My new pregnancy breakfast

As I said in my last post, I'm feeling much, much better. I'm 22 weeks, 6 days along today. I do have a lot of back pain, and hip pain at night. But other than that, I feel pretty good.

Because several "blog friends" have become pregnant a wee bit behind me, I wanted to talk about some things that have helped me. Hopefully, if you have similar issues, it will help you too.

Because I have placenta previa (which means the placenta is covering the birth canal, which can lead to bleeding), I'm not allowed much physical activity, which would probably actually help my aches and pains a lot. The condition is likely to clear itself up as my belly grows, but until an ultrasound proves otherwise, I have to take it easy. It kind of makes me sad, because I had been looking forward to feeling better and hitting the gym.

Initially, I had a terrible appetite, along with morning sickness and MAJOR food aversions, so I had a hard time eating. I wasn't gaining much weight, but secretly I was sort of happy about that. For the first half of the pregnancy, I gained a few pounds shy of what was expected.

Now that I have my appetite back, I'm catching up. And without being able to exercise, I'm afraid I'm going to become a cow here pretty soon. I guess time will tell.

For a while, I had trouble after breakfast. It may have been a blood sugar plunge after my first meal of the day, or it may have been my prenatal vitamins making me really sick. I'm really not sure because I tried to change both of them at the same time. I have found that getting a good load of protein at breakfast helps me feel much better. I have also quit my prenatals and am taking my pre-pregnancy vitamin regimen, which includes an adult one-a-day multi (but now I'm adding extra folic acid), calcium, vitamin D (because I was deficient) and vitamin C. The nurse said it's OK to do this.

So, on to my miracle breakfast. I have started making a healthy fruit protein smoothie and eating half of a bagel with cream cheese.

Here is my smoothie recipe:

1 C total of frozen berries, including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.
1/3 frozen banana (peel and slice, then put in baggies and freeze)
1 C lowfat milk
1/2 C fat free plain yogurt
dash of honey
toss in some flax seeds (they grind up and you won't taste them)
1-2 scoops whey protein powder (vanilla)



throw all of the above in a blender and blend for 1 minute, until nice and smooth. This actually makes a couple of glasses worth, and I drink it all.

Enjoy with your local newspaper!