Okay, so I was a little unprepared for pregnancy. So far, here are my main woes:
Suddenly everything grosses me out. I used to be up for any new foods; I’ve tried pig’s ears, raw jellyfish, you name it. Now the idea of anything new just makes me queasy.
Seafood. I can’t even think about it most of the time! It’s hard for me to even bring myself to write the word. I’ve had to leave several restaurants, mid-meal, because I’ve caught a whiff of a fishy odor and it’s made me gag.
I’ve been subsisting on basically the following foods: Peanut butter sandwiches, lots of bread, potatoes, ramen noodles, and oranges. All this is not even to mention the moodiness, tiredness, enormous growth in my breasts (though that’s kinda nice), and overall acheyness.
Because you’re pregnant! And there’s a little parasite in there who thinks he/she’s in control of everything, not you!
I’ve been down that road three times now. While I was one fo the lucky ones who didn’t get morning sickness, there were some foods that definitely turned me off during those delightful first three months, and fish/seafood was very high on the list. Then I hit that second trimester. If it wasn’t nailed down, I was trying to barbecue it. Then those last three months, where I still wanted to eat everything within reach, but my abdomen was getting too crowded. Just wasn’t enough room for all the food I wanted to eat.
It should get better for you, really. Stick with the comfort foods, like the bread and potatoes, when that’s really all you think you can eat. Be sure to take your prenatal vitamins, though.
The mood swings? Well, sometimes all you can do is just put your head between your knees, and think to yourself “this too shall pass…” Talk to your doctor about the achiness. If it’s your back, don’t put heat on it unless the doctor says it’s okay. If your body temp gets too high, it could cause problems.
Be sure to let your doctor know about your food aversions, too. Although they’re extremely normal, it’s something that the doctor should be aware of, just in case they get more severe, and you start becoming malnourished.
Now just sit back and enjoy the ride!
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
They’re based on what month you’re expecting, so you get a lot of sympathy from women going through the same thing at the same time. It’s a great resource.
Good luck and don’t forget to drink lots of water! (and do those kegels!)
My kids brighten up our home. They never turn the lights off. -A Wallyism
His name was just “Reilly” ‘til he started sayin’ shit like that.
For me it was eggs. When I was pregnant, all I could smell was the sulphur in them. They were like little ovoid farts. Yuck!
I read in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” that a woman expends as much energy in the first trimester of pregnancy as she would climbing a mountain. It takes a lot of work to form a human being!
Well, according to my wife’s midwives, your body is not allowing you to eat anything that has even a remote risk of hurting your baby. I don’t know if I buy this, but your list does seem to back it up.
It could be worse. My wife survived the first trimester with our oldest on nothing but bananas and milk. We knew we were into the second trimester when we sat down at a restaurant and she ate “…two eggs, bacon, home fries, watermelon and pancakes, and I grunted through the whole thing!”
I’ve been through bad morning sickness 3 times. The first time I lost the baby really early. The “morning” sickness stopped several days before I miscarried. The second time I stopped throwing up (all day long) in my 7th month and then was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in the 8th month. I didn’t get those women that would say,“I love being pregnant because I can eat whatever I want and no one cares!” I could never cook meat or eggs or even be in the house when it was without throwing up. I also couldn’t eat raw onions or french fries. This last time it didn’t last so long but it was more severe. I couldn’t keep down milk products at all. My dr. put me on TUMS. I also craved black olives after I was feeling better. I don’t really like them myself.
So here are some weird things I’ve noticed: My oldest daughter hates raw onions and french fries. My youngest daughter turned out to be severely allergic to dairy products and LOVES black olives.
Apparently, there is a statistical correlation between the amount of morning sickness that you experience and the chances of carrying the baby through the first trimester. Or that’s what they told me. Maybe they were just trying to make me quit whining. (That doesn’t mean that a woman with no morning sickness is going to lose her baby. It’s just statistics.)
Here’s what I was told every check-up. “Let me know if you can’t keep any liquids down for 24 hours.” I was able to keep down extremely hot (barely cool enough to eat) soup and banana popsicles the second time. Most of the time I could keep down ice cold Gatorade (Lemon Ice flavor). The first pregnancy I almost lived on frozen bagels for about one month. When I say “frozen”, I mean I took it out of the freezer and knawed on it while still frozen.
Sometimes women have problems from their prenatal vitamins. If you think this is the problem then ask your dr. what you should do.
All I can tell you is that you had better keep your weight down to a resonable level or you will be very sorry later. During my first pregnancy I gained 63 pounds. I too had a peanut butter and jelly thing with my first pregnancy. I HAD to have at least one or two PB&Js everyday! With my second child I only gained 19 pounds because I was already seriously overweight. I have lost most of it now, but it is a constant battle and it took me years of hard work and dedication.
You should force yourself eventually to eat more fruits and vegetables, lean meats, chicken and fish. You need about 30% more protein than usual, adding beans to your diet will help. Eat the leafiest greenest veggies you can find. Lose the iceburg lettuce and eat raw spinach an leaf lettuces. Drink a lot of water, cut back on coffee, tea, and sodas, try unsweetened fruit juices.
Believe me I know what I’m talking about here. You can mess up your body forever if you don’t eat right now. Gaining your baby weight slowly and in the proper time frame will also help prevent developing stretch marks.
God, how awful. My heart goes out to you. But be comforted as to nutrition: I spent the first three months of this pregnancy (now in 7th month) unable to eat anything except chicken noodle soup and bagels. Sometimes. I lost 12 pounds. I’m pleased to say that as of today, at least according to my doctor’s scale, I’ve just gained them all back, finally. According to all signs and sonograms, the baby is just fine, and at the size and condition it should be. The first pregnancy, I put on 45 lbs, and the baby was just fine, too, though I never lost all that weight – way too much.
Anyway, the general rule in pregnancy is that almost nothing is abnormal as to symptoms – from horrendous morning sickness to gestational carpal tunnel syndrome. I’m convinced that if I walked into my doctor’s office and said, “Hey, I’ve got this axe in my head,” he’d say, “Oh, that’s normal, it’ll go away in a few months…” And the useful corollary: with the exception of a few very teratogenic medications or five g&t’s a day, almost nothing you do or don’t do will disrupt normal fetal growth. I keep chanting this, over and over. This society has an unhealthy tendency to micro-manage pregnancy as if every little thing is going to mean the difference between Harvard and Community College. Please.
But that’s another story…
Good luck, and congratulations, and I hope you feel better soon. I really found soft molasses cookies to be palatable and keep-downable. And they have a bit of iron, too…
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
(That doesn’t mean that a woman with no morning sickness is going to lose her baby. It’s just statistics.)