Managing my heartburn has been something that requires ongoing changes in strategy. I was just taking Tums, then shifted to generic Zantac, and am now taking generic Pepcid. Those of you who know how much I hate taking most western medicines know this means the heartburn has made me pretty miserable. It has kept me from falling asleep at night, woken me up in the middle of the night, and prevented me from participating in activities that involve bending my abdomen in the least (which around here is normally just stooping to pick something up off the floor, so I guess that's not a big loss, except poor Ryan has to take on more than his share of the house work).
People have suggested cutting out flour, white flour (or any white starches in general), spicy foods, greasy foods, or soda, not lying down for an hour after eating... the list goes on an on. But nothing has worked consistently. Drinking water before the drive to work has caused worse heartburn than eating a burger and fries for dinner. The medicine has only granted partial relief. I often have to fall asleep sitting up in bed. Last night I learned that lying on my left side caused less reflux than lying on the right. The most frustrating thing is that plain water seems to exacerbate the condition far more than carbonated drinks do. I am eagerly anticipating the day when I can gulp down a tall glass of water without consequence.
Recently though, I think I've found a formula that works. For breakfast: Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster quenches my thirst and tides me over almost till lunch. Dinner requires a little more variety -- but standard American square meals (meat + vegetable + starch) seem to work well. On Mardi Gras, however, Ryan made gumbo. It was a little spicy, and it was served with white rice and white bread -- but mostly, it was delicious and did not cause heartburn! I got the best night of sleep I'd had in weeks that night. I ate it again the next night. It worked again. So Ryan made a second batch of what we now call "Magic Gumbo" a few days later. I've eaten leftovers for lunch and dinner over the past few days.
So right now Ryan is cooking salmon and asparagus (yum) and, on the side, whipping up a third batch of Magic Gumbo. This batch, however, will not be consumed immediately but will be frozen for easy meals after the baby comes. Even if my heartburn subsides after the baby as one would expect, the Magic Gumbo will get to work its magic on my taste buds once again. My husband pretty much rules.
Showing posts with label hubby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hubby. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Four Years Ago Today: An Official First Date
I've lifted this entry from our wedding website to commemorate the fourth anniversary of our first real date.
I was joking with Ryan this morning that he freaked out a little bit when we started dating because things were moving a little fast (especially compared with the four years of ignoring the obvious signs that we were supposed to end up together). I mused that he must have been thinking at the time, "OH. MY. GOD. IF THINGS KEEP GOING THIS FAST, IN FOUR YEARS SHE'LL BE NEARLY READY TO DELIVER OUR FIRST CHILD!" And it's not the baby that was scaring him, it was the fact that he'd have to PAINT THE BABY'S ROOM.
*****
"How We Met ... Or, how to woo each other in four short years."
TORI: We met through friends in late summer 2001. We remained casual acquaintances until 2002, when Ryan asked me to the opera. (He had season tickets that year and was apparently inviting all the girls.) I got all dolled up, in an almost-floor-length black gown. But I kept telling myself it was not a "real date," especially since at that time I was 29 and he was 25. After the opera (which we both agree was terrible, unfortunately), I felt awkward, panicked, and jumped into the first available cab that I saw. The evening was made perfect when I ripped the hem of my dress on the way up to my apartment when I got home.
RYAN: I wanted to rip that dress, dammit!
TORI: Ryan shrugged and wrote it off, thinking I was a little weird.
RYAN: I also resolved never to pay for Tori's opera tickets again.
TORI: Despite my poor behavior at the end of that night, we remained friends. I accompanied Ryan to his company holiday dinners for the next two years.
RYAN: Tori was a great stunt date. My co-workers liked Tori more than they liked me. It was the only reason I was invited every year. In fact, I think she still goes to Christmas parties with those guys.
TORI: We spent many hours complaining to each other about our dating lives. I admit to periodically calling my friends and wondering out loud if I should date Ryan. Ryan is not yet forthright about his interest (or not) in me at this point in the story.
RYAN: Yeah, about that. You know how some people pick up subtle hints(tickets to the opera, the ballet, rides home that are waaaaay out of the way) and some people don't...
TORI: You kept telling me that you were interested in all these other girls...
RYAN: Jesus, what does it take? Should I have hit you over the head with a club and dragged you back to my cave?
TORI: At any rate, nothing really heated up till the end of 2004. That year, Ryan asked me to attend yet another company holiday dinner with him, and things just started to click. In January, Ryan took me to the movies on my birthday, and in a stealthy romantic gesture, brought the cake to my party the following weekend.
RYAN: Stealthy romance my ass, I just wanted to make sure the cake was good.
TORI: This whole time, neither of us was quite sure whether this was turning into a romance or was just an extension of our existing friendship. Through the grace of God, we took it a day at a time until clarity arrived....
RYAN: Webcam flirting is HOT!
TORI: .... which it did, on February 19, 2005, when we officially went on a date, to the annual Ignatia House dinner dance. We even shared a slow dance together, and later, our first kiss.
RYAN: The club, the cave...
TORI: The rest is history.
RYAN: Not all of the rest is history, I mean some of it is the present, cuz we are still together. And some of it is future, cuz we are making plans for then, and some of it is pluperfect....
I was joking with Ryan this morning that he freaked out a little bit when we started dating because things were moving a little fast (especially compared with the four years of ignoring the obvious signs that we were supposed to end up together). I mused that he must have been thinking at the time, "OH. MY. GOD. IF THINGS KEEP GOING THIS FAST, IN FOUR YEARS SHE'LL BE NEARLY READY TO DELIVER OUR FIRST CHILD!" And it's not the baby that was scaring him, it was the fact that he'd have to PAINT THE BABY'S ROOM.
*****
"How We Met ... Or, how to woo each other in four short years."
TORI: We met through friends in late summer 2001. We remained casual acquaintances until 2002, when Ryan asked me to the opera. (He had season tickets that year and was apparently inviting all the girls.) I got all dolled up, in an almost-floor-length black gown. But I kept telling myself it was not a "real date," especially since at that time I was 29 and he was 25. After the opera (which we both agree was terrible, unfortunately), I felt awkward, panicked, and jumped into the first available cab that I saw. The evening was made perfect when I ripped the hem of my dress on the way up to my apartment when I got home.
RYAN: I wanted to rip that dress, dammit!
TORI: Ryan shrugged and wrote it off, thinking I was a little weird.
RYAN: I also resolved never to pay for Tori's opera tickets again.
TORI: Despite my poor behavior at the end of that night, we remained friends. I accompanied Ryan to his company holiday dinners for the next two years.
RYAN: Tori was a great stunt date. My co-workers liked Tori more than they liked me. It was the only reason I was invited every year. In fact, I think she still goes to Christmas parties with those guys.
TORI: We spent many hours complaining to each other about our dating lives. I admit to periodically calling my friends and wondering out loud if I should date Ryan. Ryan is not yet forthright about his interest (or not) in me at this point in the story.
RYAN: Yeah, about that. You know how some people pick up subtle hints(tickets to the opera, the ballet, rides home that are waaaaay out of the way) and some people don't...
TORI: You kept telling me that you were interested in all these other girls...
RYAN: Jesus, what does it take? Should I have hit you over the head with a club and dragged you back to my cave?
TORI: At any rate, nothing really heated up till the end of 2004. That year, Ryan asked me to attend yet another company holiday dinner with him, and things just started to click. In January, Ryan took me to the movies on my birthday, and in a stealthy romantic gesture, brought the cake to my party the following weekend.
RYAN: Stealthy romance my ass, I just wanted to make sure the cake was good.
TORI: This whole time, neither of us was quite sure whether this was turning into a romance or was just an extension of our existing friendship. Through the grace of God, we took it a day at a time until clarity arrived....
RYAN: Webcam flirting is HOT!
TORI: .... which it did, on February 19, 2005, when we officially went on a date, to the annual Ignatia House dinner dance. We even shared a slow dance together, and later, our first kiss.
RYAN: The club, the cave...
TORI: The rest is history.
RYAN: Not all of the rest is history, I mean some of it is the present, cuz we are still together. And some of it is future, cuz we are making plans for then, and some of it is pluperfect....
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Preparing to Birth
The past few weeks have been filled with activity preparing for the kind of birth experience I am imagining.
A couple of weeks ago, we hired a doula, Kim from Labor of Love. We are very excited to work with her. We met most of the doulas from Labor of Love at a tea meant to allow prospective moms to choose the woman with whom they click the best. I had imagined at first that my doula would be a mother figure of sorts, but after meeting with them all, I realized I enjoyed and felt very comfortable with the older-sister-like qualities of the doulas closer to my age. I felt like Kim would be a comforting and motivating presence at the birth. She was also skilled at shooting comebacks at Ryan as fast as he was firing off-the-wall remarks at her. (Ryan wrote "Fang" on his name tag at this event, which I'm sure made us quite memorable to the entire group ... I remarked that our doula would have to be a "Fang Wrangler" as well as a doula ... otherwise stated: a "Fangler.")
Two weeks ago, we started a Hypnobirthing class. The class basically teaches self-hypnosis to use during childbirth. Hypnosis really just boils down to "deep relaxation." I am still skeptical at how deeply relaxed I can get - in OR out of labor - but figure anything that helps me learn to breath properly and focus on relaxing can only be good for me and for the baby. What I've learned in this class has also helped me believe that I am capable of birthing, that it doesn't have to be a horrible experience, and I'm actually starting to get EXCITED about birthing. Not just about the baby being here, but about the birthing process itself.
As of Monday, we switched medical practices to Isis OB/Gyn in Roswell, and it is worth every minute of the extra drive. We met with Kay, one of the midwives. She was warm, funny, and attentive. Nearly every midwife and doctor we met at our initial practice remained standing for the entire exam, lingering near the door, and I literally felt like I had to tug them back by their sleeves to ask one or two questions each visit. Kay sat down in a chair and chatted with us. She helped me refill a prescription I need and continued to chat with us at the front desk while we made our next appointments. I was told by a midwife during our very first visit at our old practice: "This visit is more for me than it is for you. We know you're pregnant and the baby is in your uterus. Come back in four weeks. Any questions?" Compared to this most recent visit, it was like night and day. We will also be able to birth at North Fulton hospital now, whereas before we would have been tied to Northside, which has one of the highest C-section rates in the country. To be fair, I know women who have had wonderful birthing experiences there. All the mothers I know who wanted to do natural births, though, favor North Fulton. They also offer water birth, which I'd like to keep as option, even if it just means laboring in the tub for a while.
Finally, I'm reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. This book is also helping me build confidence in trusting my body and my instincts about my own birth experience.
The biggest problem is trying to find time to do everything... yoga, walking, different breathing techniques, 30-minute-long relaxation CDs, reading the books, trying to figure out what baby gear we need to buy and/or register for, sleeping enough, kegels, trying to eat some food with nutrition in it... oh and that little thing called "my job." The baby isn't even here yet and time is already getting tighter!
A couple of weeks ago, we hired a doula, Kim from Labor of Love. We are very excited to work with her. We met most of the doulas from Labor of Love at a tea meant to allow prospective moms to choose the woman with whom they click the best. I had imagined at first that my doula would be a mother figure of sorts, but after meeting with them all, I realized I enjoyed and felt very comfortable with the older-sister-like qualities of the doulas closer to my age. I felt like Kim would be a comforting and motivating presence at the birth. She was also skilled at shooting comebacks at Ryan as fast as he was firing off-the-wall remarks at her. (Ryan wrote "Fang" on his name tag at this event, which I'm sure made us quite memorable to the entire group ... I remarked that our doula would have to be a "Fang Wrangler" as well as a doula ... otherwise stated: a "Fangler.")
Two weeks ago, we started a Hypnobirthing class. The class basically teaches self-hypnosis to use during childbirth. Hypnosis really just boils down to "deep relaxation." I am still skeptical at how deeply relaxed I can get - in OR out of labor - but figure anything that helps me learn to breath properly and focus on relaxing can only be good for me and for the baby. What I've learned in this class has also helped me believe that I am capable of birthing, that it doesn't have to be a horrible experience, and I'm actually starting to get EXCITED about birthing. Not just about the baby being here, but about the birthing process itself.
As of Monday, we switched medical practices to Isis OB/Gyn in Roswell, and it is worth every minute of the extra drive. We met with Kay, one of the midwives. She was warm, funny, and attentive. Nearly every midwife and doctor we met at our initial practice remained standing for the entire exam, lingering near the door, and I literally felt like I had to tug them back by their sleeves to ask one or two questions each visit. Kay sat down in a chair and chatted with us. She helped me refill a prescription I need and continued to chat with us at the front desk while we made our next appointments. I was told by a midwife during our very first visit at our old practice: "This visit is more for me than it is for you. We know you're pregnant and the baby is in your uterus. Come back in four weeks. Any questions?" Compared to this most recent visit, it was like night and day. We will also be able to birth at North Fulton hospital now, whereas before we would have been tied to Northside, which has one of the highest C-section rates in the country. To be fair, I know women who have had wonderful birthing experiences there. All the mothers I know who wanted to do natural births, though, favor North Fulton. They also offer water birth, which I'd like to keep as option, even if it just means laboring in the tub for a while.
Finally, I'm reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. This book is also helping me build confidence in trusting my body and my instincts about my own birth experience.
The biggest problem is trying to find time to do everything... yoga, walking, different breathing techniques, 30-minute-long relaxation CDs, reading the books, trying to figure out what baby gear we need to buy and/or register for, sleeping enough, kegels, trying to eat some food with nutrition in it... oh and that little thing called "my job." The baby isn't even here yet and time is already getting tighter!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Modern Marriage
I get daily emails from WhatToExpect.com.
This morning's email started out like this:
I had to smile at this one as I read it in the cab on my way to work in downtown Chicago today. I am one of the luckiest women alive. Not only does Ryan do most of the cooking in our family, but he excels at it. I was certainly self-sufficient in the kitchen before I started dating him. However, I am definitely a cook book kind of cook, not a great improviser. He can reproduce meals we've had at nice restaurants and even improve on the originals. His technique with kitchen tools of all kinds is far superior to mine, and I think he's a little frustrated that I still haven't retained the knife basics that he's tried to teach me over the years.
This might be why the other day when I offered to make dinner, he said: "Are you kidding? It will take you twice as long. Go watch TV."
This morning's email started out like this:
Each week we'll send you a note to share with the dad-to-be in your life. Pass it on!
You're being the best partner you know how to be, and one of the things you're doing to earn that position is to sign up for dinner duty now and then. Right?
I had to smile at this one as I read it in the cab on my way to work in downtown Chicago today. I am one of the luckiest women alive. Not only does Ryan do most of the cooking in our family, but he excels at it. I was certainly self-sufficient in the kitchen before I started dating him. However, I am definitely a cook book kind of cook, not a great improviser. He can reproduce meals we've had at nice restaurants and even improve on the originals. His technique with kitchen tools of all kinds is far superior to mine, and I think he's a little frustrated that I still haven't retained the knife basics that he's tried to teach me over the years.
This might be why the other day when I offered to make dinner, he said: "Are you kidding? It will take you twice as long. Go watch TV."
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Blogger
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Ryan started a new blog, to which he's posted one item so far.
I helped him set it up the other day, and we quickly discovered that none of the blogger URLs he wanted were available. I can't remember all the combinations that he tried, but he even got desperate enough to check the availability of Ryan Rambles. I had a similar experience finding my URL, though admittedly Tori is a less common name than Ryan, so I had a little better chance of finding something with my name in it.
The kicker is when I actually looked at some of the blogs belonging to our coveted names. Tori.blogspot.com is a blog that appears to have been started in 2001, and has a whopping total of zero posts on it. I nearly contacted Tori to see if I could take her URL. Though I admit that saying that I ramble is not the nicest thing I could say about myself, this woman's blog is even more more self-deprecating. Her tagline: A bunch of worthless crap dedicated to my worthless life -_-. Apparently there's not a whole lot to say when you think you have a "worthless life."
RyanRambles.blogspot.com is a similarly titillating website. This particular Ryan has posted one entry to his blog, back in August of 2006, entitled "Hooray, you found the first post!"
This is how my Ryan ended up with a name like My Dog is Ridiculous for his blog. I don't think he intends to blog solely about said dog, Maddie. But I have a particularly ridiculous story to tell about her. I am giving Ryan exactly two more days to write about it, then it's all mine.
I helped him set it up the other day, and we quickly discovered that none of the blogger URLs he wanted were available. I can't remember all the combinations that he tried, but he even got desperate enough to check the availability of Ryan Rambles. I had a similar experience finding my URL, though admittedly Tori is a less common name than Ryan, so I had a little better chance of finding something with my name in it.
The kicker is when I actually looked at some of the blogs belonging to our coveted names. Tori.blogspot.com is a blog that appears to have been started in 2001, and has a whopping total of zero posts on it. I nearly contacted Tori to see if I could take her URL. Though I admit that saying that I ramble is not the nicest thing I could say about myself, this woman's blog is even more more self-deprecating. Her tagline: A bunch of worthless crap dedicated to my worthless life -_-. Apparently there's not a whole lot to say when you think you have a "worthless life."
RyanRambles.blogspot.com is a similarly titillating website. This particular Ryan has posted one entry to his blog, back in August of 2006, entitled "Hooray, you found the first post!"
This is how my Ryan ended up with a name like My Dog is Ridiculous for his blog. I don't think he intends to blog solely about said dog, Maddie. But I have a particularly ridiculous story to tell about her. I am giving Ryan exactly two more days to write about it, then it's all mine.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Southern Smell
Ryan ran to the grocery store on Sunday evening while I worked (again). I had asked him to pick up a few personal items for me while he was there. One of them was Secret Platinum deodorant (the only deodorant that seems to work for me). It comes in a bazillion scents; I left that choice up to him, since he sometimes doesn't like the scents that I choose.
Knowing how I feel about all things too southern, Ryan came home with the perfect choice: Southern Peach.
By the way, Ryan is blogging.
Knowing how I feel about all things too southern, Ryan came home with the perfect choice: Southern Peach.
By the way, Ryan is blogging.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Cock-Eyed
This is one of my favorite wedding pictures of Ryan. Our friend Yvette was our photographer. She brought along Jasmine to take pics as well. We did a couple of traditional things in non-traditional ways at our wedding - for example, Ryan and I both walked down the aisle with both of our parents. I decided early on that since we had two photographers, I wanted one of them to take pictures of Ryan getting ready for the wedding too. I've decided to spare you, Oh Internet, from the shots of Ryan sporting various poses in his underpants (though these are some of my OTHER favorite pictures of Ryan from the wedding).
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