She's Having a Baby (on a budget): A Free Tool to Monitor Pregnancy Weight Gain and First Midwife Appointment

It was soo strange! My husband and I went together to the midwife. She was really nice and answered all our questions. Then she asked if we wanted a sonogram. But we didn't see the need. We know that the baby is only 7.5 weeks, so chances are we wouldn't see anything. Plus...we weren't sure if it would cost anything. I suppose we could have asked, but we didn't. I really want to see the baby at the next appointment which is at about 11.5 weeks. I will ask about it then.

A doula then took a few vials of blood and a urine sample. They didn't test me right away to see if I'm still pregnant. Not that I have any reason to believe that I've actually had a miscarriage. (No gushing blood.) I'm a little sensitive about this because I was conditioned by my mother to expect miscarriages. I know that sounds weird. She had 2 and she had a tough time getting pregnant in the first place. So far...this has not been my experience. Still, I am very aware that many pregnancies end in miscarriage.

I have also been told by the midwife that I am only to gain 20 lbs. This actually excites me because I have a (healthy) obsession/hobby of recording all my caloric intake. I've done this, everyday, for 5 years. Oh okay, to be honest I sometimes take off a week or two...but I always go back to it. So I'm excited for the challenge. She said I could eat as little as 1800 calories a day and as much as 2300. I also walk for an hour a day which burns about 300 calories.

Here is what I ate yesterday. It was a little bit under my caloric goal, but I had a heavy day the day before. I use www.sparkpeople.com to record all my food. I highly recommend this free service. Now it looks like I didn't have lunch, that isn't true. My midmorning snack was so heavy, it was basically my lunch. :