Entries Tagged 'Food' ↓

For the past week and a half my daily routine has consisted mostly of feeding the baby and sleeping while the little guy is sleeping.   I have barely had time to read the news or email.  I always knew that I would breastfeed because breast milk is “free” food for the baby and I don’t care much about what my boobs look like, but I have to admit that it is a lot harder than I thought it would be.   Everyday the little guy asks to eat more than ten times, and I feel like he is constantly attached to my boobs.   These are my thoughts on being a walking talking  milk dispenser.

The hubby has been a lot of help in cleaning the house and changing diapers, but when it comes to feedings he just doesn’t really have the equipment.  At those 4 am feedings,  as Lynette from Desperate Housewives said, I am  “the only bar in town” for the little guy.    It takes at least 30 minutes for the baby to drift off to dreamland with my nipple in his mouth and a dribble of milk down his cheek. Meanwhile I am nodding off and trying not to drop him.  I am getting used to these feedings in the middle of the night, so they are not so bad now.  My hubby is also able to get quite a bit of sleep through the night now so he is feeling less tired during the day.

The more bizarre aspect about breastfeeding is how the baby seems to have a remote control on my boobs.  One time I was doing some business in the bathroom, and he woke up and cried for food.  I wasn’t finished, and I just felt this tingly itch in my boobs and a few drops of milk dripped on my thigh.  Apparently this is called letdown, and it is really the weirdest thing I have ever experienced.  I basically get this urge to shove my boobs into his mouth to relieve the itch.   How can this helpless little chubby guy control my body like this?

I also find the look on my baby’s face both endearing and frightening when he gets close to my breast.  He makes the most animalistic grunts with his mouth wide open and shakes his head from side to side as if he is possessed. Then he latches on like a rabid little beast and starts gulping down milk.  After a few minutes he would slow down and revert back to the peaceful little baby he usually looks like.  I don’t know if all babies do this, but the ferocity in my child’s face when he sees a breast is quite funny.

I am trying to pump a bit of extra milk every day just for the times that I cannot feed him, but I think my breasts are still trying to catch up to the demand of the little nugget  so I cannot spare too much milk, yet.   So far the bottles I pumped really helped in calming the baby during a couple doctor’s appointments, and today my mom fed the baby with one of my bottles and I think it was fun for her.

Another positive side effect of this marathon feeding schedule is that I am losing the fat I gained during pregnancy.  I am only 4 to 7 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight now and I am on track to lose the extra weight I had.  Of course, my hypercritical Asian mom is still saying that I am fat even though I just had a baby 11 days ago.

Overall, I think  breastfeeding is  very worthwhile for us even though I do feel like a food dispenser for my spawn.  The little guy rarely spits up milk, and he has gained enough bulk to be above his birth weight.  I know that we are fortunate that the baby is able to get enough food from my breasts and he is taking the milk well and the free breastfeeding class we took at Kaiser definitely helped.  My hubby loves that breastfeeding is very easy and clean because it doesn’t involve washing bottles or mixing formula.  He actually said to me that he cannot believe that many women do not even try to breastfeed because it is the most economic and easy way to feed a baby.   Then again, men do not have to deal with cracked nipples and tingly letdown.  I will definitely try to continue feeding the baby breast milk for as long as I can, even though it will be a little tricky when I start work again.

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I don’t write about health on this blog much because I am really not a health nut.  I do not exercise a lot and I was about 10 to 15 lbs overweight before I got pregnant.  This is definitely something I have to change because I just got diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  This is a condition that is completely controllable, but I will have to make an effort to manage it.

For those who are unfamiliar with this condition, gestational diabetes is caused by the placenta’s  hormones blocking the mom’s insulin function.  According to the American Diabetes Association some pregnant women need 3 times as much insulin as normal to control blood sugar.  In my case I also had some risk factors of having this condition such as being slightly overweight, being Asian, having a family history of diabetes,  and being over 25 years old while pregnant.  These risk factors made me twice more likely to get gestational diabetes.   The worst negative effect of this type of diabetes is that the baby might be getting too much blood sugar and end up being really fat.  This may cause the delivery to be very difficult, and that is why my doctor ordered another ultrasound for us in a few weeks to check on the size of the baby.  If the baby is too big then I would need to be induced early or have a C-section.  The good news is that with a good diet the baby can be completely normal and the diabetes should go away after delivery.  Also, I am not really feeling any ill effects from this problem.

Right now I have been referred to a dietician at the hospital, and I will be receiving my blood glucose meter soon and I will have to prick my fingers to test my blood sugar 4 to 8 times a day.   I have also been sent a good set of study materials on how to plan my meals and count my carbohydrate intake.  I am also told to keep a log of my food intake with my blood glucose values.  It is really like keeping a written down budget of how much food I can eat, and I think the organization is helpful.

I really see this complication as a blessing in disguise because I am being disciplined to eat smaller portions with low carbohydrates and low fat.  I usually do not eat a lot of sugary foods, but I do eat very large portions for my size and I eat a lot of carbs.  In the long run this new diet plan will be really good for me because I know how bad long term uncontrolled diabetes could be.  One of my grandmothers went blind because of the  disease and her brother lost his legs.  Women who get gestational diabetes are much more likely to get Type 2 diabetes in the future unless it is controlled so I need to work on prevention right now.   Controlling my intake of food is going to be more challenging than controlling how much money I spend because I really love to eat, but I know that having a long term disease like diabetes can be very costly.  I have already started to eat smaller portions and it is not that horrible.  Hopefully this experience will get me more into cooking healthy meals because I would need to know what exactly is in my food.

My mom keeps on telling me that a healthy life is really more important than a wealthy life, and I think that is true because if you have a ton of money but cannot enjoy it due to bad health then it is really not worth anything.   I think I could really improve my health a lot if I just stick to my diet plan like I stick to my savings plan and I think I could do it because moderation and impulse control are the two most important factors in both.

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Yesterday the hubby messaged me a link to a very good food deal at Baja Fresh.  Basically Baja Fresh put out a coupon on their Facebook fan page that allowed customers to get a free burrito with the purchase of a beverage.  The drinks are less than $2 and the burritos are usually $6 to $7.  So after work the hubby and I took advantage of the deal.

When we got to Baja Fresh there was actually a line and the servers at the registers had a giant pile of coupons that people have redeemed.  The hubby was kind of excited that the deal was being accepted at the location.  We each used a coupon and spent $1.74 each for a fountain drink and a burrito.  It would have been cheaper if our sales taxes didn’t go up.   We sat down and ate our burritoes with a bit of glee.

Afterward, we were walking towards the car, and the hubby cheerfully said, “I found the deal!”

I congratulated him and said, “good job!”

Then he  said, “I beat you in finding the deal!”  I am usually the one sending him coupons so he seems very proud in finding this particular coupon.   Apparently he put Slickdeals on his RSS reader after he married me, and yesterday he read it before I did so he did beat me to it.  I thought it was awfully cute how proud he was of his accomplishment.

Even today he was cheerfully saying how he found a deal, so I think he really had fun in being frugal.  I think for folks who like to save money finding these opportunities is not a chore, but a game of sorts.  It does take a little bit of  effort to always look for a coupon or discount before you shop, but it really does not  hurt to look.  The hubby rarely used coupons before we got together, so I am glad to see that he is starting to enjoy it.

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Last week I celebrated my 26th birthday with my family.  First the hubby’s family had a party full of meat and games at his aunt’s house.  Then my parents made a trip to San Mateo and we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby.  Finally on my actual birthday the hubby took me out to The Village Pub, which is a Michelin starred restaurant that is practically down the street from where we live.  Needless to say I enjoyed spending time with my family and eating everything very much.

The hubby and I have not been to a fine dining  restaurant for this entire year  so it was really a fun treat  to go out.  The hubby actually convinced me to go because I was a bit hesitant about spending on my birthday this year with the recession and the coming of the baby.  In reality we are still saving around 50% of our income and neither of us got a reduction in income.  So we could afford to celebrate without worrying.  The hubby was a little apprehensive about the dress code since our experience with Picasso in Las Vegas, but we read some reviews of the Village Pub and found that they allow jeans and shirts.  After all, we are back in Northern California.

On the way to the restaurant the hubby said that if they try to turn us away due to dress then he would say something like, “can you really afford to turn customers away?  In this economic climate?”  When we got there we found that the whole place was packed, and most people were dressed quite well, but there were a few people in jeans and Hawaiian shirts.  The servers were quite prompt with us and there was not a problem even though we showed up in jeans.   The hubby sat down, looked around,  and said, “well, I guess they can afford to turn us away.”  We opened the menu and found that it was not overly expensive.  Each appetizer was a bit under $20, and entrees were between $20 and $40.  So it was possible to eat pretty well for under $75 per person.  So the hubby concluded, “I guess maybe  this is recession dining for the rich.”

We both agreed that we always find the appetizers and desserts the most memorable at these “fancy” places, and The Pub was no different. The hubby had a mushroom and sweetbread salad topped with a poached egg for his appetizer.  I had a shaved foie gras salad with plums.  Both were seasoned just right and the ingredients tasted very fresh.  I had a rack of pork for the entree and the hubby had a spring lamb in three preparations.  I think the hubby’s lamb was better than my pork.  The pork was well cooked and seasoned, but it was a bit boring.  Finally for dessert I had a plate of strawberries prepared in several different ways.  One preparation was in a beignet, one was a frozen bar of strawberry with cream, and then there were a bunch of fresh strawberries on french toast.  It was really a very large dessert.  The hubby had a peach dessert that was prepared like a cobbler and also a frozen manner.  Overall we enjoyed our meal very much and it was a very good birthday for me.

Looking back on the past few months I think we do have a lot of reasons to celebrate.  We both still have our  jobs and a wonderful family and we are also expecting to add a little boy soon enough.  I think that the horrid state of economy and the coming of the baby did add a bit of anxiety to our lives, but when I write it all down it seems that we are worrying for nothing much.   As my old roomie Cathy used to say, “all you need are faith, family, and friends”, and we have all three.

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is that I  think everyone who has a reason to celebrate this year should go ahead and do it as long as it is affordable.  There is no point in worrying about things you cannot control, and life really passes by faster than you can enjoy it.

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Yesterday my husband and I went out on a daytrip to Pescadero.  We haven’t really gone out on the weekends for a while so this was quite special.  We really enjoyed our time in this small historic town, and here is the story.

I got up quite early for a Saturday and the hubby followed soon after.  He charged his camera batteries and we headed out.  We drove through the mountains and ancient redwood forests on the extremly windy highway 84.  Along the way there were many bikers and I wondered how they got up there, and my husband was simply annoyed that some of them were hogging the entire road.  Once we hit highway 1 we turned left towards Pescadero.  We planned to stop at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse first.

I first saw the lighthouse from a distance when my company took us to a retreat.  I remembered the order of things a bit erroneously so I thought that Pigeon Point Lighthouse was north of Pescadero.  Once we already past Pescadero and still did not see the lighthouse my husband started to doubt my directions.  Pigeon Point is supposed to be one of the tallest lighthouses in North America, and he kept on asking me why we still do not see it.  I started to point behind a bunch of bushes and once we past it he laughed at me and said I was just pointing at a stick.  Then suddenly he saw the lighthouse perched at the edge of the ocean.  We turned in and found some parking in the dirt.

The lighthouse is currently not open to visitors because in 2001 two large pieces of its cornice fell to the ground, and so far San Mateo has not raised enough money to fix it.  However, the grounds are open and there was a surprisingly large number of visitors there including a lot of parents with kids.  I guessed that many of these visitors were trying to save a bit of money since the attraction is free.   The grounds were absolutely beautiful as flowers of all colors are currently blooming.  The normally brown cliffs were covered with dots of yellow and sea birds glided in the sky.  We then walked around a small path to the front of the lighthouse, and there was a flower patch with two giant pieces of whale bone.  One was a vertebrae and one was a humongous skull.  They looked quite eerie in a background of cheerful magenta and yellow flowers.

After visiting the lighthouse it was nearly 1pm, so we went to find some grub.  We planned to go to Duarte’s Tavern, a historic restaurant and bar in Pescadero that has been there since 1894.    It is famous for its artichoke dishes, olallieberry pie, and various seafood since Pescadero is supposed to be a fishing town.  Everything there is made locally and my company actually took us there during the retreat.  I just didn’t know how famous it was then.  I did remember the delicious artichoke soup and ollalieberry pie.   It was actually  on an episode of Food Network’s Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins and the host ate the house special cioppino.  I saw the picture of the cioppino online and salivated a bit over it.  So we drove a few miles north from the lighthouse and stopped at Duarte’s.  There was quite a crowd there and we were told that we had to wait for 10 to 15 minutes.  This wasn’t too bad so we waited and got a round table very close to the bathrooms.

After we got the menu I looked at the cioppino, and it was the most expensive dish there!  My husband encouraged me to get it since we really didn’t spend too much money eating out last month.  So I ordered it and he ordered a crab melt sandwhich.  The waitress gave us two sets of dishes, crab crackers, and a bib for the cioppino.  My husband thought it was funny that we were given bibs, and then the GIANT dish of crab legs, prawns, and clams came out.  I put my bib on because I knew that I was going to make a mess.  The hubby thought that was so funny that he took a picture.  We shared the crab sandwhich first just to get rid of a plate, and that was quite excellent.  It was pretty much all crab meat hugged by cheese and well toasted buttery bread.  There wasn’t much vegetable fillers in the crab like you would find  in other restaurants.  Then we started working on the cioppino, and it was seriously the longest meal we ever had in a restaurant, but it was a lot of fun to pull out all the crab meat and then drink a bit of the soup.

After eating everything we were quite full but I really wanted some ollallieberry pie and I have talked about it so much that my hubby really wanted to try it.  So we walked down about a block to a small market and bakery.  They had a collection of all types of pies and all kinds of local foods.  Some of the artisan breads with artichokes and cheese just smelled intoxicating.   We just bought a pie to go and went onto the next destination – Pebble Beach.

The 71 miles of the San Mateo coast is unusual in that it is very close to large centers of population, but very few people visit so the beaches are quite pristine. The hubby and I have been to Half Moon Bay multiple times to beach comb and walk, but we never drove as far south as Pescadero.  As we were driving there the hubby said that we will not find these  uncrowded clean beaches in Southern California.  Pescadero has several beaches including Pescadero State Beach, Bean Hollow Beanch, and Pebble Beach.    Pebble Beach is a very small beach that is unique in that instead of sand it is covered by pebbles of all colors.  The pebbles are polished by the tides so they glisten in the sun.  There is also a very large area of tidepools next to it where you can find small marine life.     We walked down to the pebbles section and took pictures of the holey sand formations and pebbles first, and then walked over to the tidepools.  There were small fish, hermit crabs, and tons of snails in the tidepools, but nothing extremely exciting.  The hubby was hoping to see some colorful anemones or starfish so he could take pictures and he was disappointed.  So we went back to the pebbles area and dug around.  A lot of the stones were quite pretty and some of them were laced agates like the ones my mom and I used to dig up in construction sand when I was a kid.  It is illegal to take the pebbles because they are natural  materials, but we found some tiny pieces of sea glass so we took those.  The entire beach just smelled so fresh and it felt so good to sit down on the omnipresent pebbles.  It was definitely more fun than walking on sand.

After hanging around for about an hour we decided to head home as the sky became overcast.   We stopped to buy some vanilla ice cream and then I warmed up a slice of olallieberry pie for each of us when we got home and topped them with the ice cream.  It certainly made my tastebuds happy.

We definitely had a lot of fun exploring this part of San Mateo County, and I think instead of major vacations we could definitely save money by going on more day trips of places near us.  The Bay Area definitely has a lot of interesting places to see and experience just within an one to two hour drive.  After going to Pescadero we found that there is a seal preserve near by where you can see thousands of seals from December to March.  We might go visit next year!

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