Stress Busters -- Pregnancy Edition

Pregnancy often leaves you tired, distracts you from what you once loved to do and leaves you with a sense urgency to clean things, all the time. Well, at least for me, anyways.

Just last week, I was taking a look at my +Kate Spade agenda and realized I had not made true time for myself... To pamper myself and take a nice, long moment to appreciate what was happening to my body—and to my whole entire world for that matter. Instead, I've been running around doing never-ending chores, washing an endless pile of dishes, getting baby Lukas's nursery ready (which requires a lot more brain power than I originally thought it would take) and taking care of/visiting our families, to whom my husband and I are both close, among other real-life responsibilities. Seriously, sometimes you just need a freaken' breather from it all. So I decided to take action and make a list of all the things that help me relax, whether they be simple or more complex. This list includes:

• Getting a pedicure, once a month;
• Getting a prenatal massage, once a month;
• Taking up Yoga, once a week;
• Walking through farmers' markets and buying fresh fruit and vegetables;
• Making fresh smoothies using those fresh fruit;
• Taking baths;
• Grocery shopping alone, with no time constraints;
• Lounging in the sun by a pool, whenever possible;
• Going out for a walk with hubby, preferably downtown, at least once per weekend;
• Watching some good old Real Housewives on +Slice TV; and
• Anything else that takes my mind off the daily stresses and chores in life.

Once I reestablished what my interests were, I took to my agenda again and started planning. Here's a look at how July since my "aha!" moment:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20 AHA! moment	21	22 Pedicure @ 1:30 p.m.	23	24	25
26	27	28 Bubble bath + massage from hubby	29	30 -Prenatal massage @ 11 a.m. -Berry picking -Taking dip in nice, cold pool	31

This, my friends, is only the beginning. 

As I enter my seventh month of pregnancy in August, I have penciled in a few outdoor Yoga sessions, have another massage and pedicure booked, scheduled a few pool dates with friends and bought a few +LUSH Cosmétiques bath bombs to enjoy long soaks in my bath tub. I want to look back on this period in my life and see it as nothing short of fabulous and amazing. 

I want my baby boy to know that his mama loves and values herself enough to take good care of herself. I am hoping my actions today will help guide him into choosing a strong and confident woman tomorrow. I want him to feel love radiating from my body and spirit into my womb and ultimately into him. Because, how can you possibly love somebody else if you do not first love yourself?

I have to say, taking better care of myself by setting time aside for me has given me a sense of ease. Even by just looking at my agenda, I feel energized knowing I have positive things up ahead that will nourish my soul. And when I am nourishing my soul, I have no doubt baby Lukas is reaping the benefits just as much as I am.

Having said this, I encourage all moms and moms-to-be to set time aside for themselves. It is so, so important. Take a break from your busy schedule... You know you deserve it. :)

Thanks,

-Alesia D. 

Freshly pedicured #feet finished off with a French!

Best bath tub ever.

Pregnancy Know-It-Alls

I am guessing that every pregnant woman comes a across a few of these over the term of her pregnancy: know-it-alls. And when I say know-it-alls, I mean people who think they know it all and want you to take ALL their advice, or those who pretend to know it all but just want to criticize your way of doing things.

So far, I have been criticized for everything from baby names, to eating one donut—ONE DONUT—to how big my belly is/should be, to exercise, to my fatigue. Even when I don't ask for advice, I get it. I even get those deadly stares when asked whether or not I would breastfeed. Lol!

But it is to be expected, right?

Unfortunately, you can't change others, but you can alter your way of handling somewhat rude comments. The tactic I use is the classic smile-and-nod :). And sometimes, if you really push me, I will speak my mind, but this is only if this isn't your first offence.

Here are some reasons you may get unwanted advice:

1. Your Diet
The donut incident. My sweet coworker had bought a dozen +Tim Hortons donuts for our office. Of course, I want to keep a close-enough eye on what I eat, so I only had one—my first #donut since before I got pregnant. It was the +Hershey's Reese's Pieces one that stole my heart with its custard filling.

Anyway, as I was taking a bite, a senior coworker took a look at me, came over and said, "those things are filled with sugar... Not the best for your baby when you're pregnant. When I was pregnant, I only had healthy foods and ate fruits and vegetables alllll the time." By this point, she had made several critical comments, almost every day, so I had enough of the pep talk. My diplomatic response went something like, "Well you know what, I eat healthy all the time thanks to the healthy lunches my husband packs and the dinners I make at home. If I want to have one donut, I won't think twice about it." All that with a smile on my face! Boy did that put a nice end to our conversation!

Lesson: No matter what you are told about the things you eat, remember to stay head strong. As long as you are doing your best to consume whole, healthy foods most of the time, a little slip up or treat here and there won't hurt. I read somewhere that during pregnancy, you only need an extra 300 calories per day; however, if you are having a boy, you sometimes need to consume up to 500 calories per day.

2. Your Belly Shape and Size
At about 17 weeks, I came in to work work a beautiful high-waisted +Zara skirt, thinking I was looking pretty darn sharp. This was two weeks after I had announced my pregnancy to my coworkers. One of them looked at my belly, asked how far along I was and said (pretty loudly), "Holy! You have a big belly for 17 weeks! That baby is going to be huge!" I was so shocked that I didn't know how to respond to that nor did I know how to take it. So I just gave a quick smile and continued my work.

And about two weeks ago when I was 21 weeks (~5 months pregnant) I went in to The Bay to buy some baby clothes as a congratulations for my cousin's newborn. When I got to the cash, the cashier was cute and young—16-years old. She asked me how far along I was to which I replied "5 months" and her eyes got wide. She thought I was 7 months preggo! I knew she was young, so I gave her a brief explanation of approximately how big the baby is at this point, how things work, etc. She seemed interested! So it was a win for me, as I didn't feel as bad about my ever-changing body, and it was a win for her because she got to learn something new.

Lesson: Don't freak out when people make comments about your belly. You will always hear different opinions, good, bad, whatever. Either these people don't remember how big they were at a certain point in their pregnancy or their instinctual reaction is the first thing that reaches their lips before they have the chance to reflect. Either way, remember that every bump is different and you have a miracle growing inside of you. Who cares what others think of your cute baby bump?!

3. Baby Names
When my husband and I finally agreed to name our baby boy "Lukas", we decided we would tell our families so they could associate a little name to his ultrasounds and start getting excited for a grandson/nephew. But to our surprise, my mother hated it and made fun of it each time she saw us, even when we shared the name with aunts and uncles. That, however, still wasn't enough to shake us to the point of even considering another name. Besides, it wasn't just a name that we simply liked—we loved that name and saw it fitting in with our little family. So we resisted, resisted and resisted until finally it grew on her. And now, everyone likes the name!

Lesson: No matter what name you choose for your baby, you will always have at least one person, or a few people, who will either: hate it, make fun of it, question it or just plain insult it. Whatever the case, just remember that you will never have the ability to please everyone, especially concerning something so personal. If their opinion hurts you, talk to them about it. We sometimes don't realize how deeply our comments can affect others, and with a new family member on the way, many close relatives often feel as though they somehow own part of the baby... 

According to my personal observations, it's all part of the way our families express their excitement. As long as you can identify their motif, try to not overthink things, but do show that there are boundaries and that they are being crossed. All you can do is be firm (but polite... this is your family after all) and put your foot down. Then eventually, acceptance will kick in. :)

4. Activity Level
Ever since I started telling people I was pregnant, I was frequently advised to lay off the exercise... Any type of exercise. Even to the point where I was told not to dance by an elderly man when I went to a wedding a few weeks ago.His reasoning was that I had lost my first baby due to my own irresponsibility and that I should prevent it from happening again by sitting down. I completely ignored him though, because I was feeling good and saw and felt not reason to abstain from it. 

Another time, I was given "special treatment" because I was assigned to a position at work that allowed me to sit all day. One of my older coworkers came and carelessly asked me if everything was alright (she just likes to know things, she doesn't ask because she cares), and I told her my back hurt when I stood for too long. Now, being the know-it-all that she is, she said it was because of all the exercise I was doing and that I should take better care of myself. I kind of wanted to knock her out lol, just because I know I haven't been going hard at the gym.

Lesson: Only you know your body, your limits, and as long as you have the okay from your doctor to do certain activities and aren't on bed rest, remember that you're not DEAD. You can't put your complete life on hold just because someone tells you to. Although people's intentions are generally good, you will drive yourself insane if you try to listen to everyone.

Moral of all of this, being a new mom means being your own person, instilling your own beliefs into your children and making executive decisions with your partner. Ultimately, only you will know what suits them best and what works best for your family. Good luck!

Have any interesting stories you want to take off your chest? I really want to hear them!!

THANKS!

-Alesia D.

22W1D

Today, I am one day closer to completing my sixth month. So exciting!!

It took me some time before I understood the concept of being X-number of weeks, but also being in the process of completing Z-number of weeks all at the same time. For example, I have now completed 22 weeks of pregnancy and am in my 23rd week.

According to my +What To Expect phone app, Baby #Lukas now weighs about 1 lb and measures about 20 cm from crown to rump. About the size of a spaghetti squash. He's getting so big!! He now has some eye lashes and eye brows. He can perceive light and dark (that is so cool), hear my voice, heartbeat, my stomach when I am hungry, and even my blood flowing through my body! My #husband and I have made it a Saturday-morning tradition to watch the app's weekly video to view our baby's progress. It's pretty exciting to watch, I must say :).




For the simple sake of comparison, I thought it would be interesting to download another app called +Health and Parenting. I think I purchased the complete app for $0.99 (because you only have access to the first 13 or 14 weeks of the app with the free version), but I must say, this one is also pretty cool. The graphics are a little more realistic, there is a slideshow you can play that shows the fetus's weekly physical development through animation, #ultrasound and #3D ultrasound, and the measurements start being taken from crown to heel after the 19th week. According to this app, my #baby is the size of an eggplant this week, weighing in at 1 lb and measuring about 28 cm, and will have a 50% chance of survival if born by the end of this week. This would depend on my health, his gestation, the reason for the premature birth and the quality of medical care he receives. Pressureee! His cerebrum is getting ready to start communicating with cells, and Rapid Eye Movements (REM) have started happening in his sleep. Additionally, I have the option of tracking my weight through this app.

I can't say enough good things about both apps. They have both given me a great and varying wealth of information, and honestly, they make my pregnancy more exciting than it already is.

On that note, a cheers goes out to every other mom in her 23rd week or whatever week she may be in! And since it's Friday, treat yourself to a nice, cool #mocktail. ;)

-Alesia D.

The Trump gets the D... As in Drop

In recent weeks, this once highly respected businessman's career took a turn for the worst as he presented his oh-so patriotic presidential campaign, which, unfortunately for him, reached hundreds of millions.

Although he may have thought his speech would be a strong and compelling winner, things could not have been worse for Mr. #Trump. Within days, companies affiliated with him began to drop him, most of which revolve around the #MissUniverse and MissUSA pageants. I feel bad for those girls, mostly because I know how much time, dedication and effort goes into preparing for a pageant, being a former #MissUniverseCanada contestant myself (I will elaborate on my experience in a later post :)!).

Any way, I happen to have an interest in pageants in general and could not help but wonder how his words would affect those two live competitions, especially with Miss USA being right around the corner. So what do you do when you want to find out? Take to the Internet and get on that research!

Right off the bat, I found out that #NBC and #Univision will no longer be hosting Miss Universe or Miss USA. Ouch, and double ouch. That must have hurt quite a bit. And to add salt to the wound, a wide variety of high-profile judges, hosts, performers and sponsors walked away from the entire organization. And then to add insult to injury, the City of New York dropped him, Serta Mattress disowned him, Macy's is phasing out his merchandise line and several Latin countries have dropped out of the Miss Universe competition. ESPN and NASCAR have both shifted special events away from Trump entertainment resorts, where they were initially set to take place. Even the current Miss Universe, Paulina Vega, stood united with the rest of the world. It is one of those situations where things are so brutal that you just want to see what happens next.

Photo taken from Business Insider

As of today, the Trump's total net worth totals up to $4.1 billion, putting him in the 405th spot, when just last year, he was in the 122th spot worldwide. Any way you look at it, he is still extremely rich. But I mean, if you are running for president, and the speech you choose happens to be a prejudice and racist one, it may not be the best idea to give the world another reason to have doubts about your country, especially when the one country you are verbally attacking is at the south of you... It just adds more division in the world.

Regardless, I think I am still going to watch Miss USA tonight out of curiosity to see whether they will mention anything or not. Is anyone else planning on doing the same, or are you not bothering with the whole thing? I'd love to know your thoughts! :)

Thanks,

-Alesia D.

My First

So here I am. Married, 25 and sitting in my home as I wrap around the idea that I will be five months—five whole months—pregnant this Thursday.

I have to say, I am quite anxious. Let me explain:

About a year and a half ago, right after Christmas 2013, my hubby and I found out we were #expecting. We were t.h.r.i.l.l.e.d. 

We went in for our first #ultrasound on Wednesday, March 19, 2013, when we were at 13.5 weeks. Past that so-called "Danger Zone"! And man did we fall in love with our little peanut. The technician even caught his smile on the ultrasound! I was amazed that something so beautiful was growing inside of me.

Well, two days later, on the Friday, I had an appointment to hear his little heartbeat with a #Doppler at my doctor's office in order to get a referral to finally start seeing an OB/GYN. 

She searched and searched but couldn't find a thing, and since it was the end of the day, all she did was give me a referral to give at the emerg section at our #hospital, in case I wanted to get it checked over the weekend. But of course, I had no worry in the world, as "I was past that danger zone, and nobody could get me off MY Cloud 9". But I went any way on Sunday, just to see my baby again.

That Sunday morning, I got to the hospital at 7:26 a.m. and coolly made my way through the emergency doors. The nurses did some tests, took some blood samples and tested away. I waited, and waited and waited. I finally called my #mother and #mother-in-law because I wasn't sure what else to do, so they both came.

At 11:30 a.m. is when a doctor came and softly broke the news. She said something along the lines of, "blah blah, and it looks like his heart stopped beating". I broke in half right there. My whole world, all my plans, all my hopes and dreams were crushed in that one instant. "How could it be? What did I do?! Why me???" I thought to myself. But for reasons unknown, this just wasn't baby's time.

The next day was hard. I woke up "not feeling pregnant anymore" and completely broke down. I stayed home from work the next day to mourn and to get ready for a call from the hospital. The purpose of this call was to inform me of an opening there was at the hospital for an induced labour, since my baby boy was already 14 weeks; thus, too big for a d&c. I got this call at 3:30 p.m. the following day, and got there by 4:30 p.m. My family was there all day and most of the evening to comfort me. 10 p.m. is when the doctor arrived and started the treatment...

It wasn't until 11:30 the next morning, March 26th, that my water finally broke, and an hour and a half later, my pregnancy was completely over. It was absolutely dreadful. And I almost fainted from all the hyperventilating. It took me a long time before I recovered physically and emotionally. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I am well into fitness and sports, but I could not bring myself to do anything. I was a happy, bubbly and energetic person, but I will admit, #depression got the best of me most times. I closed myself off from the world because I didn't want to talk about it, so I felt lonely a lot of the time.

But on September 19, 2014, on my original due date, something hit me and I no longer felt depressed, as if that dark cloud had just vanished. I no longer wanted to hide myself, and I finally decided to get #active again. I joined #dodgeball, one of my all-time favourite activities and rocked it. I really do have a good arm, I must say, so it felt nice to kick some derrière once again.

And today, I proudly say that this life experience has only made my life richer, knowing I have a little angel watching from above and knowing that the love I had for my first will double for my second. I'm also grateful to everyone around me who helped me get back up on my feet. It took me quite some time to talk about this without shedding any tears, but I do believe I am a better person because of it, and I aim for a lot more in life. Finally, I don't take anything dear to my heart for granted anymore.

So now, the countdown is on. FOUR MONTHS LEFT and I get to hold my precious #Lukas in my arms.

If you or someone you know has been in a similar situation, I would be humbled to hear about your/their experience and ways you/they got through it or if there are still certain things you/they struggle with. :)

Thanks for reading.

-Alesia D.

Introducing... Me!

Hi all!

I have finally mustered the courage to transfer an accumulation of ideas, thoughts, recipes and delights on paper—I mean, screen, so let's get started with an introduction!

My name is Alesia (pronounced A-lee-ssi-ya), and I am a mixed-race #Canadian. Growing up, my love for languages and communications translated into me learning five languages and pursuing a university education in #Translations. The thought of learning new languages and getting good at them in the hopes of connecting with people from different walks of life was/is a true passion of mine. How fun is it to speak to others in their language and have a full-length conversation when on vacation!? There was one language in particular that I learned after uni, not included in the former five, that was my favourite: Love.

Almost TWO years ago, I married my husband, my best friend. (Wow, I have been a Mrs. for almost TWO YEARS... crazy how time flies!!) If there were ever two people who thought more alike, or who got along as well as we did, I would tip my hat off to them. Now, I'm not saying things are always "perfect", but they are pretty darn close, and I feel pretty darn blessed. And as life would have it, we are expecting a wee little one this #November2015. A boy. Our baby #Lukas. He melts my heart every time I feel his teeny tiny kicks.

#Pregnancy has proven to be a challenging time, as many mothers-to-be can agree, in terms of fitness, if you were someone like me who LOVED sports and getting in shape, #diet, hormonal changes, what #crib, #stroller and #travelsystem to buy, etc. However, this is a fabulous time to pick yourself up and develop long-lasting healthy habits you can teach your kiddies, that range from meditation to eating the best you can, for optimal overall health. But it has also proven to be one of the most rewarding times I think I will ever experience in my life. Just knowing that my hubby and I have the ability to create life and build a safe and secure home for our little one is heart-warming.

Any way, enough  about me for now. I thank you, if anyone took the time to read my first ever blog! I'm not entirely sure how this all works just yet, but if you do start to follow me, I promise some nice recipes, a follow-up on how the #preggolife is going, pitcures, some cool fitness moves and so on. I also have some good food pictures on my Instagram account, @alesiaidunn. If you see anything you like and want the #recipe, let me know!!

Have a great Monday!