Happy Easter!!! For Easter, I made a coconut cake, which is my favorite on Easter. It’s an Angel Food Cake, topped with pina colada mix, whipped cream, and toasted coconut. And, for the extra Easter-ness, I added some candy eggs to the top, like little nests. Probably would have been cuter in cupcakes, but it’s definitely tasty this way!
The Angel Food cake recipe was the Southern Living recipe, found here.
My only single complaint: it called for 2 1/2 cups of egg whites….that’s a ton of egg whites! I went through 2 dozen eggs, so fair warning if you want to make this recipe. That said, it is absolutely delicious and totally worth it!
30 weeks feels super pregnant. Like, the most pregnant…ever. And it seems like the whole world has noticed. I have gotten more (unwelcome) comments from people about everything from how big I am to the size of my meals, to giving me specific advice about what I should or should not be eating. First of all, yes I am pregnant…therefore I will gain weight- no one is more acutely aware of this fact that me. I am not particularly thrilled about seeing the scale skyrocket upward already on my own, much less would I be thrilled about having every person I see take notice as well. I have heard this so much–and had so many people comment on my meals (forget the fact that I eat a bran muffin or cereal for breakfast, cottage cheese with fruit and a salad for lunch, trail mix and fruit for my snacks, and a healthy dinner everyday), people feel the need to counsel me on my choices, and I’ve heard everything from me eating too much (“Wow, you’re REALLY eating for two”- it was a slice of whole grain veggie pizza and a salad, come on) to me not eating enough (“Are you sure that’s gonna be enough? Take another-” with regards to a slice of cake). Enough, already. Yes, I do some days have dessert, especially on holidays- I did that before I was pregnant, and it’s not that much terribly different now. And no, I am not diabetic, I am not eating too much salt, I am not eating fast food, etc. Seriously- it’s enough to really give anyone a complex. Plus, it makes is so hard to gracefully accept all the changes I am going through when no one else seems to let me relax about it.
This week, if you haven’t guessed already from the tone of this post, was a very tough one, indeed. I apologize in advance for this post. We got our beautiful Restoration Hardware crib in on Monday, only to open it up, and it was absolutely obliterated. It looked like someone had dropped it 3 stories higher, then taken a hammer to it. Legs were broken off, wood was cracked and splintered, and the actual structural integrity of the crib was totally compromised. Restoration Hardware cannot replace it, since it was sold to us on sale, and they refused to ship it to us. So Mom and Dad shipped it to us via UPS, and thank goodness had the foresight to get insurance. It wasn’t as if it wasn’t well packaged, either- layers of bubble wrap and placed in double-layered mirror boxes with “Fragile” written all over them. They arrived with massive holes in the boxes, bubble wrap torn, and crib pieces everywhere. So Mom filed a claim with UPS, and they’ve picked up the crib and boxes, and ostensibly we should hear something about whether or not they will reimburse us within the next 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I have no crib, and with shipping delays and such…we’ve gotta get on this ASAP…that due date looms large.
So it’s getting tougher to be pregnant, in more ways that the fact that I’m going from the “cute baby bump” stage to the “larger than life” stage. For example, I am having lots of trouble sleeping these days- I rarely make it through a whole night. I do buffer this by taking some evening naps when I can, but that usually means I can’t sleep again until late at night, and then it’s a vicious cycle. And I suppose sleeping on an air mattress doesn’t provide optimal support for my back…
And then, there’s the back/sacral pain. I haven’t been to a chiropractor, because Mr. Handsome and I already were trained in those skills, in addition to the traditional doctor skills. That’s the nice thing about being a D.O., is that basically our education combines traditional medicine (M.D.’s)- which is why I can and am licensed to practice medicine and neurology- with musculoskeletal adjustments (like chiropractors), so that you get both worlds in one practicioner. If you see a D.O., you get to see both, if you want. So, since I am married to someone who adjusts my back, I don’t need to really see a chiropractor (which is nice- less copays, am I right? 😉 ). I did, however, go yesterday for a prenatal massage (a gift from the sweet hubby), and have been looking forward to it for over a month now, but it turned out awful! The woman was just too rough, even after I asked her to be gentler. I found myself just wishing it would be over, and never wanting another massage ever again. So an hour after my massage, I was limping around Hobby Lobby and in way worse shape than before the massage. Today, my back is exquisitely tender to ever Mr. Handsome’s light touch, and has broken out in some kind of rash where they put that cream. I mean, really…I needed this massage to go well, after the week we’ve had. Hubby says I should complain, but I hate complaining about personal services like that…I’m afraid they would take it personally!
Work is unbelievable, too. I had several surprise due dates for some tasks this week, which meant long hours trying to complete all those tasks. And honestly, no one in the Pathology department (that’s the rotation I am currently on) seems to know what to do with me, and they don’t seem to even want my opinion or thoughts on what provides the best learning for me. Actually, most of my days are spent at a computer, reading or taking quizzes.
Also? A last little twist- blizzards all last week representing a stark and bleak reality check after such a nice and mild week in San Diego at the AAN conference. I feel like I always end up paying for the good things in my life…like waiting for the other shoe to drop. So…it begins to feel like someone’s got it out for me. Like someone doesn’t like me, is mad that I had a good week, and is asking for things to go wrong in my life for me. I know we all feel like that from time to time, and I know every so often, we all have pity parties, whether we like to admit it or not. I also know that these hormones don’t help those feelings, and that it’s normal for people in general to have ups and downs…but…woof. I could use some prayers, I guess. Probably more for me to just accept things as they are more than anything. But if there is someone out there who wishes bad things on me, seriously, get a life. Mine’s hard enough. And now if you’ve read this all the way to the end, I apologize for wasting 5 minutes of your life that you cannot get back.
Hubby got a smile out of me…by saying he thought we should name our baby boy “Poots.” He’s no help at all!!! 🙂
Week 30:
Veggie of the week: Butternut Squash
Cravings: cottage cheese with pineapple, olives
Looking forward to: my first shower next weekend!
Nervous about: getting down to the wire…doc’s appointments are every 2 weeks now, first being tomorrow; the whole crib debacle
Countdown: 10 weeks until Due Date!