Category Archives: Mindful Pregnancy

9 Weeks Pregnant: New Joys

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August 17 – August 23: 9 Weeks 0 Days – 9 Weeks 6 Days.

Our first night in our new home, we ordered sushi for delivery. Pregnant women aren’t supposed to eat raw meat due to potential pathogens (not to mention that many fish are off the table due to environmental contaminants), but we were lucky to find a restaurant with a large selection of vegetarian rolls. Yum! A couple of the veggie rolls were packed next to the fish rolls Richard ordered, which could obviously allow for cross-contamination, but I opted not to worry about it. At some point the stress elicited by obsessively following all the guidelines perfectly must have just as many negative health consequences as being a little more lax about the rules.

I love doing yoga in a hot room, a love hot tubs, and people always make fun of me for wearing sweaters in the summer. Pregnant women aren’t supposed to do things that raise their body temperature, but my beloved piping hot baths have been an ongoing temptation. At our prenatal appointment this week, the doctor told Richard that elevated body temperature negatively affects the baby’s brain development, and ever since then he’s been strictly enforcing the rules. Our first full day in our house, we discovered that the pilot light for the water heater didn’t stay lit for longer than a few hours, which dissolved my fantasy of sneaking into a hot bath behind Richard’s back. (Update: We didn’t get the water heater fixed until I was 16 weeks pregnant, so I didn’t get a hot shower—let a alone bath—for a long time).

Now on my sixth week of relentless nausea, I began having some moments of despair. Before I got pregnant, I had tons of little joys in my day-to-day life. I used to take Foxy on walks up Bernal Hill, which has a fantastic 360 degree view, or for a long walk or run along Ocean Beach. Now I’m too fatigued. I used to love negitoro maki, exotic cheeses, oolong tea, and Philz Mint Mojito Iced Coffee. Now all of these are advised against (Update: later in pregnancy I discovered a Swiss Water Decaf Mint Mojito Iced Coffee). I even read the other day that chamomile and ginger tea, which I’ve been drinking all along, can be risky for pregnancy! I used to get a sugar fix from green tea cheese cake, brownie sundaes sundaes, and sour patch kids, but now dessert makes me nauseated. Even most yoga doesn’t feel good for me any more (I’ll post more on this in a few weeks).

Instead of wallowing in self-pity focusing on what I couldn’t do, I realized I had to shift my daily habits to include joys that I can still partake in:

  • Tea. Rooibos is my new go-to. I make a yummy roobios tea latte with maple syrup, vanilla, and skim milk (before pregnancy I drank nothing but almond milk, but cow’s milk has appealed to me more lately). And, tea is even better when enjoyed with friends I can share with!
  • Light, therapeutic exercise. I cleared some space for my mat and got my foam roller, pinky balls, therapy band, Mexican blanket, and bolster in a convenient location.
  • Yoga Nidra. Translating to “Yogic Sleep,” this practice is done lying completely still. Relax Into Greatness by Rod Stryker is my 35 minutes of bliss. This helps so much with the fatigue.
  • Artistic expression. I used to draw, paint, play musical instruments, and sing—skills I’ve let fall by the wayside. My sister bought me a watercolor kit for my birthday and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much free piano sheet music is available online these days, so I plan to incorporate these joys into my day-to-day life.
  • Connecting with the baby. Up until now it’s been hard to conceptualize the baby. On that first ultrasound, it was just a spec! This week, Richard and I went back in for my next appointment with the OB/GYN and we got an ultrasound that actually looked like something. Well, sort of. What it looked like was an apple fritter. But that’s at least it’s something I can visualize growing and developing inside of me. Also, unlike the first ultrasound I had, the baby’s healthy heartbeat was detectable! The other night, Richard kissed me goodnight then kissed my belly and said, “Goodnight, Fritter.”
9-Week Ultrasound

Our little apple fritter at nine weeks.

Look at how much she developed by week 19!

22 Weeks Pregnant: Pregnancy Book Reviews

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November 17 – November 23: 22 Weeks 0 Days – 22 Weeks 6 Days.

Bu(m)pdate for this rainy week:

22 Weeks Bump

22 weeks, 5 days. (Maternity clothes courtesy of my H&M shopping spree a couple weeks ago)

I’ve officially burnt out of reading books about pregnancy and childbirth, and am now moving on to reading about newborn care. Here’s what I thought of the books I read:

Natural Hospital Birth: The Best of Both Worlds by Cynthia Gabriel

Natural Hospital BirthThis was my favorite book I read about childbirth because it’s well-written, non-repetitive, and focuses on exactly the type of birth I’m planning to have. I did my research and have chosen to give birth in a hospital, so it’s tiresome to read books and articles about natural birth that push me to do it at home; home birth is a great option with several benefits, but it’s not the option I chose. Natural Hospital Birth clearly and concisely lays out birth options, and offers written exercises to help the reader make good guesses about what they’ll want during labor and childbirth. (Several weeks ago, I blogged about some realizations I had while reading this book). After reading this book I felt much better educated about my choices and I felt prepared to navigate having as natural a birth as possible in a hospital setting.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

Ina May's Guide to ChildbirthI read this book years before I got pregnant for my prenantal yoga teacher training. The first half is full of empowering natural birth stories, and the second half is a detailed explanation of labor and birth, and evidence-based information about what helps and what hurts (different birth positions, medications, interventions). Before reading this book, I didn’t really get why anyone would go through the ordeal of having a natural birth. After reading it, I concluded that my baby and I would have the best chances at a good outcome having as natural a birth as possible (leaving room for medically necessary interventions, of course).

However, the book has such a strong agenda toward promoting natural home birth, that I felt some interventions are presented in a overly negative light. For example, after reading the chapter “What You Least Expect When You’re Expecting,” I felt scared of pitocin (a drug that stimulates labor) because of the potential side effects, but that fear is not going to serve me if pitocin ends up being medically necessary for me.

Also, in the years since this book was written many hospitals have shifted away from the dismal scene Ina May presents: a fluorescent-lit room where you’re strapped down on your back, denied food and drink, and cut open (via C-section of episiotomy) so the doctor can yank the baby out of you. At my hospital (Saint Luke’s in San Francisco) the labor and delivery rooms are dimly lit, you’re allowed to give birth in any position (they provide a squatting bar, birthing ball, and birthing chair), they let you eat and drink (unless you’re getting an epidural or C-section), they don’t do routine episiotomies, and they recommend hiring a doula. Despite these qualms, overall this book is amazing. I’m planning to reread the birth stories a my baby’s birth nears.

Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber

Having FaithThis book incorporates elements of memoir and informational non-fiction. This format makes it slower to read and harder to reference if you’re looking for a specific piece of information, but I enjoyed it anyway. The book is a detailed discussion about how what we eat, drink, breathe, and touch can affect babies’ development during pregnancy and breastfeeding. With my dry background in science, the author’s vibrant, metaphor-rich descriptions of embryonic development were refreshing. I found the detailed information about various environmental teratogens (substances that can cause birth defects) fascinating. This book inspired me to take the risk of heavy metals more seriously—lead and mercury can be devastating for a baby’s brain development. One caveat: Many of the harmful conditions that can affect the baby’s development can’t be changed easily or immediately, so some of the take-aways may be a little depressing (unless you have time to become an environmental activist, elicit a change in governmental regulations, and wait for the benefits to take effect before you get pregnant).

Other resources I used:

The Business of Being Born Documentary

The Business of Being BornIf you’re okay with shaking your trust in the medical system, watch this documentary. The track record of medical interventions in normal births over last 100+ years has been kind of horrifying (for an example, read up on Twilight Sleep). It will also give you a window into the types of things you’ll read about in much more detail in Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. Side benefit: Rikki Lake is the interviewer, which is a fun blast from the past.

Hypnobabies® Home Study Course

This was recommended to me by a few different friends, and there are several things I enjoy about it:

  • The track of joyful pregnancy affirmations (psychological factors have a huge effect on how women experience pain during labor, so positivity throughout pregnancy is key).
  • Positive rewording. In Hypnobabies, “labor” is called “my birthing time” so it doesn’t sound as hard), “contractions” are called “pressure waves” (which sounds more positive and productive), and the “due date” is called the “guess date” (so the baby isn’t considered “late” if it’s born after that). I’m all for anything that makes my perception of pregnancy and childbirth positive.
  • The recorded self-hypnosis sessions. Due to issues with my hypermobile joints, I haven’t been able to practice much yoga during pregnancy (so poses, anyway), so these tracks have been like my meditation. They are each 30 minutes long, which drives me crazy on fidgety days, but practicing everyday has helped me refine my ability to completely relax. Some of the tracks include visualizations that helped me connect with my baby before she starting kicking and feeling real.

The overall course is pretty time-consuming. If you do everything the manual says, you’ll spend over an hour a day on it for six weeks (and, of course, the course author says that if you don’t do everything they tell you to it wont work for you). I started my course early, and am going through it much slower than recommended.

Beyond the instructions on self-hypnosis, I’m not a fan of the content in the manual for the course. The dialog in the manual also seems to implicitly blame the mother if the Hypnobabies techniques don’t work for her (i.e. it must have been because the mother wasn’t dedicated enough in her preparation). It’s also got pretty single-track education about childbirth, which made me feel like if my birth went any differently than that one ideal way, all the techniques I’d learned would no longer apply. I want to feel positive, prepared, and accepting no matter what happens.

There were some nuggets of wonderful information in the manual, so it was worth reading for me. However, despite what the author writes (that Hypnobabies should be your only childbirth education course lest the other courses sully your positivity), I would recommend that you read more than only the Hypnobabies® manual to prepare for childbirth. Maybe doing just that will water down the effectiveness of the techniques for me, but that’s okay—I’m not attached to having a brand name childbirth.

BabyCenter My Pregnancy Today App

This is a fun app to have to keep track of what week I’m in, what the baby is up to, how I can alleviate discomforts, and how I can prepare for what’s to come. BabyCenter’s write-ups compare the baby to a fruit or vegetable every week, which is cute (but can also be confusing: A carrot? Like how big of a carrot?). I mostly enjoy checking this app, but sometimes I feel like it can be an overload of information that isn’t easily verified. For example, this article about herbal tea during pregnancy made me worry about drinking herbal infusions my doctors said were fine (like chamomile tea). The article has no citations so it would take a ton of independent research to assess the quality of all the information. After doing some half-hearted research on my own, I decided to stop stressing about it and drink my favorite herbal teas in moderation.

What Richard read:

The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin

The Birth Partner A friend who had a baby about a year ago recommended this book. I can’t give much of a review on it, because I didn’t read it, Richard did. From my perspective, reading the book made Richard feel more comfortable and confident about supporting me during childbirth. Some days he’d come home after reading his book on the bus and ask if I needed him to make me a snack or anything. He’d explain that the book had reminded him to take care of me in any way that I needed it. It’s a tough read though. Even though Richard is a fast reader, it took him a while to get through. He also didn’t like reading the sections about complications—I felt the same way in all the books I read—but if any of that stuff does end up happening, at least we’ll be informed about what’s going on.

The Missing Pieces:

What To Expect When You're ExpectingBetween my prenatal yoga teacher training, the reading material the hospital gave me, and a human growth and development course I took during university, I had solid understanding about how babies develop and the discomforts I would face during pregnancy, however none of books listed above covers these topics in depth. Also, all of the books I read went over the medical aspects of childbirth in some way, but none covered the medical aspects of pregnancy. I didn’t have a book that explained what to expect at my first prenatal appointment, what my prenatal screening options were, or when I would be getting ultrasounds. A midwife I know recommended against reading the mainstream bible on pregnancy, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, because it apparently uses language that’s disempowering to women and pathologizes pregnancy and childbirth. Even so, since I’m going the hospital route, I think it would have been nice to read an overview book like this early on so I knew, for example, that the transvaginal ultrasound was coming in my first prenatal visit (I didn’t even know that thing existed!).

Next in my queue:

Baby 411 by Ari Brown and Denise Fields. (I’ve already started this, and it is slow going).

The Baby Book by the entire Sears family, I think. (I’ve tasked Richard with reading this one)

8 Weeks Pregnant: Surrendering Control (Or Not)

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August 10 – August 16: 8 Weeks 0 Days – 8 Weeks 6 Days.

Big Cousin

We announced my pregnancy to my family with this big cousin shirt for my niece, Rosie.

Richard and I spent three days last week driving from San Francisco to Vancouver. I knew my mom would have dinner on the table as soon as we got to Vancouver, and I wanted to share the news of our pregnancy first thing so that any nausea-induced rudeness (like pushing the brussels sprouts as far away from myself as possible) would be interpreted in context. We sat down for dinner with my parents, my sister and her husband, and my two-year-old niece, Rosie. Before we could even say grace, I produced a green tissue-paper-wrapped gift and said, “We got something for Rosie. Let her open it right away!” Rosie unwrapped the package and held up a pink shirt. My sister read aloud the words printed below two amicable elephants: “Big Cousin” (A reformulating of my initial plan to tell Richard I was pregnant the week I found out). Everyone was pleasantly surprised and congratulated us. My mom got up to give Richard and me a hug and cried happy tears.

Normally I would be the one to play with Rosie while Richard helped out with cleaning up from dinner, but this trip I spent a lot of time laying on the couch and “Auntie Riri” (what Rosie calls Richard—she hasn’t quite figured out the difference between aunts and uncles yet) got to interact with Rosie a little more. Nothing is as reassuring to a pregnant woman as watching her partner successfully care for a child. He said that having his own baby on the way gave him a new confidence with children—or at least motivation to start practicing.

I saw several friends while I was in Vancouver, some of whom guessed I was pregnant before I could break the news! Normally with my friends and family I go on a hike, or kayaking, or skiing. I was grateful that my loved ones were willing to go on gentle walks or do other activities that I could bring a folding chair to. I’ve heard that—contact sports aside—expecting mothers can continue doing most of the activities they did before pregnancy. It must be true for some women, because I’ve seen pregnant ladies running and women in my vinyasa yoga classes up until their last month of pregnancy. That’s not the case for me. While gentle physical activity makes me feel better than sitting around resting all day, my body seems resolutely against anything strenuous. Activities that push my cardio, strength, or endurance make me feel nauseated. Even deep stretching doesn’t feel good. My pregnant body is a Buddhist, urging me to embrace moderation—the middle way.

We got home from Vancouver and immediately started packing our whole life into boxes. We’d owned our new home for a month, and it was finally time to move in! We’d originally planned to rent a Uhaul and do the heavy lifting ourselves (with the help or a friend or two). After lugging a few preliminary boxes up to the house in our Honda Civic—just to get the process started—I abashedly convinced Richard to hire movers. I realized that I would not be able to contribute much to helping with the move, and I didn’t want Richard to hurt his back trying to compensate for me. Obviously I had a good excuse and there was nothing to feel guilty about, but the raw truth is that I hate having limitations. A common theme in yoga and meditation is learning to be with discomfort without needing to change anything about it. I teach this all the time, and I thought I was fairly good at it. I knew that pregnancy would be uncomfortable and rife with change, but I thought I would be able to ride its waves with equanimity and acceptance. Sometimes I do. But sometimes when Richard gives me the sage advice, “Go lay down on the couch and let me handle this,” I snap back, “I don’t want to go lay down!”

At least because of the meditation I can take a step back from my outbursts to laugh at my gracelessness and accept that I am a human on a journey.

~ * ~

Perspective: As I publish this at during my twenty-second week of pregnancy, I can’t help but laugh reading back over this journal entry. One evening this week, I asked Richard if he could cut up a mango for me and get me a glass of water. As he obliged, he said “I think you’re finally getting the hang of to letting me do things for you.” I felt equally proud and chagrined. I think he could sense my cognitive dissonance, because he added, “That’s a good thing!” Hopefully by the time my baby’s birthday arrives I’ll have enough practice to be able to completely and shamelessly surrender my need for control. After all, as Richard often tells me when I’m combatively independent, “You know, eventually you’ll have to leave our children alone with me for a few hours, and just trust me to take care of them.” I would never want my type-A personality, control-freak mentality, lone wolf tendencies to cost him trust, respect, and precious one-on-one time with his children. As I wrote fourteen weeks ago, I am still a human on a journey.

21 Weeks Pregnant: Beyond-The-Basics Nutrition

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November 10 – November 16: 21 Weeks 0 Days – 21 Weeks 6 Days.

This week, I had my second group prenatal session, and they gave us a neat handout with actual size drawings of the baby at various stages of pregnancy. I didn’t realize how big the baby is already! The Babycenter My Pregnancy Today app told me that she was the length of a carrot, but I couldn’t really conceptualize what that meant until I saw this picture.

Baby's actual size

The baby’s actual size during 19-22 weeks.

I’m not really sure why fruits and veggies are the comparison items of choice for developing babies. Maybe it’s to remind us to eat healthily during pregnancy. I’ve been trying! This week, I made an autumn veggie soup that a pregnant friend, Rose, posted on Facebook. When we ate it as leftovers, Richard augmented it with some slices of turkey bacon, and it was even tastier.

Winter Veggie Soup

Autumn Veggie Soup. Ingredients: Kale, Carrots,  Butternut squash, Zucchini, Yellow zucchini, 1 large yellow onion, 3 cloves garlic, Fresh diced tomatoes, 1/2 lemon, 1 cup chickpeas, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 16 ounce low salt chicken broth. Season with Allspice & Cayenne pepper.

“Unhealthy” things you get to indulge in during pregnancy

Obviously fruits and veggies are healthy, but there are a few things that are normally no-no’s or in-moderation’s that you can indulge in during pregnancy. Here are a few not-so-guilty pleasures that the midwife and facilitator of my group prenatal session recommended we eat:

  • Eggs. Usually the advice is to take it easy on cholesterol-heavy eggs, but they’re packed with omega threes and protein, which are essential for pregnant ladies.
  • Cheese. Before I got pregnant, Richard and I had nearly cut cheese out of our diet. Since I’ve been pregnant, I eat calcium- and protein-rich cottage cheese, mozzarella, and feta on nearly a daily basis. It’s going to be hard going back when I’m done breastfeeding! One caution they give is avoid unpasteurized cheeses, so I check the labels whenever I buy anything gourmet, but it seems like you have to go out of your way to find unpasteurized cheese in the USA.
  • Bacon. Richard and I switched from regular bacon to turkey bacon a while back, and we rarely even ate that any more before I was pregnant. Although you’re not supposed to gain a ton of excessive weight while pregnant, restricting salt and fat isn’t recommended. Lately I’ve been buying turkey bacon weekly—yum. However, in my group prenatal session, they told us to get nitrate/ite-free bacon, and I can’t find turkey bacon that fits the bill (there are only a couple brands available). Guess I’m going to have to switch to the real thing—doctor’s orders!
  • Red meat. Mama needs her iron. I’ve been getting my iron more from leafy greens than meat though. As pregnancy progresses, my digestive system becomes more and more compressed and the last thing I want to try to do is digest a T-bone steak.

Not all salmon is created equal

Mercury in fish

In my group prenatal session, they gave us a list of the best and worst fish for mercury contamination. They also gave us a list that focused specifically on sushi, which was kind of weird considering we’re not supposed to have raw fish. Thanks for rubbing it in! (Click to enlarge).

Knowledge about mercury contamination in seafood is pretty mainstream now, and any health nut knows salmon is the fish to eat for high DHA (a form of omega three fatty acid that’s essential for the baby’s brain development) and low mercury (a teratogen that can cause neurological problems and developmental delays in the baby). However, I’ve been still been avoiding salmon while pregnant because it still has some mercury in it and is also contaminated with PCB’s (a chemical can affect the baby’s brain development), and I’ve been taking a DHA supplement instead.

My confidence in my supplements was already shaken after I’d read that the absorption of DHA from supplements isn’t as good as from fish, and that some prenatal supplements contain lead (another teratogen that can impair neurological development). Also, my midwife recommended I stop taking the supplement during my third trimester as it may increase the risk of hemorrhage (the word “hemorrhage” is one of the few things that scare me about childbirth). Then, I read this in Fit Pregnancy Magazine:

Eat Fish

“Seafood-eating moms give birth to children with IQs five points higher than the spawn of fish-skippers, thanks to fish’s hefty dose of brain-boosting omega-3’s, NIH experts say. If you’re foregoing water-dwellers because of mercury concerns, know that the risk for most fish is practically nil: The maximum harm small amounts of the  metal could cause is a 0.01-point drag on your babe’s IQ points (risks go up for high-mercury fish…). So, stock up on salmon for your baby genius’ sake!” (Click to enlarge).

I don’t normally make my decisions based on magazine articles with uncited sources, but I asked my midwife, and she agreed: the benefits of eating low-mercury fish are worth the risk. So, I did some research to make sure I was getting the absolute most benefit for my risk, and here are the personal guidelines I’ve decided to follow:

  • Avoid farmed salmon (often Atlantic salmon). Because the feed for farmed salmon contains other fish, their contamination levels are higher (the higher on the food chain an animal is, the more concentrated its contamination).
  • Avoid chinook (king) and sockeye salmon. These were my two go-to choices for salmon before I was pregnant, but, because these types of salmon live longer, they are more contaminated with PCB’s.
  • Choose wild Alaskan salmon (chum, pink or coho). These salmon are the least contaminated. I’m planning to eat one of these types of salmon once a week.

The “dirty dozen” and “clean fifteen”

Many pesticides are teratogens (can cause birth defects), so if there’s a time to buy produce organic it’s now. For the sake of my bank account, my shortcut is: if you eat its skin (or it doesn’t have skin) definitely buy it organic (e.g. apples, cucumbers, kale), if you peel it’s skin off it’s okay to buy conventional (e.g. bananas, oranges, grapefruits). We got a list of the 12 most important foods to buy organic, and the 15 with the lowest pesticide residue, and I was interested to see some of these fruits and veggies violated my rule! I’m going to have to keep this in my wallet to reference at the grocery store.

Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen

The dirty dozen (buy these organic) and clean fifteen (lowest in pesticides). (Click to enlarge).

Beans please, hold the BPA

I think the midwife and prenatal group facilitator must have both been vegetarians, because they accented how healthy beans are during pregnancy. But seriously, beans tend to be high in protein, fiber, iron, folate, calcium, and zinc—all important for pregnancy. Even though I’ve been lax about avoiding BPA during pregnancy (a chemical that may disrupt fetal development that leeches into canned foods), I asked about BPA contamination in canned beans. Beans take planning to make from scratch (you either have to soak them overnight or cook them forever), so I rarely do it. The midwife had a great suggestion: cook one large batch of beans from scatch, and freeze them in usable portions (in BPA-free containers, if possible). That’s my goal for next week!

Decaf coffee doesn’t have to be bathed in chemicals

The evidence about how caffeine affects pregnancy is equivocal, but I’ve never been that into drinking coffee (and when I did, I’d often get it decaf), so I avoiding most caffeine is an easy sacrifice for me. Have you ever wished you could unknow something someone told you? Months before I was pregnant, a work acquaintance mentioned offhand that decaffeinated coffee is full of chemicals (on another occasion, she also ruined gel manicures for me, sheesh). Although I haven’t found any evidence that the small amount of chemical residue in decaf coffee is harmful to adults or developing babies, I didn’t feel great about drinking it (the FDA tends to have lower standards about what should go in my body than I do). When I got pregnant I ditched my weekly treat of a Decaf Mint Mojito Iced Coffee from Philz. I really missed it! Then I found out that Philz carries Swiss Water decaf coffee; it’s coffee that’s decaffeinated through osmosis (water) rather than with chemicals! Now a Swiss Water Decaf Mint Mojito Iced Coffee is my go-to indulgence when I need a boost.

7 Weeks Pregnant: Nausea

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August 3 – August 9: 7 Weeks 0 Days – 7 Weeks 6 Days.

I love teaching yoga, but I had been so relentlessly nauseated that by week eight that I was just counting down the classes until Richard and I left on Wednesday for our road trip to Vancouver, Canada to visit my family. The teaching itself wasn’t so bad—the light movement and warmth actually relieved many of my symptoms—but having to put on real clothes and leave my apartment where I could nap and snack whenever I wanted to was arduous when I was feeling so uncomfortable.

Foxy and I used to go on long adventures every day. Now, my walks around Bernal Heights Park consist mostly of me resting on park benches. It drives me nuts when people say, "Isn't it a little early in pregnancy for you to be feeling so tired?" No. Evidently it's not.

Foxy and I used to go on long adventures every day. Now, my walks around Bernal Heights Park consist mostly of me resting on park benches. It drives me nuts when people say, “Isn’t it a little early in pregnancy for you to be feeling so tired?” No. Evidently it’s not.

I think nausea is my body’s way of preparing me psychologically for a baby. Just as a baby communicates it’s diverse needs in one way—crying—my body now speaks primarily in nausea. Hunger—nausea. Overly full—nausea. Exerted too hard—nausea. Too sedentary—nausea. Thirsty—nausea. Too hot—nausea. Too cold—nausea. Sleepy—nausea. Before I was pregnant, I could get up, take my dog Foxy on a 45-minute walk on Bernal Hill, and teach a yoga class—all before breakfast. During the walk and the yoga class my body may have whispered to me that I should have eaten sooner, and maybe by the time I finally grabbed a protein pack from Starbucks my body’s tone would have risen from whispering to sternly chastising. The nausea augments my body’s whispering to yelling. If I take Foxy out on even her 5-minute pee-walk before eating my morning apple or boiled egg, my body revolts. I wish I could say that I use my refined yoga skills to listen and respond to the subtle cues from my body, but the cues are so blatant and intrusive that it really doesn’t take honed senses or self-discipline to modify my lifestyle. It’s a necessity.

Informed by the booklet my doctor gave me and my friend, Jacqueline’s, blog I found that eating frequently helped attenuate my queasiness. For the first time in my life I started getting up for midnight snacks when my body woke me up with nausea. You’re not supposed to gain too much weight in the first trimester (yet another thing for pregnant women to stress about), so I broke up my meals into smaller sub meals (like a hobbit, I’ve got second breakfast and elevensies), ate more slowly, and got an arsenal of naturally low-calorie snacks. On our road trip to Vancouver, I munched on a steady stream of popcorn, grapes, and carrots. Luckily, I don’t get motion sickness, so the car ride didn’t bother me.

In Oregon, Richard and I went on a twenty or thirty minute hike to check out the sand dunes. I’ve been a fitness fanatic since I was fifteen, and normally I’m the one with stamina and Richard is the one telling me to stop trying to have a conversation with him while we’re hiking up a hill. This time I was the one huffing and puffing along, complaining that my shoes were full of sand, and stopping for frequent water breaks. I had the fleeting (and pretentious) thought, This must be how normal people all the time. The effort of the hike was totally worth the play time we had on the dunes though.

I insisted we continue to drive up the scenic route along the coast, even though it would add a couple hours to our trip. Then with Richard behind the wheel, the pregnant-lady fatigue set in and I fell asleep for most of it.