We have been living in Manhattan now for almost 5 years. We’re used to the hustle and bustle and the noise and the traffic and the sirens and the smell and the dog shit on the pavements and the rude people that won’t let you onto the subway when they have already arrived at their destination…….. hmm yes it is time to move!

Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love Manhattan, it is by far my most favourite city in the world, but our life is about to change and I just don’t envision us bringing up a child in the city. Neither my husband and I were brought up in a city and so when we picture our future it’s somewhere with trees and fields and places for our children to run around in… ok so this is our first and he’s not even born yet but I’m in nesting mode and where as the thought of squeezing into a one bedroom flat with a baby might appeal to some people it certainly doesn’t appeal to us! A 3 bedroom house in Connecticut with a huge garden sounds perfect! So despite being a little bit scared about what’s about to happen I’m also excited! Change is good – isn’t that what they say!

Has anyone made that move? How was it for you?

I feel as though I should rename the blog to something else as this one seems to be me talking more about my pregnancy and life rather than what I am eating! Although for those of you who are interested here is what I have eaten today:

Breakfast: a mix match of cereal with skim milk, strawberry yogurt and a tsp flaxseeds!

Snack: apple & rice cake with Philadelphia cheese..

It’s now lunch time and I am starving! On the menu is an old fav of mine that unlike the salads has stuck with me during pregnancy:Tofu with brown rice and steamed vegetables with yogurt dressing! I’m off to enjoy! Byeeee!

I recently read somewhere that avoiding wheat and eating a gluten-free diet while you’re pregnant can help with labour.. unfortunately for me this baby wants bread! I understand where they are coming from with this theory but I’m also opposed to avoiding certain foods when pregnant just incase my baby is born with a wheat intolerance. I have a good friend whose mother avoided everything bad when she was pregnant.. nuts being top of the list and she is allergic to EVERYTHING! I’m a firm believer in a little bit of everything in moderation! Which leads me onto my lunch!

Turkey baguette with mayonnaise, lettuce, avocado, tomato and onions! Followed by an apple and possibly a square or 4 of Cadbury’s chocolate!

For my afternoon snack I made myself a strawberry smoothie using a handful of frozen strawberries, 1 cup of skim milk and 1 tbsp of Haagen Dazs vanilla bean ice cream!

Dinner this evening consisted of whatever vegetables we had leftover in the fridge with a some broiled salmon and a baked potato with a little grated cheddar! I had my camera out ready to take a photo… right next to me so that when I sat down I would remember but of course I forgot… I blame it on baby brain.. another one to add to the list! Night!

They say the 2nd trimester is supposed to be the best one but around my 20th week my hormone’s seemed to kick in and all hell broke loose! I found myself crying at the most silly of things. One day, as it was so cold outside, I decided to order Maxdelivery – for those of you who don’t live in NYC it’s a home grocery delivery service – I just needed some breakfast essentials for the following day and I managed to click on the wrong item.. which was fine but in the confusion I forgot to tip the delivery guy and as a result I found myself in floods of tears on the phone to Rob (my husband) telling him how awful I felt and what was I to do! This poor guy had delivered my food in the freezing cold and I didn’t give him so much as a dollar! My husband, bless him, said he would call up the company and try and locate the delivery guy for me… to cut a long story short the guy couldn’t speak much English and didn’t understand a word Rob was saying and so that was the end of that. I’m sure they don’t get too many people calling up because they were worried about not tipping the delivery guy! This is just one story! I won’t go into the glass smashing incident as it’s far too embarrassing! Let’s just say the tears subsided and the anger hormone’s kicked in!

After I realised that these little outbursts were all another part of the joys of being pregnant, along with sleepless nights and leaky nipples, I was able to rationalise these feelings by telling myself that it will pass and that I AM PREGNANT after all!!!! When I’m holding the little bundle of joy in my arms it will all have been worth it!

Despite the hormones I am now nearly into my 28th week and, for the most part, am feeling great! My belly feels as though it is growing each week and I’m now wondering how on earth it can get any bigger.  My tummy feels so tight I’ve been lathering myself in moisturising cream to hopefully avoid those dreaded stretch marks but it just feels as though it’s going to be inevitable… how can it not be when I feel like I’m about to burst out of my skin and I still have another 12 weeks worth of growing to do! Does anyone else have the scene from Alien in their heads right about now??

All in all I love being pregnant! To just think about our little baby boy growing inside of me, feeling him wiggle around (Alien!!) and more recently hiccuping is just incredible, beyond words! Nothing compares to this feeling and I cannot wait to hold him in my arms for the very first time!

Now back to the title of the blog…. I’ve been trying to add more fish to my diet to get as many of those Omega-3′s into the little bean as possible! For lunch today I made myself a whole wheat pasta and vegetable salad with sardines. To be honest it actually made me want to gag..  especially when I pulled out an unidentified piece of something or other that certainly didn’t resemble any of the vegetables I had in there! eeewww I still managed to eat most of it.. all in the name of love! I am creating a future genius after all!

On the menu tonight = pizza!!!

See you tomorrow!

Here are the latest scan photos…

..and to confirm it’s a boy:

I’m sure my son is going to love that I just posted that on my blog but I couldn’t resist. We are both just so over the moon with this news.

They estimated that he is currently around 13 oz which is the perfect size seeing that I am nearly 21 weeks – 21 weeks tomorrow in fact! The time is seriously flying by! Before I know it this little bundle of joy will be in my arms. I’m trying to cherish every moment, every flutter! He is perfect!

Everything went great with the doctor and I’ve been given the all clear to fly on Monday! My doctor is lovely and I guess I’m probably having a ‘textbook’ pregnancy so nothing to worry about but he flies in checks the heart beat, has a feel around and off he goes again. Where as previously with my midwife, she would spend a lot of time with me….I had a miscarriage earlier in the year so was seeing her then. She then referred me to this doctor to go to for check ups after my miscarriage and I just decided to stay with him. My midwife was very sweet and really nurturing which I liked, but a lot of the time I would leave her office feeling confused and like she hadn’t answered my questions directly. The doctor that i’m now seeing is very matter of fact and straight to the point. I seem to actually worry less with the doctor but I do miss the more personal approach with a midwife!!

This has been playing on my mind a lot lately – do I stay with the doctor, who I know is amazing at what he does and I know I’m in safe hands or do I go back to my midwife who was very nurturing and caring but who left me feeling confused?!?

What to do???? While you ponder that one it’s time for me to cook!

I have a doctors appointment this afternoon for a physical examination. I need to have this done so they can give me the all clear to fly on Monday! So please everyone keep your fingers crossed! I can’t imagine there should be anything wrong but you never know.  Things they are looking out for is a shortened cervix and a dilated cervix! I can’t imagine my cervix is dilated already at 19 weeks so fingers crossed I don’t have the shortened cervix. I think doctors are so worried about getting sued they are just extra cautious! That’s my story anyway and I’m sticking with it!

I woke up feeling particularly nauseous and hungry this morning, which usually means I didn’t eat enough the previous evening.  So I rolled out off bed over the worm and made myself some toast. I was really craving some milk but we were all out so toast it was!

I’m a little bit obsessed with cold toast.. the colder and crunchier the better!

On my way to work this morning I picked up a hot chocolate and a mini carton of milk! Certainly fixed my cravings!

After my appointment this afternoon I need to get organised for our vacation. Most importantly snacks.. and lots of them! I don’t know what the plane food will be like and if they even serve any plus I need a constant supply of food. I think we might need to take a separate suitcase! We’re staying in a villa so I need to be prepared like the good girl scout that I never was!

One minute I’m up and happy and the next I’m down and crying about silly things. Darn those hormones! My poor husband! Thank goodness he is a patient man!

Yesterday I went for my first prenatal massage, which was bliss! Definitely think I’ll be adding more of those to the ‘to do’ list. Once a month ought to do it! They do say to nuture yourself after all! I had to lie on my side rather than on my stomach, for obvious reasons, and she gently massaged all over. I think I dozed off at one point! A prenatal massage should be on every pregnant woman’s list and they should accept insurance!

I’m still waiting to feel any movement. Sometimes I can feel twinges and I wonder if it is the baby or if it’s just my uterus growing?!? As the baby grows I’m sure I’ll know when it does start kicking!

I started today off with a bowl of cereal.  You would think with this freezing weather:

…i’d be craving a warm, comforting bowl of oats, but nope a cold bowl of cereal is what this mama needs! So I had a mix of sunflower seed and pumpkin seed granola with Kashi Cinnamon Harvest whole wheat biscuits.

You know I can’t just have a plain bowl of cereal so I chopped up fresh pineapple and added some strawberry yogurt drink… I particularly like this one at the moment as it’s thicker than the usual yogurt drinks…

and 1/2 cup of skim milk. Loving this combination at the moment.

At the moment I always carry some snacks around with me as I never know when hunger is going to strike! I usually have some fruit or a Kind bar, my new favourite fruit and nut bar, in my purse.  I love their chewy flavours! This morning I had a coconut and almond bar.

So good!

What snacks do you like to carry around with you?

Wrap up warm New York, it’s ffffreezing out there!

I reluctantly rolled out of bed this morning, I was all snug under the duvet and the room was cold. We never sleep with the heating on as it gets too hot in the night but getting out of bed in the morning is super chilly! bbbrrrr I think the room was around 57F!

I bundled myself up with Robs big dressing gown, which is ten times too big for me, and went to make breakfast.

Before:

After:

Proper ‘buttah’ with Marmite and an OJ! I also had a mouthful of the omelet that was leftover from last night and it now keeps repeating on me! My senses are definitely a lot more sensitive since being pregnant.

The walk to work this morning was so peaceful, probably the one and only good reason for getting up to work on a Saturday is it can be very quiet at 8.30 in the morning – even in New York City!!

See ya lattah!

Curled up on the sofa watching a movie.. and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Anyone guess the movie?

I used up the leftovers for dinner tonight and made a huge vegetable and bacon omelette. I ate about 1/3!

With a slice of bread and butter.

For dessert we finished off the last of the Cadbury’s chocolate 4 tiny squares each.

..and just because you haven’t seen this little face for a while, here she is..

Curled up on the sofa too!

Cereal! With half a banana and cherry vanilla yogurt. We didn’t have much milk left so it was a bit dry…. I just tried to google ‘dry mouth’ for a funny image but I don’t think you would have appreciated seeing what came up! I certainly didn’t!

I didn’t really appreciate the cherry vanilla yogurt either.. I’m not really a cherry fan – there I said it! I know most people will think I’m crazy but they just don’t do it for me! I just don’t like the flavour plus you have to deal with a huge pip in the middle! I like more flesh and less pip in my fruit.

Speaking of food….I was relaxing on the sofa last night after a long day at work and think I felt movement down below. I can’t be sure, it might just have been gas but it was definitely something!!! This could be the start of feeling the little sweet potato move!

Apparently my baby is about the size of a sweet potato now hence the referral to an edible, tuberous root vegetable above! There have been a few referrals of the fruit and vegetable kind throughout the weeks; bean, plum, peach, avocado, lemon, orange!

Hmmm I wonder….

Lemon Fulcher maybe???

Happy Friday!!