To Eat or Not to Eat

Here's what's tough about writing a blog every day: sometimes the most exciting thing you could write about is a play-by-play of the food you eat.

So far I have consumed two frozen waffles, a mug of chai spice tea, and a grilled ham, egg and cheese sandwich.

Normally, when I'm not pregnant, I eat about every four hours or so, which is pretty normal for most people, I think.  Now, at 13 weeks pregnant, I try to eat every couple hours.  Not huge meals, just little ones.  If I don't do it that way, I start feeling sick and miserable. 

I read once that a pregnant woman's body, particularly in the beginning of the pregnancy, is working as hard as a regular woman's body when she's climbing a mountain.  When you look at it that way, it makes sense that not eating would make you feel sick.  It takes a lot of energy to climb a mountain.

It might sound fun to have an excuse to eat all the time, and sometimes it is.  What isn't fun is having to find foods that sound good.  Everyone talks about having cravings during pregnancy, but what they don't talk about is aversions.  I really don't have very many cravings, but I seem to have more and more aversions to foods. 

Every since I was pregnant with Malachi, I have a hard time eating spaghetti--even when I'm not pregnant!  Especially if it's my own spaghetti.  I really don't like my own spaghetti.  The only spaghetti I like to eat is my mother-in-law's.  I don't know how she makes it (I'm not sure even she knows quite how she makes it!) but it's good.  Still, even when I have her spaghetti, I cannot eat any leftovers of it.

Right now, I also have a hard time with Mexican food; which is tragic because normally I love it!  I am hoping that as I go along and get into the second and third trimester I'll be able to eat it again.  I really miss it, especially the salsa.  And I know Aaron misses it too.  We used to eat Mexican probably several times a week.  Now, nothing.  Chili's is about as close as we get to it (which really isn't very close--although they do have good salsa--if I could eat it).

I have also developed a rocky relationship with pizza.  This is especially weird because in every other pregnancy, pizza was one thing I could always eat and enjoy.

A few other things I have a hard time eating now that usually wouldn't bother me: bread crusts, the cereal I used to eat every morning, some pot roasts, and chili, among other random foods that just don't sound good in the moment.

Well, as much fun as it has been writing about all the things I can't eat, I think it is about time for me to think about what I can eat next.  Maybe some Ramen noodles.  Of all things, those actually sound good to me!  Too bad they don't have more nutritional value.

I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining.  I'm not.  Well, maybe just a little:)  Mostly, I look at it as a mystery.  I'm curious why certain foods I love suddenly become unappealing, while others sound great that normally wouldn't be anything special, like McDonald's chicken nuggets.  Whatever the reason, I guess it all just part of the ups and downs of the pregnancy roller coaster.

TV Show Addict

With each child we've had, I seem to end up spending a lot of time on the couch, whether because I am feeling sick, or tired during the pregnancy, or because I am taking the time to feed the baby after he is born.  As a result of all the couch time, with every baby I have also become obsessed with a different TV show.  Usually it's one I have never watched before and has been on TV for a while already. 

When I had Malachi, it seemed like I was always on the couch either feeding him, pumping milk, or holding him while he fell asleep.  It's hard to read a book while doing any of those things, so I watched movies.  A friend of mine had the first three seasons of Alias on DVD.  I had never watched it before, and skeptically watched the first episode.  That was all it took--from that point on, I was hooked.

I had a miserable pregancy with Israel, so I especially looked forward to the time of day when Malachi would take his afternoon nap and I could rest.  During that time, I decided to to try out the show 24.  Everyone seemed to think it was great, so I ordered it from Blockbuster Online.  It didn't take long before I was completely addicted.  Every day at nap time I would try to squeeze in as many episodes as I could.  I just had to see what happened next in Jack Bauer's day!

When Simeon was born, my parents came to visit.  My mom and I were watching TV and the show House was on.  The funny thing was, even though I didn't normally watch the show, I had seen that particular episode before.  However, I had never seen how it ended.  I programmed our DVR to record it, and since that particular channel was showing all the reruns, I soon had a plethora of episodes to choose from.  I would watch every chance I got.  If the boys went outside to play, I would try to sneak and watch part of an episode while they were out and I was feeding Simeon. 

Now I have only even known we were going to have a baby for about two weeks, but I can already tell you what my new TV addiction is going to be.  A friend of mine has been telling me for  long time about the show Friday Night Lights.  It's about football, which I am not a fan of watching, so I couldn't imagine how a show about it could be so great.  I do like movies about football, like Remember the Titans, but I didn't think I'd want to watch hour after hour of it. 

Recently, ABC Family picked up the show and starting airing it from the very beginning, so I decided to give it a try.  As the first episode began, I was doubtful, but by the end I found I had been pleasantly surprised.  I am now officially hooked on it.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my watching is being regulated by the fact that I only get one show a day--unless I don't watch for a while and let the episodes build up, but who wants to do that?  And yes, I know I could probably watch them online, but since I can't watch it on my laptop, I'd have to sit in our somewhat uncomfortable computer chair for long periods of time.  If I was feeling normal, I might do it, but lately I have not been feeling great.  And we no longer have Blockbuster or Netflix coming to our door, so that's out.  Still, I look forward to enjoying my new TV show obsession, even if I do it slowly:)

Worth It

Lately I have spent a lot of time navigating the waters, so to speak, of being pregnant again.  For me, the first trimester usually includes "morning sickness" which doesn't actually only come in the morning.  It's more like "all day" sickness. 

So far I haven't actually been throwing up at all, just feeling nauseated all the time.  Today was hard, not because I felt so terrible, but because I knew I might be feeling a lot worse in the future.  I've been fighting a lot of anxiety about that. 

I try to remind myself that at the end of it all, I get a baby.  I'm looking forward to that!  Also, I've been trying to remind myself that I went through all of this with the three boys I already have, and that I definitely feel it was worth it.  I just have to look forward to the end result, which is a beautiful, brand new, baby.  Maybe even a girl this time!  But it is hard, knowing that nine long months are stretching out ahead of me and I will only be getting more and more uncomfortable. 

For now, though, I just get to experience the paradox of looking at food and thinking how good it is, while at the same time being somewhat repulsed by it.  Ah, the joys of expectant motherhood!

Baby Boom

A new adventure is beginning for us!  In the not too distant future, we will be adding to our family. 

A few weeks ago, my body began behaving strangely.  I noticed odd little things that usually only happen when I'm pregnant, such as heartburn.  I was very suspicious. 

Finally, last week, we aquired the infamous pregnancy tester to find out if I was right.  Aaron got a fancy digital one, apparently putting more trust in a more expensive tester.  As a result, instead of a mere plus sign, we got to see an actual "YES" in the results box.  How fun! 

I am now about six weeks along, which means, according to a baby website I have been looking at, that the baby is about the size of a lentil bean right now.  Last week it said the baby was only the size of a sesame seed, so that's a considerable amount of growth for one week, if you think about it. 

The same website also calculated that I will be due May4, but since my children seem to enjoy showing up fashionably late, it will probably be closer to May 14. 

We are all hoping for a girl this time.  Malachi refers to the baby as "baby sister".  I don't think it would be too bad to have another boy though; we already have three, after all--what's one more?  And boys are a lot of fun.  They get into a lot of trouble, but they're a lot of fun.

So that is our exciting news, which most of you who read my blog already knew about, but I felt that I ought to write something "official" about it:)

Here's to number four!