(Me 14-15 weeks pregnant with Grant. Incredibly, I just got my maternity clothes out today and I am wearing the exact same outfit as I type.)
Today marks the start of week 16. It is so nice. My daytime energy is back. I feel nesty. The once-ever-present-nausea only visits late in the evening these days.
This last month also marks our 5th bumpy trip around the first trimester block. Technically, we've been pregnant 6 times. (The pattern has been miscarriage, baby, miscarriage, baby...) But of my three miscarriages, I only really suffered symptoms during two. I miscarried the first time around 10 weeks. The second time, I didn't even know I was pregnant and miscarried at 7.5 weeks. The last miscarriage was definitely the worst. We had the D&C at around 13 weeks and I had morning sickness for another solid month afterwords.
The things that have made me happy during these testy months have varied little from pregnancy to pregnancy.
Citrus: With Grace and the miscarriage before her, it was grapefruit juice. I was working mornings and everyday on my way into the administration building I would stop at the Minute Maid vending machine and get me some. I ate grapefruit for breakfast. Sometimes, I would just throw one into my backpack and peel it and eat it like an orange in between classes.
With Grant and miscarriage no. three it was lime aide. The money we spent fueling that need! There were always multiple cans of concentrate in our freezer. I put lime in everything I could think of.
This time around it is oranges and orange juice. My mom tells me that she had a pregnancy where she would eat whole oranges. As in, the WHOLE orange- peel and all. I can believe it. I have yet to eat a peel, but a glass of Simply Orange, or a ripe orange freshly peeled makes me SO HAPPY. I've been through a fair share of grapefruit and lime products as well, but it doesn't get any better for me these days than an orange.
Tuna: This has been the cruelest craving. For some reason, a tuna anything almost always sounds good to me when I am pregnant. This has been true for every single pregnancy. I'm very careful to keep track of how often I have it, which is where the cruelty comes in- I could eat it every day, but know that I really can't. I remember being in Paris with Cori, feeling so sick, buying a baguette stuffed with tuna salad and tomatoes from a street vendor outside the Louvre, and nearly crying for joy. Don't even get me started on my dad's albacore croquettes...
Breakfast Cereal: I don't remember this being an issue until Grant. There were complete weeks where I would make a pathetically simple dinner for Grace and Cori and then dine on a bowl of Apple Jacks. I could eat a whole box of the stuff by myself in a week. Apple Jacks was my cereal of choice through the miscarriage that followed as well.
This pregnancy, I went through a month where all I wanted was Fruity Pebbles. Isn't that terrible? I don't think that cereal should even qualify to be called food at all. But it was the only thing I could pallet some days.
Protein bars: Between internships and moving all over the place, I have had a total of 7 doctors. All of them have recommended eating more protein as a way to lessen morning sickness suffering. I don't handle handling meat very well during that first trimester. I don't handle cooking at all very well for that matter. So I stock up on protein bars, Luna bars to be exact. With Grace, it was the lemon zest Luna bar that I fancied best. I could even find them on campus when I was desperate which was a definite plus. With Grant, I found the key lime pie variety and bought it in bulk at Costco. THEN a couple of years ago, Luna started making a bar they call chocolate peppermint stick. They are so good, like crushed thin mint cookies. I just got one out of the pantry and I am munching on it this very minute. These saved me through our last miscarriage, and I am still buying up every box I can find. The bars give a nice shot of protein- 8 grams- and are highly fortified which is good for days where the only other thing one can manage to eat is Fruity Pebbles. They are also great for pregnant Sunday School teachers who are required to sit in a confined space with smelly (and not necessarily smelly in a bad way, just over Axed...) teen aged boys for an hour.
I have also turned to protein shakes this time around. EAS makes really great soy and whey based powders. I love mixing vanilla powder with orange juice and ice, or with soy milk, ice and coconut extract. The chocolate is great with milk and ice. These shakes have really helped me this pregnancy with the late afternoon hours. Around 4 o'clock I was having to lie myself down because the nausea and fatigue was just a little too much. I started taking a shake around 3:30 and found it made my afternoon and my dinner prep time so much easier. Each scoop of powder has a whopping 20 grams of protein. They are low-fat. I still have them for breakfast fairly often.
Heat: Finally, as I've already mentioned, this pregnancy finds me craving acidic fire in my mouth. Something about the heat takes the nausea feeling out of the top of my throat. So I'm always game for a spicy hot V8, a Subway turkey breast on wheat loaded with veggies, honey mustard, and jalepenos, or mexican food because it goes so well with jalepenos. I would be munching away-eyes watering because my mouth was hurting so badly-and would find myself unable to stop because it felt so nice not to be nauseated. Though the sickness has subsided substantially, I still love it.
Triggers: With many thanks to the wonders of pregnancy, there are a few things which I may never be able to fully enjoy again:
- fried chicken- I realize this isn't a bad thing. I haven't eaten fried chicken since my pregnancy with Grant.
- pot roast- I can eat it, but it still turns my stomach sometimes.
- gingerale- I like it mixed with other things, but don't really enjoy it straight. Used to love it.
- brushing my teeth- it is the hardest thing for me to do during pregnancy, and it makes me gag and gag even after I have the baby.
- the smell of Gain original detergent. I used it for years, but switched away during my last miscarriage. I bought a bottle just a couple of weeks ago for the first time since. BIG MISTAKE. I pulled the first load out of the dryer and the last 1.5 years of morning sickness came rushing over me all over again.
A Christ-Centered Easter Janet and Joe Hales
