Nesting



Mommy and daddy instincts are kicking in way before baby is here.  Many women go through a nesting phase during their pregnancies.  If you find yourself cleaning obsessively, searching pinterest for ways to organize your closets and kitchen cabinets, alphabetizing DVDs (which are in a closet that nobody ever watches) freaking out that you don't have anything for the baby yet or doing crafts, then your nesting instincts are in full force.  I'll tell you some of the things that were helpful during this phase and some things that really didn't help at all.

Once you reach the second trimester, your energy will come back.  For some reason, I had my normal energy level throughout my pregnancy, except for the 4 weeks of morning sickness and the last 3 weeks of pregnancy. And if you know me IRL, you know that I never stop moving.  Therefore, my nesting was BAD!  Here are examples of things that I did during the nesting phase that were helpful:

Organizing The Kitchen: I cleaned out all the cupboards, wiped them down (inside and out), labeled the pantry items, cleaned the fridge and reorganized the pots and pans cabinet. 

Organized Clothes: I went through all of my clothes and made piles to donate, throw out and to store away.  It is amazing how much more room I have in my closet.  Now if I could just get dear husband to follow my lead...

Cleaning Schedule: So, I usually have a cleaning schedule for the weekends, but for some reason I felt the need to act on that cleaning schedule as soon as I got home from work...almost..every...day.

Planning Meals: On Fridays, I would go into my various cooking apps and start planning meals for the week, then on Saturday morning dear husband and I would go grocery shopping.  This continued throughout my maternity leave...then I had to go back to work.  We are slowly getting back into the swing of things when it comes to cooking and shopping.  But I highly recommend that you use your "nesting powers" to plan and cook healthy meals during and after pregnancy.  If anything, it gets you out of the house!  Here are some of my favorite cooking apps to help with the planning meals side of nesting:

• Allrecipes.com Dinner SpinnerPro is great, because if you are a member of their website, you get access to your recipe box in this app!  You can also search recipes along with doing the fun dinner spinner thinnger. There is also a free version.  I don't know why I bought the paid version.

• Better Homes and Garden: This app is free and is loaded with recipes.  You can buy recipe packs ranging from .99 + I bought a slow-cooker recipe pack for .99, then I was searching around the Better Homes and Garden website and found them on there; so basically I paid .99 for an iPhone app version...crap.  Stick with the free version, there are a lot of recipes to choose from.  This app has a nice feature to put the recipe in a shopping list!

• Food Network: In my humble opinion, this is the best app for food prep and meal ideas.  You can categorize meal searches by chefs, collections and there is a seasonal section.  You can also search for recipes.  There is also a weekly meal planner for the iPad version!  Sign up for a free account on foodnetwork.com and get started.  This app also has the feature of putting a shopping list together.  The only thing I don't like about it, is that you cannot edit/add/delete folders under meals.  You have to use the desktop website to change this on a browser that has flash.  Ain't nobody got time for that!

 Cooking then Freezing: Yeah, this lasted about 3 days.  I was so tired of cooking that by the time I was done cooking for the few days after getting home from the hospital, I didn't want to cook anything for dinner.  If you have more patience than I do, I suggest cooking and freezing at least a week or two of meals for the first couple weeks, after you get home from the hospital.  People might bring you food over, but do not rely on that for all your meals.

My lame attempt at cooking and freezing.  I also made some enchilada shells and froze them.  Seriously, all of it ended up freezer burned, because the lids worked their way off the containers! Maybe I shouldn't by plastic wear from the dollar store. Next time I'm buying these!

It's a good thing the batteries in my label maker died, because I would have labeled the door with...DOOR.  I did however label the dog:

 

Nursery Organization: Once I had my baby showers, I was in the nursery all the time organizing clothes, socks, diapers and dresser drawers. You too, will find that you are spending a lot of time in the nursery getting things ready...and then when baby comes..you will rarely go in there!  We have a monster theme in Baby D's room and this is one of the nesting things I did with those shitty closet organizers that cost $20:     I went to the dollar store and bought bins and then created labels for each bin in Photoshop and printed them via my wireless printer (thank you Dear Husband).  I used double-sided tape and stuck 'em to the front of the bins.  They are still on there today.

Exercise: If you are one of those pregnant women that have energy all the time like I did, then exert some of that energy into prepping your body for labor and delivery.  Prenatal pilates are a good place to start.  It is low-impact and great for toning and stretching your muscles and hips.  During the second trimester I had terrible hip and back pain and the only thing that would make it feel better, was pilates, stretching and sleep.  I would never medicate those aches and pains, because it really wasn't worth medicating for something that just needed stretched out.  Check out this chick!  These are the pilates I did 3 times a week until the last month of pregnancy.  You will feel amazing!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsasMlywvc

(sorry, it won't embed for some reason)

Part 4

Crafts, crafts, crafts: Since I was preggers during the summer and winter, I rarely wanted to go outside.  I had to go outside everyday to walk the dog, but for the most part I just stayed indoors.  In doing so, I found many crafts to assemble via pinterest.  I shopped at the dollar store for everything I made below (except for the wood rod, had to go to a craft store for that and spend $1.10)!

Christmas Tree

Glitter Candles with Centerpiece 

Decorative Vase with Ornaments and Background Lights

 Upcycled Old Christmas Decoration

 Vase for Oil and Reeds
(double-sided sticky tape rolled in glitter)

Christmas Ornament Wreath

Christmas Ornament Wreath Red and Gold

Christmas Snowflake Wreath

White Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rod with Candy Cane Crunch

 

 

Candy Cane Vase

 One Happy Christmas

 

And so ends my nesting period.  What did you do during your nesting phase?

 

 



Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This is a nice, healthy treat to have during and even after pregnancy with about 264 calories per serving.  Let's break it down by looking at the main ingredients:

Strawberries: 1 cup of strawberries contain Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C and Manganese.

Bananas: About 1 medium sized banana  is a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.

2% Milk: 1 cup of milk contains Protein, Vitamin B12 and Phosphorus, and is a very good source of Vitamin D, Riboflavin and Calcium.

 

The calories that come from this smoothie are largely from the sugars that each ingredient has, but when you are pregnant or nursing you may find yourself longing for something else to drink besides water and juice.  Ok, let's get to the good part!  The below recipe makes about 2 and a half servings.  This is the serving size I use, because dear husband needs a treat now and then too!
You are going to need:

(thank you to dear husband for the use of your whiskey glasses!)

•  2 cups fresh strawberries (100 calories)
• 2 ripe bananas (400 calories)
• 2 tablespoons of sugar (40 calories)
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup ice
• 1 cup 2% milk (any type of milk will do, as long as it is pasteurized) (122 calories)
• 1 Cuisinart blender (or any type of blender...I happen to LOOOVE Cuisinart)

 Start by peeling both bananas and breaking off chunks and putting them into the blender.  If you banana wont peel from the stem, dig your thumb nail into the bottom of the banana and peel it from that end first.  See...

 

 

Put in the strawberries (whole, with the stems cut off), sugar, vanilla extract, ice and milk.

 

 

Blend to your liking!

 

 

Always taste it first, in case you need to add more sugar.  I typically do not add anymore than 2 tablespoons of sugar, since the majority of this smoothie consists of....sugar.

 

Enjoy!

 





 



Pregnancy Apps and Resources

Videos

The best resource for pregnancy that I found was the documentary called "Inside the Womb" by National Geographic.  This documentary goes through the entire fetal development from conception to birth.  I literally watched this documentary every night on my iPad before I went to bed.  I found it on YouTube broken up into 10 parts.  This makes it a little easier to watch it based on how far along you are.  It is a really cool documentary.  If you are into science as much as I am, then you will love this documentary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4sjukHHWU
You can watch the documentary in its entirety on this website as well:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/national-geographic-in-the-womb/
Or you can order it on..you guess it...AMAZON!
http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Womb-Dilly-Barlow/dp/B000E8JNT2

Websites

There are many websites out there that have information regarding pregnancy.  Below are some sites that I found very helpful and full of information.  I stayed clear of the forums.  There are a lot of women who have difficulty during their pregnancy and after reading some of the stories I decided that it would be best to NOT read anymore:

• http://www.fertilityfriend.com
• http://americanpregnancy.org/
• http://www.webmd.com/baby/default.htm
• http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy
• http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/landing-page.aspx
• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pregnancy-week-by-week/MY00331
• http://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/

Free iPhone Apps

 

iPre Free: I really enjoyed this app and there was no need for me to upgrade to the paid version.  The free version gives you a calendar, a place to upload photos, a user forum, an organizer for appointment questions, reminders and a to do list, weekly information including baby's size, synopsis, baby's development, how am I feeling and suggestions.



Pregnancy : This app has a lot going on with it.  I found that if I used all the features to it, I would be on it all day.  I believe the developers of this app are from the UK, because the spelling throughout the app is different than it would be in the US. Here are all the features it has to offer:
  My Baby: Weekly, Daily, Star Signs, Belly, Size Guide and Timeline
  Me: Food, Labour, Exercise, Birth Plan, Medical, Weight
  Organizer: Doc Visits, Shopping, Hospital Bag, To Do, Names, Phone
  Tools: Kick Counter Contractions, Due Date
Again, I really only used the app for the weekly information.  It has great images!! 

 

Sprout:  This is my favorite one! The graphics within this app are amazing.  The information that it provides is very accurate and it has a very simple, user-friendly interface.  I almost bought the full version, but again, I didn't see a need to do so.

 

What to Expect Pregnancy: I wasn't a big fan of the What to Expect book series.  I mean, I read them, but I didn't love them.  I decided to give their free app a try.  I basically used it for the front page.  Upon opening the app, it would tell you how big the baby was compared to a piece of fruit.

It has other things to offer, such as weekly and daily information along with a place to upload photos and a user forum.

 

BabyBump:  This app is a lot like the Pregnancy app.  There are a lot of tools that you can use, such as, Pregnancy Info, Forums, a place to upload photos, messages, friends, Journal, Baby Names, Kick Counter, Contraction Tracker and Birth Planning.  It was really only worth the daily information to me.

 

My Pregnancy by BabyCenter:  This app is nice and simple.  It gives you daily information, even sometimes videos!  There is a checklist and a few other tools.  Check this one out fo sho!