our trip was cut short so that we could meet up with a friend for drinks (non-alcoholic for me). Just as expected Chelsea Market was packed (I recommend going during the week). We parted ways and both went off to do some Christmas shopping.
Once finished shopping we headed back to the apartment to have a snack, relax a bit and find a spot for dinner. We wanted to eat somewhere within a few blocks of the apartment and after doing a little research via the internet we decided to try Pala Pizza which had great reviews from omnivores and vegans.
When you first walk in Pala Pizza is really nice, dimly lit with candles on every table and it is cozy and romantic. We were seated and after looking over the vegan menu ordered our we drinks and food. We decided to go with the Crostini tomato, zucchini, daiya cheese and soy beschemel on gluten free bread, Insalatecontadino mixed spring salad, cherry tomatoes and the Pizze arrabiata fresh cherry tomatoes, hot pepper, garlic.
Insalate and Crostini
Pizze arrabiata
So how was it? Awful. This was by far one of the worst meals that we have ever had in NYC. The salad was nothing special just greens and tomatoes with balsamic dressing. The crostini was well not a crostini. It was a piece of bread on top of salad greens with over cooked veggies, vegan cheese and an overwhelming amount of bechamel. When I read crostini I think of a nice piece of grilled bread topped with a topping of some sort and you can easily pick it up to eat. The crostini at Pala was a bland, over sauced mess. As for the pizza it was also super bland. The description says that there are hot peppers and garlic along with the tomatoes (as there should be in an arribiata) but neither Neil nor I could taste either of those. It basically was as piece of flatbread with tomatoes on it, nothing spicy about it. We finally enhanced the pizza slightly by adding oregano (which is the weird bunch of old dried flower looking thing that they leave on the table with no explanation-we tried it because others around us were). To top it all off the service was lacking as well. I would never return and I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
We didn’t end up finishing the pizza because it just wasn’t good but at least it left room for us to head to Stogo for some vegan ice cream.
Normally I would have just ordered a small but I was still so hungry after our horrible dinner and we had bought a deal online for two regular sized ice creams, which was just the size I wanted. After tasting a few flavors I decided to avoid the soy (after that soy bechamel mess) and went with two coconut milk based ice creams, the green tea and strawberry. Neil decided to go with one of our favorites the salted caramel and paired it with pumpkin pie (it really tasted like pumpkin pie). Both of us devoured our ice creams within minutes because it was so delicious. Now Stogo is one of my favorite spots in NYC so go there!
Before heading to the city Neil found an online deal for 2-for-1 regular size ice cream at Stogo and decided to buy one. I really recommend you take advantage of all the online deals because it can really make your trip a little more budget friendly and you can experiences places you might not go to otherwise. When we did our DC trip last year I found a ton of great deals on Groupon and LivingSocial which made our trip super inexpensive.
