Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty Eight Weeks + Supplements

Oops....this was supposed to be posted on Monday, like every edition of my Pregnancy Food Diary. Sometimes life happens. And that's ok. :)

Third Trimester, baby! It sort of feels crazy that it's here already, but it also feels crazy that it didn't come sooner. I'm feeling so large already! I think baby's been having a growth spurt, because I've been starving!

Here's what I ate last Thursday.

Breakfast: baked oatmeal with butter and milk, hard boiled egg, decaf coffee with cream
Snack: a banana (in the car while shopping)
Lunch: leftover Best Darn Lentils, roast beef (cooked by my wonderful mother-in-law and left here after they visited...thanks!) in a corn tortilla with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and avocado
Snack: Plain yogurt with blueberries and honey
Dinner: slow-cooked Ziti, big salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, feta cheese, toasted almonds, and dried cherries
Snack: 2 pieces of freshly baked Honey Oatmeal Bread with lots of butter. :)

Servings (recommended amount is in parentheses): 

Protein: 3.5 (4)

Eggs: 1.5 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 2 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4)

I fell short in almost every food group. (Except grains and butter!) But amazingly, I felt great! I think it's because I ate often and I ate enough.  

Now, as promised long ago, these are the supplements I take when I'm pregnant.

1. New Chapter Perfect Prenatal
I like the idea of getting all my nutrients from food, but I also know that just because I'm eating well doesn't mean I'm necessarily getting everything I need. A whole food vitamin seems to be a good compromise. New Chapter's prenatal vitamin is also pro-biotic, which leads me to believe that my body is absorbing more of what I'm taking in. Also, since it's food based, it can be taken on an empty stomach and won't make you queazy. These vitamins are a little pricey, but I love knowing that my body can actually use the nutrients! You can save money by using Subscribe & Save on amazon.com.

2. Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil 
You can read more about our experiences with this super food here. It is the number one recommended supplement by the Weston A. Price foundation. (Who are they?) It provides fat soluble vitamins A and D and important fatty acids. I usually take it in painless capsule form right now, though once in a while I brave the fishy taste and take the liquid (only because it's cheaper, and you have to take a LOT of capsules to get the same amount you'd be taking of the liquid).


3. Pregnancy Tea
A couple weeks ago I posted my recipe for Pregnancy Tea, which tones the uterus and helps support your growing blood supply. I'm coming down with a cold right now, and my midwife recommended adding honey and lemon to the tea to soothe my throat. It adds flavor and feels great!

4. Elderberry Syrup
I take this off and on through the winter months - pregnant or not - to boost my immune system. I'm taking extra right now to help fight this bug. 

5. Vitamin C and Echinacea
Earlier this pregnancy I had a cold that just wouldn't go away. My midwife recommended taking vitamin C and Echinacea, and sure enough, that kicked it. The immune system has to work harder during pregnancy,  and these two supplements give it a little boost. I take the vitamin C capsules whenever I think I may have been exposed to something (which is often, since I teach dance and am around kids with sniffly noses all the time), and I take the echinacea only when I start to feel something coming on. You are not supposed to take echinacea for more than two weeks at a time, because it becomes ineffective.


6. Magnesium Oil
I've recently starting using magnesium oil, at the recommendation of Anne Marie of cheeseslave.com. I'm hoping this will help with the muscle cramps and aches I've been getting occasionally, as well as help relieve stress. It's quite frugal when you make your own using magnesium flakes.


Update! I almost forgot!
7. Floradix Iron + Herbs
I've been taking this on and off this pregnancy, and I do find that when I take it consistently I have more energy. I did not have my iron levels tested this pregnancy, but I have been low in the past, and I'd much rather take this easily-absorbed, food-based supplement than those nasty iron pills! It is pricey, but it is hard for me to get enough iron from food and since it makes me feel better, it's worth it!


What supplements do you take while you're pregnant?

This is part of Fight Back Friday.

What We Do When We're Sick

Well I'm back after a week-long hiatus. I came down with a cold a week ago and haven't had the energy for anything extra.

But today I'm feeling great, minus the residual junky sounding cough. Here's what I did to take care of myself and recover quickly from the dreaded late-winter cold:

1) I ate nourishing foods and drank plenty of liquids.

When I'm sick, I pretty much only want to eat liquid foods. It's a lot easier to breathe when you are sipping rather than chewing. So this week I lived on soup, smoothies, and herbal tea.

The day I felt the worst, I somehow gathered enough strength to make some chicken soup with homemade bone broth. I added some crushed garlic at the end, since raw garlic has so many healing properties. I also pulled some tomato soup from the freezer (made last summer with heirloom tomatoes). I had a smoothie containing frozen fruit, yogurt, coconut oil, and pastured egg yolks every day to get some more nutrients in me - since other foods weren't very appetizing. I drank like six cups of tea a day - mostly immune system support and throat comfort (we like Yogi Tea and Traditional Medicinals). And I drank a lot of water.

2) I supplemented my diet with superfoods.

I continued taking all the things we usually take: Homemade elderberry syrup, fermented cod liver oil, and liver capsules. In the first couple days, I took the elderberry several times a day, in hopes of giving my immune system the extra boost it needed. I have also taken a homeopathic remedy in the past at the first sign of a cold with definite success - it's called Alpha CF.

3) I rested.

I took two days off of work, let the housework and laundry go, slept in as much as I could, and rented Jane Austen films from the library. (I recommend the BBC version of Sense & Sensibility!)

And now I'm back to my chipper self and ready to face the week ahead of me!