I wonder...how many boxes of Cheerios can I hide in our container?

This question, and many others, kept me up last night after my 2nd trip to the loo! So, I mentally started adding to our ever growing list of things to do/buy and then I started thinking about everything ELSE we'll need down the road for us and for the baby. See, I haven't been worried about actually having the baby here, because babies are born everyday all over the world and after seeing 2 live deliveries and a c-section many moons ago, I have been leaning towards a c-section ever since. I think it's the Type A in me that likes the idea of knowing when something's going to happen and what to expect, not to mention, we want our moms to come down after the bebe is born and since my mom still works, we can easily schedule the new grandmas' trips by having it scheduled. And, most obviously, seeing as how c-sections seem to be SOP for having babies here in Brasil, it will be one less thing to worry about. I hope.

So, my real worry for our baby (today!) is what to do when it's about 6 months old. I want to breastfeed as long as I can (and I can't even THINK of the possibility that we'll have problems and breastfeeding just won't work for us...) and then my plan was to finally get that food processor we just had to have as a wedding gift, (but never got!) to make baby food, preferably organic. But, what about the next fingerfood phase? What am I going to do then? Do they have Cheerios here? Can I bring a year supply down with us and somehow store it?! Probably not, so what do Brasilian moms feed their toddlers?! I shared this early morning panic with Bond and as he patted his crazy, pregnant wife on the head, he enlightened me with the fact that there are millions of babies born in Brasil every year and he bets that there is something like Cheerios that will do just the trick!

Sigh. I had to agree with his logic, but while I love food and pride myself on being somewhat adventurous, I'm having a hard time getting used to a typical Brasilian diet. I like the rice and beans (especially for the um, fiber!) but eating beef at lunch is a bit heavy for me, and even more so now that I'm pregnant. I'm LOVING all of the fresh fruit and trying to get used to the different veggies, but I'm a little worried that I'm not getting all of the vitamins I need, much less the baby. My diet for the last week and a half has consisted of yogurt, fruit, wheat bread and juice for breakfast; lunch is up in the air, but normal options have been chicken, pasta, bread, pizza, rice/beans, some salad/tomatoes, and fruit; and then dinner is usually the same as lunch, if I'm lucky, but even though I'm not showing yet, my ever-expanding uterus must be pushing up on my stomach, because I can only eat a little bit before I feel full...and then I'm hungry again about 2 hours later. So, by the end of the week, I had gone through the groceries we got to keep in the room AND the mini-bar.

Which leads me to the mini-meltdown on Friday night. It was late and I was starving (typical) and Bond and I decided we needed a little slice of Americana, so we planned for a "date night" and decided to go to TGIFriday's and see a movie. Well, because we got a little lost, we ended up short on time and ended up going to a knock-off TGIFriday's type place where I could only order from the appetizer menu to avoid having popcorn for dinner. I wanted a burger and fries, but could only get their version of mini-burgers, fries and a salad. No problem, right? Well, shame on me, I was so hungry, I didn't read the menu closely to see that my dinner choice was 2 "burgers," 2 chicken sandwiches, and then some mystery meat that I think must have been bife. 

Well, the food came quickly as promised, but as soon as I took a bite of the burger, I knew it wasn't the taste I was craving. I tried the chicken sandwich and same thing, and the last option, just did not look appealing, despite my loudly growling stomach! Que Niagra Falls and a very concerned Bond, not to mention, our sweet waiter that was distraught that I obviously didn't like what I had ordered and I had my first, "I want to go home!" moment here in Brasil.

Bond, bless his heart, just hugged me, and I went to the bathroom to really let it out and then calm down. When I came back, my salad had appeared and so did Bond's dinner choice...chicken wings! Now, back home, Bond orders his wings "center of the Sun" hot and STILL slathers them with whatever super, spicy sauce they have, but miraculously, these wings were like little fried chicken wings and PLAIN! There were a lot and Bond had eaten my dinner, so I dove into those little chicken wings (after removing the skin!) like no one's business and ate my salad and fries and couldn't have been happier walking out of there. I think I even told Bond, "it wasn't that bad!" Amazing what some caloric intake will do for a starving, hormonal pregnant woman!

Now, I know it won't be the last time I just want to run home, but despite my list of worries, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective and realize that even though things are going to be different here, I really believe the "good different" is going to outweigh the "not so good different." Bond and our family will have more time together with a 10 minute commute (vs the 2+ hours each way at home!), I get to "retire" for a few years and be the stay-at-home mom I've always wanted to be while our kids are little, learn a new language and about a new culture, travel to new places, meet new friends and loads of other great things that I probably can't even imagine right now! 

But, I still think I'm going to try to horde as much Cherrios in the drawers of our dressers before they are packed up. Just in case.