Well, I broke my streak. Ah well, life goes on.
That doesn’t mean there was nothing fun about yesterday though! Yesterday was 2dp5dt, and we had good friends over for dinner, which was really nice. It’s also why I didn’t blog. Em made a delicious veal and mushroom sauce over pasta and our friends brought homemade swiss rolls. Delish.
Other news from yesterday – my best friend is pregnant. There are definitely mixed emotions there. She started trying about 6 or 7 months after us, but her insurance is better than ours in that they started paying for treatment after 6 failed IUIs. She has gone through a lot – 6 natural IUIs, 2 medicated IUIs, and now IVF. Our retrievals were within a week of each other back in December. They didn’t do a fresh transfer because they were doing genetic screening. Her frozen transfer was just over a week before ours this month. And it worked! I’m so happy for them. The twinge of jealousy is there, but I keep trying to remember that I’m “pregnant until proven otherwise” at the moment as well. I definitely feel like this might make it harder than it already would have been if this FET doesn’t work for us. But I’m staying optimistic. I hope that we get to make that same phone call to them next weekend. 🙂
My fun stuff for today: pineapple. I’m sure you’ve all read about pineapple (specifically pineapple core) and how it can help with implantation. The above mentioned friend ate pineapple I think every day after her transfer for a week or so. I was not planning on it, but maybe felt a little peer pressure via pregnancy-announcement-phone-call last night, so I had Em buy me a pineapple this morning. Pineapple core is gross/feels like chewing wood, so I decided to make a smoothie.
I had Em cut up the pineapple for me, including the core, because I suck at such things. She did a lovely job. I got bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen mango, plain yogurt, and (not pictured) milk.
I threw the following into the blender:
- 1/2-2/3 cup frozen mango
- 3/4-1 cup chopped pineapple (including the core)
- 1 banana
- 2 spoonfuls plain yogurt
Voila! It was pretty delicious. It could probably have used a splash of milk to thin it out but I forgot to put it in so I drank it as is. Our blender did a pretty good job with the pineapple core. There were maybe 1 or 2 little pieces of core that I felt but it was generally smooth. And delish.
Have y’all tried pineapple core? As I was drinking my smoothie I did some internet research as to why people say to eat pineapple core. The source that I found reported that it is because pineapples (especially the core, but also the whole fruit) are a good source of an enzyme called bromelain, which acts like a natural aspirin (anti-inflammatory, blood thinner). So it may help with implantation by helping with inflammation and encouraging increased blood flow to the uterus. BUT that’s also why I’m taking baby aspirin so now I’m worried that I shouldn’t be doubling up. Always something to worry about, right? Jury is out on whether I will put the core into my smoothie tomorrow, but now that I have all of the stuff I’ll definitely be having smoothies with breakfast for the next week or so. 🙂
Plus they’re delicious.
I have been making a conscious effort to improve my healthy eating habits now that I am hopefully hosting a little growing human life. Honestly, Em and I eat fairly healthy in general. Em does all of the cooking (I know, I’m spoiled) – because she loves it and is good at it and we’ve been together since I was 20 so I never really learned. Anyway, we don’t eat out more than once, maybe twice, per week. The meals she cooks are usually made up of whole foods – nothing too processed, fresh proteins and produce, etc. Because of this, my lunches and dinners are well balanced, relatively healthy, and super delicious (I take dinner leftovers for lunch the next day).
My breakfast habits, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. I used to skip it altogether almost every day. Mainly because I am not a morning person and am late to work every day even without stopping to make/eat breakfast in my morning routine. For the past few months I’ve been taking a prenatal that upsets my stomach if I don’t eat right after taking it though, so I have been eating breakfast. The problem is that breakfast ends up being a very unhealthy meal for me. I’ve mostly been eating cereal (and not the whole grain kind) or like coffee cake or something equally terrible for me. This week I’ve been making myself eggs and fruit in the morning. Miraculously (lol, obviously not a miracle, just regular science), I feel fuller longer and have more energy in the mornings. Plus I feel better and I’m not snacking as much during the day (the other eating habit that I am trying to squash).
My new breakfast plan has been: 2 eggs, scrambled, with salt and pepper AND with 1/2 of a chicken apple sausage and a sprinkle of shredded cheese, and a little bit of fruit on the side (a few raspberries or an apple). I’ve also been packing extra fruit as snacks so I’m not tempted to go to the vending machine and buy cheez-its (my guilty pleasure snack) or chips or something. So far so good! I’m going through fruit a little faster than I’d like, but I’m hoping that the good things I’m putting in my body will translate to my body thanking me by holding on to that little embryo in there.
Happy weekend!
In the Baby Closet 