Pregnancy Cravings

Okay, so now I am 12 weeks - one week away from second trimester and hopefully bliss compared to the last many many weeks!  I’m still not able to cook (way too stinky, the thought is gross) -but luckily I can eat out at most restaurants and have a few options that sound good to me.

Compared to before- where only a certain food item from a certain place would do for days at a time - I’ll indulge you in some of these things!  I wish I could say that I am being a model pregnant person and only craving healthy foods- but it’s just not the case.  It’s such a struggle because I would try to eat healthier (ie, not the cravings) and then I would physically get sick!  It was nuts!  Luckily, I am definitely eating healthier now.  My doctor said, when you are first pregnant many women need more fat in their diet - myself definitely included!
The cravings all started before I even knew I was pregnant- I didn’t really want to eat much of anything but Amy’s Indian Vegetable Korma and then sometimes their Indian spinach and cheese meal.  That was for about almost a week of lunches.  I’m not so sure if frozen meals are really that healthy when eaten every day since I don’t have the patience to put them in the oven.  I know there is a study going on now about the result of microwaved foods in pregnant women and their fetuses/babies.  I’ll be interested to see the results-though it will be too late when the study comes out!  Still not knowing I’m pregnant, the next week I was all about Amy’s cheese tamales and also the black bean tamales with salsa verde!  They were both heavenly and just so delicious!  I highly recommend you try those tamales!  I see they are coming out with a vegetable one on their website but have yet to see that at my local Targets (where the Amy’s foods are by far the cheapest!)  Then the strangest craving I had, at this point wondering if I was pregnant, was the maple glazed cake donuts with nuts.  This was really the only kind of doughnut that I liked when I was a kid.  As a little girl, I’d just eat off the top part, including the top half of the donut, and then throw the bottom part away.  I haven’t done this in years so when I really wanted one, I knew something was up!  Anyway, I figured I’d pick up some totally unhealthy donuts and bring O a few donut holes- he’s almost 2 1/2 now and he’s never had a donut!  So, what the heck, how will he like them?  I put three on his plate to see what he’d do.  He takes one tiny bite from each one and then says, “all done!”  Wow!  I felt pretty proud:)  All the while every single morning for breakfast I was eating a slice of buttered toast with a fried egg on top.  I did this when I was pregnant with O as well without knowing.  Strange!

Then it hit.  Sickness.  It’s like I had the flu but for one week would only eat lasagna (who eats lasagna when they are sick?) from this one restaurant in Omaha- Pasta Amore.  With toasted Rotella (local Italian bread) heavy hearth rolls.  That really isn’t too bad since there are some great nutrients in lasagna - but it’s so heavy and for almost every meal is a little much for anyone!  The week prior to that was probably the weirdest craving for sure: combination fried rice, no shrimp - and egg rolls.  This craving happened over Christmas week when we had major snowstorms and kept getting trapped in our house and/or neighborhood!  I’m supposed to be in the Christmas spirit and everything but pretty much daily I was just pissed off (hormones) that either I couldn’t get out of the house to get more Chinese food (they don’t deliver in Omaha) or I was freaking out that the Chinese food rations would run out!  Normally, I never really want to eat Chinese food and I never order egg rolls!  But egg rolls in the sweet and sour dipping sauce was amazing - which is hard to imagine when absolutely no other food sounded good at the time and I felt on the verge of being sick at any moment.  Low energy and nauseus plus Chinese food obsession was a strange week.  Then I moved on to steak salads.  I had to get them at Pepperjax grill since the weather was too bad for me to go too far and still wasn’t cooking.  For breakfast it was Honey Bunches of Oats.  What?  Totally not my type of cereal - doesn’t have the nutritional requirements or flavor I typically want, but I saw this old lady at Costco with a huge box of them and suddenly I had to have them!   Oh, I almost forgot the worst thing of all that I wish I could have removed from my diet - but I couldn’t help myself and bought Munchies.  Doritos, no matter how nostalgically yummy they are, have hydrogentaed fats and are not good for baby.  However, it was something I just had to have.  Sigh.  Wish I could’ve removed that craving especially but the pregnant belly/mind doesn’t care about anything- it’s a crazy short-term addictive personality!  Oh yeah, the other really bad thing that I’m ashamed of but couldn’t seem to help myself: Arby’s curly fries with cheese dipping sauce.  A 5th grade favorite come back to haunt me as a 30 year old pregnant mom.  Sigh- luckily, the really bad stuff didn’t last all that long- most of the cravings were at least somewhat nourishing!  Malts are full of calcium:)   Okay, I’m being honest here and am fully aware of epigenetics and the results of what you eat on the fetus - so if you have anything negative to say, please skip it - I already feel awful about it!  I think the really sickness lasted about a month with periods of eating crap but mostly eating heavier, yet healthy-ish foods.  Oops- I left out Italian style thin-crust pizza.  I think that was a week or a week and a half!  Pizza is just tasting good again.  See, when you only one want food for a few days to a week, after you’re done with it, it sounds pretty gross for quite some time.  I should note that for my friends who normally eat unhealthy foods, when they get pregnant, they start craving fresh crunchy vegetables and tons of fruits.  I think your body wants what it normally doesn’t get - healthy or not so much.

Luckily, a couple of weeks ago I went to Vegas.  Something about the oxygen pumped into the casinos (or something else? ) made me actually feel better for a long weekend and I was able to eat like a semi-normal person!  I had my first healthy dose of fruit cravings and also fish.  We went to Bartolotta at the Wynn and it was probably the best meal I’ve ever had in my life!  Don’t listen to the negative reviews- order seafood and use the sauce they suggest.  This food is seriously Italian food, but I can’t say if sometimes they have an off- night.  The rabbit appetizer is delicious.  Thank you Vegas!

I’ve been back from Vegas for a couple of weeks and though I don’t feel as well, I can still eat a little bit more normally and I’m still eating lots of fruit.  Yay!!!!  My only unhealthy craving nowadays is milk chocolate dipped in crunchy peanut butter - but for me, that’s a little more normal!  Usually, it’s dark chocolate, but whatever, pregnant me wants milk chocolate.  So be it!  Actually, I lied, I want various Girl Scout cookies but it makes me so mad that still the cookies have trans fats!  C’mon people!  Just remove them already!  And all the fake stuff and the high fructose corn syrup!  I wonder if the ingredients have changed since I was a kid or if I also grew up with all the trans fats?

Oh yes, vitamins, darn it, vitamins stink.  Not only that, taking them made me get even sicker- no matter what time of day or what brand, the pre-natals made me sick.  When I was pregnant with O, I was able to take gummies- but this time, the smell has made me sick as well.  I have to not breathe when I give O his gummy vitamins and then wash my hands immediately.  So, needless to say, I haven’t been able to take them every single day, but as often as I could get them down!  That’s getting better too but still smelling and swallowing the big pill makes me feel gross.  And there goes being active as well!  Every day that I get a lot of work done and move around too much I end up paying for it big time by having a huge wave of sick and tiredness.  That’s getting better too- though not completely gone.  Can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and I can take long walks outside.  Bliss!

Anyway, this could have bored the crap out of you and I’m sorry, but if you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably been pregnant, are trying to get pregnant, or are pregnant right now (or maybe trying to understand your crazy wife or friend).  I wish for you that your experience is/was better the first trimester- though I know a few people with far worse experiences -hospital stays due to sickness and/or dehydration.  Constant vomiting, etc…  However, most of my friends have had similar to better experiences and luckily, the worst part for most people (and I’m hoping me again!) is over after the first trimester.  Yay!  Here’s to not being a hermit anymore, having more energy for my son, and cooking again!