Adventures in Pregnancy: 23 Weeks
31 Mar 2014
It is wonderfully strange and awesome to see a reflection of myself in a mirror, or even to look down and notice the roundness between me and my toes. The shirt I am wearing in this picture is pretty loose, thus the belly hugging, but hopefully you can still see that I’m growing someone amazing in there. And that someone is kicking, kicking, kicking! I love it. Except when he kicks straight down. That is less than fun. But definitely bearable!
I stumbled upon the answer to my age-old question about pregnancy posture this week when I realized that a pregnant woman actually has to throw her shoulders back to counterbalance the extra weight of her belly, and thus not topple over. Aha! Standing up straight is sort a different matter when you’ve got a passenger. However, I do admit that I am not standing up terribly stright in that photo. Sorry, mom!
It’s been a good week around here, and I think (though I say this in a whisper) that I might be getting a little bit less tired? Some days I can manage without a nap. But I am still really, really hungry. This weekend we went out to dinner, and I asked Eric what time I should make the reservation. “Do you want it to be first dinner or second dinner?” I asked. Hahaha! Some of you may remember that on The Office, when Pam was pregnant she shared second breakfast, first lunch, second lunch, and first dinner with Kevin in the break room. I thought that was a really caricatured (yet funny!) idea, but…it is all true! Breakfast usually lasts me until lunch (I just successfully made the switch from bagels to chia pudding–huzzah!), but there has to be a substantial snack at 3, dinner at 5, dinner at 7, and a significant snack at 9 and 11. If I don’t eat right before I go to bed, I will be awake and starving within two hours. Nonetheless, I don’t really feel like I’m eating so much more than normal in terms of actual volume, and I don’t feel any qualms about it. I only eat when I’m hungry, and there’s no mistaking hunger. Plus, I’ve learned the hard way that something like plain yogurt or cottage cheese is the right answer. No crazy sweets or fries cravings for me yet (but there’s still time for that!)
I am feeling pretty good, and am still so grateful for every moment that I am not nauseous. I still have at least three or so rough nights and a few rough mornings per week, but this is nothing compared to the first trimester. It’s amazing to feel like myself again.
I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about. A few months ago, when I was still in the throes of sickness, for some reason U2’s song “40” came into my mind. I love U2 (Achtung Baby may never be topped), but I hadn’t listened to that song in years. I played it on my computer and remembered that it comes from Psalm 40, which is a beautiful meditation on hope and waiting and relief. It struck me then that, regardless of religious belief, pregnancy is every mother’s 40: 40 days and 40 nights of the flood, 40 days of Lent, 40 weeks of growing a new life. It was such a comfort to me at a time when I was feeling so sick, such a powerful way to find meaning in my physical condition. And even though I’m feeling so much better now, this 40 reference still means so much to me: 40 weeks of praying and hoping and waiting, 40 weeks of growing and changing, 40 weeks of anticipating what is utterly unknown but is sure to be unimaginably incredible. I am so happy this thought alighted on my shoulder.
In other news, I started reading Great with Child today, and it is fantastic. Just a beautiful and deep and earthy meditation on being pregnant and all that comes with it. I can already tell I’m going to want to read it again as soon as I am finished. I have a big stack of pregnancy and birth books waiting for me, but this going to be the one I remember.
I have been so looking forward to writing this post! A bit of backstory: since I was so sick for the first 15 weeks or so of this pregnancy, it never even crossed my mind to make anything for the baby. Which is kind of crazy. Because I love making things. And I love this baby more than anything in the world. I would say I spent several weeks getting back into the groove of non-nauseous life, and then the wheels started to turn. A quilt! I did 
I went last week to a fabric store, only to find that it was closing: no! Their selection was limited, but I decided to grab some colors and play with them. I liked them all, but I felt they all skewed in a turquoise direction, and I needed more diversity. So I left the store empty-handed and tried another one the next day. I am really proud of myself for choosing a range of values and two solids of each color. Those of you who know my love of all things bright and fun will consider this no small achievement, I am sure! But I did break the rules a little bit. There was one extra blue fabric that I just could not part with. I loved it too much (it’s that slightly tie-dyed-looking in the middle on the bottom). And so there are six greens and seven blues. But there’s more ocean than land in the world anyway, right? That’s what I told myself. Part of the reason I have been waiting to share the fabric is that we’ve had an unusually gray and cloudy week, so there hasn’t been much good natural light. These fabrics are even more gorgeous in person, I promise!
Here they are lined up on my ironing board. These are the scrap strips leftover from cutting the triangles. I love the way they look so much that I’ve already quilted the blues and greens together–maybe when the baby is older I can use them for a pillowcase. In any case, too pretty to throw away!
I actually can’t fit them all in the frame, so here are the rest of the blues. I have never picked out this many fabrics, and I was honestly kind of intimidated by it. But I was really happy to find that my instinct kicked in. When I found something that worked well, I just felt it. And I sent a picture to Eric for a second opinion just to be sure!
I hope that I can finish the quilt before the baby comes, and so far it’s moving pretty quickly. I bought the fabric on Friday of last week and finished the cutting by Tuesday or so. I’ve laid down a plastic sheet for working out the pattern, and then it will be time to sew, sew, sew! I asked Eric to help me with it, and tonight he knelt down on the floor with me and offered his mathematical expertise and design savvy. I love that we’re doing this together. I will post another update when I’ve made some progress on the quilt top. So far we have three rows laid out, and every time I walk in the room I can’t believe how great it looks! I love these fabrics so much that I had to take a picture of the scraps before throwing them away. And that’s a good place to be with a quilt, I think.
We’ve been working on turning our office into the baby’s nursery, and I knew I was going to move my art supply shelving into our bedroom. But…I needed to reorganize it first. I did this 
These little guys are seriously the MVPs around here–I use them for everything. I got them at Michael’s for $1.50. $1.50! For the entire alphabet! They have a bunch of different fonts, but this is the one I keep coming back to. They also have really cute little inkpads for $1.50 too, in bright and happy colors, but I decided that black would better stand the test of time and sunlight.
Working with such tiny stamps definitely takes a while, especially for the tags that had tons of words, but I loved doing it. (And thankfully, Eric never complains when I take up 70% of the dinner table with my art projects. As soon as this was finished, I started cutting fabric there with my giant mat. He is a saint, I tell you.)
Now, the stamping is far from perfect, but I love it that way. That’s how you can tell a human made it.
Yay! A place for everything, and everything in its place.
More organizational glory. I attached the tags with 3-D foam adhesives that I use in scrapbooking, since some of the fabric drawers were very full and curved.
Here’s the inside of the stamp/inkpad/glitter mist/clay box.
Up top are some craft books, paintbrushes, watercolor trays, tiny canvases I’m going to paint for the nursery, and my scrapbook albums (that crazy fat one is for Project Life, and the white things are the foam adhesives for making the pages lay flat. When I’m done I’ll craft a new flexible spine to cover the binding). On the left you can see the edge of my 
Oddly enough, I get most of my recipe ideas from Pinterest these days. I say odd because I think Pinterest is famous for recipes like diet coke cake, but I have found the secret tunnel of deliciousness. I follow 
Caramelization softens and sweetens fennel, replacing the sharp licorice taste with an almost buttery earthiness. It smells so good. And it tastes even better.
But now I realize I have forgotten to show you the fennel I was working with: enormous! They are just huge this time of year, and we always look forward to it.
This was the scene at the market a week later: fennel towers! I bought three more.
But back to the recipe at hand. I love chickpeas, and, even though couscous isn’t my favorite grain, I was intrigued by the idea of adding citrus. It was better than I had even imagined. This is seriously the best dinner I have made in a long time! The fennel frond on top adds back a little bite of licorice and a touch of crunch, which I always appreciate.
And so, in summary, make this tonight! You won’t be sorry.
Eric and I are always trying to find the cool neighborhoods in LA, the places where it’s fun to take a Saturday stroll. This past weekend we headed to West 3rd, a sweet stretch between the old farmer’s market at Fairfax and the Beverly Center at La Cienega. We found fun shops and lots of places we’d like to come back and try (including a Turkish bakery: be still my heart!) We were strolling between lunch and dinner, so we weren’t hungry, but I took pictures of all the deliciousness and want to keep it here as a reminder when we’re looking for a new place to try. This is Magnolia Bakery, of NYC fame. It smelled so good in there!
Wouldn’t you like to sit at that little table in the window? I would!
And then we came across this little hole in the wall (literally!) selling fresh juice and Stumptown coffee, precious Pacific Northwest nectar. I was smitten. It reminded me so much of the little bread and pastry stands I used to frequent in Russia.
This is the scene inside Joan’s on Third, a market and deli. I drooled over all the cheese. And the salads looked fantastic too.
And then there was the pie shop. I was charmed by the menu…
and the pie schedule.
It was only to be topped by this adorable ice cream shop. Yum! Needless to say, I have grand plans of eating my way up and down this street!
I love palindromes, so this is a happy week for me. Also, I am not expert enough to make those photos line up perfectly, but I figured it was worth posting this lopsided comparison image anyway. Ah well! And another also: I bought that black skirt at Goodwill this week, and I might wear it every day for the rest of this pregnancy. It is so comfortable!
Loving daily walks, the extra hour of sunshine, baby kicks, and being able to eat again.
Well, hello, Project Life, old friend! I set up the layout for these pages in December and am just now finishing them. This trip was from almost a year ago, but that sort of adds to the charm, right? Now we’ve had time to forget all the stuff we did and to appreciate a reminder. And I guess that’s the point of scrapbooking anyway! (However, I do have grand plans to start a little Project Life factory around here as soon as I finish organizing all my art supplies. Getting so close!)
I got some new paper last fall, and this was my first time playing with it. I love the design and soft colors.
I am kind of in love with the concept of chronotopes (time-space; thank you, Russian literary theory), and I love being able to revisit the places where I used to live. I remember the first time Eric locked his bike up outside this building, all the happy dinners we had here, and the couple of weeks when we lived here together after we got married and before we moved to Pasadena. So many wonderful memories.
Early in our relationship, Eric came to my favorite coffee place with me and tried a cup, even though he doesn’t drink coffee at all. It was so sweet that he wanted to share that experience with me. We spent a lot of lazy weekend afternoons here. And so we always love to come back!
Visiting Berkeley is always a feast of culinary delights, and Ici is a mainstay on the list of must-haves. I wish everyone such blissful ice cream experiences, and such wonderful friends as ours.
What’s better than an afternoon in the park with friends post-ice cream?
More Berkeley glory! It never gets old. At least not for us!
Berkeley Bowl!
More Berkeley Bowl!
And our old neighborhood. Ah, Rockridge, you are the stuff of dreams.
And, to top it off, dinner with my BFF! So good to catch up with someone who makes you feel like no time has passed at all since you last saw each other.
I came across this recipe in Molly Wizenburg’s excellent book, 
, which I devoured in two days over Christmas break a few years ago. I hadn’t heard of Molly’s blog back then, but my mom had, since she’s always ahead of the curve. The writing in that book is so searingly and deliciously honest. I laughed, I cried, and I wished I had the courage to spill it all out in such a breathtakingly beautiful way. Molly’s kind of a hero of mine. This recipe comes from her husband, Brandon, with whom she owns 
But anyway, the food! I have tried my hand at Indian food. I dabble in aloo mattar and mushroom bhaji and baingan bharta. I’ve tried kormas and curries. I will never give up because Indian is probably my favorite food on the planet (and it is probably my only real pregnancy craving), but this is the only Indian dish I have ever made that really tastes right. It is astoundingly good. I think it’s the cardamom pods and garam masala, or maybe it’s the charring of the onions or the slow cooking to concentrate the flavor. I’m no expert. But this chana masala is a dream. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be making it until I can’t hold a knife anymore.
My friend Steve is just one of the greatest friends you could ever have, and that’s before you even consider that he’s an incredibly talented chef. We’ve been friends for almost half my life, and I’m so grateful for him. When I lived in Berkeley, he lived in this amazing little cottage up in the Berkeley hills, and he used to invite me (and Eric, if he was in town) to dinner. When Steve invites you to dinner, you say yes. Those meals are some of my happiest Berkeley memories, and I have an awful lot of happy Berkeley memories. Eventually it became clear to me that Steve was a pie master. He’d make his dough from scratch with no food processor, no pastry cutter–with nothing more than his hands. I used to sit on a stool in his tiny but beautiful kitchen and watch him work butter and flour into magic. Steve’s love for pie dates back to our college days, when he discovered 
I was really touched that he made time for us on his last day in town. And so were my mom and Ellen. Luckily, we found some Oxnard strawberries, and then we got to work shelling peas before Steve got there (this was more or less our only contribution, but Steve always makes you feel like you’re being so helpful). While he was working on the dough, these two lovely ladies were knitting away on the couch.
This was our savory filling…mmm, I am still dreaming of it. I should also mention that Steve stopped mid-cooking to make salad dressing for me because I was starving and needed to eat some greens. And then he let me eat all the filling that was leftover from the pie. See, he is the best ever. Sadly, I don’t have any real recipes for you, but this is asparagus and green peas lightly cooked in butter with shallots and sliced almonds. And then we covered it with shredded Manchego and Parmesan.
When the pie was in the oven, I told Steve he should make himself a drink and made sure to advertise the Luxardo cherries I got Eric for Christmas. So he made two Aviations, one for him, and one for my mom and Ellen to share. I didn’t have any, of course, but they looked delicious! One of my favorite drinks, definitely.
Finally, it was pie time. Just look at this exquisite beauty. I could have eaten the whole thing myself. It is worth noting, though, that Steve is such a sweet person that he cut a big hunk for Eric, who couldn’t be there that day.
And these were the strawberry pies–one with cream cheese and one without, both equally delicious.
I don’t know what words I can use to say this that haven’t already been written, but truly, there is nothing better than good food and good friends. I am looking forward to the next pie day already.
Recent Comments