Wanna know how it’s going? Well, I slept with a garbage bin next to the bed last night. That’s how it’s going! The nausea is full-force almost all day long accompanied by truly horrible food aversions. I remember a few weeks ago wondering if these would ever kick in and here they are!
too nauseous to leave the couch at 8 weeks
I had one day this week where I was truly sick for over 24 hours. It wasn’t just nausea but I actually felt stomach pain. On top of it obviously being uncomfortable, I was terrified the whole time. I still haven’t thrown up yet but I almost wish I could so I could get this yucky feeling out of my stomach. I felt the same way with Lily. I was eating SO well before these food aversions set in and I’m so disappointed how my diet has changed. But, the fact of the matter is, I just cannot stomach vegetables most of the day. I’m trying to sneak them in smoothies, egg scrambles or soups when I can, but even those can be intolerable sometimes. The only foods I seem to be able to eat consistently are white carbs or citrus fruits. It blows my mind that pregnancy is the time you need to pack in the most vitamins and nutrients, yet some of our bodies won’t let us. I mean, seriously, the aversions are so bad that if I even look at some vegetables or fish I start to feel “that feeling” in my throat. My doctors and doula have always assured me it’s better to eat anything than to eat nothing at all in these early weeks and with the help of prenatal vitamins, I’ll be fine. But, I really can’t help feeling disappointed in myself. I worked so hard to be super healthy these last 3 months and when I only feel like eating a bag of chips I feel awful! But what do you do when you literally can’t swallow anything else?
Let’s talk about something else food related, the terrifying thought of listeria. Ok, truly it is not that common AT ALL, according to the CDC there are about 1,600 cases of listeriosis a year, only 200 of which occur in pregnant women. So, your chances of getting it are pretty slim but you are still 10 times more likely to get listeriosis while you are pregnant. Ugh. There are ways to treat it with antibiotics, which can stop the infection from crossing the placenta, but if it does cross the placenta it can have lifelong health impacts to the baby. I say this because all I want is a TURKEY SANDWICH. I have been a pescatarian for the last 7 years and a vegan for the 5 years before that. I don’t eat turkey. But, for some reason this pregnancy I feel called to eat chicken and turkey. I don’t usually like the taste of either and still don’t really now, but because it’s hard for me to stomach fish and other vegetable sourced proteins, I feel this is the most responsible way. But seriously, since about week 6 all I have wanted to eat is a cold turkey sandwich. You know, the Subway kind with cheese, lettuce, mayo, olives. The whole gamut. I’m drooling just thinking about it!!! Pregnancy is weird. Anyway, I finally got so desperate, I had Andy go out to a local bakery and get me one that was toasted (heating lunchmeat helps kill any listeria bacteria). I started eating it and about midway through the deliciousness, realized that it was really the bread that was warm, not the meat. Then, panic set in. I started flipping out thinking I have totally just killed my child and how could I be SO selfish to risk the baby’s health because of a stupid craving.
If you read any of those message boards online (hint: DON’T) they are filled with people just like me panicking over the littlest things. The responses will be a bunch of “oh please, don’t worry about it, I did that all the time” and then the one “I did that one time and I got listeriosis and had a miscarriage.” The internet is the SCARIEST place for mamas-to-be. I’m vowing, at least for the listeria stuff, to stay OFF the internet. If something happens, there is nothing I can do about it once I’ve eaten whatever it is and let’s be honest, I hear about way more listeria outbreaks in fruits and veggies than I do in most of the things they warn you not to eat in pregnancy. The good news is, since I ate that sandwhich my craving for turkey has dissappeard. Go figure!
Probably still going to panic every time I feel a little stomach pain though! Let’s be real.
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