I Can Wear Pants Again!

Yes! I woke up this morning and the water retention in my abdomen has gone down enough that I can wear pants with buttons again! At the height of the water retention it was really firm like I had swallowed a balloon and was about to explode. It's now much more squishy, like my regular belly chub, and it seems to be going down in sections. My lower abdomen is now squishier than my upper abdomen which looks a little weird but when it comes with pants with buttons I'll take it. I don't have a problem with wearing yoga pants every day but it's nice to have other options.

It's been a full week since the retrieval and I'm feeling pretty good. I don't need any painkillers, have no immediate appointments scheduled so I'm basically just siting around waiting for my period to show up. She always shows up when I don't want to see her but when I need her so I can get a move on with next cycle, she's nowhere to be found. It's still early, my luteal phase is on the short side at 11-12 days and it's only been 8 if you count retrieval day as ovulation. Le sigh, another exercise in patience.

One symptom that is sticking around and took me forever to figure out is the metallic taste in my mouth. I just had my teeth cleaned, I have no cavities or fillings, I'm brushing like 3 times a day, flossing and using mouth wash and it still tastes like I've been sucking on coins. This one didn't show up until a couple days ago and it's been driving me nuts ever since. It finally clicked for me that a metallic taste is a pregnancy symptom, which means its the HCG trigger. Damn that thing, still screwing with me over a week later.

In the meantime, I decided to celebrate my pants fitting by making them tight again with an absolutely delicious apple crumble with french vanilla ice cream. Oh man.  I used this base recipe because it's easy and delicious and then made a couple tweaks.

Their pretty photo

My version involved the following changes:

Ingredients: 

• 10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced - about 8 apples for me. I only had Galas and a couple Fujis but would prefer Granny Smiths.
• 1 cup white sugar - I didn't use sour apples so I cut this down to 2/3
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon - doubled this to 2 teaspoons
• 1/2 cup water - halved this to 1/4
• Add 1 tsp Vanilla
• Add 1 tsp Nutmeg 

• 1 cup quick-cooking oats - doubled to 2, Bob's steel cut oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour - doubled
• 1 cup packed brown sugar - doubled
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder - doubled
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda - doubled
• 1/2 cup butter, melted - doubled
• Add 1 tsp Cinnamon 

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).
2.	Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all. - I tossed the apples in the sugar mixture to evenly coat them
3.	Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4.	Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes. - Mine needed about 50-55 min

Yumbly Crumbly. Notice the caramely filling

The topping comes out extra crunchy and delicious while the apples are soft and cinnamony. You can throw it together pretty easily with things you already have in the house and it is absolutely delicious topped with vanilla ice cream. The only issue is I'm going to need to hit the gym asap if I keep cooking and eating like this and I'm not supposed to go for another week. Oy.