Amanda, the latest blogger to join the urbanmoms.ca family, is in mid-pregnancy and recently wrote an entry about cravings. In this entry, which you can find here, she said: “Husbands cater to the whims of their ravenous wives’ cravings and rush to 7-11 at midnight to pick up a Coke slurpee.”
Cue my cravings-related flashback story…
I found that having a pregnant wife actually gave me license to eat pretty much anything I wanted also. It was great. I could claim the ‘supportive husband’ excuse logic and eat as much crap as I wanted to under the guise of being a good Dad-to-be… after all, sympathy eating is a proven bonding mechanism.
(Is it? I don’t actually know that to be true…)
Fortunately, my binge sympathy eating was back when my metabolism was still on my side. Things have since changed. But that’s a story for another time.
Now, there is a pretty big hole in my theory. It only works if your partner actually has legitimate cravings. In my wife’s case, there were very few strange requests. So I ended up looking like a pig most of the time as she looked on in horror.
Now, I said my wife had very few cravings. I didn’t say she had none.
For one, she started eating red meat again, partly for the nutrients and partly because, well, she craved red meat. And it was odd how much red meat she wanted to eat. Ground beef was suddenly in our dinner-time repertoire and there were more than a few steaks consumed in those 10 months.
And then, there was the movie theatre popcorn.
One weekend, about 5 months into my wife’s pregnancy, she turned to me while we were watching TV and said “I want popcorn.” My logical instinct was to tell her to wait for a commercial or go make herself some… I’m kidding! C’mon!
Upon hearing her request, I made my way to the pantry to pop-up some microwavable popcorn. As I strode over to the kitchen, she stopped me.
“I want popcorn,” she said. “From the movie theatre.”
“All right, I’ll go check what movies are playing and we’ll go to the theatre.”
“No, I don’t feel like sitting through an entire movie. I’ll just take the popcorn.”
O… k… then…
When your pregnant partner can’t sit comfortably for more than 5 minutes, you tend to want to do anything possible to make her happy. But when you are a human being who feels embarrassment (as most of us do), you tend to want to avoid unusual circumstances that will lead to the aforementioned embarrassment.
So, I had two choices: 1) succumb to my embarrassment and refuse to fulfill the one unusual request my wife had made since getting pregnant, or 2) go get the popcorn.
In the car, on the way to the theatre, I tried to determine what I would say to the 15 year-old ticket taker that would persuade him to let me though to buy popcorn without a ticket. I determined that I had no chance with the ticket teen, and decided to try my luck at customer service.
As I walked over to the service desk, I felt myself get a little flushed.
“Listen, I know this is going to sound weird, but my wife is pregnant and she wants popcorn. That’s it, just popcorn.”
The manager looked at me and said, “Of course, sir, just tell the teen to let you through.”
Clearly, I was not the first to show up with this request.
As I left with two large bags of AMC popcorn, I marveled at how easy it would have been to sneak into a movie sans ticket. I also felt a great sense of pride in myself for getting the job done.
This pride was greatly overshadowed by the colossal guilt I felt for having felt foolish in the first place. I determined to never again let the fear of my own embarrassment tempt me into potentially disappointing my pregnant wife, who in that moment, represented my budding family.
Never again. That is, of course, until she craves a hot dog being sold inside a Jonas Brothers concert. A guy has to draw the line somewhere.
Such a cute story! For me, I simply HAVE to have black licorice when I’m pregnant. So, hubby got off easy … but I do recall that NEED. That and oranges.
On the subject of cravings, my husband also felt compelled to satisfy my craving while you Shawn were “under construction”. In the middle of winter blizzards in the Ottawa valley, he often found himself driving around for french fries. However, the french fries would of course need to be from a chip wagon. My other vicious craving while pregnant for you was spaghetti and meat sauce. This one also had to be from a specific restaurant in the Gatineau area. All week, I would fantasize about the pasta that I would eat on Sundays and looked forward to our weekly get together with your godparents to this particular locale. I could not get enough pasta. As I’m writing this…..the thought of that specific pasta still haunts me and no the possibility of a pregnancy at this stage in my life would be nothing short of a miracle. To this date, spaghetti and meat sauce are still a favorite food of mine and have become a staple in our house. The power of cravings lives on!!!!
Alas in our several trips back to Ottawa since then, we have never been able to find the restaurant where my first cravings took hold. For shame for shame!