11 Week Update/A Whole Lotta Vomit

Whew. Rough week, guys! On Wednesday I decided to try and stop taking my nausea pills. Heads up: This post is going to be pretty heavy on the "vomit talk" so you may want to just skip ahead to the questionnaire!

I only had 3 pills left, and they'd been prescribed by my RE, and my OB hadn't heard of them when we told him I was taking them back at the 8 week appointment (yeah, Idk what that's about). So day 1 without them was fine! I don't think I took one Tuesday night (I always took them before bed) and I felt pretty good on Wednesday and got a little ahead of myself. I thought, hey, we're close to the end of the first trimester, maybe the nausea is over! Yeah.. wrong-o! It was back in full force the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Etc. It was mostly just extreme nausea without actual vomit, but that's probably because I HATE throwing up. I know, who doesn't? But I REALLY hate it. Like I do everything in my power not to throw up. EVERYTHING. I can't even explain how much I hate it. Did anyone read that Hellogiggles.com article on Emetophobia- or the fear of throwing up- a few weeks ago? Because I did. And I think I have that. No, but really. I really don't think it's just hypochondria!

Speaking of hypochondria, E and I quote this kid approximately once per week. Watch the first 45 seconds of this clip from The Switch. So funny.

"Oh my G-d... I have that!"

Anyway. I definitely threw up a couple of times last week... including one time when all I had in my stomach was one of my enormous, gross-tasting prenatal vitamins- I was on my way to the kitchen to eat! I can't even explain how gross that was. But on Sunday, it was epic. We went to E's ollllld family friend's wedding in Manhattan (their moms met through the "homeschooling network" and became friends- yep, E was home-schooled until 3rd grade!). It was a really nice wedding, and I was feeling pretty okay Sunday morning but E convinced me to take a preemptive nausea pill "just in case". So I did, and then we grabbed a bagel on the way to the subway (we sat and ate it in the bagel shop- I hate eating on the subway). And then the subway ride was horrible. I got superrrrr nauseous. I had a mini can of ginger ale in my coat pocket (ha ha, true story!) but it only made things worse. E told me, "worst case scenario, you'll run to the door between the trains, throw up out the door, and it'll be done." RIGHT. Clearly, he's never seen me vomit. Idk what he was thinking. I'm no freaking MacGyver!

 Okay. Long story short, we go to the wedding, it's kosher and dairy because the family is vegetarian, and that's awesome. I was still feeling nauseous, but I ate what I could (some amazing french onion soup, a bite of eggplant parmesan, some mac & cheese... all REALLY good!). My in-laws were at the wedding too and they were so excited to see us- it was the first time they were seeing us since we told them! Apparently, my MIL even surreptitiously took a photo of my "belly" and sent it to my SIL. Which would be cute except that I DON'T HAVE A BELLY! I'm still exactly the same weight AND I was wearing Spanx! What the heck! Oh wellll, haha. Let them be excited. ;)

K so I was tired when we got there and faded more and more as time went on. By the time it was over I was about to fall over. E graciously agreed to get a cab home instead of making me take another hellish and nauseous subway ride, and I thought that'd be a great solution.... WRONG. Riding in a cab in Manhattan is kind of like riding a bucking bronco. The drivers speed up to catch the lights and then juuuust miss it and brake hard, there's swerving, there's potholes... it's not pretty. By the time we'd gotten to the Manhattan bridge I was beyond ready to jump out and vomit, but I held it in for the additional 15+ minutes it takes to get to our apartment in Brooklyn. I even paused to collect myself in our lobby before calmly walking up the 4 flights of stairs and waited for E, who had the key. And then as soon as the door was open, I ran for the bathroom... and it was terrible. THE. FREAKING. WORST. But afterwards, I got right into bed, and E sat with me and started writing a grad school paper, and in the morning he said I was dead asleep in 5-10 minutes, which is shocking. I neverrrr fall asleep quickly.

This morning I woke up STARVING and thought about all of the foods I wanted to eat. I decided on 1 piece of pizza and that I'd make a spicy kani/coleslaw salad that our friend makes on Shabbos that I LOVE. Spicy food hasn't been affecting my stomach, so I figured that'd be fine. E went to pick up a couple of slices of pizza for us for lunch, and I got halfway through mine before I had to vomit AGAIN. What. the. HECK?

So, yeah. It's been a rough week. We have our 12 week appointment on Wednesday, so you know I'll be talking to him about this. I can barely keep anything down... and forget vitamins. I can barely look at them without gagging. #hotmess alert. This poor kid.

How far along: 11 weeks 6 days

Size of baby:  A lime, apparently!

Physical symptoms: Sore boobs. Bloated on and off. Exhausted. Super sensitive to smells, very "gaggy", crazy nauseous, and VOMITING a ton (see above post, haha). Some weird cravings/food aversions. The weird dreams are back.

Weight gain/loss: Same! No gain, no loss.

Maternity clothes: Not yet!

Stretch marks: I swear I can see some starting on my chest, but E swears I'm crazy.

Sleep: On and off. Sometimes I sleep for a couple of hours and BOOM! I'm awake and can't fall back asleep, other times I'm out like a log for like 10-12 hours. E's been reallllly great about letting me sleep when I'm asleep, even though it drives me crazy when I try to take a nap, wake up hours later and he says "you obviously needed the rest!" even though my whole afternoon is now gone.

Best moment since last week: Seeing my in-laws for the first time since we told them. We hadn't seen any family yet and it was really nice to get the hugs.

Movement: Not that I can feel!

Cravings/Aversions: Sweet things still mostly taste "off". I've started to crave them but it's always disappointing when I eat them because it doesn't taste right. Still want spicy things- not sour as much anymore, except lemonade occasionally. Cooked tomatoes still make me gag (pasta sauces, etc). Chicken, meat and fish (raw or cooked) are still grossing me out-- occasionally crave gefilte fish (baked "my" way). Veggie sushi with really spicy wasabi is my jam but I've only had it like 2x. Oh! And I can't believe I haven't mentioned this but I crave "butter sandwiches" almost constantly. It's a piece of whole wheat bread, with thin chunk of butter laid out on 1/2 of the slice, then I fold it in half, and.... eat it. Everyone's grossed out by it. Except me. And I finally got E to try a bite the other night and he actually said it's not that bad. I think people think it involves way more butter than it does, but they're reallllly thin slices. I have days when that's all I want to eat.

Gender: I started calling it a "he" this week. Idk!

Labor signs: Hopefully not for 6+ months!

Belly button:  Innie

What I miss:  Real sushi, deli meat, soft cheeses, caffeine!!! And alcohol when I'm at an event where people are drinking.

What I am looking forward to: The 12 week appointment on Wednesday!! I haven't had an ultrasound in over 3 weeks and I'm freaaaaaking out... Paranoia is in full force. Also looking forward to getting out of the first trimester, the nausea (hopefully) subsiding, and kind of far off but the 4 month mark (when we'll tell the rest of our family and close friends and not keep it as an official secret anymore).

Splendiferous Sugar-Free Pudding Ideas

Today we're going to be talking about things to make using sugar-free pudding. Ok, look, try not to make fun of my first attempt at a Pic Monkey graphic too much. It's a little sad, I know. Whatevs. This little experiment came up when I was aimlessly checking out the contents of our pantry and realized we had a box of, you guessed it, sugar-free pudding. I actually haaaate the taste of anything sugar-free, so when I decided I wanted to do something with it, I figured I needed to pick something that would camouflage the taste. These aren't the healthiest recipes, but they are actually low amylose (EXCEPT that my sugar-free pudding had Splenda in it, which has maltodextrin, which is a big ol' no-no. So try to find one without that). I used Lieber's brand, so Idk if Jello brand has Splenda in there too, but either way it probably tastes better than my kosher one. And anyway, it's Bill Cosby approved:

K so first up is the imitation Wendy's Frosty. Now, I've kept kosher for about the past decade (!!!) so I admittedly haven't had one of the real guys in a while. A long while. But this was close enough (even with all of my stupid tweaks) that I got where they were going with it. In high school my friend and I would go through the Wendy's drive-thru for a Frosty and then drive next door for Burger King fries, because they were infinitely better there. My parents never let me pull that crap though. It was all or nothing. :) So here you go:

Imitation Wendy's Frosty (original recipe found here)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 2 TBS sugar-free chocolate pudding mix (I used vanilla and was wondering why it wasn't so chocolatey until right now)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp unsweetened cocoa*
• 1/2 TBS Splenda (2-3 small packets)*
• 7 ice cubes
• (optional) 2 TBS cool whip (I skipped this- cool whip isn't kosher ;))

* I actually used a little bit of maple syrup and a little bit of sugar-free chocolate syrup but I do not recommend using my substitutions on the Frosty. The lady that posted it said it was amazing and she'd love it even if she wasn't on a diet. Mine was okay, but still had a lot of that Splenda taste. Shocker.
This one is super easy. All you do is throw it all into the blender until it hits your desired consistency.

Next up:
No-Bake Greek Yogurt Cheesecake
Crust Ingredients (recipe from here- I want to try that full recipe w/ almond or cashew butter instead of peanut butter- I'd already made the pudding when I found this crust recipe, so I was kind of locked into cheesecake!)

• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut (I used 1/4c shredded coconut, 3/4c coconut flour)
• 1/2 cup chopped (pitted) dates
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• ~1 tbsp water (depends on the moisture from the dates- add this last) 

Throw all of this into a food processor, adding a little water at a time until you can pinch it with your fingers and it sticks together.  Then pat it into the bottom of your pan.

 

(Close inspection shows that I've got real chunks of date in there. Oh well.)

Filling Ingredients (recipe from here)

• 12 oz Plain Greek yogurt 
• 1 package Sugar Free Fat Free Cheese Cake Pudding Mix (I used sugar free vanilla)
• 1 Cup milk (any kind; I used dairy)  

I threw these ingredients into the blender for maybe 1.5 minutes. Just until it seemed incorporated. Then I poured it on top of the crust, made a little design with some of that sugar-free chocolate syrup, and popped it into the refrigerator for a few hours. That's what's up.

 Lemme know if you try this, and what additional tweaks you make that are amazeballs. Any other sugar-free pudding recipes out there? :)

Ramblings Part III

I guess this "Ramblings" thing is becoming a... thing.

First of all, exciting news, the RE office called and my progesterone levels are "perfectly normal". YAY ME! This is our first-ever iui cycle, but I don't think they've ever been normal on other non-iui cycles. I had my cell phone next to me all day, waiting for them to call but missed it because I'm a genius and had the volume turned off. So I heard the progesterone news via voicemail, and she added that "Normally we'd do the pregnancy test blood work on Wednesday, but Wednesday is a holiday, so you should come in Thursday for that." Cue the record screeching to a halt sound. SAY WHAT?!

 THURSDAY?! As in SIXTEEN DAYS after my iui?! Hellzzzz no. Like an idiot, I freaked out and ran into the bedroom and woke E up. Somehow, in his deep-sleep stupor, he was able to remind me that the nurse who'd called probably didn't know that I was supposed to have gone in for my progesterone blood work yesterday, not today, and therefore my pregnancy test should be Tuesday, not Wednesday.

And then he fell back asleep. Of course, I was satisfied with that answer for about two full seconds before panic attack #2 came on. But what if they don't know!? He suggested that we call them tomorrow but quickly realized that I would have worried myself into oblivion by then so he had me dial the number and called them back. He explained the situation to the nurse and she said oh yeah, hands down come in Tuesday. Then he confirmed about 5x (for my sake) that Tuesday was the day to come in, and no, it wouldn't be too early, and no, Thursday wouldn't be a more accurate test. Homeboy covered all his bases. #lifesaver

While I was on the phone with my mom later (she's been getting updated after all the appointments because apparently blogging about it isn't enough for me, haha), I asked her if she'd had morning sickness when she was pregnant with my brother and me. She said she did not have morning sickness with either of us! Lucky lady. She just craved Chinese food and Dairy Queen with me, and said the smell of pizza made her super nauseous when she was pregnant with my brother. I wish I could take that as a good sign, but she's a freaking tough cookie. Her birth story from when she had me is this: "I didn't get an epidural, because back then they were supposedly super risky, and I could hear all of these women in the nearby rooms screaming their heads off and I thought, 'uh oh'. But then I pushed all 9lbs of you out, and yeah it hurt, but Idk what they were all screaming about." Yeah. That's my mom. I clearly did not inherit her pain tolerance. I'm the biggest wuss in the world. Although the truth is that while I scream bloody murder every time E accidentally steps on my foot or something, if I'm in actual pain and other people are around, I'm a pretty silent sufferer. The nurses at the RE are always asking "Does that not hurt??" while they're jabbing me with the internal ultrasound and I'm like "Uh, no it definitely does" and they're like "Wow, you're so quiet." So Idk.

I also started my special folic acid pills today called Folgard RX 2.2. That ups my daily pill count to 6, but at least I don't have to take progesterone! 

My boss texted me to find out what shifts I'm able to work in January. Ruh roh. I asked E what he thought I should do (the schedule with be finished by next week when I know my situation). He was like "Well in January, you won't have to go in nearly as often." ...huh? "You'll only be going into the office occasionally, it won't be like this month" Oh, honey. That's only if I'm actually pregnant. "Oh... right. Huh." He's usually super rational/level-headed about the what-if aspect of this, I'm nervous that he's going to be heartbroken if it doesn't happen. As for work: If I am pregnant, I have to decide whether to quit or not. And if I'm not... I'm in the same boat as December, not being able to work morning shifts sometime 4x/week. I'm not really sure what to do.

Ok, last bit: I know its crazy early to report on symptoms, and I always feel like a moron when they call with my BFN after my 999 "FOR SURE" signs that I was pregnant, but apparently I don't learn and I'm gonna do it anyway. This is my first cycle in over a year, so gimme a break.
Here we go:
-TMI alert: I have a ton of CM. Like I keep freaking out because I keep thinking my period came. But it's creamy and white. I know, gross. I don't think that's ever happened before. Could be wrong.

-Still ex-freaking-hausted. I have a women's group that I go to on Tuesday evenings where a few of us get together and learn something Jewish. It's at 8:30pm. By 5:30pm I was falling on my face tired. So I decided to (big mistake) lay in bed and update my iphone/delete some photos. I think I fell asleep at 8pm (the class is an under-10 minute walk away) and didn't wake up until 11:30.

-At 11:30, the reason I woke up was because I had this HORRIFIC nightmare. This gets a little graphic: I was babysitting E's cousin's daughter with my mom and E's mom, and these guys were trying to kidnap her and chased us through an inner city for a crazy long time and then they caught us and they shot me twice- once in the face and once in the stomach. Turns out I was pregnant. First of all, WHAT? Second of all, I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T DIE IN YOUR OWN DREAMS!? Also, let me just say that I never have vivid dreams at home. We have friends that live in Massachusetts and in their old apartment, I would have a crazy vivid dream every single time we'd stay with them. Like every single night. It was something about that house. But at home? Nothing. And now I've had memorable dreams the past 2 nights. Crazy pants.

-My boobs are sore. Not like when I was ovulating- they were crazy sore all over at that point. Now they just hurt when they get bumped or touched, but when they hurt they hurttt.

-I'm having food cravings and aversions, but I do that every day of my life, so that's nothing new.

-I'm feeling nauseous 24/7, but again, that's the norm for me. I really need to see a GI doctor at some point. I thought the Low Amylose diet would solve my problems, but it hasn't totally done so. Things are better than they were but they're far from perfect.

-I'm hyper emotional. I don't have the greatest temper in general, but lately I haven't been getting angry. Just emotional. Everything makes me cry. I made E watch that video of the kids and staff in the Richmond Children's Hospital singing Katy Perry's song "Roar" and I couldn't even be in the same room because I was welling up from the first note. And a friend on FB posted this article and that caused tears, too. Interestingly, after E watched the video, he said "WHY am I going into geriatrics instead of pediatrics?? Kids are so much better. Crap"... thankfully his program is new and doesn't have a pediatrics or Family Practice tract yet, but he said that if they create one before he's done he'll strongly consider switching. I've been saying he should do that all along, but whatever. ;)

Here's that lip synching video:

Happy National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!

Yep. It's a real thing. Thank the heavens. And here's my contribution:

Chocolate Covered Clementines w/ Sea Salt

I've actually been wanting to do this for some time now, after seeing it floating around Pinterest a while back. I bought the "ingredients" last week but just wasn't finding the motivation. And, honestly, I would've never even gotten around to it today except that as I was about to get into pj's (who am I kidding? I've been in pj's all day!) I caught a Hello Giggles Facebook post that announced that today is National Dip Anything in Chocolate Day (Sorry for the late notice- I was clearly very busy). Aaaaand the fire was officially lit!

These are crazy simple, and E has been making trip after trip back to the kitchen for more ever since he discovered them. 

All you need is: 

• 1 bar of Chocolate (I used sugar free dark chocolate but anything'll work. Also... We were 1 row short of a full bar because chocolate doesn't last long around here)
• 3 clementines 
• A couple of pinches of sea salt
• Wax paper

No, not this kind of Clementine! :)

 Now, you're supposed to use a double broiler or whatever they're called, for this, but we don't have one and I'm too lazy to improvise, so I just broke up the chocolate into it's predetermined squares and threw them into a saucepan. Like so: 

I put the flame on low and got to peeling my clementines, stirring the chocolate in the pan between peeling each one. 

Then I spread the individual slices of clementines out along the wax paper.

To "dip" them I scooped a bit of chocolate up from the pan with a spoon and rolled about half of each slice in the chocolate. I could cover 2-3 slices each time, and found that if I tried to take more chocolate/"dip" more than 3 at a time, the chocolate became too solidified.

Each time I'd finished dipping about 1/3 of the slices, I paused and sprinkled a little bit of sea salt on the dipped chocolate part before it could fully harden on the clementine. 

And that's it!

I'm actually feeling suuuuper lousy right now because I, like an idiot, declared today a Low Amylose cheat day. I had a piece of my favorite Alfredo pizza from my favorite pizza shop. And part of a milkshake (coffee cookies and cream). I know. I should've seen this coming. It happens every time. But I didn't, so now I'm going to peace out and try and sleep it off! Hey, at least these guys were Low Amylose friendly...

Pumpkin Quinoa Oatmeal

If you're like me, this Low Amylose (or gluten-free, etc) diet probably has you craving a good breakfast option. A girl can only eat so many eggs- omelettes, sunny side up, scrambled, hard boiled... Even with all of these variations, it gets old. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love me some good eggs. But even the best things can get overplayed.

Sorry.

Anyway... as your resident Pinterest addict I'd seen this Breakfast Quinoa idea over and over again, so the idea had been floating around in my head for a while. I finally broke down when I found  this recipe one morning, because... hello, it involves pumpkin. So here's my version (with a couple of LA-friendly tweaks).

 

• 1/2 cup rinsed, uncooked quinoa
• 1 cup milk 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pumpkin purée
• 1 TBS honey
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Toppings of your choice (I obviously used a couple of chocolate chips... because I'm me.)

- Pour the milk, cinnamon and quinoa into a medium pot, bring to a boil.

- Lower the flame and cover 12-15mins, stirring occasionally, until milk is almost entirely absorbed

- Add in the pumpkin, salt and honey and stir until combined

- Throw on any toppings, and you're good to go!

Except that, again, if you're like me, you'll probably have burnt quinoa to scrub off the bottom of your pan. But that can wait unto after breakfast. It "needs" to soak! ;) (While we're on that topic, let's just ignore all of the food splatters on my stovetop, mmmkay? Thanks)

Like Buttah, Baby

Almond butter, that is. As in, Almond Butter Cookies.

I'm obsessed with these cookies. Like, they actually might be my favorite cookies ever. I say that because I haven't had real cookies in a very, very, very long time. But either way, these gluten-free babies (one-track mind, much?) make me not miss real ones even, like, half as much.

Here's the recipe:
- First, preheat your oven to 350.
- Then, thoroughly combine:

• 1 cup almond butter
• 1/3 cup honey (you could use maple syrup if you want to go vegan, here)
• 1 egg (again, if you're pulling the V-card- and by that I mean vegan card, you can use an egg alternative. I tend to use this when I start baking something and realize we're out of eggs: 1 egg = 2 TBS water + 1 TBS oil + 2 tsp baking powder)
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt (unless your almond butter is already salted)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

- Fold in:
2/3 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup chocolate chips 
If you can find sugar free chocolate chips, use them to keep this vaguely Low Amylose (the honey is also questionable). Or you could use raisins. But oatmeal raisin cookies are a big contributor to my ongoing trust issues. Seriously, those little buggers fool me into thinking they're chocolate chip EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Whatever. I don't "count" chocolate chips, okay? Which might be why I stopped losing weight. Orrrr it could be because of the fact that I'm now on week 3(?) without Metformin because my insurance company FORGOT TO SEND IT. It's cool. I'm not bitter. (UPDATE: It came today!!!)

Anyway....
- Roll the dough into normal cookie-sized balls, throw them on a baking sheet or two 
- Bake 'em for 9-12 minutes or until lightly browned. I find that the bottoms burn a bit if I have them on the lower rack of my oven.

Lemme know how they turn out!

Thanksgivvukah

Low Amylose Thanksgiving can be done. Ours was a little bit of a hot mess, but there was a lot of potential there. It could've all be avoided by a little thought and planning, but that's not how I was rolling this year. Oh well. :)

Side note: Happy 20th blog post! It only took 9 months to get here, but here we are. I've been getting a little bit better at blogging more regularly, and just emailed Stirrup-queens.com to get myself added to their blogroll, so if we get any attention from that, it might light a fire under my tush even more. I've also started reading some other PCOS/infertility blogs and hope to get to know some of those ladies. If anyone has any suggestions to good ones, lemme know. 

Back to the real point of this post: Thanksgivukah. Here's our Chanukah House. Manischewitz makes a kit (we actually paid 1/2 that at Duane Reade)- we're not this talented. And it's just for show (in our house) due to it's extremely HIGH amylose content. I do suggest doing this with someone who will monitor you while building... E had to go to work in the middle of the creative process, and while it was nice to have an activity to keep me busy while all by my lonesome on Thanksgiving night, it resulted in me eating a crap-ton of icing. Whoops.

We got our kit like a month ago and thought we were going be be super original and hilarious, and couldn't wait to build it over Chanukah and surprise everyone with our big reveal. Then they started selling them in Crown Heights and everyone and their mother got one, built it, and posted it on Facebook before we'd even opened our box. Womp womp womp.

After about the 5th fb Chanukah house reveal, this is kind of what it felt like, haha:

The rest of our meal was way more diet-friendly. First, we had zucchini latkes since potatoes are a no-go for me. They were awesome. But not without a hitch. Y'see, E offered, ever-so-kindly, to make the latkes. I found the recipe and gave it to him, but he neglected to finish reading it... and as a result he tried to deep-fry them instead of using 2-3 TBS as was spelled out in the recipe (here). Cute. Luckily I caught him struggling before he tossed the entire batch into the garbage out of frustration. 

I tried to make gingersnap cookies, which you can find the recipe to here, but mine came out kind of dry. GREAT flavor, just too dry for my taste. Oh and even with freezing the dough for a bit, it thawed too quickly post-rolling to make the cookie cutter shapes work.

Here's the final spread. We never made it to mashing (or, um, buying) squash. And those deviled eggs were all E's, because they're just not my thing. Those brussels sprouts were amazing (recipe here). I seriously loved them and plan on making them again.

Other things we made:

Paleo Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins- Also a bit dry. Maybe it's just us.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Roasted Nuts- We tried a bit of this right out of the oven, and again a day later and it was infinitely better the next day. My mother-in-law was visiting and asked for the recipe. Twice. I should get around to sending it to her... haha. Either way, the nuts were great. 

The point is, we're not shining examples of a success story, but Low Amylose Thankgiving CAN be done!

It's Getting Hot in Hurrr....

Oh, friends. These Clomid hot flashes are insane. They're not constant, but they're a few times an hour, sometimes a few times every half an hour. They come out of nowhere, and they're intense enough that they actually wake me up. So. I haven't been sleeping, which I'm sure is really adding to my already awesome mood swings. Honestly, those aren't as bad as I remember from past cycles, but I'll have to check in with E and see if that's an accurate assessment.

I'm also super over-the-top nauseous. The thought of eating is nauseating. It's not healthy, I know, but that, combined with only eating Low Amylose foods, combined with being on track with the Metformin has resulted in some weight loss. I'm down at least a couple of pounds just from last week, and in the past month I've lost 6.5 lbs. I'll take it- now I'm only 4.5 lbs away from my pre-Rosh Hashana weight. HOLLER.

How I felt on the scale today.

That's pretty much all for now.... I need to upload and edit the Thanksgiving photos still, but I'm going to save that for tomorrow. I mostly wanted to get this update recorded here before I forgot about these wicked awesome side effects. Wish us luck.

UPDATE:
I decided to add on to this post because I never intended for this blog to be a bunch of quick progress updates and I want to save my 20th post for something worthwhile. :)

Today is Tuesday and I'm still crazy nauseous. I tried making two or three different quick things for dinner tonight and I couldn't stomach more than a couple of bites of each. I'm not really sure what's going on, or why that would be. Additionally, I have a crazy bad headache- right by my forehead and temples.

Tomorrow is my first ultrasound since I took the Clomid, so seriously wish us luck. I'm also going to go there without having eaten because last week the NP had said she wanted to do a fasting glucose at some point. I should remember to bring a snack, but I also hope to get coffee with a friend who just moved somewhere right near my RE's office tomorrow after the appointment. Hurray! Socializing!

E won't be attending the appointment with me, I don't think, because he's working his third overnight in a row tonight AND he's in the middle of grad school finals so he a) hasn't slept in like 2 straight days, and b) has to finish a paper that's due tomorrow evening. And then we're going to a Chanukah party with another couple we know and love, at a new couple-friends' house. So it'll be a pretty exciting and fun but long day...

I'm getting nervous about tomorrow's appointment. I know I shouldn't expect much (I only finished the Clomid on Sunday) but I've been really good about the diet and pretty good about the Metformin (except! that I ran out of my old stash today and the new prescription STILL hasn't arrived yet... our insurance or pharmacy won't let us get it through our normal pharmacy because it's usually something people are on fo' lyfe so they do it through mail-order. I have to look into that tomorrow. I was really banking on it getting here just in time today...). So that's that. I'm going to drink some tea and try to chillax, and maybe try to eat something, before I head to bed for a bit before my appointment. Ahhhh.

I'm in a Glass Case of Emotion!

AKA Happy Thanksgiving(!!!), AKA I started a Clomid cycle. And yes, this is truly how I feel:

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in a Jump Break here, because this post got over-the-top long-winded. So if you're interested in reading my return-to-the-RE drama, read on, and if you're just here for the crafts, you can skip this one. :)


Yep. It had been over a year, but we finally made it back to our Reproductive Endocrinologist this month. The whole getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things process has been a lot of hurry up and wait.

First, I needed my annual exam from our OB-Gyn, because the RE won't start anything until the results come back A-Ok there. A week later we were in the clear so we called to make an appointment with the RE (to discuss a game plan) but they didn't have any appointments until the following week. So there's another week. At that appointment, the RE was super excited that I'd lost weight (I'm currently down about 10lbs... I had lost about 18lbs but gained 8 or 9 back over Tishrei and I haven't been able to lose it since. I did run out of Metformin, and/or was taking it sporadically there, so I have a hunch that the Metformin is what's doing the trick, unfortunately), but because I'd lost weight he was hesitant to move on to the injectables like we had discussed doing before we took our break (partially because I was nervous about moving on to the injectables). In short, he was afraid that the injectables would work TOO well and we'd end up with more follicles than we could manage, and would have to scrap the cycle. Cool.

In the end, we're trying 200mg of Clomid again. It's kind of nice to be back in familiar territory. And walking into the office for that meeting was awesome because all of the secretaries and nurses, etc. were SUPER excited to see us. There were a lot of hugs, smiles and a bunch of playful accusations that we'd left them for another doctor. They also did blood work for both of us that Thursday, saying it should be back late the next week.

Welp, it didn't come back for 12. Freaking. Days. I think I was freaking out so much because I was scared I'd have another case of cold feet and we wouldn't end up back there for ANOTHER year. Or that my period would inconveniently (yet miraculously) come while we were waiting and then we'd have to wait even longer because the RE wouldn't write the prescription for Clomid until the blood work was back, and therefore we'd miss this month's cycle.

When it finally did come back Tuesday afternoon, they wanted me to come in the next morning. But I work on Wednesday mornings from 6:30am-9am, and the blood work hours are 6:30am-8am. #winning. Normally, that'd be fine- I don't work Thursday mornings, so I could go the next day. EXCEPT that the Thursday in question was Thanksgiving, so the Brooklyn office was closed, and they suggested I head there the next Monday. #winning

Basically, like a crazy person, I moved heaven and earth to find coverage for my shift and was able to make it to the Wednesday appointment. You don't even want to know how many favors I owe said coworker. It was actually only my 2nd time ever going by myself, without E. True story. While I was there the NP informed me that my thyroid levels were slightly elevated, so she wrote me a prescription for Synthroid. It was a 2.9, which is on the high end of normal, so she said if we weren't trying to get pregnant they'd never put me on meds for it, but pregnancy can elevate the levels so they want to prepare for that. Actually, they checked it twice- once in their office and once at the lab they sent the blood work out to, and at their own office it came out as 2.1. So it's really just a precaution.

Ha. So much for cutting it short. The point is, now I'm on Synthroid, a prenatal vitamin plus Vitamin D, metformin 3x/day, and Clomid. And now I'm ALREADY (on day TWO) an emotional basket case and sobbed like a baby (ironic) this Thanksgiving. Which I really felt was legitimate at the time, but now a few hours later and the suggestion of my husband, I'm pretty convinced that it was the Clomid.
I think that's enough for now, I'll post more about our attempt at a Low Amylose Thanksgiving meal ASAP.

Have I ever mentioned that Alanis Morissette forever warped the concept of irony for me? Jagged Little Pill was my 2nd CD, ever. 5th grade. I was young and impressionable. I love her, but I think my entire most of a lot of people my age have this problem. You should totally watch this if you have the same issue. It'll clear some things up. #firstworldproblems

Off-the-Wall with Off-White

I'm going to start this off by confessing that we've I've painted parts of our hallway walls at least 5 different colors. It's totally embarrassing. It started with Shakespeare Tan 228 by Benjamin Moore. I thought it'd be a nice beige, but as soon as I got the first bit of paint on the wall I realized that (at least in our sunless hallway) it was way too green. It was like a puke greenish tan. It was terrible. It was my first of many paint-oopsies, and for a few minutes I was too proud to admit it was disgusting, but by the second small wall I knew we couldn't keep it. I actually just recently gave that gallon away on Craigslist. Next we moved on to Smokey Taupe 983, also by our good friend Benny. At the time, my thoughts were that it wasn't "enough of a color". Or maybe it was too cold. I'm not sure, but it didn't make it on to many walls before I gave up on it too. After that, we moved in a new direction-

-no, not those New Directions... but let's take a moment to say RIP to Corey Monteith/Finn. Judging by my fb feed, last night's tribute episode was a tear jerker.

I decided to go blue. Labrador Blue 1670 or CC-740 (I think they're they same but who knows). I loved the color anyway, but then I found out it was the color used in the Dunphy home on Modern Family. Whattup. There was no going back. We actually finished the whole hallway this time. Buuuut it was super bold and dark- not at all like the pale blue it is on the show.... Sad face.

It was around that time that Hubbs and I went on vacation to Acapulco (that's a story for another time) and fell in love with the calm blue-greens that we saw everywhere. We came back and I was on a mission to find the right one. Long story short, it was the precursor to my 50 Shades of Gray shenanigans, and we painted about 100 blue/green/aqua sample in the hallway before choosing Olympic's Sea Sprite C61-2. And then we realized that our hallway has totally different lighting in different parts of it (there's some turns and parts of it get a trickle of light from the windows in the kitchen and living room, while other chunks are tunnel-like and others just get no sunlight whatsoever), so colors look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in each section. So while Sea Sprite had been perfect over by the living room, our entryway was super duper green.  Ruh Roh!

Here's a photo where you can see the original off-white, the current color (Bird's Egg by BM), and at least two other colors (the greenish sea sprite and darker labrador blue)... what a hot mess:

Which brings us to the point of this post, because that pic also shows what I did last night. All of the trim and everything from the chair rail down plus most of the ceilings in our apartment are off white. All of the walls were off-white too until I painted them 28x each. Off-white is far from terrible. It's not bad at all. It's just boring and kind of makes everything look dirty. NBD, really. But this is me we're talking about. The painting nut. So over the course of about 4-5 hours, I painted it all most of it white. Behr's Ultra Pure White (off the shelf) in semi-gloss, which I'd bought about 2 months ago (and then couldn't find for awhile).

To cut to the point, here are some before, during, and afters...just try to ignore the dustballs and our sad-looking hardwood floors, mmmkay?:

To the right of our front door (when coming into the apartment).

The right-hand turn once you're inside, leading to the breakfast nook (that's our pantry door) and kitchen. This is where I began painting.

The same spot, just painted white. Obviously the next step is to finally cut-in with the blue paint. A step I clearly never got around to. For the past year.

Before and after of the hallway connecting our bedroom, the bathroom, the living room, and the guest room... I'd previously painted the border, but not the inner part, below the chair rail:

This is looking toward our front door; there's usually a West Elm runner here (see the photo below). The left side is partially painted, the right side is done.

My favorite shot. :)

And there we have it. I only had a quart of paint, so I'd like to get another and do a second coat in some places. And paint the baseboard in the breakfast nook. And kitchen And do below the chair rail in the living room. Uhhh yeah we'll see if it takes me another year before any of that happens....

Leo and Kate Approved Chickpea Flatbread

I was going to reuse the blogpost title "Chick-chick-chick It Out" for this, but decided it was too soon. We're only 14 posts in. No, this isn't about chicken. It's about chickpeas. Well, Chickpea flour. Err... garbanzo bean flour. 

You know I've tried almond flour, coconut flour, and now it was time for garbanzo bean flour. There might've been more experimentation too... but that's what comes to mind so far. Chickpea flour is pretty awesome in that it can be used to make... wait for it... Chickpea Flatbread or Pitas. Seriously. Check it out on Pinterest, there's a million (exaggerate much?) pins about "Authentic Italian/Persian/Indian etc Flatbread/Pita/Taco/etc" and there's about 100 different names for them. Trust me, I checked it out. I used this recipe (look there for more detailed instructions! and more gorgeous photos!), but I'll be buying more flour and trying out a few more. 

These are awesome. And there are only 4 ingredients:

- 2.5c Chickpea flour or Garbanzo Bean flour or Gram (all the same thing, AFAIK)

- 3.5c cold water

- 1/4c extra virgin olive oil 

- salt/pepper to taste 

Alright so maybe that's 5 ingredients, but who's counting?

The only bummer is that once you mix the ingredients together (I mixed them all together, but just realized while I was re-reading that original blog post that the oil is supposed to be used later, whoops), you have to let it sit for 3 freaking hours (yep, the length of Titanic) on the counter. I was wary so I covered it with plastic wrap but maybe you don't have to. [Update: Good news, folks! I added in the oil when I did it because I actually followed this recipe with much more concise instructions, not the one I previously linked to! We're trying the same recipe over again right now with that first link's oil trick. I'll let you know if it's any different.]

You should know that since 1997, I've used "How many times you can watch Titanic" as an estimate of how long anything 3 hours or longer will take. I'm totally serious. I don't always say it out loud, but I definitely think it. Especially at work: "Only 3 more Titanic viewings till I can go home!"

pre-salt & pepper

Pre-Titanic

So after you watch Titanic (I guess you could watch 3-4 episodes of Breaking Bad instead... or, like, actually do something productive...), you turn on the oven to 350*, skim off any foam that formed on the surface (yeah, I know), pour the oil into a large, rimmed cookie sheet (which I clearly did not do), and then pour the batter in so it's about 1/4" thick. Then you bake it for about 30 minutes or until golden brown (mine took quite a bit longer but that might be because of my oil mishap). And BAM. Just cut it and serve it up.  

I ate mine with hummus, because pita made of chickpeas just wasn't enough chickpeas. Duh.

I put the rest in Tupperware and it got kind of hard, but maybe if you heat it up it'd get softer? Who knows.... clearly not I. Winning major credibility points here.

(UPDATE #2: The second batch came out crispier along the edges, which were especially yummy. I've already eaten about half of the batch. I'm not sure if adding the olive oil vs. putting it in the pan first made any noticeable difference, but if you happen to experiment with the two methods, lemme know if you liked it better one way or the other...)

Once You Pop, You Can't Stop

Okay so if the suspense hasn't killed you by now, you're probably my Facebook friend and know the results of Paint Indecision 2013. We finally went for it. We picked a color. Are you ready? Remember, it was between Benjamin Moore's Dolphin AF-715 and Benjamin Moore's Galveston Gray AC-27.

And the winner was....
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.
.
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Galveston Gray (!!!):

We went with the lighter of the two choices. I wasn't sure it could hold it's own against the Benjamin Moore's Bird's Egg 2051-60 in the hallway, but it totally does. E repeatedly let me know that it was ultimately my decision, but that he thought that Dolphin would be too dark. That kicked my anxiety into high gear, and although I loved Dolphin and was leaning towards it the entire time, I just couldn't go through with it in the end. Galveston Gray is a nice, toasty gray. It's the same tone as Studio Taupe, but more gray than beige on the greige scale (Studio Taupe is the opposite- more beige than gray). For the sake of full disclosure, it's still a little bland behind the beige couches in some lights (I wish the couches "popped" more) but it's definitely better than before, and I love it with everything else in our living room. It's part of BM's "America's Colors" collection, and I'm guessing it's named after Galveston, TX, but I'm not really sure what's so greige about Texas. I'm a New England girl, remember?

Here's a sneak peek:

My warrior of a husband worked an overnight shift, went to grad school, and picked up a gallon and a quart of this bad boy from Home Depot "on his way" home for me. Okay, it's not exactly on his way. It's pretty much out of his way, actually. Which scores him even more props.

I'm not sure why, but we usually get our Benjamin Moore picks color matched to Behr paint+primer in one. I used to think it was because I liked the Behr coverage/application more, but people always seem surprised when I tell them that. So I'm piecing it together that it's actually a combination of Home Depot's hours being way more convenient (open till 10 or 11pm) than those of the smaller hardware stores that sell BM paint (which all close by 7pm) and the fact that BM "sample" sizes are like $6+ each vs getting a color matched to a Behr sample size costing $3-4. I'm sure the Behr gallon is also cheaper than the BM gallon. So that's probably why.

Then on one of his next overnight shifts, (the night before Yom Kippur actually) I hit my breaking point of not being able to handle the patchwork quilt of paint swatches on our walls (see here) and decided to just do the edging. That way it'd be easier when I decided to do the full walls... I'd just have to move all of the furniture to the middle of the room and go for it without worrying about details.

Yeah, but that didn't happen. Once you pop, you just can't stop.

Ok, this might be TMI but it happened to be really hot and humid that night, and I don't think I've EVER sweat that much in my life. Someone should make a DIY Workout video. I literally thought I was going to pass out (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the paint fumes).

Anyway, this little Brooklyn apartment living room of ours is feeling more and more "us". E walked into the room the next morning and said "It feels so much more home-y!" BOOM. Those were the exact words I was looking for. BTW Our new theme for the house is somewhere between "Urban Lumberjack" and "Urban Hobbit Hole". Yep. I've clearly given this too much a lot of thought.

I'll post some photos of the actual room tomorrow (or "soon"), but first you should know that I've been at it again with my poor poor photoshop skillz. No, it's not even photoshop. It's from "Instacollage" on my iPhone. I'm hanging my head in shame, don't worry. But this, my friends, is our current collection of paint colors in our apartment.

The guest room might get repainted with Behr's Studio Taupe at some point (we have a bunch leftover from our first living room painting experience- and I love the color, just not in the living room) but for now it's Stone, which is a gray with purple undertones. And after this super uncomfortably hot painting experience, it might be awhile before I tackle a paint job again. 

Regardless, I'm actually pretty pleased with the combination. It honestly goes together better in the photo than in real life, but we'll roll with it. And speaking of rolling, I'm out of here. Hopefully I'll get that next post up tomorrow!