All Due Date Check In Week of 8/24

kvh22

@theblondebump I find that I can't stomach a slab of meat but if it's mixed in with things, it's much more palatable. So less of the steak or chicken with a side of veggies and more stir fry or something like that. And DH has to cook it for the most part unless I'm feeling alright. Pasta with ground beef is totally palatable to me (although not super healthy in terms of veggies or anything). Hummus. PB/AB/other nut butter+banana+chia seeds for a snack. Yogurt - I've been drinking Kefir in the mornings to get something in my stomach. I'll also have greek yogurt as "dessert" with fruit or a bit of nutella or PB swirled in. Cheese and crackers and/or fruit. I, personally, do focus on making sure that I get animal meat in my diet as I've become anemic in both prior pregnancies and heme iron is absorbed much better than non-heme so I keep working on building my stores. This time around, I ground up beef liver after soaking it in lemon juice and froze it in ice cube trays b/c it's a powerhouse for all of the things you usually get from meat and I throw that into anything with ground or thinly sliced meat when I'm cooking. I doubt I could have stomached making that in the food processor now, though - I did it right after I found out I was pregnant before I started feeling nauseous. And eggs, eggs, eggs (if you can stomach them!). The choline, protein, fat, etc. are so good for you. Choline is especially important right now. 1 egg has 1/4 of the DV you need and it's hard to get enough daily from other sources without eggs or supplementation (although possible). It's annoyingly not frequently included in high enough rates or even at all in many PNVs. ThePrenatalNutritionist on Instagram has some really good posts although she came out with this new program that she pushes hard which is kind of annoying. 

goldpolkadot

@kelseyyh oooo lentils are a good idea! meat usually grosses me out in first tri but it's so important to get protein...all the things you listed sound actually really delish!

theblondebump

Thanks @kvh22 ! I'm going to check out that IG

kelseyyh

@theblondebump Ooh minestrone is a great idea! I’m really desiring to be healthy this pregnancy & I think soup might be the perfect lunch solution when my stomach can’t handle much. Do you have a recipe for minestrone? I was going to do canned, but I suppose homemade would be more salt conscious! 

@goldpolkadot Lentils are seriously the best! Such an east replacement for ground meat & rich with goodness. We’ve actually not had them much lately. I am wanting to up my bean / lentil intake as they are sooo good for you. 

goldpolkadot

@kelseyyh yes!! I actually didn’t know you could use them as a ground meat replacement, that’s interesting! Do you have any recipes where you’ve swapped that? We usually add them on salads or have them with breakfast (with eggs) in the morning. Oh and I love lentil soup!!

kelseyyh

@goldpolkadot I’ve never thought to pair with eggs!

I’ve done shepherd’s pie with them & a beef tortilla taco casserole from the pillsbury website with them. I’ve also done lentil tacos - hubby prefers the fake meats to beans and lentils too aha. Pricier and processed unfortunately. 

While I’ve been vegetarian for 8 years, I’ve only been focused on becoming truly healthier in recent years. (Sure I chased thinness without caring about actual health at some point). Seeing everyone’s healthy ideas & how disciplined everyone is in the various threads, I feel a little out of my league ❤️❤️. It’s a good thing because ya’ll are great influences yay! This group is awesome. 

kvh22

@kelseyyh I don't want to speak for anyone else but personally, I've been sharing my tips/suggestions, not necessarily what I'm actually eating 😂 I just had some post dinner tortilla chips with dark chocolate chips. DH asked me if we got the right groceries for our delivery yesterday b/c we had 5 kinds of chips, including two types of plantain chips 🙈 I usually do not buy that stuff but I need some variety from just crackers - I essentially lump them together in the same category. Anyways, I'll share the advice of the healthy things I'm trying to incorporate but I'm not eating super healthy all the time. I got for 80/20 normally but that can go out the window in first trimester.

DariaLash

So excited to be posting in this group!!

Estimated Due Date/Weeks + Days: April 26 - 5 weeks 4 days along
FTM/STM/STM+: First Time Mom!
Team Green/Pink/Blue/Finding Out: Team Green - My parents did the same and I always thought it was a great idea. My coworker told me that it made her push harder in labor
Interesting Baby Fact/Baby is the size of: a fly
Upcoming appointments: 1st appointment isn't until September 18th, which will be week 8 day 4 for me. Is that late?
How are you feeling?: Symptoms are not jumping out at me too much yet. Definitely fatigued, loss of appetite, and mild cramping earlier this week. 
Rants/Raves: Just feeling anxious - FTM, living with my in-laws while we save for a house. My father in law smokes in the basement and we live on the second floor, so feeling concerned and slightly paranoid about the exposure. Eager to go house hunting, but COVID has turned the market in our area into a bidding war.
Questions: GTKY: when you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? Is it very different from what you’re doing now? I wanted to be a lawyer, and ended up in HR.Definitely some similarities, but more suited to my skill set!

kadeephd

@kelseyyh Do not feel bad.  I am surviving on cinnamon toast crunch and ice cream right now 

@theblondebump You can look for reviews of different OBs online and also check local moms groups (like on FB) to see if people have posted recommendations in the past.  You can also compare hospitals on this website:

https://www.leapfroggroup.org/ratings-reports/maternity-care

and work backward from where you want to deliver (assuming you have more than one option in your area).  Most OBs will just deliver at one hospital.

theblondebump

@kadeephd I tried looking online but there are SO many options of ob's and I wasn't finding any reviews especially helpful. They were all so generic. I've been afraid to join a local mom group on facebook because I'm worried it will show up in my friends' facebook feed that I joined a mom group haha (and we haven't gone public with our news yet). There's a few hospitals in our area but one just completed a brand new mom and baby ward early this year, so we want to deliver there since its brand new and state of the art, but there are like hundreds of doctors that deliver there, so I have no idea how to choose. I literally just picked a random one and made an appointment, decided I didn't like her and made my next appointment with a different one and am trying again. But trial and error doesn't seem like the best way to go about it! haha. 

kvh22

@theblondebump ahh if you feel comfortable telling a mom friend, recommendations are the best. You can also sometimes reach out to admins and ask them to ask autonomously for you. People probably wouldn't notice if you joined a group but would if you posted. BUT if you join, there is likely already previous threads on it you can search. I plan to ask in the moms group where we want to move if we end up moving during this pregnancy. I already joined it but I have 2 kids and joined before getting pregnant to start getting recommendations for things (just trolling threads). I got a referral from my GP for my current OB and totally lucked out. My OB is the BEST! It makes such a big difference. She is one of only a few I see recommended in all of the moms groups I'm now in very frequently at this practice. I have a couple friends who switched to her after meeting her for a 3rd tri appointment (since those are not always able to be accommodated by your own doc) or having her deliver their baby lol. I'm really sad that she might not be my doctor for this entire pregnancy if we move.

kadeephd

@theblondebump Honestly I am having a bit of a tough time choosing too, but I've been searching the threads on local parents groups (not posting myself).  For me proximity is very important, and everywhere has mixed reviews so I'm just going with a nearby one that delivers at the hospital where I want to deliver that has decent enough reviews.  If I don't like it, I'll try another one just like you.  I do think no one would notice if you joined a fb group.  Does that even show up on anyone's feed?  I think someone would have to go look at your groups to see, and that would be weird to do.

kelseyyh

Whoa ladies, I never thought about the stress of too many choices ❤️. Best of luck. 

Smaller area experience: We had 2 OB’s here when I had DS & I needed a doctor to refer me. Had to drive to the nearest walk in clinic 1 1/2 hours away lol as there wasn’t one locally. I got my family doctor right when my son was born & she will deliver any more babies I have as she has the training. 

Also out of curiosity, do ya’ll need to pay a lot in the States for all this? And do you still have nurseries? I am so grateful for our free health care in Canada. I did pay extra for a guaranteed private room. We also don’t have nurseries, my son never left my side (though the nurses will take babies for a bit if a Mama requests). 

theblondebump

Haha you guys are probably right - I'm just paranoid lol. I joined a local moms facebook group and searched old posts about obgyns. There were a lot of recommendations for the place we're going to on Monday so hopefully it goes well and we like them! 

@kelseyyh We haven't paid anything out of pocket yet for the pregnancy, but all in all our out of pocket max is $2,000 for the year so that's the most we could possibly pay. My husband's cousin gave birth two years ago and she had a problem with her health insurance - she ended up having to pay for the whole labor/delivery out of pocket and it was like $15k. I have one friend who gave birth 6 weeks ago and another who gave birth 8 weeks ago. One of them said that her hospital didn't have a nursery and the baby stays with you the whole hospital stay from birth. The other one said that her hospital does normally have a nursery, but with COVID, the nursery was closed and all babies were staying with the moms 24/7. 

theblondebump

Also, @kelseyyh just saw your comment from yesterday about minestrone! Not sure if you have an instant pot, but this is the recipe I usually use: https://lifemadesweeter.com/instant-pot-minestrone-soup/ 

I'm not a kidney bean fan, so I always just skip those and use extra cannellini beans. 

cagncoo12

@darialash Nope, 8 weeks is a pretty normal time for your first appointment. I have my first ultrasound at 8 weeks (next week) then don't see my OB till 10 weeks. 

@kelseyyh I think we ended up paying about $5,000 when DD was born. I was in the hospital for 5 days, and she staid one extra night under the bili lights, plus we had a specialist there when she was born since she was 35+4. So we definitely had some extra expenses beyond a standard L&D. We just max out DH's HSA and can pretty much cover the costs from there, so it wasn't stressful. Our hospital has a nursery, but babies stay in room with parents unless you ask them to take them. I was on magnesium for 24 hours after birth plus lost a decent amount of blood, so i took advantage of the nursery a couple times in the first 24 hours, and was super thankful it was an option!! 

kadeephd

I think it's pretty standard for the baby to stay in the room with you at the hospital now unless you request a visit to the nursery.  We didn't realize we could request it with my son.  When a nurse finally told us sometime during our second basically sleepless night that we could send him there for a while, we were like yes please take him!  I'll definitely use it this time if it's available.

I think our total for all pregnancy/hospital stuff was around 3k.  I had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery and normal pregnancy.  I have slightly better insurance this time so I'm hoping it's not quite that high.

kelseyyh

@cagncoo12 @kadeephd I’m glad to here it’s more typical to keep baby with Mama - unless you request aha! My nurse actually offered to take my son because I was a wreck and kept holding him when he was fine / not letting myself sleep. I told her it was better that I was a mess with him with me, then be a mess with him out of sight. I might be more calm this time 🤪. 

I can’t believe the cost though! Ugh. I am so grateful for Canada’s healthcare. 

juliebird6

@kelseyyh What you pay here completely depends on your insurance. I am extremely fortunate to have amazing insurance. For each of my kids, all I have had to pay was the deductible (for me, $100; for the baby, also $100, so a max of $200 total). That has been the same for both of my deliveries (one vaginal, one emergency CS). But, at any moment, that could change if my employer were to renegotiate health care benefits or if I were to change jobs.

kvh22

I paid ~$4,000 OOP for my first vaginal delivery (epidural, NICU doc there for meconium). But I had $0 monthly premium for me and then maybe $30/month when I added DD b/c I do the high deductible plan where my employer also puts in some money...we did the math and even if we maxed out our $5,000 OOP max it was cheaper than paying large premiums. With DD2, it was $500 total on amazing insurance we also had a $0 premium for but that was a fluke thing they were using to get people to not quit when DH's company moved offices. It'll be more like my first experience this time. We like the high deductible plans. They make a lot of sense for us, even with a birth.

rexnie

My first birth was a $500 hospital copay. No nursery at my hospital, though I really could have used the help / sleep after my cesarean. 

kelseyyh

@juliebird6 That's awesome! Probably similar to what I paid for a guaranteed private room following delivery (I just stayed in one room) & some parking passes. I hope no one was offended by me asking, it's just so different here! 

theblondebump

@kelseyyh not offended at all! I feel like we should be able to ask anything here and if you're comfortable answering, you can, and if you're not, then don't no biggie. I also find it really interesting to hear how the healthcare system works in other places (like Canada)!