My original plan for this blog was to address the issues surrounding being pregnant with celiac disease. After many many posts about exercise, my family, my frugal methods for scoring a super stroller, and generally unimportant issues that everyone faces during their pregnancy, I felt it necessary to reroute the blog today and write about being a Pregnant Celiac.
Well...
There isn't much to say about it except that I'm dealing with it the same way I did before. I still eat Gluten Free foods and I continue to exercise. I feel generally good. I want to go to Tim-Ho's and have a donut but I don't. I also don't feel badly about it. Why should I? The crap I would eat if I didn't have celiac disease is the crap I shouldn't be eating anyway.
I've embraced lactose because it doesn't seem to bother me anymore. Trust me, this is a blessing.
Alex and I have been planning our meals and eating really well for the last few weeks (full fat lactose included). I've gained a healthy amount of pregnancy weight (due to, I'm sure, the amount of dairy we've been consuming) and overall, there are no major concerns. I'm sure I'm actually getting the required amount of calcium I need for both me and 'Peanut' so this is actually pretty great!
I know I'm exceptionally lucky.
A lot of women who struggle with their celiac disease to get pregnant, often have complications during as well. My biggest complication is that I have to wait another eight weeks for this baby to come out. I'm not very patient but I know that the longer 'Peanut' lives inside, the healthier 'Peanut' will be on the outside.
I'm sure you are all wondering what is going to happen with 'Peanut' for feeding time.
I am planning to breastfeed exclusively as long as I can. This seems all fine and good except aren't my antibodies supposed to prepare 'Peanut' for the world (with Gluten)? Well, in short, yes. 'Peanut' will not be consuming Gluten for the first year or even first three years (this all depends on what 'Peanut's' Grandparents feed it when I'm not around). I know that Grandparents are great at feeding babies. I trust that after feeding my cat for occasional visits, my parents will have at least figured this out by now. This was not so a few years ago.
At Christmas of 2005, Alex and I went to Australia for two weeks with his family. I left Marley with my parents (my Dad specifically). My Mom was on her way home from Taiwan after a three month contract and our planes would cross in the night. I would have to trust that the instructions I was to leave for my Dad on feeding the cat would be concise and easy to remember so he could pass this info off to my Mom and they could share the responsibility. Feeding a cat is not rocket science but something was lost in translation. At the time, Marley was still a kitten and we didn't know what his feeding capabilities were so he was only being fed 3/4 cup of dry food plus 1/4 can of wet food once a day. I told my Dad that Marley should be okay on that diet and to be careful that he doesn't try jump on the dinner table and eat people food. I asked if I should write these instructions down but got a sour, "No!" so I didn't.
After two glorious weeks in Australia, Alex and I came home to a very skinny cat. Marley is a small cat to begin with but he was awfully thin and when Alex picked him up, he immediately licked all the salty plane air off his neck. Marley was hungry.
I asked my parents if Marley had been eating and they said that when they fed him, he hoovered his food. He was ravenous and after he cleared his bowls he would pull at the pants of anyone in the kitchen begging for more food. This seemed bizarre to my Mom so she would top up his dry food for him. Apparently, Marley also attacked the chicken liver pate my parents had put out for dinner one night. I asked if they were feeding him based on my instructions. My Dad said, "ya, 1/4 cup dry food and 1/4 can wet food". Um, no. No wonder he was so hungry and skinny.
After that, we made sure that Marley had lots of food and water available for him all the time. He now eats until he's full and comes and goes at his leisure. Luckily, we don't have a weight problem with Marley. He gets exercise and lots of fresh water. If anything, he's healthier than the rest of us.
I appreciate that my Parents are there to feed my cat when I need them to. Marley is actually moving in with my Parents at the beginning of December. Dealing with a cuddle-whore of a cat and a screaming newborn is not my idea of a good time so Marley gets shipped off for a month vacation at Chez Fox.
Maybe while he's visiting my Parents, he'll attack the liver again. He doesn't get that here!
The fact that my Parents botched Marley's feeding schedule does not worry me in the least about feeding 'Peanut'. They raised Wendy and I and we eat just fine (except for Wendy's aversion to foods that are orange-except sweet potato fries with chipotle mayo and my dislike of any boiled meat). Also, if they have the resources to feed 'Peanut' gluten, all the better to expose 'Peanut' to gluten seeing as though I can't. I draw the line at a constant feeding of sugary snacks but knowing my Parents' track record for feeding, I'm sure this won't be a problem.
Hopefully, Alex and I can get away with having an allergy-free baby. This would be wonderful but we are prepared to do anything necessary if life throws us that curve ball.
As for Marley, he's fine. He gained the weight back almost immediately because Alex and I were feeding him can after can of wet food and lots of cat treats. As for my Dad, he's also fine. We didn't make too much of a big deal about him starving my cat. After easing Marley's feeding schedule to 'food on demand', the instructions are a lot easier to follow and the two of them now get along very nicely.
No comments:
Post a Comment