Pregnant Beauty?

I honestly don't know how some pregnant woman do it. Do what? Look sassy, look healthy, happy and well groomed.

Before my pregnancy I was a vain pot and now I can't give a hoot about what I look like. Even my mom thinks I look kinda like a preggie slob.

I take offence of course but I know deep down in my heart that the nonchalant attitude towards looking presentable has to stop one day.

But in my and many other preggie women defense, I have to say that there are many contributing factors for the lack of care in the beauty department.

In the first trimester, the nausea, fatigue and sheer exhaustion totally knocked me out half the time. I didn't even want to go shopping, let alone look at my face. The growing child inside of me seemed to have a dominating personality and changed my taste drastically. In short I was acting and behaving like a hungry, sleepy and tired man. I didn't even like washing my face.

I was battling with constant nausea that seemed to get worse in a moving vehicle and could only be quelled with food for short peirods of time. I was not feeling sexy at all!

Moving on happily into the second trimester, nausea somewhat abated and a little of the old me seems to have crawled back into my veins. I have begun to enjoy watching beauty vids, read beauty blogs but I also seem to love watching comedies and funny shows, reading comics and manga and cook shows more than ever. I like car shows nowadays but I still hate washing my face. The sudden need for bed rest hasn't exactly inspired me to want to use any makeup too. Who in the world will look at me in bed and better still expect preggie unwell me to have ruby lips and gorgeous smokey eyes?????

Still, I'm thankful that gd nutrition in the fourth month kept my outbreaks at bay and reduced my worry abt a seriously slackening to almost non existent skin care routine.

Add a big dose of worry to this whole experience and it's the perfect recipe for looking like you just don't give a damn.

Pardon this rant but rant I must because I used to be one of those morons who thought that pregnant woman should and could look cute and amazing all the time except when giving birth:) i never once fathomed a truckload of worry, scares, real fatigue, serious weight gain, nausea and shortness of breath to accompany this amazing and almost surreal journey that is pregnancy.

Many a times in the past few months I contemplated the survival of this beauty blog with my lack of beauty inspiration when it struck me that not all woman go through what I go through and some even have it worse. women need to look good to feel good and lately I haven't been feeling great. Despite this, I refuse to stay bitter and grumpy and depressed and soon I will force myself to take out that eyeliner and draw myself a cateye and put on some lipgloss so that I can show the world just how proud I am to be carrying a little miracle inside of me. Physically I may be feeling really far from what I used to be but inside I'm still the same person ( with strange man-ish taste).

Now I know better than to judge a pregnant woman by her looks. If she still has the energy and is putting in the effort to look good during this special time, than I applaud her for doing so.

I've always blogged about what inspires me in my life and now I'm gravitating towards simple, quick and easy to do makeup. Maybe I might even do an article on gettin out of a slobbish rut soon !?! Hehehe

It's good to be blogging again and i'm looking to putting up some pics soon :) have. A great Wednesday sweeties!

Nutrition Tips

I'm having a rather challenging pregnancy and a big scare saw me on a one month self imposed bedrest.

I am the last person to stay still for long periods of time. Asthma could not stop me from playing soccer in the park or playing catch when I was young and I get so annoyed and grumpy when I'm having the "adult" flu bug cause I can't run around!

But being pregnant and caring for a small one can really change a woman.
I only got up to eat, bath and use the loo. My hair, my skin and my mood was not in the the best shape at all. I had scaly skin that peeled like sunburnt skin and refused to get better no matter what I lathered on. Also, i was not washing my face regularly . I skipped all my fancy creams, masks, moisturizer ( except for peel-y areas) and was a victim of pregnancy fatigue and looking very very very unappealing. Soon I had many baby zits and big zits!

Thankfully I have a dad gifted in the art of nutrition and he has taken such good care of me while I was in the most needy state ever. A strong concoction of vitamins and fruit juices has been so beneficial to my strength as well as my skin surprisingly ;)

In the past my zits and marks took ages to go away and the rule of thumb was the bigger it was the longer it would take to completely leave it's mark on my skin. Nutrition did take somewhat of a back seat in the past but now I am an advocate of the perks of having vitamins and fruit juices in ones diet to maintain optimal skin health.

~{benefits of vitamins and juices listed}
+ fast healing acne
+ fast healing post Acne pigmentation
+ a reduction on the reliance on facial products
+ glowing and radiant skin
+ surfacing of acne scars

These are the benefits I have witnessed while on my dad's healthy regiment. I must warn against the taste of some the juices but the perks and skin and healing benefits are completely worth it.

- I take daily
• organic beetroot juice ( nasty tasting but it gives a nice glow and has so many blood cleansing an boosting properties)
• gemuse saft ~ aka mixed organic vegetable juice
• tons of h2o
• zinc oyster supplements
• vit c , shark liver oils, fish oil, multi vitamin, calcium, cordycep ( sometimes every other day), vit b and folic acid
• organic soy protein drink
• Floradix( iron supplement that I have been taking on and off since I was 18 ) this liquid iron supplement is amazing. drink it during even if u are not pregnant and it can relieve fatigue and boost low blood count.

Not trying to scare anyone here but I have thalessemia which in essence means weaker blood and all these supplements are targeted to get more oxygen for the baby. The best side effect is how my pimples heal in a few days completely and don't leave any marks at all. I'm not suffering from any breakouts and my dry patches have eased up a lot ( fish oil helps heaps). I can go on and on and on abt all the great benefits but if u are not pregnant try taking a multi vitamin, oyster supplement, vegetable juice , beetroot juice, floradix and fish oils. The skin benefits are amazing.

Btw :

• I take - mixture of freshly boiled chicken essence and bottled essence 2-3 times a week

I give nutrition so much credit cause I've been so slack with my skin care and lying in bed the whole day but my breakouts are minimal and easily healed. I am not a doctor but I hope this helps those of u who are doing everything pdt wise to clean and take care of ur skin. Let me know how it goes:)

Take care and great weekend ahead !

Belly Photo: 28 Weeks

Hey Everyone,
Since you've requested, here is an official belly photo. I'm not one to have belly pride, although now that I have one, I kind of get it. Otherwise, it's winter so I reap no benefits of being pregnant with people offering their seats to me because I'm in coats and big cumphy sweaters. Although I did just buy two books last night at Walmart (yes, we were at Walmart now that we don't live in the City, but we were really there for cheap spring curtain rods), and I dropped one of the books. When I dropped it, I just stared at it because this pregnancy has softened my bones and taken a lot out of my hips, so walking is a little less perky or strideful. A woman must have seen me staring, and just swooped in, picked it up and handed it to me. Very nice.

And yes, that picture is in the baby room, so that is the color of the wall, that in my mind, might become stenciled if I think I can do it...Not so much stenciled as free-hand...And that black band is the bella band, so it can keep my painter pants up.

And here is a picture of Oliver, on the belly. My mom thinks he is tracking a mouse in there, which is pretty much what it feels like.

Wonderwoman Underwear Set

Might have to get these. Wonder Woman underwear. They came across my inbox via the www.bustboobtique.com newsletter. Then, I might get a pink monkey key cover.

Operation: Dig Out the Bushes

These bushes were a bit much for me when we first moved in, but now I really like them. They smell good, are hearty, provide a wall of green, good times. But then the heavy snowstorm came (actually 2 back to back), and flattened them! The bushes in the front of the house are probably not going to make it and are brown, but they are a different type, and I'm cool with losing them. It gives a nice excuse to get a hydrangea bush or something flowering and wonderful.

But I look out my sunroom office window each day to see these bushes flattened, and I just want to dig them out! David does the whole driveway and plenty of other things, so I'm doing little baby shovel-fulls for the exercise. The baby wanted to breath winter air, but we only do it for a few minutes and then stop. Gerdy usually comes to supervise.


You can't tell what anything is here, but the bushes are on the right.


We're in the middle of a Big Melt, and I've gotten those bushes out so far. Otherwise, they'd still be stuck in ice and flat. A few raw branches where they just bent too far. In the foreground of this picture is a limb we lost from a tree on the side of the house, one of those decorative kinds. Maybe cherry blossom or something.


I uncovered enough snow from the top that the branches could pop out again, but they are kind of stuck that way now. The rest of the bush is under that snow.


To me, the bushes are saying: "Bla! Help me!" as they splay in every direction. Yes, that is a neighbor garage in the background that is slanted and falling over. We thought maybe the snow would bring it completely down, so that the insurance could take it away, but not just yet.

Here's What I've Decided About Maternity Jeans an Shirts

That they will always be falling down. We bought the pregnancy jeans to be a size 3 (out of 1-3) because I'm a taller girl with love handles, so who knows what could happen.

The Page Skinny Jeans (which are not so skinny), that had the spandex elastic band, are fine and comfortable, but they just keep slipping. If I put the bella belly band on top of that, eh, it could help, but mentally, I don't want to double up on the elastic.



The Habitual jeans are skinny, but have the two side pull elastics. I like those, but they really don't stay up either, and need the bella (belly) band. So that bella band is on my body almost every day. Get two. I thought I ordered the Habitual Knocked Up jean, but the skinny jeans came, and I'm totally happy with them.



A friend handed down to me another pair of Habituals, and these are not skinny, but more roomy and ultra comfortable, yet the waist is ultra big, so they really slide. Bella band to the rescue again to keep them in place.

The thing with shirts is this: though I'm not "eating for two" in the sense that I'm having 2 cheese burgers, my belly is not huge. Yet. At 28 weeks. So some of my old shirts do work, and I don't want to buy official maternity shirts, and I like wearing my old stuff. However. Today I've realized that it's the waist height that is the issue, not the stretch or fit up top or in the arms. These normal shirts are all waist long, and slide up over the belly button, so I'm constantly pulling it down. I also noticed this in my Maternal Dance video, where the work out ladies have long stretch t-shirts on covering their bellies. Much better because you don't have to think about how much slippage is going on.

RECOMMENDATIONS
My recommendations so far are:

• Spring for the designer jeans (as recommended by Beth). I'm glad I did (well, my mom did), as they are the perfect length (usually jeans are too short on me). I wear them every day, when not wearing stretch pants.
• If you are going to exercise, get longer shirts. I didn't do this because it's winter and I've been doing DVDs and not jogging (personal choice), so I haven't been outside to need to look cute. But. If I were to go to a yoga class, I'd need longer shirts.
• Get the bella band, for your old pants, and for your maternity pants that won't fit. The "rubber band trick" where you loop a rubber band around the button and through the hole didn't really do it for me, and pants still slid.
  
• That bella band inventor is a genius. So simple, yet...Bravo for taking her idea to fruition!