The GFAF Expo was held last weekend, October 13 and 14, at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ. I was able to attend courtesy of the organizers, the Gluten Free Media Group.
There was a long list of exhibitors, some were gluten-free, others were gluten and nut free.
I’ve tried the bars from Don’t Go Nuts at Mommycon earlier this year and was happy to see them again. Their brand name is descriptive and memorable.
We ended up buying a bunch of these pumpkin seeds. They’re really delicious. Joule loves the maple flavored one. I love finding new treats at expos.
I’ve discovered that fruit bars are good on the go snacks for Joule. Lighter than pouches, less leathery than the Trader Joe’s fruit bars.
The Petitpot exhibitor was effective in getting us to participate in their social media post giveaway. Points for them for having a vegan-nut free rice pudding for us to try.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are many other cuisines that are gluten-free due to those gluten-containing grains not being endemic to that region.
I discovered this peanut sensor, which could be life-changing for some, but since we don’t eat out that much I’ve been doing a good job filtering out what we feed Joule.
I love seeing entrepreneur parents solving the “What do I feed my food-allergy baby” problem themselves! It’s so inspiring, and their cookies are delicious!
Favorite find: Chocolate covered crispy quinoa. I need to figure out how to make this myself because I love it.
J started walking at almost 14.5 months old. She was taking steps here and there but didn’t really walk until last weekend when we attended a birthday party and she saw another baby walking and there was a wide padded floor area for her to go for it.
Another factor that could have jumpstarted her walking was taking a class at the local My Gym. We signed up during their anniversary event and got a discount on the membership fee. I’ve also gone to the park more often with her since meeting new friends who are moms of babies the same age as mine.
I’m happy how I’ve chosen to be more relaxed with her hitting milestones, and not overloading our apartment with toys.
We didn’t get her a walker aside from the Little Balance Box, which I discovered at Mommycon this year. I liked how that encouraged her to stand up in the earlier days. She didn’t use it a lot to learn to walk, but I think it helped show her what was possible. Paolo ordered these walking wings, but we’re just going to return it because she hated it and now doesn’t need it anymore. She seems pretty stable walking and I’m not nervous with her walking around at home.
Babies don’t really need much, and it’s something I need to remind myself every day. Now I understand why the Montessori/RIE approach to child development is becoming mainstream and fits so well with minimalism.
I love Trader Joe’s, and finding food allergy safe stuff for us. Since I had still had this Sunbutter jar open, I decided to do a side by side taste test to see if Sunbutter manufactures the TJ’s spread, and I’m pretty sure they do.
Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Spread: $4.99
Sunbutter Natural: $6.29 in Target
Both are 16oz.
Sunbutter announces that it is top 8 free.
TJ’s only highlights that it is peanut, tree nut, soy, gluten, and dairy free. I guess they assume people pretty much expect this to be egg, fish, and shellfish free.
Sunbutter Natural has sugar.
TJ’s is unsweetened, and is labeled refrigerate after opening.
Lids are identical. Production lot numbers look standard.
Side by side comparison. Jars have different designs. The sunbutter tastes slightly sweeter, but everything else is identical to me.
I’ll be getting the TJ’s version again when I run out of it.
I have no food allergies nor celiac disease, but my daughter is allergic to dairy, peanuts, tree nuts and eggs. Her list used to include wheat and soy but those have been added into her diet after a skin test (wheat) and a food challenge (soy).
My knowledge of gluten free food and cooking comes mostly from my time in culinary school, where we were lucky to have classes on gluten free cooking, and a classmate who had celiac disease. I would see which dishes she didn’t sample and learned a lot about where wheat could hide in food.
I’ve taken a food intolerance test out of curiosity and it told me to avoid dairy, egg, soy, wheat, nuts and more, but I’ve never really been good with avoiding it until I was advised to avoid the top 8 when my baby had really bad eczema flare ups on her face.
So now I’m always on the lookout for food that is allergy safe and I read food labels more than I ever did before because I need to make sure I don’t accidentally feed my toddler something she’ll react badly to.
There’s the Gluten Free and Allergy Friendly Expo happening on October 13 and 14 near NYC, and if you’re like me and you want to check it out, here’s a 20% promo code on tickets (ADVANCE) here.
Looking back, I can’t remember which internet rabbit hole got me to searching for hypnobirthing classes in New York City. It was probably mentioned in the documentary “The Business of Being Born”, which I watched on my phone while commuting to work.
I guess you could say that I’m more crunchy-granola than the next person since I saw my sister go through her vegan phase, studied sustainability during my grad degree and learned how to cook at the Natural Gourmet Institute. Full disclosure, I’m currently an omnivore with mixed feelings about food labeling. I could go on about food in another post. Anyway, back to hypnobirthing.
I found Maeva at Hypnobirthing NYC and started her class when I was around 21 weeks pregnant. Most of the other moms were further along.
It was a childbirth education class that you and your partner attend once a week for five weeks. It covered all the basics of childbirth preparation with an emphasis on unmedicated births. Hypnobirthing highlights how positive language affects people’s perception so for example, “contractions” should be called “surges” instead. There was a long list of words to use in place of more common terms that have more unpleasant connotations.
Here’s some of the information I picked up:
-Reverse kegels, or training to relax your pelvic floor is important.
-Calm breaths- counting up to five, then down to one.
-Surge breathing
-Ragdoll relaxation, Rainbow meditation
-Writing out your birth plan
-Belly mapping
-More guided visualization and relaxation exercises. I think these techniques should be taught to everyone, TBH.
-Gate control theory of pain
-Packing your hospital bag and the postpartum period
-breastfeeding basics
I love going to classes, so I enjoyed taking time to learn about birthing with other people. I think that the information could definitely be found all over the internet, but I appreciated the pace and Maeva’s calm presence. It was definitely more important that my husband heard all this information since I don’t think he would seek it out on his own.
Another bonus from the class was where it was located, in Greenpoint. Paolo and I would eat at Paulie Gee’s since it was so near.
Overall, I’m glad we attended a hypnobirthing class since it helped with the mental preparation for the big day, and I was able to have a positive birth experience.
Francie doing an amazing job communicating to our family
On a Sunday two days before my due date my mom and I went out to Soho to walk my baby down and shop.
We walked all over Soho and ended up at Union Square where we attended a meditation class before dinner. The iPhone health app logged 10,347 steps that day.
At around 9 pm I started feeling uncomfortable as we sat down to eat dinner (fish) at Village Taverna. We finished eating and I was still feeling funny but the ice cream truck was parked outside so I had to have Van Leeuwen ice cream after dinner. I had honeycomb ice cream, my mom had pistachio, Paolo had earl gray tea. Paolo already messaged our doula, Francie, that I was starting to feel contractions.
Paolo drove us home.
I took a warm epsom salt bath, contractions start to get stronger.
I tried to lie down and sleep but couldn’t.
Started timing contractions.
At midnight, I took another warm salt bath.
Texted Francie.
Called Francie.
Francie came over at around 4am
Paolo called for a Lyft at 5am
Arrived at 83 Gold St at 5:24 AM.
After a while I was checked into triage and was at 6cm dilated. We told them I didn’t want an epidural so I didn’t get one.
Water was already broken but we don’t know when. Most likely when in bath tub.
Paolo and Francie got to accompany me in triage while I was in labor. We camped out in the bathroom since it was more comfortable there. There were other moms in triage who were loud and the bathroom was a lot more quiet. When I had to go back to the triage area I wore noise canceling earphones and sunglasses to dim the harsh hospital lights.
I got on the exercise ball.
I walked around doing lunges, the duck walk, whatever Francie suggested, I did.
At 3pm we finally moved to a labor and delivery room and after some time they administered pitocin. I was already feeling weak after not sleeping all night and a couple of rounds of throwing up. I ate lots of applesauce pouches and drank coconut water.
Labored in bed while Francie and Paolo applied counter pressure on back. This was so helpful.
Started pushing right before 8pm and by around 9pm, the baby appeared.
My doctor said it was one of the most quiet births she attended, I was just trying my best to be as calm as possible. I couldn’t figure out how to breathe my baby down using the method we learned in hypnobirthing class but thankfully, Dr. Hanna and the entire team present were excellent coaches and after what felt both like forever and instantly, I was able to hold her in my arms.
They did the initial checks on the baby then let her latch on for a while. Then more checking by the pediatrician. I got up from the bed and gathered my stuff so we could move to the recovery rooms. They told me to stop walking around and sit on the wheelchair.
We were wheeled into the shared recovery room but I was the first occupant so we had the room to ourselves in the beginning.
Everyone else went home, so for the first time in over a day, it was just me and the baby.
I just kept staring at her, she looked so peaceful.
Expectation vs Reality
I was able to stick to my plan of having an epidural free birth. When it came to receiving pitocin, the medical staff respectfully asked if I wanted it and after thinking it through and checking in with how I was feeling, I felt it was the way to go. The tiniest glitch in the birth came when they had to pause my pitocin because there’s this hospital rule that when both operating rooms are being occupied for C-sections, all the pitocin being administered to the other birthing moms have to be paused because they won’t be able to accommodate another emergency surgery, should anything go wrong.
I think this prolonged my labor but since I was ready to go with the flow of whatever was happening and time distortion during birth was very true for me then, I have no complaints about what happened. Summertime is such a busy season for labor and delivery departments and I just felt lucky to have my support system present and a complication free birth.
As far as birth stories go, mine was relatively easy. I was relaxed and didn’t fear the unknown too much. I really tried my best to get inside my head and retreat within for the worst of the surges. I felt like I prepared enough (and overpacked).
I was right about my pain tolerance, and liked being able to walk after delivery. One of the reasons why I refused to get an epidural was my experience with anesthesia during my two previous knee surgeries. I disliked the feeling of it wearing off. Nobody gets a medal for birthing a certain way but I’m content with how it went for me and happy that I got to make those choices for myself and my baby.
Birthing was the easy part, breastfeeding is a different story. That’s for another post.
I started my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) when I was 32 weeks pregnant. I had always wanted to do YTT since my sister Sheila did hers years ago in the Philippines and after I had stopped working I realized it would be a good way to keep busy and fit while waiting for my due date. I had gone to ashtanga yoga classes in the past and enjoy the practice but never really found a teacher or studio that stuck.
In February 2017, at the beginning of my second trimester, I went to a prenatal version of The Class by Taryn Toomey. It was unlike any movement class I had taken before. I loved how it was training me for labor by being okay with discomfort. I had never taken any prenatal classes before so it was helpful to hear how contractions are like waves that peak. I enjoyed The Class so much that I geeked out over their whole site and found out that my teacher had done her yoga teacher training at Yoga Vida.
After checking out the Yoga Vida site, I saw that they were offering a 200 hr summer YTT, so after thinking about it and canvassing other studios’ training schedules, I arrived at the conclusion that I should apply and make yoga my prenatal exercise. I knew that signing up for this would give me a reason to keep exercising since I’ve always been better motivated with teammates. I attended an info session in early May then I attended a couple of classes which were taught by the instructors leading the teacher training just so I could meet them ahead of time. Later on I found out that the teachers and/or studio management had raised concerns about me being in my third trimester during the training but allowed me in the group anyway. I got the go signal from my doctor beforehand and had an uneventful pregnancy so I’m really glad that they let me attend the YTT.
Yoga Vida’s four-week summer training runs from Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:30 pm with a 15-20 minute break after asana practice, then a lunch break after the morning lecture. Luckily, I was used to waking up super early for work so the 8 am start was easy and the location of our classes was also off my subway line. I knew I was getting further along my pregnancy when I had to give myself more time to arrive in the morning because I had to walk slower and couldn’t climb stairs as quickly.
My practice looked a little different from my classmates’ since I had to modify some poses and didn’t do certain pranayama that isn’t recommended for pregnant women but I was happy to have kept up with an entire month of daily weekday yoga and hours of lectures. It was the most physical activity I had done since I stopped working as a pastry cook. I also ate mostly plant based food during that month since I was surrounded by such lovely vegetarians and vegans practicing ahimsa that way.
Aside from the asana practice, I really appreciated the yoga philosophy lectures which helped me get my mind absorbed into stuff that wasn’t pregnancy related. I realized my purpose for becoming a yoga teacher was for me to deepen my own personal practice so I can teach my daughter and then hopefully find our way out of samsara.
I loved posture clinics where we spent more time on the individual poses. I liked anatomy class because our teacher was super in awe of how the human body works, so I became extra appreciative of my current state of growing another human. I liked learning how to adjust students, and wished that we had more time to practice those.
I liked being in a room of the same 20+ people, practicing the same yoga sequence everyday. The routine was comforting towards the end, plus I had my favorite spot in the room.
It wasn’t too bad sitting down for lectures, since my classmates always made sure I had all the blankets, bolsters, cork blocks and wall space to feel comfortable. I got up to pee a lot, especially after one of my classmates mentioned that she didn’t see me drinking enough water and leaving to pee frequently.
Doing YTT while pregnant was the best decision I made for myself during that time and if I could do it again, I wish there was a full prenatal/postnatal TT module that I could have done before I gave birth.
This is the third time I’ve signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share, the second time with this particular farm in Long Island.
I love being part of one because it forces me to eat my vegetables, eat locally and cook at home.
Now with a baby, I’m glad to have organic produce in my fridge all the time so I make a quick soup/ purée/ smoothie for the little one. Kale chips was an instant favorite too!
I made lettuce soup and ate the turnip and radish tops in salad.
It’s been nine months since I gave birth and I feel ready to start putting all these thoughts about my pregnancy and new motherhood out for other people to read. Someday my daughter will want to learn about the circumstances surrounding her birth and our lives prior to joining us so this is a good space for me to share. This will be a series, typed out on my iPhone while the baby sleeps.
I found out I was pregnant on November 30, 2016. We started considering having a baby a month before after my parents brought it up and despite my long workdays as a pastry cook, I found myself with two positive pregnancy tests at 5 o’clock in the morning. I woke up Paolo to show him the tests, then I headed to work and let that sink in.
I went to get confirmatory tests, watched documentaries on pregnancy and birth and started telling family and close friends. I waited a couple of weeks to tell my boss and the rest of my coworkers that I was pregnant. I kept on working despite the nausea of the first trimester. The only thing that really bothered me were the kitchen smells that used to smell pretty pleasant and yummy became unbearable. What saved me was smelling a lemon or some cardamom from the spice cabinet.
I told my boss that I would keep working until I thought that I couldn’t anymore so I decided to stop working after my first trimester ended. I was just so exhausted and was worried that spending hours on my feet wouldn’t be good for my pregnancy. The funny thing was once I was in my second trimester I had more energy and felt that I could have still worked for longer, but I had already left.
I figured I’d want to have more free time to do whatever I could before the baby arrived.
Hypnobirthing Class
I can’t remember exactly how I found out about Hypnobirthing but I found a class that fit Paolo’s schedule so when I was around 20 weeks along we started going to a weekly class that met in Greenpoint.
Being semi-crunchy I knew I wanted to have as little interventions during the birth and during the 5 sessions we learned how to make that happen. Prenatal yoga was recommended, so I started practicing at home. I also listened to birth affirmation meditations and did a lot of relaxation practice.
Yoga Teacher Training
Since I had a lot of free time, I found a summer intensive YTT to attend during weeks 32-36 of my pregnancy. I’ll elaborate on how that went in another post but it was the best use of those weeks, in preparation for giving birth. The combination of physical movement, philosophy lectures and lots of meditation really grounded me.
I was booked on a flight to Manila two months after my due date so I had to make sure that my baby had her passport in time.
Here’s how the process was for us.
We had to wait until her birth certificate arrived. It came in the mail two weeks after the birth. The birth certificate application is automatically filed by the hospital, and the forms are online so you can actually fill them out beforehand.
Passport Photo: I’ve been taking our ID photos using an iPhone app since I realized how much cheaper it was. I just laid a white blanket down, chose the room with the best natural light and picked the right time to minimize shadows. After lots of cute outtakes, we were able to get a shot of baby that would satisfy the government photo requirements.
Passport application Forms: I downloaded online, filled out at home.
Picked up photo, my husband and I went to post office at Roosevelt Island with the baby, no appointment required. I had all forms properly filled out. When we went, there was another couple with a newborn who arrived first, but since they didn’t have their form filled out, we were able to go ahead. (Felt so efficient!) USPS staff verifies her photo and checks eye color.
Pay fees, in my case I paid to expedite it since I was traveling. Birth certificate had to go with the application.
Received passport in 2 weeks in the mail.
Received birth certificate in the mail separately afterwards.
Arrival in Manila, her US passport gets stamped for one year stay.
Reported her birth in New York, so I can also apply for her Philippine Passport if I want to.
It’s been nine months since I gave birth and I feel ready to start putting all these thoughts about my pregnancy and new motherhood out for other people to read. Someday my daughter will want to learn about the circumstances surrounding her birth and our lives prior to joining us so this is a good space for me to share. This will be a series, typed out on my iPhone while the baby sleeps.