Veggie Heaven

We have discovered Indian food!  I know a lot of people eat it but I never had.  We had looked for places that ranked well in the vegetarian community and tried the top rated one on the list.  I completely see the appeal!  There was a lot of spice and new flavors.  I must admit before this experience I was really having my doubts as to whether or not we could do this.  But, through this experience I was able to see that vegetarian cuisine could be more than fruit and salad.  I am so excited.  Can't wait to see what else we discover along this journey!

Jumping In Both Feet

Well, so much for the take it slow and easy transition route.  We have de-meated the house.  We gave away around 25 bags of groceries to our friends including 15 bags just from our freezer!  I didn't realize how much stock we had.  My freezer now looks pitifully bare.  Oh well, now I know exactly how much space I have to refill.  It only took about 6 months the first time so I am hopeful that we can do it even faster this time.  An empty freezer and light cabinets make me nervous.

So, we have been totally free of eating beef, pork, and poultry for 3 days now.  I know it doesn't sound like a lot now, but it's a great start.  I am really excited to see how this progresses.

Mak is Sharing...

Everything!  He is getting the little brother he wants.  Well, at least he wants him now, it may be a different story once he is here, lol.  They said Albrecht Xavier looks good, but they didn't get as good of pictures of his heart as they would have liked (more on that in a moment), so I go in for a repeat ultrasound in 4 weeks.

On the down side of today, I met one of the rudest doctors I have ever encountered.  He was the "high-risk doctor for the diagnosics center (they do all the ultrasounds)Ugh!  According to him, since this will be my 4th c-section, it should be my last.  Is this based on something he saw in the ultrasound, some medically based concern for me, Albrecht, or a future baby?  Nope, it's based totally on his view that 4 c-sections is too many.  Oh, and that I'm fat.  According to him, the only way they could have gotten good pictures of the heart "based on how far along [I am] and [my] size" is if the baby had been laying flat on his back face up toward my belly button with his arms spread out.  Okay, I know I'm not a doctor, but I have had an ultrasound or 2, lol.  I have never been told there was a problem seeing anything because of my size, and I have been bigger.  And, as far as how far along I was, his office knew my due date, and they are the ones that scheduled the appointment based on a recommendation from my own OB.

I pointed out to Dr. Rude that would discuss whether or not I could safely have more with my doctor. He stated that any church that advocated the continuation of procreation at the risk of fetal or maternal injury should be ashamed and anyone who belonged to such a religion should find a new church. Let me first point out that although we believe in the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, I have never found anyone in the Church that feels that means to the detriment of mother and/or child. In fact I have heard just the opposite over and over again.

I would like to say that I have already talked to my doctor about this very concern.  His opinion (and this is the one I will follow!) is that we should watch this pregnancy progress, see if there are any problems as we move forward, and assess whether future children would be safe as we near the end of the pregnancy.  He says that for some women 2 is too many, but he has seen women have 6 or more with no issues.

Anyway, there was more to our conversation that I will not go into, the end result being that he's a rude jerk, thinks no one should ever have more than 3 csections, and perhaps fat women should not be allowed to get pregnant at all.  Of course, I'm summarizing. 

Oh well, it can't all be sunshine and rainbows I guess.  And the important thing for today, is that I currently have a healthy looking baby and everything looks good with me so far.  I'll try to just smile and be patient when I have to deal with Dr. Rude (remember repeat ultrasound in 4 weeks), ignore him and continue to listen to the doctor I respect and trust!

Words of Wisdom

Okay, I mentioned last week that due to some health concerns, we would have to be undertaking an new lifestyle.  We have spent much time this last week reading, studying, and praying and have finally come to a conclusion.  The final decision:  we are going to move into a predominately Pescatarian diet. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a pescatarian eats a mostly vegetarian diet consisting of grains, fruits, and vegetables.  As with some vegetarians, we are also going to continue to include dairy and eggs.  In addition to that, we will be including fish, shellfish, and mollusks in 2-3 meals per week.

We currently still plan to consume some limited amounts of meat or poultry during cold weather (no more than 1 meal per week) hence my statement of a predominately Pescatarian diet.  And, we will be enacting these changes over the next few months.

There are 3 main reasons for this:
1.  As anyone who knows us well knows, we are food storers.  That means at this point we have a chest freezer and a regular (over the fridge) freezer both full of predominately red meat.  In addition, we have soups, etc in the cabinet that will not fit into the new diet.  The idea of wasting all that money is more than I can stand!
2.  Sudden and radical changes in a person's diet can lead to severe abdominal discomfort and other surprising complications.  With me currently being pregnant (hope to peek at gender tomorrow!), I am not going to risk making me, Baby 6, or any of the other children sick by drastically changing our diet.
3.  We need some time to build a stock of the items that do coincide with our new diet since we are food storers.  The idea of not having some extra on hand is unnerving, lol.

So, the current plan is to decrease the meat served at each meal until we are eating some meals each week that are meatless.  I hope to have us completely converted within 6 months.  I know some are thinking that's a long time to transistion, but it does take into account our 3 main concerns with the changes.

Wish us luck!