We had a baby!!!

Barley Rose MacLaren zoomed into the world on Tuesday at 3pm, weighing a hefty 9lb, deliciously pink and chubby.  Hoorah!

This was the first pregnancy I have experienced as a vegan and I have to say the stats are pretty compelling…

I only put on a stone and a half in the whole pregnancy (2 and a quarter with Arcadia and 2 with Indigo) and Barley was not only the biggest (Arcadia 8lb 2, Indigo 8lb 10) but by far the chubbiest and pinkest baby of all three.  I’m also 4/5 years older than I was with the last 2 pregnancies and yet had much more energy throughout.

 2 very proud big sisters!

Being pregnant is great as it means you have your bloods, urine, heart rate, blood pressure etc tested regularly.  Mine all tested great throughout.  So to all those out there who still believe you need meat, dairy and eggs to get enough calcium, iron, potassium etc into your diet – it is absolutely NOT true.  So long as you eat sensibly and take a vitamin B12 supplement then a well balanced vegan diet will give you all the nutrition you need!  Add to that the massive increase in energy, the sharpened clarity of thought, the ‘feel good factor’ of knowing that you are eating much more compassionately and I just can’t recommend it enough!

Right –  I’m off to feed Barley.

Next post should undoubtedly be about the dairy industry as there is nothing like breastfeeding your baby to remind you how appallingly cruel the dairy industry is…

 Just had first contraction!

Vegan pregnancy!

So I’m 15 weeks pregnant and interested to see how my veganism fares over the next few months.  I’ve heard countless stories of committed vegetarians being overcome with cravings for a big fat juicy bloody steak and diving head first into a bucket of spare ribs… will I follow suit?  

So far so good…. no dreams of floating pork chops or mozzarella balls.  I’ve felt no different to my two previous pregnancies in fact.  I’ve had a ravenous appetite and have easily gotten through 2 loaves of bread a week, a bucket of Duchy Organic Damson Jam… a truck load of pasta and a sackful of baked potatoes.  So no carb cravings there….  

I had the standard 2/3 weeks of narcoleptic levels of tiredness around 8 – 10 weeks and happily crawled into bed at 8pm…  

I was looking forward to having my bloods done (which had been meaning to throughout the last year and never got round to) to see if I’m lacking anything having been vegan for over a year and was pleased to see that everything was exactly as it should be so that was reassuring.  The only thing was a tiny bit low was my Vitamin D which if you’d seen the winter we’ve had here in the UK would not come as a great surprise.

Speaking of which, I escaped off to Barbados a couple of weeks back very cheekily at the last minute to visit a friend who’s living out there.  I do my best not to fly unnecessarily and we stick to UK based holidays as much as we can but this was one occasion where I thought sod it and chose sunshine and friendship over my carbon footprint…  Whilst there I had a little bit of fresh line caught fish and this seemed appropriate being that we were on an island in the middle of the Caribbean.  As I’ve always said on this blog, I think your food choices should always be appropriate for where you are and what is available to you – I don’t think there are any hard or fast rules.  In the same vein, my cousin came to stay with us in London last night and very kindly bought us some freshly laid eggs from her free range chickens she has at her home in Norfolk and even though i haven’t bought or had eggs in over a year now, I’m looking forward to scrambled eggs for supper!