My midwife does a monthly forum for her clients, and it's kind of like a childbirth education course. She likes to do this to get as much information presented to the group as possible. We scheduled my prenatal checkup for after the forum today. I was really excited to go, and I got slammed with a migraine last night. I hardly slept, and was having a hard time just trying to function this morning. I was determined not to miss the forum or the prenatal visit, so I managed to get out the door and barely get to her house on time.
The forum was fun and somewhat informative. I always enjoy talking about pregnancy and childbirth, so I was right in my element. A lot of the information is repetitive for me because most of it is stuff I've already heard or learned through my research, but my midwife likes to have me there to give input and help answer questions, and I have to admit that it's fun for me.
My midwife had another client to do a checkup on immediately following the forum, so I sat down and ate my lunch that I had brought, and played her piano for a little while as I waited my turn.
She first checked my urine, finding no proteins (yay!), and just a trace of ketones. Everything else was normal with it, so that's good news. My blood pressure was 100/70, which is very normal for me and good. I have gained 6 pounds in the past month, and she was happy to see that I'm gaining weight. I measured 17 cm at 14 weeks, so I'm measuring a little bit big right now. That's no surprise to me, because I've felt a bit bigger with this pregnancy compared to this point in past pregnancies.
Because of my history of anemia during pregnancy and my extremely low energy levels, she had asked me to keep a 3-day food diary of everything I had eaten the past 3 days. I also brought the bottles of all the vitamins and supplements I'm taking right now (iron, beta carotene, B complex and prenatal vitamins). She said the supplements are fine, but it would be best for me to get those things in my diet. When she looked over my food diary, she noticed that I'm not getting vegetables into my diet. I'm getting plenty of everything else, but she strongly recommended that I find a way to work more fresh vegetables in.
She had me write a list of the vegetables I like. I commented about how I hate when food goes bad in my fridge, which is what usually happens in our house, and she challenged me to try to eat the whole thing before it goes bad. She gave suggestions of ways to eat spinach (on sandwiches, in green smoothies, in salad) and taught me something new about sprouts.
Sprouts are live food. They are the whole plant, so they are still alive when you buy them at the store. My midwife showed me what she does with her sprouts. In the morning when she's making breakfast for the family, she takes a bunch of sprouts from the container (enough for a mouthful) and eats them. She then waters the remaining sprouts (in the plastic container) and lets it drain into her sink for several minutes. She then places the container of sprouts back in the fridge, and they actually grow new sprouts. They don't last forever, as the unsprouted seeds are used up, but you can get a good long supply of sprouts for very low cost as long as you keep feeding them this way. I actually really like sprouts, and just writing about it now is making me want to eat some. I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow!
Another thing she recommended is a juice that is made from vegetables. There are different brands available, and they pack fruits and vegetables into the juice to make a really yummy, really healthy drink. She said this is an easy way to get your vegetables when you don't have time to cook.
Anyway, that's a summary of my visit today. It was really nice, and informative for me. I'm getting more and more excited about my pregnancy and the home birth I'm planning.
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