So I’m in the bread isle looking for a loaf of healthy bread. Here is the ‘Health Nut’, ‘Healthy Multi-Grain’, ‘Heart Healthy’, and then some.  Wow, awesome! I guess I pick the one that appeals to me the most — “Healthy Multi-Grain” with “No Artificial Colors, Flavors or Preservatives”. Why not? The name clearly states – healthy; it’s also multi-grain, which sounds even more healthy. And on top of that, it has no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, sounds very, very healthy to me!  I bought it.

After having a piece of my great-tasting healthy bread, I wanted to find out its caloric and fat info. It wasn’t bad at all, within healthy range. Then I noticed ingredients’ list beside it and it seemed quite long, and the longer I read it, the less familiar they sounded. Here they are:

• whole wheat flour

• water

• sugar

• wheat gluten

• brown rice

• cornmeal

• oats

• wheat bran

• yeast

• cellulose fiber

• soybean oil

• salt

• molasses

• cultured dextrose

• maltodextrin

• DATEM

• mono- and diglycerides

• calcium sulfate

• citric acid

• poppy seeds

• grain vinegar

• soy lecithin

• nuts

• whey

• nonfat milk

Okay, so the first few ingredients I am very familiar with, I know their origin, what they look like, taste like and they sound okay-healthy to me. But as I’m going down the list, the names get more scientific and not nearly as familiar. I run into the unpronounceables! What are these ingredients? Still healthy?

Out of curiosity I decided to do a little research on my own to ensure that I am making a true “healthy” choice. Here is what I found so far translated into plain English.

Dextrose and maltodextrin are highly processed food additives derived from corn or wheat and come as a light, white tasteless powder. They mix well with liquids and have lower density than sugar. As far as I understand they are used instead of sugar for improved texture and flavor of the final product. According to Wikipedia they are commonly used for the production of natural sodas and candy such as SweetTarts. So why are they in my healthy bread?

DATEM is short for Diacetyl Tartaric (Acid) Ester, a mouth full, isn’t it? It’s used in baking as a softener. It is chemically produced and is generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration. Well, does safe by the FDA standards mean healthy for me? I’m yet to figure this one out…

Mono- and diglycerides are derived from vegetable oils or animal fats. They are the kind of fats that are solid at room temperature and are responsible for clogging up arteries. But on the other hand, they improve loaf volume, and create a smooth, soft crumb.

Next is calcium sulfate. Here is how Wikipedia states it: “Calcium sulfate is a common laboratory and industrial chemical”. What?  How does the proud statement “No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives” fit in then? Calcium sulfate is a chemical name for gypsum, the material that’s found in drywall and cement. Yakes. What’s it doing in my healthy bread? I am assuming it is a preservative.

So here I have it — beautifully preserved, soft, flavorful, tasty, loaf of gorgeous looking bread. After doing my research I decided this this healthy bread isn’t healthy enough for me. I still finished the loaf, it’s just so good. But I sure won’t be buying it again!

After some looking around, I think I found my healthy bread! I now buy organic sprouted grains breads by Food for Life. This bread is kept in the freezer, since it’s free of preservatives. Here is its ingredients’ list:

• organic sprouted wheat

• filtered water

• organic malted barley

• organic sprouted rye

• organic sprouted barley

• organic sprouted oats

• organic sprouted millet

• organic sprouted corn

• organic sprouted brown rice

• fresh yeast

• organic wheat gluten

• sea salt

No unpronounceables here. This bread is about twice the cost of the other bread, but to me, it’s worth it.

I also make my own bread at times. Actually, my bread maker does, I just toss the familiar ingredients into it and press the ‘START’ button.

What is your favorite bread? Please share your experience.

Source: Voice of Russia

From Nathan 2 months

On April 22 Nathan turned 2 months. I can’t believe how fast the time is going! Seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital. He seems to be adjusting very well to his new life outside mommy’s tummy. Everything checked out great  at his 2 month doctor’s check up. Apparently he is in the 96th percentile for height and 80th percentile for weight for his age group. No wonder he wants to eat all the time! This is completely opposite from my daughter. She always checks out in the 25th percentile.

Though he’s not sleeping through the night yet, he usually wakes up only once a night to eat. His going-into-the-night time fussiness has greatly subsided. For the first month and a half of his life, his daily crying fit would begin around dinner time and last until 10:30-11 at night. He would literally scream this whole time, unless he was being fed or held. Now he still cries, but it’s only for a few minutes at a time.

Elyana seems to be adjusting well to her baby brother. She can’t quite say his name yet, so she refers to him as baby or bother (brother that is). Even though she plays rough at times, he seems to enjoy her company for the most part. He loves the attention and lets off crooked teethless smiles as she touches or kisses or talks to him.

The three of us started to get more social after Nathan turned 6 weeks. We now routinely visit the library for Elyana’s toddler story time and the playground. We go for morning stroller walks two to three times a week. It’s a great exercise for me and an outing for the kiddies. I am now braving grocery shopping by myself with the two of them. Nathan is usually sound asleep and Elyana, well, she’s being Elyana, the typical toddler in her terrible twos. She does fine though, unless the check out line is too long. Then she tries to sneak a candy bar or two past me, though puts it back when I ask her to. She is definitely learning ‘the rights’ and ‘the wrongs’. When she does something wrong, she feels bad and tries to fix it. We’re taking her out of daycare that she attended part time for the past 3 months. I now got the routine going with the little one, and I feel confident that I can keep Ely busy without having her in daycare.

Today Elyana had her first shower. We went for a stroller walk right before dinner. I knew that I wasn’t going to fit her bath and my shower in separately before dinner, so I combined the two. We took a shower together and made it well before dinner time. She seemed to enjoy it!

Seems like I’ve been moving a mile a minute since Nathan was born seven weeks ago. Now the randomity of dealing with our new family member is wearing off, and the well-desired routine is settling in.  A quick update is long overdue after taking a 7-week break from blogging.

Baby Nathan is now 7 weeks old and is doing well.  Alas, last couple of nights I went to bed before midnight for the first time since he was born. Usually he needs attendance until 1-2 in the morning before going down for the night. I’m hoping that the pattern of him falling asleep at a normal time continues, since I have to be up for my oldest at 7:30.

He’s been smiling for couple of weeks already. Best time to catch him greening is in the mornings or while changing his diaper. He loves attention. His fussy time is at night, starting around dinner and ending with his last feeding for the day, at around 10. Often we have to move him to his crib during dinner for the sake of our sanity. Though having two-year old around kind of defeats the purpose.

Elyana is still going to daycare twice a week and seems to enjoy it. I enjoy a little break from her as well. She learns a lot there and constantly shows off new words and skills she learned there! Her language skills and awareness of her surroundings are improving a mile a minute. Just yesterday I missed a turn to the library and as soon as I did that, she yelled: “Mommy go where? Mommy go where?”. That caught my attention and I made a U-turn before I drove too far. Elyana is quite a dancer and a singer. She’s more likely going to be artistic and I can’t wait to get her into something that involves dancing or music of some sort.

I’m fully recovered from delivery and working at establishing a realistic exercise routine for myself. Breastfeeding is taking up a good chunk of my day, though it’s getting easier as the time passes by. Lack of sleep and possibly other things are starting to affect my ability to remember things. Sometimes I feel like a complete cluts! I’ve given up at keeping my house “perfect” and my face made-up, as I simply don’t have the time! As long as I manage to clean the kitchen, pick up loose toys around the house, brush my teeth, wash my face and conceal the dark circles under my eyes, I feel pretty good! At the end of the day, I’m not going to remember how clean my carpet was or whether I made up my bed.

On a different note, I’ve been accepted back into graduate school at USF for Masters in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. I took a break after my daughter was born in December of ‘07. Not sure if I will be attending this summer, since only couple of courses are offered by a different engineering department. Though it would be nice, since they are being offered online!

My other posts from this series:

Furnishing a Nursery

Choosing a Stroller and a Car Seat

Choosing a Jogging Stroller

Necessary Baby Equipment

In this post I will focus on articles that I found unnecessary either through my own experience or judgment. So here is my list:

Breast pump. I’m sure it depends on the type you get, but the one I got was not working for me at all. Since I knew that I was going to be staying home, I decided to settle for one of the cheapest automatic pumps out there. I would sit there for 15-30 minutes at the time, pumping  and get only an ounce or two of breast milk from both of my breasts combined. I was even thinking that my body will get used to it within time and gave it a run of a month or two. The pump was designed to pump from both breasts at the same time, but one of the sides broke way before I gave up on it.

With this in mind, if you are seriously considering pumping, I would highly recommend renting a pump from a lactation professional. They will give you a hospital grade pump with good suction. It’s also recommended for women who happen to have low or no milk supply. The pumping action with correct suction is supposed to help stimulate breasts to get them going on producing milk.  You can inquire about renting a pump at the hospital where you’ll be delivering or just look up a lactation specialist in yellow pages. When I inquired about it, the monthly cost of renting was about $40. Also, once you use the pump successfully, then you can buy one for yourself that is very similar to a professional grade either from the same lactation specialist, a store on online. They usually cost $200-300.

Baby carrier (6+ months). We happen to own one of the front facing baby carriers and I didn’t like it. I tried it at home, adjusted the stripes according to directions, put the baby in it and wore it for a few minutes. First, putting the baby in the carrier by myself while wearing it was a big challenge. The carrier itself felt like it kept sliding downwards under the baby’s weight. My back started killing me after just a few minutes. I just could not get comfortable! I gave it couple more tries and gave up on it.

Diaper disposal. I never owned one and don’t feel like I missed out. First, newborn’s poop doesn’t really smell until he starts eating real food. At that stage, while they go to the bathroom literally all the time, I kept a small trash can with a grocery bag liner inside next to the changing station. I emptied it couple of times a day and it worked out just fine. Once they start on solids, their poop definitely gets stinkier, but they don’t go nearly as much. By then I decided to get rid of the trash can in the nursery and started using our big trash can in the kitchen. Yea, I had to make a trip to the kitchen after every diaper change, but it wasn’t a big deal. Little exercise never hurts. If you feel disgusted by throwing a poopy diaper into the trash can, just put it into a grocery bag and it won’t smell. Not recycling plastic bags and using disposable diapers is not a very eco-friendly move (I’m not proud of it), but it works. I happen to rid of trash in the kitchen once per day and I’m not having any smell issues.

Couple more things to consider with using a diaper disposal. Depending on the manufacturer, you might have to purchase special bags for it, adding cost to the overall purchase. Another thing is, you still can’t completely avoid the dirty diaper stink experience. Can you imagine changing a liner every 2-3 days, with all the stinch coming out in your face while you’re doing it? I don’t care how deodorized they make the bag, a three-day old poop still stinks!

I am ending my post here, since I can’t think of other things at this point. I can’t possibly cover all of the baby paraphernalia, so please feel free to leave a comment with other baby equipment that you found not very useful or otherwise.

Today’s visit to my gyno was a little disappointing. My cervix is still completely closed, not even a hint of dilation or ripening. Before my visit I was pretty sure that something was happening, since I had quite a bit of cramping for two days in the row, just couple of days ago.

It’s pretty different from my first pregnancy. The first time around, my cervix was 1.5 centimeters dilated for 2-3 weeks prior due date. And sure enough I went into labor on the 5th day after my due date.

This time things seem to be moving much slower. The induction is scheduled for Monday, February 22, 6 days from now. I have another appointment in three days to see whether I dilate between now and then. If I’m not dilated, I will have to come to the hospital on the night prior my induction date and receive cervix softening medicine. It should work overnight before starting the induction medicine the next morning.

Oh well, even though things are happening a little slower than I would like, the longest we have to wait is 6 days! And there is always a chance to go in labor before then too.

Besides waiting, there is always plenty of stuff to do at home. Cleaning the house seems to be a constant chore, no matter how much or how often I do it. My 2-yr old daughter needs constant attention, and other life’s odds and ends never seem to stop coming my way!

Today my 2-year old daughter gave me about 1 hour of extra work that I didn’t ask for! It all started with me changing an old litter box to a new automatic litter box.

As I was pouring the litter into the new litter box, I realized I didn’t have enough. So I dug into the old litter box for extra litter. While I was cleaning out the old litter box in the laundry room, cat decided to pee into the new box that was sitting in the living room. She doesn’t waste any time!

Then I started hearing exciting laughing from my 2-year old. Something was making her very happy. As I picked into the living room to see what she was up to, I found her throwing wet litter into the animals. Pieces of litter ended up all over the carpet and the tiled hallway.

I was madder than mad! While I was screaming about what a bad girl she’s been, I dragged her into the bathroom to wash her hands. There I realized that her hair was full of litter to. So she got a bath. As we came out, I threw her into the playpen, so I could finish what I started.

I ended up vacuuming the living room along with the tiled hallway. On top of it, I washed the floors, since the litter was wet and stuck to it. Then I had to get the dog outside and brush a bunch of litter off her fur.

When I got back to the playpen, baby innocently fell asleep. Awww, this innocent little face gave me all this work in as little as two minutes! That’s terrible twos for you! And we thought that our little angel will be better than the rest of the “other terrible kids” out there. Ha, I guess you live you learn!

Leaving my 2-year old at the daycare this morning, left a very bad taste in my mouth. Since I am almost 37 weeks pregnant and having a harder time keeping up with my daughter’s social and everyday activities, we decided to put her in the daycare for couple of days a week. It should give me a chance to reorganize the house, make room for the little one, move Elyana into her new “big girl’s room”, and to simply catch my breath from constant demands for attention and unlimited energy outbursts of the 2-yr old.

This is her first week at the daycare. Even though she’s not new to it, she went there for a brief period when she was 18 months, few months have passed in between. And today is her 2nd day there without mommy, so she probably knew that my intention was to drop her off and leave. As we got there, she started making her sad face as I was holding onto her. As soon as I started to let go and making moves towards the door, she grabbed onto my leg and started screaming and crying. The teacher had to grab a hold of her, so she doesn’t run outside after me. As I was walking away, I kept hearing screaming and crying and sounds of pounding on the door.

And that brings me to my topic, am I a bad mother? Before I got too deep into my pregnancy, we used to go on the playdates with other toddlers and their mommies. Most mommies are stay-at-home and their kids are pretty much with them all day. I keep thinking to myself, do they enjoy spending every minute of the day with their kids more than me? Or are they just being patient and don’t let it get to them? I love my kid, it’s just sometimes I feel like she is too much and I need a break! Maybe it’s worse now because I’m pregnant, huge and hormonal.

So that’s what I do sometimes, I think, how do stay-at-home moms handle it? When I see them, they all look happy, satisfied and pleasant. Are they ready to rip their hair out behind the closed doors sometimes? Do they snap at their kids? Do they ever feel helpless and stuck? Now I have a much greater respect to stay-at-home parents than I ever did before.

Before I thought to myself, it must be easy to be home all day, all you got to do is watch the kids and clean up the house. I bet they sit in front of TV for half a day, because they don’t have much to do. Now I realize, that working and dealing with logical adults is easier than putting up with unreasonable demands of a toddler, their wild energy outbursts and erratic tantrums. And then I ask myself, if some people can put up with it all day, why am I having a hard time?

Well, for now I am hoping that she will get used to daycare again and I will start to feel better about dropping her off and myself as a mother. I know that she really loves it over there. When I pick her up, she keeps bubbling and when we get home she is singing and dancing and begging for sweets. She is a happy kid and I intend to keep it this way.

I know that eventually I would like to get back out into the working world, probably when Elyana starts VPK and the little one is over two. I guess right now I just have to be patient and get as much education behind my belt as possible to be marketable again in the working world. I’m planning on starting back at school part time in May in order to continue my master’s degree. Hubby is supportive of my decision and is willing to help out with the kids as needed. I think getting my attention on other things besides the household will do me good.