Breastfeeding

We've survived the first week back home, I'm happy to report.

Although we still have moments where the reality of the responsibility and commitment involved in taking care of such a small being sinks in, and we look at each other and ask "did they really let us leave the hospital with our baby?"...

So far, the hardest part has been the breastfeeding. We were doing well the first 2 days - as long as Jack wasn't really hungry, but as soon as hunger kicked in he seemed to completely lose patience and only managed to latch on for a few seconds before wailing as the milk wasn't coming fast enough. After 2 frustrating days - for both of us - I was offered a breast shield, which immediately solved the problem, or more acurately postponed the problem as I will have to wean him off it eventually.

Back home, I'm dealing with his strange feeding rhythm: once every three hours seems to be the rule, except for between 7 pm and 1 am when he needs almost constant feeds, leaving me drained and teary-eyed most nights. I've built in a mid-afternoon nap for myself that definitely helps, but now he's extended the hourly feeds to other times of the day too... leaving me wondering if he's getting enough milk. Sigh. The good news is my nipples are healing and most feeds are now pain-free.

Bart's been very supportive but on seeing me so tired and upset has already suggested dropping the breastfeeding, hitting the bottle and giving him a teat. I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet though.

On a more positive note, I weighed in at 90.9 kg / 200.4 lbs this morning, just a few hundred grams higher than my lowest recorded weight last year. So the pregnancy weight is virtually gone! I have to admit this is better than I expected, especially considering I was no saint during the last 4 months. Seems the fat gods decided to spare me this time around ;)

The plan is to keep eating healthily, which seems easier to do knowing everything I eat is passing through my milk to the little guy, and hopefully lose a constant 0.5 kg a week till the end of the year. That'll get me out of the 80's by the second week of next year... which would be amazing!

I think I can hear Jack rousing from his afternoon nap so will sign off now and leave you with the first pic of him with his eyes open:

Countdown to delivery

Just back from a lovely week in the South of France and thought I'd post a pic of the bump:

Another month to go! Busy getting the apartment tidied and cleaned - bloody builders still haven't finished though! - and we've started putting the furniture in baby's room, so it's getting really exciting :)

It's a boy!

Our 5 week scan yesterday revealed the long-awaited news of the baby's sex, and it's a boy!
A little strange to me as I was expecting it to be a girl. Boys just seem like an alien life form and I think I felt more comfortable with the idea it was a girl, but I'm still thrilled.

And all else is well: brain, heart and kidneys are the right size and shape and in the right place.

We also got to see the cutest images of his face in 3D, although the stills are nowhere near as impressive as the moving images were:

It's just so amazingly beautiful... I can hardly believe it's really growing inside of me :)

I am now almost 23 weeks pregnant and baby is estimated to weigh about 600 g / 1.3 lbs.

As for, me, I've gained 4.3 kg / 9.4 lbs since we conceived, which is still the bottom of the pregnancy weight chart, but the challenge will be to keep the numbers down for the next 4 months.

This is the chart I've been using as a reference:

24 lbs (their "low" weight gain at full-term) seems like a lot of weight to put on, so I hope I can stay under that.

All else is going really well with the pregnancy, still no complaints really which is so lucky when I see how difficult some of my friends' pregnancies are or were.

I changed jobs a couple of weeks ago, which wasn't foreseen as the contract at the previous place was supposed to go on till the end of June, but they had to put an end to it due to their client cutting budgets in half.

Luckily I found another position the very same day, this time closer to home, with public transport access and I also negotiated a better day rate. On the down side it is much more demanding and the hours tend to be longer, so I haven't been getting much rest these past two weeks and desperately need some down time to relax.

Hopefully once I get into the project it'll be easier to plan in some time off (I'm supposed to be working 4 days out of 5 but so far have only managed to take a couple of hours off!).

That's all the news for now - I'm off to continue looking for the perfect name now we know it's a boy :)

Finally, an update

Well, where to begin? I suppose I should explain the reason for my long absence, though it's quite easy to guess... Yep, I'm 13 weeks pregnant! I didn't want to jinx it all so wanted to avoid posting the news until the first trimester was safely behind us. As of yesterday we have visual proof that the baby is alive and well (and moving around like crazy, although I can't feel anything yet).

It still feels crazy and slightly hard to believe. Especially as we got pregnant straight away, which I wasn't expecting to happen - needless to say the father is extremely proud of himself ;). We got a positive pregnancy test on November 22nd, confirmed by a visit to the doctor and first short ultrasound on December 4th.

First ultrasound on Dec 4th, with heartbeat, 6w, 0.43 cm

Second ultrasound on Dec 19th, with heartbeat, 8w, 1.98 cm

 

Third ultrasound on January 23rd, 13w, 7.43 cm

Third ultrasound on January 23rd, in 3D, 13w

The images don't really do justice to the moving ones we saw on the screen, especially this last visit, where baby was jumping all around the place and hitting the walls with its hands, but it's amazing to see how quickly it grows. I can't believe how big it will be by the time it's ready to come out!

Weight-wise, I put on 2lbs the exact day I suppose I ovulated and/or conceived, and since then another 1lb, which is really decent. The doctor was happy with the result yesterday in any case. I'm hoping to keep weight gain down to a minimum, hopefully less than 5kg/10lbs, but we'll see how that goes once the (mild) nausea dies down and I regain my appetite!

In the meantime, we went on our trip to New Zealand, where we had an amazing time, with a big family Christmas (in the sun) and a stunning road trip round the South Island. I am so glad we escaped the snow here - though we very nearly didn't get away due to the Eurostar hell and our flights leaving from London. Luckily I was able to book us on a flight from Brussels to London as soon as I found out the trains were cancelled - a few hours later they were sold out. It looks like Eurostar will be compensating us for that now, so I'm so glad I made that decision. I'll rant about the absolutely dismal communication on their behalf some other time...

 Christmas Day in the bush with my sisters

Our hike on the Fox Glacier

Queenstown

We got back on Tuesday and I've been slowly recovering from the jetlag since then. Starting work again tomorrow, though it will be as a freelance still as I explained my situation before leaving on holiday and told them I wouldn't be signing a contract as after the birth I want to be able to work closer to home. So it's all working out the way I wanted it to on that front too :)

Traditional Belgian dish - chicon and ham rolls

I made this dish last night so thought I'd take a few shots of it and post the recipe here. It's one of my favourite dishes, more a winter kind of thing, but I indulge in it all year round.

The main ingredient is chicon, or witloof chicory*, which are pretty difficult to find in the U.K.. They're slightly bitter, so if you're not a fan of artichokes and Brussels sprouts, stay away from them ;)

* Witloof Chicory (also called French or Belgian Endive) are blanched, tight heads produced by forcing (or growing in the darkness) the big mature chicory roots in forcing structures. See picture further down.

I have tweaked the original recipe - which uses lots of butter and cheese - to make a WW-friendly version, but if you're not on a diet, please indulge in the real thing as it is absolutely divine with the added ingredients ;)

Ingredients (serves 1)
(the reason I make this dish for 1 person is that my husband hates chicon, so I always make it just for myself)

2 nice big chicon
2 large slices of ham (about 30 g per slice)
200 ml semi-skimmed milk
2 level tbsp cornflour
150 g potatoes
1/2 tsp butter
salt, pepper, grated nutmeg
Optional: grated cheese


Preparation
Cut about 1 cm off the base of the chicon and cut out a small cone to get rid of the harder core. Don't wash the chicon before cooking, as this increases their bitterness apparently. If necessary, remove one or two outer leaves if not perfectly clean.

Melt a tiny amount of butter in a saucepan (about 1/2 tsp is enough), then add the chicon to the pan. The butter just gives them a really nice creamy taste, so I don't leave it out, but you could. Add half a cup of water and cover, leaving to simmer on a low heat for about 35 minutes (the softer the chicon become, the nicer they are). The water should just about fully evaporate - make sure they don't burn and add a little extra water if necessary.


I usually make this dish with mashed potatoes (simply cook the potatoes, drain the excess water and add a couple of tbsp of milk to them before mashing them up, then add salt and pepper).

For the sauce: put the milk on to boil and add the cornflour. Stir on a low heat for about 20 minutes, while the sauce thickens (this is a low-fat version of a white sauce. For the full-fat version, use an equal amount of butter and flour). Season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Take the cooked chicon and roll each one in a slice of ham. Serve with the mashed potatoes and cover with the white sauce.

Optionally, you can sprinkle the dish with grated cheese and put it in the oven to grill for a few minutes.

The low-fat version of this dish is 7 points (including the potatoes). Add extra points if you use butter in the sauce or grated cheese on top.

Bon appétit!

Recipe time - rice and tuna salad

I've never posted a recipe before, but this one is so yummy I thought I'd share it.
It's also very easy to make and great as a summer dish.
I made it today and for the first time I used brown rice instead of white and it works just great, much healthier too :)

Ingredients (serves 4):
180 g dried brown rice
1 small tin of sweet corn (140 g)
1 large tin of tuna fish in brine (185 g)
2-3 tomatoes or about 20 cherry tomatoes (love cherry tomatoes!), chopped
20 green olives, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, garlic, onion...

Cook the rice, boil the eggs, chop up the tomatoes, olives and eggs and, when everything's cooled down, mix all the ingredients together in a big salad bowl. Other ingredients are possible, depending on what you have handy: anchovies, bell peppers, capers, apples, nuts, cheese...

The salad itself is 4.5 points per serving, the seasoning 1 extra point, but it's possible to use lower point salad dressing if you want. I love my olive oil, so this is one thing I still indulge in :)

Enjoy!

Painting

As work is really, really slow right now, I signed up for a 2 day painting course last week to kick-start me into actually using some of the art supplies I've had lying around the house for decades...

It was really neat, as I was able to try out oil, acrylic and aquarelle over the course of the 2 days, which saved me buying all the material for nothing.

I definitely prefer working with oil paints. I love the way you can keep blending the colours on the paper and how the painting evolves constantly as soon as you add a new colour or brush stroke. It totally suits me :-)
I also quite enjoyed the acrylic paints, but they don't have the same feel to them.

I took some pics of the "works of art" (lol), so here they are:

The first four are oil, the last 2 are acrylic. Yesterday I invited and friend over and we had a painting session in the afternoon, so more paintings will follow :-)

Picture time

A friend posted some pics she took of me this weekend and I realised I was wearing the same top as in some of my "before" pics, so decided to compare them. Here's the result:

I tried to frame them similarly so they're easier to compare... what do you think? I definitely see a difference in the way I "fill" my clothes :)

A weekend in Bristol

Just got back from a really nice weekend away with Anne. We went to Bristol by train (first class, hehehe) and spent 3 days there.

Friday was quite rainy but we got lots of walking done, visited the Clifton Suspension Bridge and spent a few hours at Bristol Zoo... I just love the animals :)
Then had a gorgeous dinner at a random Greek restaurant. If you're in Bristol, check it out, their food is divine: Entelia.

Saturday was gorgeous and we took the train to Bath for the day and completely milked our 2 for 1 sightseeing bus tour tickets. The tour guides on the busses were so nice and gave us lots of interesting info we wouldn't have had otherwise. I treated myself to fish & chips for lunch, but got the healthy-ish option of cajun grilled salmon instead of fish in batter, which was yummy. I of course absolutely adore chips with malt vinegar, so no healthier option there, ahum!

Saturday night, after relaxing back at the hotel for a few hours, we went out to The Shed for drinks on the the terrace overlooking the river Avon, followed by a really nice dinner. I had the Scottish smoked salmon
followed by a thaï green vegetable curry. Yummy :)


Today we took day passes for the ferries and went up and down the river all day, stopping off at the SS Great Britain, the one thing I absolutely wanted to see. It was really, really worth it, absolutely amazing! I love maritime history, especially stories about ocean liners, so I was in heaven. The museum and the ship are beautifully presented and there is just so much to see and read about... and of course the ship itself is the highlight of the tour. I am completely awestruck by how well it has been restored and how amazingly the interior has been reconstructed to give us a glimpse at how it must have been in those days. I even got quite emotional walking through the 3rd class quarters. This is a picture of the engine room:

I wonder if any of my ancestors immigrated to New Zealand on that ship, as there were quite a few Armstrongs listed in the passenger records. I will ask my mum next time I speak to her... Also, the whole visit to Bristol was a bit of a pilgrimage for me as it is where my mum went to university, so it was really strange discovering the city and imagining her living there all those years ago (well, about 40!).

We finished off the day with a nice late lunch on a sunny terrace overlooking the water and I actually got a bit of a sunburn. So now after this really nice weekend I'm back in London for the last 3 days of my trip and wondering what to do with the time I have left as the course is over and I don't have any other obligations... I think I'll try and get a ticket for Priscilla Queen of the Desert or Mamma Mia and maybe go to Tate Modern. Fill up on culture before heading back to Brussels ;)

Week 16 WI

Well, I was just going to skip this one, as I am completely gutted by the result of a week of sticking to points and walking 3 miles a day: I gained back a third of what I'd lost last week.

So unfair, but there you go...

Anyway, this week's results are therefore:

Gain this week: +0.5 kg/+1.1 lbs
Total loss: -9.3 kg/-20.5 lbs

So much for my 10 kg and 10%... but I'm determined to get them over the next couple of WI's. I also have the impression I get bloated at Anne's... no idea why this is, but my fingers are all puffy and I could well be retaining water which would explain why I gained. Maybe the floor heating? Hmm.

Despite the gain, I did have a minor NSV: my size 22 trousers are getting way too big for me, and I tried on one of my old size 20 trousers and it fit :) So I must be doing something right!

Oh, and I got a haircut this week at Toni & Guy - first time in 8 months!... feel so much better :)
Here's a quick shot of it :)

Weekend in Bruges

I'm just back from a lovely romantic weekend in Bruges, without doubt the prettiest town in Belgium, and thought I'd share some pictures.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and went for a long walk in the town, through the shopping streets, before relaxing in front of an open fire in a local pub with a nice Belgian beer.

We had a really yummy dinner then headed back to the hotel to enjoy our "junior suite" :)

Today after breakfast we headed back into town and took a boat ride on the canals that run all through the town centre. It still amazes me how the houses can stay standing after hundreds of years of wear and tear from the canal waters.

Bruges really is a beautiful place to visit, even on a cold day like today... the houses are all so quaint and every corner you turn offers a post-card shot.

Week 7 WI and a spectacular sunrise

Week 7 loss: -0.7kg / -1.5lb
Total loss: -7.2kg / -15.9lb

Still going down, albeit at my own slow rhythm :)
As far as the goals I set last week are concerned, I had 2 glasses of wine + 1 champagne (very decent!), only cycled once (ouch) and lost the 0.7kg I aimed for. All in all, not bad.

This week: more exercise and hopefully a 0.8kg loss to bring me to 8kg total.

The sunrise this morning was amazing, the sky was on fire...


Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

A walk in the woods

I went out to the British supermarket in Kortenberg today. It's a 20 minute drive from where I live, so I don't get out there too often, but when I do it's like Christmas :)

I love British food, British brands, the homely feeling I get when I pick up a packet of oatcakes or a jar of Sunpat peanut butter (imagine I live without those things on a daily basis here!) and I do treat myself when I get out there. Walking into the store is like travelling back home :)

I was also interested in trying out some of the WW foods I'd read about on the 5+ WW board, and they had a really large selection, which was cool. I got a packet of WW naan bread and a jar of WW korma sauce, so will try those out tomorrow for dinner.

On the way back home from the store, I have to drive through some woods, and today I really felt like getting out and going for a walk, so I did.

Walking in the nature isn't something I get to do a lot here in Belgium, which is a pity as I enjoy it so much. But the reality is that there just aren't that many green spaces where you can take a walk and clear your head with no one else around. In fact, if you take my imaginary list of the "Top 10 Things I Hate About Belgium", number one would be the fact it's so over-populated (other items being their apparent inability to queue and the fact they eat their chips with mayonnaise instead of vinegar).

I grew up in Shetland... a place where you can go for a 3 hour walk without seeing a soul. You can sit on a rock and look out to sea and rebuild the world without anyone bursting your bubble. It's heaven. Here, the moment the sun comes out, it's as if every acre of forest or field is immediately populated by 5 families complete with pushchairs and dogs and a bunch of people on horses...

Misanthropic remarks aside, I guess I just find it difficult to feel "at one" with the nature around me when I'm sharing it with 20 other people...

Luckily today it was still really cold, so I only ran into 1 pushchair family, 2 people on horses and a couple of other lonely wanderers while I was out.

The walk was worth it though, and I find the woods in the winter emit a special kind of energy, with the majestic trees standing proud and barren amid a blanket of brown leaves... it was really quite beautiful.

I also managed this spooky Blair-witch project-type picture of myself... lol

Adding some colour to my life

Spring is in the air - well, actually, the weather's crap, but at least the days are getting longer - so I decided it was time to brighten up my blog and play around with a new colour scheme. What do you think? I like it, minty fresh and summery :)

The header picture was taken while I was lying in a park in Oslo last June and reminds me of the freedom I felt and sense of peace, so it's a very soothing image for me :)

I also finally fixed my blog post from a while ago with my before pictures on it. The text and images wouldn't align the way I wanted them to, so I solved the problem using a table. Then discovered blogger does some weird stuff when you use tables, adding a massive white space in front of it. Aaaaarg! Luckily I found this blog post about the problem and the code fixed it. I replaced all the line breaks in the text with paragraph breaks and with a bit of tweaking it finally looks decent - well, on my computer at least!

Sunday at the beach

Yesterday I was whining to Bart that we never went out and did anything at the weekend, so today we drove to the seaside for a long - and freezing - walk on the beach.


I tried to take some pics whenever we came across anything interesting, but the cold wind pushed us along pretty quickly and after 45 minutes we retreated for a yummy lunch before walking around in the shopping streets - incredibly busy as it's the first weekend of winter sales...



Home now, trying to get warm with a big mug of tea, and happy we got out of the house and had such a nice day.

"Before" picture selection

Choosing "before" pictures is a significant event, for me at least.
It means I have enough faith in myself to believe I am going to lose the weight.
Because posting "before" pictures and never getting down to a weight where it's worth posting "after" pictures, well that would just be lame...

So here is my selection of "before" pictures:

	Our wedding, July 19th 2008. When Bart asked me to marry him on November 29th 2007, I of course vowed to lose weight before the wedding. But as the weeks and months went by, I could only observe that nothing was happening... work was more than hectic and I was eating irregularly and badly, and de-stressing with alcohol and treats in the evenings. I decided in the end to not let it get to me, and resigned myself to be a bride at the heaviest I'd ever weighed (16st4). I did however vow to have the wedding pictures redone should I ever lose the weight.
August 30th 2008, in town with my lovely sister. My sister is a beautiful girl. She's tall and slim. It wasn't always like that though and she has battled with her weight several times before. She's now a fitness freak and can be found at the gym 7 days a week. She also has a really strange diet, which I'm not sure is very balanced, but it seems to work for her. She lives with us for the moment, and being around her all the time can make me feel quite fat, old and ugly, but I love her to bits :)
	November-December 2008, on our honeymoon in Réunion and Mauritius. After an already perfect wedding, we had an absolutely blissful honeymoon last month. That wouldn't have been possible without the help of all our friends and family who put money into our honeymoon account, and I was thrilled we were going to be able to indulge in a real tropical paradise :) I am always apprehensive about holidays. I absolutely love travelling, and get a real kick out of planning and organising everything, but one thing that can get me down is the prospect of showing more flesh than I'm comfortable with when we go somewhere hot... so I always choose clothes that cover me up as much as possible. Of course, I usually feel like a clown, with my long trousers and long-sleeve tops when everyone else is sauntering around in skimpy bikinis. But I try not to let it get to me, and only occasionally let myself feel defeated by it.
The other reason the holidays confront me with my weight is that I am so limited in the activities I can do. I would love to go diving, climbing, abseiling, canyonning and horse-riding, but I am usually either too unfit or it would require me fitting into gear that isn't made for someone my size. So I save myself the embarrassment either way and just don't do all these things. I keep thinking "I'll do them when I'm fit and slim", but at age 30 I'm starting to wonder if by the time that happens I won't be too damn old! Finally, the thing that can really bum me out with holidays is the flight... for the past 2 years I cringe just at the idea of having to sit in a plane seat... especially when it involves a 12-hour flight.
	I mean, seriously, I know my ass has gotten bigger, but I am also persuaded airplane seats are forever getting smaller! In any case, it is another reminder of how my weight hinders me and another very good reason to get rid of the excess baggage! But these holidays were a blessing, and eating lots of fruit and veg every day, drinking less and feeling altogether happier and more relaxed was what inspired me to join WW when I got home. I joined the very next day, with a starting weight of 16st 9lb and so far things are going good :)

So that's it for my "before" pictures. I hope that by the end of February I'll have lost enough to be able to see the difference and post some "progress pics" :)

Smog is beautiful

This was the view from my place this morning before I left for work.
It looks so peaceful and pretty... amazing it's actually pollution that causes it to look that good, lol!

It feels so good that the days are getting longer again, tomorrow is the last day of the year and spring is just around the corner :)

2008 was a great year in so many ways, I hope 2009 will be a great year too.

Copenhagen for 2

Tuesday June 3rd we left Oslo after breakfast for our 1 p.m. flight to Copenhagen.

Our hotel, Hotel Absalon, was again just a street away from the train station on Istegade and, despite my apprehensions, really quite decent.
We checked in and headed straight back out for an early dinner before the KISS concert that had brought us here.

500 meters down the street we sat down at the terrace of Det Gule Hus, recommended by our Rough Guide. The food - burger for Bart and grilled salmon for me - was absolutely divine, and half the price of a restaurant, and the beer was 3 times cheaper than Oslo, a nice change, but probably not surprising in the land of Carlsberg and Tuborg.


From there we walked to the Forum, the venue for the evening. Doors were already open and so we opted for a place on the balcony, giving us a great view on the stage.



After the concert, we headed off in search of a bar for a couple of drinks and a huge bowl of popcorn, then back to the hotel.

Wednesday we just couldn't get out of bed, so ended up only setting off around 1 p.m.
We stopped for brunch at the Hard Rock Café, on the other side of the station, which was hugely disappointing, although the terrace was great for people watching, and the couple sitting behind us looked strangely like my mother and her husband.


Starting from the central Radhuspladsen, we headed off along the main shopping street and shopped for a couple of hours before sitting down for a cool beer on Hojbro Plads.



Dinner was at Sticks N Sushi on Istegade, one of the three branches of this modern sushi restaurant in Copenhagen. The food was absolutely delicious, the wine - a New Zealand Marlborough - so good, especially after a week drinking beer and the whole atmosphere was really cool.

Thursday was another difficult start, and after missing the hotel breakfast we had a late brunch back at Det Gule Hus. Also really yummy and worth every kroner :)


June 5th is a national holiday in Denmark, so all the shops were closed and probably quite a few of the museums, so we headed down to the waterfront and boarded a taxi boat for a tour of the city. DFDS operates a couple of guided tour boats, but they also have 3 unguided tours with a hop on-hop off system. A day ticket for those boats costs around 6 euro and you can take as many boats as you want. So we boarded our first boat at Fisketorvet, at the South end of the city, and basically boat hopped for the rest of the day, going through the canals of the center, up and down Nyhavn, out to Trekroner lighthouse and around Christianshavn, soaking up the sun at the same time.



We ended the day with a meal on the terrace of Cap Horn restaurant on Nyhavn, listening to a jazz live band, then headed back for a drink near our hotel on Holmtorvet, also the scene of a live concert that evening.

Friday our flight wasn't until 8 p.m., so we had a full day left. We got up - relatively - early and had breakfast at the hotel, then headed out to Radhuspladsen where we decided to check out the Bodies exhibition. After seeing Korperwelten in London, it was much less impressive and even a bit disappointing (a lot less shocking, too), but nevertheless very interesting and quite informative.

Then we hit the shopping streets again, then found a really picturesque square full of terraces to have lunch. Lunch was at Huks Fluks and was very enjoyable, even though we were invaded by a busload of Icelandic old-aged tourists and had to share our table with a couple of old ladies who didn't speak a word of English.


Our last stop was the park Rosenborg Have for a lie in the sun, knowing it was raining and cold in Belgium where we would be heading a few hours later.