Food is pretty much my most favourite thing in the world. There is nothing I like better than sitting down to a spread of appetizers with a bunch of girlfriends at a swanky restaurant and sampling the delicious fare, a bellini in hand, while the hilarious conversation swirls in the air. I start thinking about lunch about three minutes after breakfast. Some might suggest that eating is not a hobby, but I beg to differ.
Alas, this pregnancy has left me on somewhat bitter terms with food. The thought of it makes my stomach churn, whereas it used to make my heart soar. My usual favourites are unappealing and the notion of planning the dinner meal makes me want to gag.
I am hoping it passes soon so we can get on with things and enjoy the second-best benefit of pregnancy (after the whole “getting a baby at the end of the deal” thing): The Eating. No one dares ask a pregnant woman if she really needs that sixth slice of pizza. Husbands cater to the whims of their ravenous wives’ cravings and rush to 7-11 at midnight to pick up a Coke slurpee. And people keep their laughter somewhat silent and to themselves when I saddle up to the ice cream parlour and ask for a quadruple scoop cone, dipped in butter and rolled in sprinkles.
Pregnancy cravings intrigue me. I never really had any profoundly strange or insatiable cravings with my first two girls, and I wonder if any will come this time around. With my first, I couldn’t get enough oats. With my second, I craved these blended coffee drinks from a local cafe in town and am convinced that they’re the reason she was a whole two pounds bigger than her sister upon exit (ouch). With both, I was crazy for ice, though. I’ve heard that’s an indication of anemia, and I would literally devour a bag of ice a week, loudly crunching the cubes while everyone around me grimaced in annoyance.
Did you have any bizarre cravings? Things you couldn’t get enough of while your belly was ballooning? Do tell!
So you mean that there are actually husbands that WILL go out in the middle of the night for a slurpee run?? Amazing! I love mine dearly and there is lots he would do for me, but that is certainly not one of them.
I drank a lot of milkshakes when I was pregnant with my first, but I don’t know if it was a craving per-se as I have always loved them. The second time around fate dealt me a mean blow and I had become lactose intolerant. I think for me the love I felt for certain comfort foods before pregnancy just intensified.
I’m 18 weeks along with my first and my only real intense cravings were for citrus fruits — specifically oranges and pineapple. It was really strong for about a month, but now all food looks appealing 🙂
Oh my gosh I am so in the same boat… just thinking about food makes my stomach churn and want to gag. I am definitely not fond of this aspect of pregnancy so far and I hope that it gets better after week 12 because this is not fun! On good days though I do eat like a horse. On those good days 6 ‘mini’ meals does not cut it.
Love your posts! I craved Burger King for the 1st trimester and yogurt and granola for my 2nd trimester, my 3rd trimester I could not really eat a whole lot but girl scout cookies I could eat by the box!
With my first i craved grapes (body probably making up for lack of wine) and tomatoes (would select a meal based on high tomato content.) My first loves grapes and tomatoes! With my second, it was eggs and guess what, he loves eggs! Coincidence – i think not!
With my first daughter I wanted cheese on everything… if it had cheese I wanted extra cheese, and anything fast food related made me gag, most of which still does. However with my second pregnancy (currently 29 weeks) I was sick for the first 2-3 months, but all I craved was fresh fruit… fruit of any kind, and milk. But after being in the hospital for what they believed was an ulcer and being told I was only able to eat chicken noodle soup and dry bread… that was out, no fruit with any acid and no milk… WHAT!!! I didn’t listen, took the pills the dr gave me and continued with the fruit. In the second and now the third trimester my cravings have become that only of Dominican food… chicken and rice, or boiled bananas my husband is Dominican and I actually live there, but am currently residing in the freezer we call Saskatchewan, at least until the baby is born.
Food is definitely a hobby!! I blog about food daily 🙂
Sushi! Which at the time I believed I wasn’t allowed to have raw fish so I could only get rolls with cooked or no fish. I know some doctors don’t recommend sushi to pregnant women but I hear that if the place is reputable, there isn’t much of a risk.
I also drank bottles of water. I was lucky my work place had a water cooler, as I went through 2 huge bottles a day. And filled it before I went home for the night.
When I could eat, all I wanted was green beans and fresh parsley. And, McD’s chocolate milkshakes…
I’m craving Oranges, and they seem to hold my nausea at bay for 10 mins in the afternoon.
Anything fresh and juicy, I’m very thirsty all the time.
Rice or any other kind of noodle or bread.
Not wanting meat, especially chicken, of any kind, but I’m afraid of becoming anemic so I’m eating it and gagging it down.
I love your description of your ice cream choice. I sell 84 flavours of hard ice cream at fairs and rodeos around Alberta, so I’m a bit of a connoisseur myself!
Hope you get your appetite back soon.
EM
Cake! Rotisserie chicken, twizzlers, squirt (grapefruit soda), chocolate milk, cereal… I could go on and on and on. haha!!
With Ty, mine was simple: 5 pickles daily between 3 and 4pm. That’s it.
And congratulations, by the way! I’ve been meaning to post on fb and the blog, but I guess I’m finally doing it here… better late than never 🙂
With my first child (my daughter) I craved orange, anything orange, oranges, orange juice, orange yogurt, orange popsicles. In actuality if it wasn’t orange I couldn’t keep it down for the first 3 months, to this day my husband swears that the red (orange in color) hair that my daughter was born with probably had as much to do with all the orange colored foods I consumed as it did with genetics.
With my second child (my son) I craved KFC gravy, not the chicken, not the fries just the gravy. He found this a little unnerving to have to go to the local KFC and order gravy for 9 months. At first he would go get a meal with a side of gravy and bring it home, but since I couldn’t stand the smell of the chicken and he would be forced to eat it or get it out of the house he soon decided to just bite the bullet and explain that it was the craving of a pregnant woman and had to be accommodated. My son amazingly enough loves KFC while I on the other hand still don’t like the smell of the chicken and am not even all that fond of the gravy lol.
With my first (a boy) I craved pickles and Beefaroni. We were in the Dominican for a week and I could have killed someone for a dill pickle near the end of the trip. We had to fly into Miami before boarding our next flight home and were almost missed our plane because I had to stop at Burger King in the airport to get a cheeseburger with extra pickles.
My second (a girl) was ice cream. I would be that crazy customer that would order ice cream in the middle of winter during a blizzard. I should have been awarded Dairy Queen’s ‘Customer of the Year’ in 2007. My daughter weighed 2.6 pounds more than my son at birth. I guess there are more calories in ice cream than pickles…
I too had the all-day nausea in the 1st trimester this time around. Ugh was it mind-numbing – between my stomach and the exhaustion I wanted to die 🙁
At 23 weeks, things are much better. Just like the 1st pregnancy I love cheese!
This does wonders for the digestive system… Nothing like compounding normal pregnancy constipation with a diet filled with carbs and cheese! With my first pregnancy I also craved Slush Puppies – the do-it-yourself kind not the pre-mixed crap. 😉
Here’s hoping you will come out of the nauseating woods soon!
With my first I craved fruit throughout the 1st 2 trimesters – anything sweet and juicy worked. Then in the 3rd I wanted McDonald’s double cheeseburgers ALL THE TIME (ugh, gross!).
This time, I had a few passing cravings early on but the last 4-5 weeks (i’m in week 29) I don’t want to eat at all. I get hungry, but for some reason nothing sounds good and the thought of eating seems like a chore and I’m tired of eating after just a few bites. It doesn’t make me sick or anything, I just don’t want it. But I want milk, lots and lots of milk.
With my first I craved…wait for it…Taco Bell. Ugh. Disgusting. I ate it once a week for the last trimester. I thought it was nasty before pregnancy and haven’t touched it since.
I am about to hit my 3rd trimester and I can’t get enough carbs. Carbs! Carbs! Carbs! Oh and bacon. My poor husband has had to endure a bacon sandwich for dinner for the past few weeks.
In my first trimester I had NO cravings because I was so naueseated all of the time.
I have been experiencing an odd aversion to lunchmeat. I can’t even look at lunch meat without gagging. Gross.