Diary of a First Time Mom

Posts Tagged ‘cravings’

Firing Up The Garage Fridge

And the photo does not show the freezer full of frozen pizzas!  We will be well stocked by the time Wyatt arrives!

Fresh Pita for Lunch

Finally!  The Dude is letting me eat fresh veggies again!  Made this avocado, tomato, cheese and sprouts pita today and it was yummy.

Now, I think it’s time for a brownie for desert…

So my big solution to “food depression” (aka – getting so hungry that I cannot eat) is to shop ahead and make a bunch of meals.  Makes sense, right?  From the very beginning, the baby made it clear that protein was a must and sugar was not really appreciated.  It did so by giving me the shakes until I ate a piece of meat or cheese, and making my gums so sensitive that any sugary item that came in contact with them would send shooting pain into my head, similar to having a cavity drilled with no pain medication.So I listen, and adapt, and repeat.

This week I did a big shop at Whole Foods and made a big lasagna, bought ground beef for burgers as well as a $14 organic whole chicken to roast last night.  Yum, right?  Well, I pulled out the chicken last night and unwrapped it to rinse it off and prepare it for it’s 90 minutes in the sauna.  Turns out, baby does not like chicken.  (Sidenote:  I am eating a grilled cheese sandwich as I type this, and am concerned it might come up on me as I am having flash backs of the chicken episode just by writing about it…)

After gagging over the sink, I wondered if it was off.  So I dressed it anyway, put it in the fridge and had Scott smell it when he came home.  He said it smelled fine, so I put it in the oven.  At about the half-way point, I thought I would check on it to see if the cooking of chicken smelled better than raw.  A logical decision.  Turns out, it was not.  Gagging continued.  I began to wonder if this is how vegetarians feel when they smell raw or cooking meat.  If so, I apologize to any who have been here when we have been barbecuing.

The end result was not much better.  I cooled and wrapped the chicken and put it in the fridge.  Scott said he will pick it apart tomorrow so at least it won’t go to waste.  But seriously, I can still smell that sick, raw flesh in my nose when I think about it.  Of course, I asked for this, because I was initially disgusted at the amount of meat I was eating and repeatedly said that I can’t wait to eat vegetarian again, even if it is just for a week or so.  Ta da!

The good news is that I like vegetables again.  So that seems fair.  Time to start planning all over again.

So instead of a chicken dinner, I had a bowl of cereal for dinner.  It was actually pretty good.  And I was able to get to sleep quite easily.

Until 4am.  When a lone cicada, directly outside my window, decided to start chirping loudly.  You would think I would be able to block it out but I also woke up with a headache (waa waa, I know) and so this sound was splitting my head in two.  I must have complained externally, as Scott woke up and offered to go out and kill “Jiminy” for me.  But I said no.  All those Disney movies made me feel guilty.  So I took his second suggestion, and moved to the spare bedroom.  Man, that bed is comfy!  And that is where the strange dreams began…

One dream had something to do with my iPhone and losing all the info on it, but I think that may be due to the fact I was debating downloading the latest update…  But still haven’t.  In the next dream, I looked in the mirror to discover I was missing three teeth!  But then remembered I was dreaming and looked again to find one had returned.  So it was just a matter of time…

The only other dream I remember was to do with finding a turtle upside-down in our garage.  I took him outside and was feeding him lettuce and other greens.  And it was raining.  Strange since it has been a while since we have had any rain.  Plus it’s in the 100s F here right now.

So there you have it.  I’m off to wash some veggies…

A lot of people have been asking me about strange cravings or weird “side-effects”.  I can’t say I have any real unusual cravings.  Except that I am eating a LOT of meat.  To the point where I am looking at becoming vegetarian again next year.  Even if it is just for a week.  Oh, and maybe a juice fast too!  The amount of meat I am eating right now is more than I ever have.  And I attribute this to the amount of protein (cell builders) that I require right now.  There are many articles and books out there for pregnant vegetarians, but to be honest, it seems like a lot of work (and beans) and right now I am lucky if I have time to put peanut butter on toast before I pass out of hunger (7 grams of protein per serving!).

So not really a lot to do with cravings.  Though it seems like I am consistently inconsistent when it comes to food.  I crave sweets, but now my teeth hurt (gum sensitivity is not uncommon) every time I eat them.  So I eat M&M fast…  crunch crunch ow ow crunch mmmm….  I used to eat a banana every night before bed and then sometimes at 3 or 4 in the morning if I woke up hungry.  Then I went through a period of hating bananas.  Every time I thought of them I burped and felt sick.  Oh Scott loved the power.  We’d be sitting watching tv and he would randomly lean over and say very sweetly ‘ba-na-na’…  Bleeeech!

The mood swings seem to be settling down too.  Either that or I am consistently moody.  With no swings.  In the first few weeks, I could only describe it as feeling like floods of hormones were washing through my brain.  I would spend a moment or two observing how something was changing.  Then I would become a monster.  Once Jekyll calmed down, I could reflect on what happened.

On one night in particular, Scott returned home from work at 12:30am.  I was in bed.  Miserable.  (This is before I knew to never let my stomach become empty.)  I had gone to bed hungry and feeling nauseous.  (I also did not know that eating a little something, no matter how nauseous I felt, would make the sick feeling go away.)  Scott made me get up and suggested I have a banana.  (Thus the beginning of the -banana before bed- routine.)  I was half-asleep, starving, nauseous, and really (really) emotional.  So now I would like to paint a picture for you…  Imagine I am standing in my kitchen in pajamas, stuffing pieces of banana into my mouth, trying not to throw up, and crying while saying (with a full mouth of banana) “I… don’t… know… what’s… wrong… with… me…”

Scott stood in the kitchen saying nothing, probably in shock.  As I ate a few bites, I started to feel better (and wake up) and started to realize I was still crying and eating and talking at the same time.  Then I started to laugh.  Now I’m laughing, crying, eating, holding back from puking while wailing “I’m a cliche!”.  Scott lost it at this point.  Lucky for him it was an acceptable time to laugh.

It’s always a great thing to be out of your mind with emotion, and then suddenly realize you are observing yourself have the experience.  Then you become the observer of the experience and not the experience itself.  Not always possible, but I have lots of opportunities to practice.

Luckily, things seems to be getting easier.  I imagine in about two weeks I will start pulling things out of closets and go on a major clean-frenzy.  We’ll see…