Katzue, I'm way too cheap to test regularly. lol. I wait until at least 12dpo when AF should be due... I will say, the 2WW is a little faster when you have a toddler running around! They don't give you much time to dwell on things!

Jill, glad the bp is down today.

Yeah, I'll stick with Atkins during the 2WW. I just came off a week of crap eating and need to get this bloat off! I was 151 and the last week put me at 156! The plan is to be back at 151 before I test. Once you get a bfp you kind of have to kick the weight loss mode... I did awesome at lc'ing during my last pregnancy - staying under 50 net carbs most of the time. Then I hit about 32/34 weeks and, well, I jumped ship. I got so uncomfortable that I stopped caring. Food was the only thing that brought me any pleasure at the end of my pregnancy. I ended up gaining 37 lbs. Ugh. Not horrible, but I didn't want to gain that much. Up until my freak out, I had only gained about 15 and was so proud of myself. Then I ended up being one of those women that couldn't lose weight while breastfeeding, so I had to be stuck at about 165/170 for over a year before I could lose weight again. I'm hoping that's enough motivation for me to not make the same mistake this time around. We shall see!

I can't believe you're already 38 weeks! Pregnancy is flying. Good luck on all of your house stuff



haha. Be careful about the sodium involved in those, but I know, at least it's portion control!!!



I have gained 13-15 lbs depending on which time of day I step on the scale. I just hope to God I stick with the low carbing. It's so hard to be LC while pregnant, but I am so scared I am going to be like you and pile on 20+ lbs in the last few weeks!!! How do you recommend avoiding it at the end?

I have absolutely no clue. By that point there is no such thing as willpower and you're so uncomfortable that you stop caring. However, part of the reason that I was so uncomfortable was because my spine popped out of alignment and I couldn't get it fixed until after I gave birth. So I had to lie on my side all the time. Sitting, standing, laying any other way hurt. So yeah, I was a real joy to be around. Of course I was dumb and didn't think there was anything I could do at that point in pregnancy, but my chiropractor has since informed me that he could've helped me out. D'oh! So I guess I know for next time if the same thing happens. Um, my only other suggestion would be to grocery shop when you're in a good mood and full - otherwise your cart will fill up with junk. If there's no junk food in the house, you can't eat it! Don't, however, tell your DH/SO to tell you not to eat something. That will backfire on him BIG TIME!

I am hoping that since I went through this all before and learned a huge lesson that it'll be easier to be somewhat good and not gain a ton of weight. If I would've breastfed it all off in three months then I wouldn't care - but once I learned that my body hates me and wouldn't let me lose weight while breastfeeding, well, I was mad. But I wasn't willing to give up BF'ing either. So I had to live with my consequences for 14 1/2 months. I stopped BF'ing and the weight literally poured off of me in less than a month.

I am sorry to hear about your spine! That sounds horrible.

I have been so good about grocery shopping, the only bad thing I kept in the house was dark chocolate and atkins shakes (my problem this week was my mom dropping off her extra Girl scout cookies and I had to eat half a box and then send the other 1.5 boxes to work with my husband today).

My husband is really good about getting me a tiny version of whatever treat I want, and not buying extra- a mini mcflurry, a small bag of sour skittles to split with me, etc.

I had trouble losing weight while breastfeeding too. I lost 25 lbs IMMEDIATELY last time, and couldn't budge much more weight off. I very slowly lost 13 lbs over 13 months, and then found out I was pregnant. My baby self-weaned from breastfeeding at 13 months, so I never quite lost most of my pregnancy weight. I gained 46 lbs last time!!!

I am hoping I can keep it to 20-25, but we will see. Thanks for your advice!

Toured a daycare today up near our new house. $315/week. UGH. In-home daycare at $200/week is looking better and better...

It's really more for finances - $2-3 per frozen meal beats a "value meal." I can't cook anything from scratch since my entire kitchen is already packed up for the move! I'm also fortunate to really not be sensitive to sodium. A few years ago, my doc was concerned about my BP, so I went SUPER low sodium, and it made absolutely no difference *shrug*

i'm not sure how, but i'm low iron. my ferritin is almost non-existant, and my hgb is low. i dont get it. i eat meat and iron rich foods all the time. i've been getting citrus fruits bc of my crazy grapefruit cravings, so i've been getting vite c with my iron rich foods too. i have a low-phytate/no grain diet too, so none of the risk factors for blocking iron absorption. i'm thinking about taking betaine hcl with my meals to see if that helps, and eating more organ meats, taking a bioavailable iron supplement, etc...

jill, do you know if the kind of vite a in liver is the kind that we have to be aware of during pregnancy?

I'm pretty sure that any vit A in food is fine - it's vit A supplements (or sometimes foods fortified with A where it is not naturally occuring) that we need to watch.

Just 3 oz. of beef liver can contain more than 12 times the recommended daily amount of this vitamin

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/3.../#ixzz1p6k4SuJZ


Scary stuff!

eek, I just Googled, and liver is one of the few foods that DOES contain vit A in retinyl form, not beta carotene. If you Google "liver safe during pregnancy," multiple sites come up warning against eating too much liver while pregnant or TTC. My MIL said she ate liver almost every day while pregnant - had a huge craving for it. Weird. I've never eaten liver in my life :P

I totally just found out the post got moved!!

Wow Jill you've been through the mill!! Only a couple more weeks though!!

Crazy update on me. My high blood pressure I worked so hard through diet and exercise is back. Found myself in the hospital with 157/105

There was the Uti er trip.

Then....... come to find out I have gestational diabetes. One week into it I try having a small amount of rice in the hospital again!!
Even with lc I have to take a diabetes medicine at night now.have to stab myself 5 times a day.

Last trip was random bleeding. No cause known.

I'm still in school and still working. I feel like a hypochondriac!!

That was all in the space of about 3 weeks. Baby is fine though!! Nine weeks to go.

You can't get out of work with all that going on?? My doc wrote me out of work as soon as my diastolic BP exceeded 90. Not sure of your financial situation, though - I'm officially on short term disability since it's a medical issue.

Short term disability from work of the government?

I only work part time but I'm the only income we have right now. I have enough from income tax to cover my leave just in case though.

I'll ask my doc in a couple weeks if I can go on leave I'm a crossing guard and its obviously high stress getting in front of cars and its starting to get really hot in the afternoon which is really bad for any of my conditions.

interesting about the liver and retinyl vite a. oh well, there are lots of other foods that are rich in iron. i have about a monthish left, so there's some time to build my iron back up before the big event.

Hi Everyone

I'm really sorry to thread butt, just wondering whether you could give me some advice about what vitamins to take whilst TTC? I've just read about the Vit A and i'm pretty clueless.

We've only just started to TTC #3 and i currently take a multivitamin, cod liver oil and magnesium.

Thank you x

Both you and your husband/SO must take 7-10,000 IU/day of vitamin D3 along with sufficient magnesium...and calcium for the women. Vitamin D would also be helpful.