Part of getting myself ready for a little babe is losing some extra poundage/ie: trimming down. It seems so easy for me to get into a rut, stop exercising and eat all of those goodies the drug reps bring day in and day out (the FDA says they cannot bring us pens but they CAN make us fat…real nice!). BUT, I know I want my body in the best shape possible before pregnancy in order to have the best pregnancy and delivery possible (and lets face it, postpartum too as I am the poster girl/billboard exhibit for postpartum depression). I actually know what I want my BMI (body mass index) to be before we get pregnant. I know, I know…sounds crazy BUT after waiting for 14 YEARS  we might as well do it right ya’ think? Yes, people…we will have been married for well over 14 years before conceiving. Yes, we have consumated the marriage and are either infertile or are a great exhibit that if you practice “safe sex” you can prevent pregnancy. So, take that….all of my teenage patients! 

I am also not ignorant to the fact that twin pregnancy truly does peak at the age of 35 (aaaaccckkkk!!!!), which I will be and I need to be in good physical shape to endure the labor and to have a successful vaginal delivery, especially in the way that we are thinking of doing (more on that wayyyyy later). My sister had gestational diabetes (thanks a lot, sister) with her last pregnancy and as this may be genetic this predisposes me too.

And, folks can we just be honest…I am simply going to be old (I will be termed an “elderly obstetric patient” and will require more frequent and different testing so I need all the help I can get going into this. Whomever came up with this whole elderly term was a nutso male doctor with not nearly enough patients and was obviously trying to get back at someone for something!)

WARNING, however: I will not be prego next month or even the month after that. We are hoping that it will probably be this fall but as I am a planner with a side dish of OCD I surely will be writing about it a lot in the future. Plus, I really need to try my best to consider my medical practice as much as possible as there are many patients that count on me so I haven’t figured that one out just yet. Just the thought of “Adam and Shana having a baby?!?” has some people’s eyes dilating so I’m just a’ clarifying that it isn’t happenin’ right now as we’ve got some business to tend to first (other then the real business). For example, my wonderful Father-in-law just recently called me to jokingly ask how things were going with his twin grandsons?! Can you believe it?! Holy Schneikes! Yikes! My blood pressure went up at that moment, cheeks turned red, I probably started drooling and I think I stuttered something like “I gotta go, I’ve got a patient to see” and promptly hung up. Yeah, I know I’m gonna have to learn better coping skills.

Okay, so onto the whole eating better, taking care of myself bit….Last month Adam and I read an awesome book. In fact it has been on the top 10 best seller list since the first of the year. It is a very plain, simple book. Diet really is that anyway…simple. It is like I tell my patients each and every day. We all know how to eat, we just need to do it. Food Rules by Michael Pollan is a really fun book to read. It has common sense “reminders” per se such as:

• don’t eat cereal if it changes the color of the milk
• try to shop only the periphery of the grocery store
• do not buy fuel for your body where you buy fuel for your car
• do not eat anything with more than five ingredients on the label
• do not eat anything that has ingredients that a 3rd grader could not read
• do not eat it if it will not rot
• do not eat it if it has high fructose corn syrup

….and tons more for a total of 64 tid-bit brief one pager rules. All common sense reminders.

Enough ramblings for now. We are still open to suggestions on roofing the other half of the house….wouldn’t want that babe to get rained on ya know.