my-speck

i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

A little bit grumpy… but out to solve that. With Cake. 28 weeks and counting. April 7, 2011

Filed under: cooking,eating,emotion,exhaustion,family,healthcare,Parenting,pregnancy — rakster @ 10:20 am
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So, not sure what happened to the happy hormones, but they kinda just upped and left me all alone with the grumpy ones about a week ago.  It co-incided with my pelvic-floor/back deciding that it really only had the stamina to hold a growing baby until week 28 and that it was just going to give up and go with the strain of it all.  Pity it didn’t co-ordinate with my nerve-endings and decide to release a bunch of serotonin at the same time – that would have made it bearable.  Why can’t we control that ourselves??

 

So.  Grumpy 28-week pregnant lady on the loose.

 

That is me.

 

Thankfully however a few months ago I booked myself my first trip-away from child #1 (Poogie) down to Sydney for this week.  So here I am in Sydney for a few days, sans-child and sans-husband.

 

A bit of work, and a bit of play before I’m not allowed to fly anymore.  So today, after a day at work yesterday, I plan to shake off the grumpiness by consuming all manner of sweet desserts at Adriano Zumbo’s after a short walk from the relaxing lounge where I am currently reclining at Chez Shef’s…. (thank-you for welcoming me into your home – read: letting me invade and take over once again).

 

love mum

 

ps. I have just reviewed my state at 28 weeks in my last pregancy.  And lo and behold, surprise, surprise: I was grumpy, the happy hormones had deserted me, and I was compensating with dessert…

 

p.p.s. and to cheer me up this morning already, two of our dearest friends just welcomed their beautiful little girl into the world. So I’m smiling at least a little 🙂

 

 

 

Eating is a messy business. April 15, 2010

Filed under: eating,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 6:30 pm
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It’s somewhat circular isn’t it.  Eating is messy when you’re young, when you’re really old, and not as much fun in between. We’re just too polite to really get as messy as it should be sometimes.

You enjoyed your pasta for dinner tonight.  I can tell. Which is good as the doctor is a bit worried about your weight… (more…)

 

eating and waiting… June 12, 2009

Filed under: cooking,eating,pregnancy — rakster @ 9:21 am
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Hello Little Baby Speck!

Well, its freezing this morning. I have my computer in bed with me and am working from there. We went out yesterday and bought two new oil heaters after plugging in our old one to absolutely zero effect the day before (I think the move back from Sydney finally killed it). And so I have the heater we bought for your room in our room this morning and I’m under the covers too. Brrrr. Apparently its five degress. Very cold for a draughty queenslander.   Your dad and I are both a little worried at how cold our house is going to be when you arrive home …  (BTW Week 38 today!  Week 38… I never thought it would come around).

Slept badly again last night. Woke at 3 am and didn’t get back to sleep until around 5:30… Then got woken this morning at 6:30 by the gas workmen right outside our bedroom window digging a big hole in our yard and discussing how cold it was last night / this morning and how many Bundy and Cokes they managed to consume in the car trip home last night because the traffic was bad. Aaagh.. You weren’t impressed either – there was some kicking down there and I interpreted it as “pissed off”. Much more violent and quick than your normal movement.

Yesterday had a spurt of energy and decided to get some things done. Hence the heater-buying. Also managed to inspire myself to cook biscuits. See – still having total cravings for sweet food. Weird. Anyway, I was inspired to biscuits after looking through the Australian Women’s Weekly biscuit cookbook. Its a book that my Grandmother gave me when I was 12 years old. I only just got it back from your Aunt R the other day – I must have loaned it to her a few years ago… I’m really glad I got it back – I thought it was just packed away in one of the multitude of boxes we have yet to look in – stored under the house from before we moved to Sydney. Its sentimental. Anyway, I’ve got it and I have good memories of cooking the biscuits. Hopefully something we can do together when you get bigger – I’ve had some practice with F as she and I used to cook them all the time when we lived next door to each other…

monte carlos – yum!

Yep, so yesterday I did the monte carlos. And damn, do they taste good if I do say so myself. I say so myself. They taste good. Full of sugar. Yum.

Today is a work day. Looking forward to the weekend 🙂

love you
mum

 

cooking in readiness May 3, 2009

Filed under: pregnancy — rakster @ 11:27 am
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Hello Speck!

Its Sunday and I haven’t quite slept enough.  You kept me awake and the strange vivid dreams have come back.   Frogs and strange men.   Very disconcerting.   Grump grump grump.

Yesterday was tiring but fulfulling in some way.  I’ve been thinking about what to do to get ready for you to come.   I got up and went to the markets and shopping early, then after a break for a friend to visit started cooking for the rest of the day.  Goal – get lots of home-cooked and ready to reheat meals into the freezer so that when you arrive we have something relatively nutricious, healthy and mostly delicious to eat.

Yesterday I think I put my goal posts a little high ’cause I didn’t quite get all done I had intended, but on reflection I did get a lot done:

  • 6 big rolls of pesto done and in the freezer, with enough for dinner last night … Yummy pesto with three huge bunches of basil, lots and lots of pine nuts, lots of romano, a little oil, heaps of garlic, some lemon juice and then some fresh roasted cashews to give it more oomph.   Delicious if I do say so myself.
  • pumpkin, eggplant and spinach & onion all roasted/cooked and ready for lasagne-making today or tomorrow.
  • 7 containers of fresh ricotta and spinach ravioli, laid in a home-made tomato sauce.  (i.e. golden-crisp fried garlic pieces in olive oil;  then lotsa tomatoes, blanched, skinned and then cooked down with the garlic for hours yesterday – sweet, fresh and tasty)
cooking in readiness - the canelloni construction

cooking in readiness – the canelloni construction

I bought 3 kg of ricotta (mm, stockpiling) and plan on putting together the lasagne either today (though its a little busy as we’re out from 10:30 until 6pm and I’ve already been out to the airport and back so my energy levels may not hold out until then) or tomorrow.    Lasagne will take a bit longer as it needs to pre-bake.   Thinking some kind of baked ricotta cake for eating this week too.   Or maybe I can make two and freeze one.   Have to consult the pie bible.

Anyway, must fly, off to active birthing classes with your dad.

love you.

mum

Mmm.

 

eating frenzy January 13, 2009

Filed under: cooking,eating,pregnancy,vegetarian — rakster @ 1:12 pm
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Dear Speck,

Yesterday was a day of eating. I arrived at work and ate my large bowl of yoghurt and fresh mango. Soon after, deciding I was still hungry, I moved onto grapes. The large bunch I’d bought into work (intending that it lasted until Thursday) lasted until just before lunch. I took lunch early, cause I was feeling a little peckish. Lunch was a large bowl of chilli beans, which your dad had cooked the day before. It was pretty filling, but only made it until about 2pm when I needed more. 2 nectarines downed for afternoon tea / snack.

Went home and despite the fact it was 4:45 decided a snack of jam-drops (yes, I got around to cooking them on Sunday) was definitely in order. Ate those. I started with one but then decided as I went that 5 large jam-drops was a much closer estimate of the volume required to fill the obviously gaping hole in my stomach. Then your dad had a pack of corn chips so I had a few (it was just a few)… Then I figured baclava was needed too. So I ate that. Just one piece (they are little pieces, only 2cm square!)…

Buying the baclava. I only bought a half a kilo, which, as you can see from the size of the tray on offer, was very restrained of me. And I have been sharing it. Mostly.

While eating these delightful treats I was busy thinking about dinner and dessert ’cause I knew these would only fill me up for a while. This really is a distinct change from pretty much the whole first trimester when I avoided the kitchen and couldn’t really be bothered to think about food at all. So while eating at home I started cooking. First up was french vanilla ice cream with a fresh vanilla bean and lots of cream. Made the custard, put it in the fridge, then started on the sauce. I wanted to make fresh blueberry ripple ice cream, so using the kilo of fresh blueberries I got on the weekend, I added a little sugar and cooked a blueberry jam. Mashed up the blueberries a little and cooked on high heat. It tasted good. Froze the ice cream and then combined in beautiful purple swirls and stuck in the freezer for after dinner.

Assembling Dinner: leeks underneath, cheese on top, pastry nice and crispy

Dinner itself I decided that I wanted fresh leek, fetta and tomato flan. So made a cheese, wheatgerm flaky pastry, then did the leeks and the onions and baked it all into a big flan. Your dad didn’t seem happy that dinner was so late: 8:15 pm; but for me, it was the perfect timing between my last snack and an early bed (eating all day is just exhausting). Dessert of the blueberry swirl ice cream followed.

Yum, yum. I was famished all day, but managed to satisfy the hunger pains and keep myself occupied. Suffice to say I was replete at the end. And I didn’t do any bike riding ’cause I just didn’t have the time.

Enjoy!

love mum

 

Work October 20, 2008

Filed under: exercise,pregnancy — rakster @ 8:44 am
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Dear Speck,

Hi, work today (I’m on lunch – and yes, I’m eating healthily – a hommus & salad sandwich).  Maybe I’m just overtired, but I am finding it more difficult than normal to concentrate & focus on what I need to do while I’m here today.  I’m pretty worried about what we’ll see when we try to take a look at you on Wednesday.  Are you in the right spot?  Have you got a head and a tail?  What will they actually see?

I caught the bus and train to work today.  I was originally planning on riding my bike again from this week (7 weeks after the operation) but all the things I’ve read on the internet and in books about exercise and what I’m allowed to do with you aren’t 100% clear.  Apparently if I overheat for a long time this can be really bad for you, so I should limit myself to moderate exercise.  Generally my daily commute over the Anzac and the Sydney Harbour Bridge takes a good 45 minutes each way and is a hard slog.  There are a lot of hills.  So I want to see how you are doing on Wednesday, then talk to the doctor about whether taking you on this daily journey is going to be ok.  Hopefully it will be ok at least for a little while longer – I enjoy my daily ride.  I’ve got an appointment with the GP on Monday.  So, for the rest of this week I think I’ll walk home from the city to get some exercise.

Funny I was talking to your Dad yesterday about cycling, and he was surprised when I suggested it might be difficult for me to ride because my centre of balance will change.  I guess he forgot that you are going to grow into a large round thing that protrudes from my mid-section.  He’s really keen for you to come and join us but I suspect he severley underestimates the impact you’re going to have on our lives.  A welcome impact, I should clarify, but I think it is going to be SO much bigger than he thinks.  I suspect this cause he’s not always that understanding of other people & the way they deal with their children – sometimes he’s a little quick to judge or say, “we won’t do that”, when I think you can’t know the whole story & also what is happening for them.  Perhaps thats just me being paranoid & judging him as a stereotypical boy.  But I think that its just different.  And maybe I’m being a bit oversensitive & over-the-top.  Anyway, you’ll love him, he’s a great person & he’ll be an amazing dad.   I’m a bit worried about you but you shouldn’t be.  If you do come out with 4 legs and 3 arms – your Dad will come up with a special game just for you – I’m sure of it!

So.  Lunch break over.  Going to go and do some real work…

love you!
mum

ps.  my stomach was sore last night, I think it was your fault – please desist from whatever it was that you were doing.  It felt like you were trying to climb out of my belly button. I did sleep better overall though so perhaps you’ll be better rested too and therefore gentler tonight.