Posts made in February, 2013

First Trimester Pregnancy

Posted on Feb 15, 2013 in Pregnancy | 0 comments

From my memos of my morning sickness:

 

Nov 22

Am I pregnant?
Saw a general doctor at a clinic. Started feeling some change in taste.

Nov 23
Getting morning sickness (all day sickness).

Nov 24
My breath started getting rough at night. Need naps in the afternoons.
Checking and studying about morning sickness on line.

Nov 27
Not feeling well and don’t want to go out.
So when I have to, do everything at one time… Yoga and the gym on the same day. My spirit and power feel like 50% down. Not energetic.

Nov 28
First examination of my urine/blood

Even though I had 10 hour sleep at night, one more nap in the afternoon was needed.
When I sleep, I can escape from feeling sick.

My morning sickness is troublesome. When I’m eating, I’m fine. But once stop eating, I start feeling sick. So I have to keep eating!
And I can not drink water anymore. Water is the worst drink for me. It make me vomit.
I started eating congee almost everyday. So delicious!

Paul Mccartney’s concert was  so nice that I forgot about my sickness!

Nov 29
My breath has been rough. Where does all the oxygen I’m taking go!?
I can forget my sickness when I’m eating, so I keep eating until I get really too full and sick. I think I’m eating too much obviously, but I don’t feel too fat somehow. The energy has been consumed somehow, I’m imagining…

I used to sweat a lot and can see the sweat on my T-shirt, but now I can not do that anymore. I used to burn 450 cal but now it’s 350. Outside is so cold.

Dec 4
Strawberries are so refreshing and delicious.
Prince Catherine is also pregnant and hospitalized for the morning sickness.

Dec 5
I want to take pickled plums, black olives, potato chips and sour candies with me for a trip to Jamaica.

Dec 11
Just like my last pregnancy last year, my lips got really rough. Is it because of the season or because I’m pregnant? I’m using chap stick so often though.
I read somewhere that a pregnant woman should drink 8 cups of water a day. It’s so impossible for me. I would vomit if I drink water. So I would lose water from my body! So I drink tea (I was drinking regular tea. So it’s not good as it contains caffeine). But I could drink only 2 – 3 cups of tea. So I’m dehydrated. I tried to have congee, fruits and veggies to compensate it. These days, I prefer salty food too. That’s also bad. But this time, I found that I could drink water when a lot of ice is in it.

Dec 12
The last general doctor I saw wasn’t there, so I met another doctor. She saw my result of my examination (urine/blood) but couldn’t find the data of my hormones. She guessed that the last doctor was checking only the least data from my urine for my pregnancy, and didn’t get hormone data. but we need it as a record, so I was told to go again to get blood checked…..

Dec 15
Leaving for Jamaica.
Last time I vomited on the plain. So I got worried about the flight. I took 4 pills and got a side effect which is a terrible headache. Transferring in NY should have been fun, but it was a very hard day.

Dec 16
Maybe it’s because Jamaica was very warm, I didn’t get sick at night on the day we arrived! My rough lips also got healed.
But still, for the rest of the stay, I usually got sick at night.  I took the pills in the afternoon for the night. It seems it worked and sometimes it didn’t… still I don’t know if it’s really effective or not.

Jan 7
The first ultra sound test at the bigger hospital. I was wondering when we have an examination to check the possibility of down syndrome, and it was on this day. It was done at the same time. It sounds like the possibility is low as 15%.
It’s so nice to see the baby. We were pushing the baby around to take good pictures for the examination. maybe she/he didn’t like it? The hands were on its head and she/he looked like screaming “Stop!”. Gestures were cute!

 

The book we are reading:

This is a book my hubby bought it for me when I got pregnant last time. Later my doctor was also recommending this book, so it’s a good book. A lot of info.

I also go on line and search for everything in Japanese also. Recently my parents and sister-in-law sent me an informative booklet. It was nice.

Cha Island

Posted on Feb 13, 2013 in Restaurants | 2 comments

I went out for a tea with R, my Iranian friend. I was wondering if I should put it off or not, because I was coughing a bit from the indoor dryness. But it wasn’t too bad in the afternoon and if I keep drinking tea, the cough should be kept calm. When I met her, she was also in a similar situation, coughing a bit. Good (!?).

The cafe that is specialized in tea, Cha Island. I didn’t know about this cafe, so I was looiking forward to it.

Teas are all based on 3 kinds: Green Tea, Black Tea and Rooibos Tea. Other flavours are added onto them. You can try and smell the aroma of the tea by opening the jars. They smell really nice and delicious.

Great Tea selections!

Tea Island

The one we chose today was East Coast Rooibos Tea, which contains some blueberries. Great satisfaction on the flavour and the aroma.

Small is $3.5。This is a large pot for 2 – 4 people, $6.5。

East Coast Rooibos Tea

We also had a waffle. The coconut flavoured one is called Tropical something… sorry forgot the name. Very popular one, I heard. Adding one scoop of icecream=$1.

Tropical Waffle with ice cream

The atmosphere is just like a tropical island. Surf board, Bob Marley, wave paintings, and coconut trees are on the walls… And the owner’s hair style was dreads. Sounds like his wife is Vietnamese and they’ve got Vietnamese Coffee too. Nice.
There are out-door seating for summer. It’s spacious and the time can pass slowly here. It’s a perfect place for chatting with friends in the afternoon!

Tea Island

Do you know about Rooibos Tea? I didn’t know until yesterday. It’s a perfect tea for pregnant women and also for breast-feeding mums. It contains no caffeine! And also it’s low on tannin. Tannin is in coffee and other teas and it prevents iron and other nutrition from getting absorbed to the body. We need iron badly. We don’t want to let it happen. So it’s a great tea! I don’t see Rooibos Tea at regular supermarkets, do you? I wonder we can get it only somewhere like this cafe. Sounds like we can buy tea here by bulk. Good to know.

Thank you, R, for taking me here! It was a nice afternoon.

Cha Island Tea Co.
(780) 757-2482
10332 81 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB

Feast at Our Iranian Friends’ Home

Posted on Feb 12, 2013 in Home Meals | 0 comments

It was my first time to meet them. They are my hubby’s friends from the U of A. We were invited to their place for dinner!

Jan 26th (Sat).

Wow, what a feast! It’s going to be a hard job to return the favour!

They are from Iran and have lived in Edmonton for almost 5 years. They are really a nice couple. There were beautiful religious motifs decorated at their place, but they are not religious, just like us. They are conscious of food and exercise, just like us!  And love talking, just like us! So of course, we enjoyed the evening chatting so much.

@ friends\' home What a feast!

Home-made wine!? OMG! @ friends\' home

@ friends\' home Thank you so much, R & S!!

They are Iranians, so it’s easy to guess that they often eat meat. But we don’t… We were a bit afraid that she had a hard time preparing meal. We are sorry. But she did a great job! Thank you!!

Persian dishes are so good. We know that. We remember delicious dishes when we traveled Iran. But we weren’t expecting that we could have great home-made Persian food here in Edmonton!
The big whole fish dish is a special dish for Persian New Year, Norouz, we were told. And she cooked it for us even though it’s not new year. Some herbs and berries were stuffed inside the belly of the fish. It was so flavourful!

She also served rice cooked with saffron and herbs, baked salmon, some Persian egg plant dish, Persian salad, nice garlic pickles and egg plant pickles and so and so… I guess Persian dishes use a lot of egg plants. I love egg plants, so it’s great for me!

On top of it, her husband’s home-made wine was astonishing! It was so good!

In Iran, having alcohol, drinking alcohol and making alcohol are all prohibited by law. So you would get it at black markets or make some for yourself secretly at home. But to make it at home, you need to be quite knowledgeable about alcohol, I think, even more than a regular drinker in other countries. And yes, he is knowledgeable. Is it OK to write about it here?? Yes, sure, it’s Canada here, eh? He was saying it’s not too difficult as there are kits here in Canada, but it sounds like it’s important to keep the temperature right to make it perfect.
As I’m pregnant, I had to prevent myself from having more than a few sips, but it was really really good! Why am I pregnant today!? I thought.

A funny thing was that I thought they are from HOT Teheran, so they must feel sooo cold here, but actually he thought it was perfect (or at least it was comfortable) here! As you can see in the picture, we were wearing sweaters and he (she as well) is wearing T-shirt! I thought, aren’t you cold? But it was comfortable for him. So that’s good for him in Edmonton!

Another interesting thing was that they liked “Oshin“. Oshin is a TV drama that ran in 80’s in Japan. It was a big hit in Iran as well, they told us. Surprising! When I checked Oshin on Wiki, it was a hit in many countries and it’s one of the most famous Japanese TV dramas. I knew it was a hit in China and South East Asia, but I didn’t know it was also in Iran. They say that not only we learn how hard to live in Japan at that time and endure the hardship but also Japanese culture and the way of thinking. If you say so, I think it’s true. I feel like I want to watch it again (I think I watched it when I was in kindergarten). When I wrote that on FB, one of my Japanese friend told me that she started watching it on YouTube, being up until 3 in the monring! This Iranian friend also told me that she started watching it on YouTube, but some after some episodes, the English subtitles disappeared and couldn’t continue watching… that’s too bad…

We were talking like this, and then few days later, I heard news from Japan that Oshin is now turning into a movie! Oh! How timely! They just started making it, so we can not watch it for a while yet, but it’s so nice.

There are many interesting episodes about Oshin when I checked on Wiki (Japanese). The funniest ones were:

In Cairo, Egypt, When Oshin was on the air, a black out happened. The viewers got really angry and dveloped into a riot. They threw stones and fire against the electric company and the TV station. The government promised to run it again, and the riot calmed down.

and

In Afghanistan and Iran, the drama was dubbed into Persian, and got the highest-rate 90% on record. The word, Oshin, became a euphemism for  Japan. In Islamic countries, some scenes with some physical contact between men and women were cut, and that made them think that there were some obscene scenes in the drama, which is not true!

and

In Jamaica, when the Oshin boom has arrived, people started naming their children (didn’t matter girl or boy) Oshin.

Oh, we were just in Jamaica! If we knew that, we would look for the someone whose name is Oshin!

 

We were at their place from 6 to 11 !! We didn’t know the time has passed that much! We had a great time. Thank you so much. OMG, we were so stuffed!!

 

We Love Duchess

Posted on Feb 11, 2013 in Restaurants | 0 comments

I’m currently working on about 4 projects and must be chaotically busy, right?
But because of the Chinese Lunar New Year, everything is slow (as all my clients are in Hong Kong). So now I have time for blogging!

Happy Lunar New Year!

It’s a good time as I have so much things to write about. For some stories, I have to go back the time and write about around Aug or Sep last year. A half a year has already passed, so some memories are gone, but it’s OK. Better than nothing.

 

Aug 28, 2012:

It was the next day we came back from the NY trip with our car, with the 13,000km drive!

I was going to start tackling my mountain of work! Then I heard the ding-dong upstairs (our landlord live upstairs) and then banging the door. Our landlord and his wife were all out. There were 2 firemen there when I came out of the house, telling me that we have to evacuate for 4 – 5 hours due to the gas leak around here.
What! This timing!? I’m so busy!!

Well, OK, we have to leave as soon as possible.

We went out for a grocery shopping that we had to do anyway soon or later.

There were quite a few fire engines out there, a few police cars and also media people. Sounded like some construction worker at the site got a gas pipe by mistake.

4-hour waiting is a long time! We went to Duchess (Cakes and bakery cafe).
I was taking a rest with nice tea and cake gracefully, even though I haven’t even started working… ^^

Duchess

Lavender Meringues & Banana Cream Pie

Duchess

Raspberry Tart

Duchess

Lavender Meringues

Duchess

Duchess Duchess

Gochiso-sama (Thankful for the food)!

My Food Tendency These Days…

Posted on Feb 11, 2013 in Home Meals, Pregnancy | 0 comments

I’m eating crackers and fruits frequently everyday because of my morning sickness which I get the worst at night.
(*”Morning sickness” is totally mis-named. I normally get most sick at night.)

When I go out, I always take crackers in a zip-lock bag. Probably too much carbo (carbohydrates). So I thought of cutting carbo on meals, but I love rice and noodles so much and I realized I couldn’t do that for breakfast and dinner. So I decided to try that at lunch!

As a result, my recent lunch is like this:

Fish and a big bowl of veggies!

My Sunday lunch

My Sunday lunch

This fish tin is sardines (with chile jalapeño). Yum yum. It’s like my hubby’s dad’s snack for beer. I should take them out of the tin and put them on a plate, but it’s OK. It’s all for myself.

And some left-over from the dinner I made the day before. It’s a fried chile vermichelli with lotus root, carrots, celery and bamboo shoot in chille oil. Root veggies make your body warm from the inside, I heard. So I want to eat a lot in winter in Canada.

Salad would be a mountain in a ramen bowl.

It’s a super easy meal, but it still contains 12 kinds of food (sardines, jalapeño, lettuce, tomatos, wakame seaweed, artichoke hearts, cucumber, vermichelli, carrots, lotus root, celery and bamboo shoot). Plus, I had some Greek salad as well, so goat cheese and olives would be added into it. And it’s 14 kinds. 14 kinds just in one meal is pretty good!

By the way, my hubby’s lunch is this:

My husband\'s Sunday lunch

Smoked salmon on a bagel. We often put avocado as well, but this day it wasn’t ripe yet.

 

From at least one month before pregnancy until three months of pregnancy, the intake of folic acid is recommended to prevent the onset of neural tube closure failure. That’s what I was told 1 year ago. So I’ve been taking this recommended Materna since. This contains not only folic acid but also a balanced variety of stuff.

For someone who are planning to get pregnant or pregnant ladies, it’s recommended to take 0.4mg of folic acid per day. But 2 heads of spinach (60g) contains only 0.25mg. If you cook them, 50% of folid acid reduced and you get only 0.125mg. So it’s pretty difficult to intake enough every day.

Doctors would say that if you are too sick, just eat whatever you can or you like, and when I search on the net, I often see the same advices. I think you can eat whatever you like only if you are too sick, but I think doctors can say that only when the patients are taking some supplement like this regularly. Otherwise, you need to have balanced food.

There is nothing I can not eat really. Maybe coffee at the first stage of pregnancy. Caffeine should be anyway avoided, so it was OK. And I started hating Kimuchi (a traditional fermented Korean dish) somehow.

And the liquid that I’ve been hating since I got pregnant was water. Yes, our essential thing: water. This troubled me a lot. I’ll write about it later.

Basically I can eat anything. But I start getting sick when I stop eating… this kind of symptom or feeling hungry all the time is called “Tabe-tsuwari” in Japanese. I don’t know if you have a name for it in English. What troubles me is that even though I’m feeling full but also feeling sick, I have to keep eating. And I get fat in result of suffering… What’s the point!?

I just can’t wait when it finishes…

A year ago, I was only recommended to take Materna, but this time Vitamin D as well. And my hubby also started taking some. It’s important for men too.

Originally I’m not so leaning towards taking supplement. They are not really food in my opinion. So taking more supplement doesn’t make me feel good. But it’s true 90% of pregnant women in Japan is lacking Vitamin D. And actually it’s easy to get Vitamin D from the Sun, but if you live on the area where winters are long, or the Sun time is too short, or rainy or cloudy all the time, you can’t help. You don’t get enough Sun. So we started taking it. Especially us! When we go out, our bodies are all and covered tight for the cold and only a part of face exposed to the Sun even when it’s out there. And we live in the basement. And I don’t commute. I’m not getting any Sun. It’s kind of scary when I think of that.
Having said that, when we travel, we would be exposed to the Sun the whole time with only once-a-day Sun screen put on the skin. So I have a lot of freckles and mottles.

 

Today I made sweet and sour seafood with veggies for the first time! I’ve never made dish with some starchy sauce, so I was worried about how the corn-starch can get starchy well. But I didn’t need to worry too much. It was a success and my hubby loved it. So I was happy. It was a good dish. I’m glad I tried a new dish!

Our dinner today

So for dinner, we had 18 kinds of food! Garlic, shrimp, squid, cod fish, green pepper, (carrots,) onions, green onions, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, white rice + grain, miso, (wakame seaweed,) tofu and mushrooms. For snack, I had oranges, strawberries and crackers. And I had a decaf cafe latte after dinner.
33 kinds just for lunch and dinner! Good for me!

For breakfast, I had a natto with rice.
(* Natto is a Japanese traditional food – fermented beans.)
Natto is so great. It has a good amount of folic acid, and calcium, iron, fiber, a few kinds of vitamins and more. And it’s so delicious! When I’m eating it, I always ask my hubby “it’s delicious. And it’s good for you. Do you wanna some?”. But he never ate it in the morning. He must not like it so much…

Anyway, I had 34 kinds of food today!

It reached 50 once before. But it’s not an easy job.

By the way, sardines come with a variety of flavors. So nice!

The ones I often buy are the one with chile jalapeño and in tomato sauce. They are good!
By the way, my hubby wants nothing to do with these also! Too bad.