Mango...and other food talk

Blog Post by Kati:

Week 23...17 weeks to go. That seems crazy!

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

She weighs over a pound! That is funny, because we were just at the doctor and I gained 10 pounds in the past month or so (about 25 overall already)...oops! Seeing as there is only 1 pound of baby in there, it seems a little ridiculous. My blood pressure was also pretty high when the nurse checked right away. But I was coming from work, really warm, super tired, etc...and we were just at the State Fair yesterday where I ate a lot of fried fatty stuff! The doctor had my blood pressure checked again before we left and it went down a lot, so no worries. But it was a nice little reality check for me. I've been slipping in my good dietary habits. It has been a little tough going back to work because I've been more inactive and have eaten out every day for lunch, as well as a bunch of times for dinner. NOT GOOD! So I need to really do a better job of walking or other exercising at night, as well as eating healthier.

So if anyone has any delicious and healthy recipes involving lots of fruits, vegetables, or chicken (the only meat I really like to eat) that they want to send my way, Chris would love to cook them for me...haha. I told him that since I'm doing all the work of "cooking" our baby, it is his job to actually cook for me and the baby. (***And thanks to Chris' grandparents for putting together a big box of food for us a few weeks ago- yummy chicken breasts and other healthy things to make some great meals!***)

Another reason I'm really getting into this whole healthy eating thing now is that I heard the other day that babies tend to have a similar taste for food as their mothers (and what the mothers eat during pregnancy). Uh oh...this baby is going to really like ice cream. Hence, I want to start upping the fruit and veggie intake so that baby likes fruits and veggies! :)

Okay, enough for now. I'm glad it is the weekend and I'm sure I'll be doing lots of napping in the next couple of days before another busy week starts! Thanks for reading and enjoy YOUR weekend!