Eventful afternoon of blogging and blog-related tasks, including BERF + an hour-long conference call.

Followed by my favorite snack: cereal

Honey bunches & milk

Then I went to pre-natal yoga (tonight instead of my regular class because I have book club tomorrow!) I went to Bend, a prenatal and mother/child yoga studio downtown. It was very nice!! (My regular teacher teachers there on Mondays) A good stretch throughout my whole body – but also harder to do on a day I had already exercised! The class is pretty relaxing, but some of the arm moves were hard on my fatigued upper body.

PSA: In my sunscreen post I showed the bottle I bought. A few of you were astute enough to recognize that I bought the wrong one!!! The PURE & SIMPLE is the one that is EWG rated, not the regular (chemicals included) Water Babies. Matt found Pure & Simple at Wal-mart while running bakery errands for $8.99 – lowest price to date! So now I have 5 bottles of sunscreen to take to the beach, 3 P&S and 2 of the regular.

Dinner tonight was a Matt special – seared and baked chicken, kale chips and leftover rice

I am still a litttttttle iffy on veggies, but I sure enjoyed these chips! I’m sure I would not have enjoyed them so much sauteed.

The chicken was from a local farm that I bought at the market last Wednesday. Not quite as good as our normal herby marinated chicken from the Organic Butcher, but still tasty. I only ate half of what you see (chicken-wise) and we saved the rest of the meat for Wednesday’s dinner (a pre-cut up leg just wouldn’t have looked very pretty on the plate : ) )

I’m too full for anything rich or sweet, but my mouth needs a little something more than water – methinks a few of those breakfast cherries sound perfect!

It’s awfully gloomy outside today, but that makes for better working conditions inside, I suppose!

I went to Body Pump, which was absolutely packed with people. I’m starting to feel a bit like screws are loose in my back, so I did all the squats without weights. Still felt a burn! And the upper body got worked hard!

Lunch right after:

I made a burrito with our leftovers from last night plus CHEESE!

And polished off the last of this:

With apple cider water

Heck yeah – the sun just peeked out! And I just ate a spoonful of Biscoff Crunchy for dessert! And UPS just put a package on my doorstep!

We leave for the beach on Thursday and I have lots of food to eat in that fridge of ours! Yogurt included.

I made a bowl mixed of Oikos, banana, chia, granola, sunflower butter and local cherries from Steadfast Farm.

I did have to set the stems and pits aside on my napkin, but it wasn’t a big deal to include the cherries. They are one of my favorite fruits!

Tea on the side

Happy Monday!

Give me the beat [girls] and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away!

^^ One of my favorite songs!!

Great day today!! The past few Sundays I did a lot of writing, but today I just worked on the household, which I find very relaxing. We had our doula meeting (SO helpful!! So excited!) and then I read some more Ina May and then I actually IRONED MY PILLOW SHAMS after they came out of the dryer! Could that be a subliminal nesting urge?! I also folded the shirts in my closet (if you watched this video, you’d know that is not the norm!) (I was freshly pregnant then!) And organized all of our cloth diapers.

Snack:

The above was eaten at 5pm and took away my appetite until about 7:30 when I really still wasn’t hungry, but started to think about dinner. Rice was in the rice cooker and the menu in my head read: Rice + Beans + Garden a.k.a. rhythm, rhyme and harmony

This delicious mixture materialized in about 10 minutes.

Brown rice topped with a can of pinto beans and frozen PEAS (I love peas!) plus swiss chard from our garden and a sauce made of nutritional yeast. The sauce was simply 1/3 cup yeast, 1/4 cup milk, a generous pinch of salt, and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Cashews on top – totally delicious!

I’m starting my Monday behind in my workload but totally organized in the dwelling place.

Enjoying your Sunday? I love Sundays even when they involve chores, which make me feel very organized for the week to come: laundry, sheets/towels laundry, some cleaning. Great way to kick off the week neat.

Matt and I went for a walk (me) / run (him) for an hour this morning. I took this book, which I am totally loving –

And slathered myself in this:

I recently set out on a quest to find a sunscreen that was both safe for my body and relatively inexpensive. My goal was the find the sunscreen with the cheapest price per ounce choosing from only the Environmental Working Group’s list of top-rated, broad spectrum, chemical-free lotion sunscreens. I used to always use sprays, but I have read that they are not the best for the environment, skin or lungs, so I’m moving back to basics with lotions (bonus: lotions smell better!) I also consulted Consumer Reports, but only as a cross-check, since they didn’t review too many of the more natural ones.

I wasn’t looking for the greenest product out there, but rather one that I could apply by the shotglass while at the beach (that’s how much “they” say you need!) and not be spending the equivalent of $15/day to protect my skin, but also one I could feel good about. I also wanted the biggest bottle possible so I wouldn’t be going through a bottle a day, so 8 ounces and up was preferred.

I came up with this list in order of cost:

Coppertone Water Babies Pure and Simple SPF 50 = $9.87/8 ounces or $1.23/ounce*

CVS Sunblock with Zinc SPF 45 = $5.24/4 ounces or $1.31/ounce [I couldn’t find this one]

Coppertone Sensitive Skin SPF 50 = $8.99/6 ounces or $1.50/ounce

Alba Botanica SPF 45 = $6.88/4 ounces or $1.72/ounce

All Terrain Aquasport SPF 30 = $10.96/3 ounces or  $3.65/ounce

Badger Sunscreen SPF 30 = $13.60/3 ounces or $4.53/ounce

*I used Amazon or CVS.com to get my prices. Since I have Amazon Prime, the shipping wouldn’t be a factor, but it would for CVS.com. I went to my local CVS to scout them out and found prices to be much higher in person than on their website so take your math with you or look for sales!

Therefore, the Coppertone Waterbabies one for the max SPF for the lowest price and getting a thumbs up by the EWG. I saw that it was as low as $1/ounce at CVS.com, but when I went to my local store, it was higher than the Amazon price for a two pack, so that’s where I got it. I’ll be on the lookout for sales too!

It applied nice and smoothly this morning, and if I have any drawback it’s that it didn’t all seem to come off in my shower – but perhaps that’s a good thing for water resistance factor!

Matt and I made a wonderful lunch afterwards!

He sliced up our leftover (chilled and conformed) grits and seared them in a pan of butter!

Plus eggs and garden greens!

I added olive oil, honey, salt and nutritional yeast plus some leftover roasted tofu and zucchini.

On the side – the last of last week’s strawberries

And a Bud Light sparkling apple cider diluted with water on ice!

Yum!!

Our doula is coming over shortly, and I have more chores to do!

Sleep till my eyes open.

Step outside and take in the day.

Make oatmeal for two while the early riser sleeps

Gobble it down.

This fabulous bowl was Coach’s Oats made with whipped banana, milk, chia seeds, vanilla, pinch salt and topped with Jam According to Daniel (the end of my jar!) and Wild Squirrel Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter plus local granola. It was a fabulous bowl!

Enjoyed with a mug of coffee!

The salad is ready to eat!

Not me, the baby! Judging from his little wiggles in there, he liked it!

Sparkling Apple Cider: just like champagne on a Saturday night (plus too much sugar and minus just a wee bit of fun)

Afternoon projects. What could this be!?

Followed by Saturday night relaxed dinner. I was so glad to come home today and know we didn’t have anywhere to be but the porch.

For dinner we made shrimp n grits. Very similar to this memorable recipe!

The grits were perfectly buttery thanks to 2% milk and of course butter. Topped with sauteed shrimp and local bacon, snap peas, tomatoes and bell pepper.

After dinner, we had a good hour of sunshine left and went for a glorious hour-long walk. With the hills here in Cville, this was no stroll! I bet we covered close to 5 miles today between the market walking this AM and tonight’s.

There was only one thing on my mind when we returned. I am so over ice cream – bring me all the popsicles in the world!

Wrapped up childbirth class at noon today! I really enjoyed the class a lot and am glad we went. Most of all because it was at OUR hospital so I could ask questions about procedures there. When you read books, it’s all kind of hypothetical, but this was very relevant to where we will be birthing. We have a hospital tour later in the summer – looking forward to seeing it all for the first time too.

Matt was the dad volunteer to try on 25 pounds of weight – broken down into baby, placenta, uterus, amniotic fluid, blood volume, water weight, fat stores…am I missing anything!? He said it made his back hurt!

Today we practiced pushing. HUGE lesson for me that you push down with your abs and not so much your lower parts, which you want to remain more relaxed to stretch and allow the baby to come out! I felt like I was a better pusher squatting and on all fours than I was on my back, but hard to tell how things might really happen when there’s a pumpkin on its way down…

We also role played a c-section team. It was scary just to practice! So was epidural administration lesson. I know both of these might be out of my control, but I am scared of both way more than I’m scared of contractions, pushing, tearing, fatigue and the other hardships of labor.

We ended with an ideal birth exercise (on the other side of these cards were the opposite situations – which is often all chance what you end up with). Although hopefully the BOY one is right!

I snacked on some string cheese and strawberries around noon and we headed over to Great Harvest after class before we went out to lunch for a debriefing. Location of choice: Beer Run!

Matt and I split a [local] bison burger – delicious!! I think I was craving red meat.

And we both enjoyed salads on the side.

Plus beer for the dad for being such a good sport in class : ) He said he enjoyed it too. Tomorrow – coincidence it’s the same weekend – we have a one-on-one session with our doula, Jen. And then later this summer: classes in baby care and breastfeeding!

For two years now I’ve been telling myself I’d get up early and go to the City Market for breakfast. Because we have to be at childbirth class at 9am, today was the perfect day! Matt and I were up at 6:30, showered and enjoying breakfast there by 8! Also got in 2 nice miles of walking!

I found wonderful whole wheat strawberry muffins at Belle Haven Bakery

Which I ate most of but shared with Matt

Coffee from Shenandoah Joe’s, of course

Matt had an egg sandwich from Babes In The Wood

And finally, a donut from the Baker’s Palette. The smells wafting from their booth every week are absolutely mesmerizing!

We bought Steadfast Farm cherries, Jam!!!, sausage to take to the beach from The Rock Barn and a loaf of whole grain bread from this awesome bakery!!

Happy Weekend!

Turns out Friday night at childbirth class wasn’t so bad!

Except for the figuring out dinner part. Luckily at 5pm I was ready for a snack, so I made a dinner-sized snack instead.

Cheese n jam n lettuce {from the garden!!!!} sandwich on High Five

Plus a glass of milk

Seems simple, but was pretty filling amount of food. Matt packed a PB&Banana sandwich and ate it during class.

The hospital campus is absolutely gorgeous – views of the mountains and rolling hills!

I’m going to go into detail on things I learned on BERF, but I really enjoyed tonight’s class. I just like talking about all things pregnancy and labor : ) Matt seemed to have a good time too and although we both couldn’t stop cracking jokes during the role playing, I think deep down we really did learn things about how we interact.

I spent most of my “labor” tonight on the ball. I think I’m going to love a ball when the time comes! Sitting on it, draped over it, rolling with it. Probably won’t be smiling so much though…

Did you notice the clothespin on the ear? That was contraction practice. I actually joked with the teacher when the exercise was over: “Whew I’m glad we didn’t have to do ice cubes!”

And what does she bring out not a minute later with a big smile directed at me!?

ICE!!

However, I took on the challenge and actually did pretty well with the ice squeezed in my palm (because of the ball – and Matt’s gentle massage on my back!)

We enjoyed some juicy watermelon during our break while watching the sunset. And I just had a tiny mug of cereal as a bedtime snack.

Tomorrow we practice pushing techniques and talk about some of the interventions and things that can happen if things don’t go swimmingly along. Gulp.