The Pregnancy Diet

So anyone who is unfortunate enough to suffer from morning/all day sickness knows how crappy it is. Like most women, I am one of those people. And it sucks. There is just no other way to put it. I have tried to describe it to people who haven't ever had it and I usually say something along the lines of, "You know the worst hangover you have ever had? Imagine feeling that way for about 3 full months." Because in my opinion, that is the best way to describe it. And I am in the thick of it right now. Every woman is different and things that work for some women may not work at all for other women, but I am going to talk about how I am trying to get through it and what changes I have made in my diet to try and combat the evilness.

I should point out that the things I am doing this time are completely different from the things I did during my last pregnancy. Last time, I read all the books and I tried all the typical things. I ate so many ginger snaps that to this day, the smell of a ginger snap makes me want to barf (and that was before I got sick). In fact, anything ginger related at all makes me feel that way. And that is because during my last pregnancy I ate everything ginger. I don't think it helped at the time, but damnit that's what people said was supposed to help, so that's what I ate. I also took the papaya enzyme pills last time. Not doing that either. I guess I am searching for something new that might...oh I don't know...WORK this time! It seems that usually you can find one thing that can *always* work if you need to eat something. Last time it was Totino's party pizza's. I know, they are SO healthy. But they worked. And after months of trying every single dinner known to man kind, I ate one pretty much every night for about 6 weeks. Whatever, don't judge. Sickness makes you do crazy things.

One thing I learned from last time is that it truly is worse if your stomach is empty. So no matter how shitty you feel, and how much even the thought of food makes you want to barf, you HAVE to eat. An empty stomach feels worse. At least for me. So this time I have been trying to be proactive in keeping the tummy full, or at least not empty. I lost 9 pounds in the first trimester of my last pregnancy so that should tell you how much I didn't eat. So here is what I am doing now.

Before I go to bed at night, I put a banana next to my bed for first thing when I get up. So as soon as the alarm goes off, and as I am stumbling to the shower, not really even awake, I scarf down a banana. That way by the time I wake up (somewhere mid shower), I already have food in my stomach. Then I proceed with my morning, and while I am packing my lunch for the day, I eat a thing of organic applesauce. (As you can see, I am sticking with the BRAT diet thing first thing in the morning--something I learned with a kid who barfed a lot). So by the time I leave for work/drop The Boy off I have already eaten two things. Next difference is I now skip my morning cup of decaf chai tea. Damn I love that thing. I have had one every morning for years. But right now, even the thought of it makes me feel nasty. So I skip it.

By the time I get to work I am usually feeling pretty terrible again. So as soon as I sit down at my desk I eat about 3 saltine crackers and some water (currently doing that now). Then by about 10:00am I try and eat my breakfast. Now when I am not pregnant, that breakfast is usually a bagel with cream cheese. But since I like to at least try to put things of substance into my body when I am pregnant, I have switched this to cottage cheese with mandarin oranges. I will admit, it pretty much never sounds good, but I make myself eat it. I eat it slowly and usually drag it out over about an hour. Then I eat lunch around 12:30 or so. My lunch usually consists of a hard boiled egg (protein), a string cheese (calcium) and then a pickle and a frozen healthy meal. Today I am ditching the frozen meal and having a some chicken noodle soup. And right now that soup sounds damn good. We will see how it sounds by the time I get to it.

Then usually mid afternoon I need a snack. So about 3:30ish I usually either eat a handful of pistachio nuts, or if I am feeling really horrible, I stick with the saltines. Never leave the house without saltines. That will usually keep me going until dinnertime. For dinner things vary depending on how crappy I feel. If I am feeling horrible, I feed The Boy something healthy and I will most likely revert to the party pizza's mentioned above. I still enjoy them, and they still seem to agree with me. But if I am just feeling moderately nasty, then I try and eat something healthy with some protein in it. Last night I made chicken taco's for The Boy and me. Once I am done with dinner (usually by about 6:30pm) I have NO desire to eat anything else for the rest of the evening. The thought of a sugary snack is gross. In fact, I have a ton of leftover yummy things from my birthday and they are all in the freezer. Just doesn't sound good. I would prefer to not put anything else in my mouth after dinner for the rest of the night. Unfortunately if I do that, it means I wake up with a REALLY empty stomach and that is a bad thing. So the last few nights I have been forcing myself to eat about 5 - 7 saltines before I go to bed to fill the tummy. That seems to be enough. Then I gratefully collapse in bed (usually around 9:30) and sleep like shit until I wake up the next morning to start the whole thing over again.

I apologize to anyone who suffered through reading this entire post. It is clearly more for my "records" than to be entertaining. As I have mentioned before, I am finding it difficult to be entertaining during the fiery pit of first trimester hell. But hopefully 6 weeks or so from now we can return to our regularly scheduled bloggingness. :)