Holy Halfway - I'm hungry!

20 weeks - then and now!

Twenty weeks in - halfway there! And I know I've only done 3 blog posts thus far, but how have I gone this long without talking about food and the fact that I am now constantly starving?!

The further away it gets, the less I remember about my pregnancy with Ivy, at least certain aspects of it. I remember feeling decently lousy during the first trimester, meager appetite, threw up a few times, really tired, etc. This time...holy moly! There were several mornings where I could barely lift my head off the pillow, and the spent the day attempting to work on my laptop in bed. The nausea only got worse as the day dragged on. I would walk to pick up Ivy in her stroller, and inevitably stop at Walgreens to get a Gatorade, the only thing that would ensure I would make it home without covering my daughter and Whitworth Ave. in puke. At that point, my saint of a husband would take over most child care duties relieving me of having to move and wallowing in my self-imposed guilt that I wasn't spending much time with her. AND I was still barfing into week 17!

Food is funny - it's not like I'm craving one particular thing, or totally averse to anything (last time, I couldn't go near salad; this time I'm forcing myself to eat it). It's more like the power of suggestion (visually, olfactory, or aurally) either makes me want to vomit or get some right now! Cheese pizza - I could it eat it 3 times a day every day (preferably day old, reheated in the toaster oven - I know, I'm specific). Indian food - don't even go there. And the same item doesn't always illicit the same response. One week, I was plowing through salt and pepper potato chips, and the next I couldn't bare to look at the bag. And I don't know who decided that GINGER was good for nausea, because it just makes me want to puke. Give me a good piece of bread and cheese and let's call it a day. Oh, and don't even get me started on how miserable I was during Passover! Who takes away bread from a pregnant woman??!!

I've been trying so hard to eat healthy even while my body was rejecting all notions of a balanced diet, and I'm trying to not repeat my mistakes last time (homemade Diddy Reese ice cream sandwiches for a month straight = 10lbs gained and a wrist slap from my doctor). But damn when all I could think of was vanilla milkshakes, look out! The least embarrassing part of that particular indulgence, surprisingly, is that I got the milkshake at McDonalds. What's worse is that I went through the drive through. Dear god, what has become of me? If you know me and my generally healthy, mostly vegetarian, kosher eating habits, you are probably shocked to be reading this on many levels. Yikes! Okay, I know I'm judging people who go through drive-throughs. But I never expected myself to stoop THAT low! And in full partnership, Mike sank down there with me and ordered up his own milkshake. Ivy, in the backseat, whimpered "Iwan one!" Oy.

Oh yeah, and Mike has sympathy cravings I think...but they're not necessarily in line with mine. At one point I MAY have mentioned onion rings which led Mike to believe I was craving a Blooming Onion, which one gets at the Outback Steakhouse. Well the first problem is that I won't eat there, at least not the meat. Second, I think the closest one is at least 30 miles away...though that's probably a good thing because no one we know would see us there. Now Mike is incessantly reminding me that we need to go to Outback to get a Blooming Onion, and may have convinced our preggers friends Penina and Aaron to come along too...though same kosher issues apply. Aaron has thought that one through, apparently, and again the distance from our normal circle of peers helps, especially for the rabbis...Ontario here we come?

Eat your heart out Mike!

Anyway I'm looking forward to summer and eating lots of fresh, sweet fruits. Last time, I was pregnant through winter and devoured oranges and grapefruits like they were going out of style. I have so far gotten really into pineapple (ate almost an entire one by myself not too long ago) and all berries. I recently indulged in the season's first big summer watermelon. Mmmmm...juicy.

Speaking of food, can we talk vegetarianism for a moment? Being kosher has meant that I have mostly become a vegetarian by default. I don't eat meat out (unless it's kosher), and with kosher meat being expensive to buy, whatwith our tight budget and all, we don't cook a ton of meat at home. I've further struggled with going whole hog (silly expression here, I know) on becoming vegetarian, because I truly believe in some of the ethical and environmental reasons that say I should. But having grown up eating meat and not being repulsed by it (I don't really crave steaks or anything, but if a delicious kosher one was sitting in front of me I would probably eat it), I have yet to be tipped over the edge. And by keeping kosher, I am already exponentially more aware of what I eat than I was before, which is part of the whole point in my opinion.

All that being said, I decided that one of my new year's resolutions was going to go veg once and for all. I didn't think this would be hard, considering how close I already was. We have tons of great vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, and I'm used to looking for the lone vegetarian item on a menu or ordering an otherwise healthy and interesting salad substituting something for the chicken. I made it almost a month. And then I got knocked up.

But before I even knew about the baby, I had still made it only 4 weeks. I went to a dinner meeting at Pico Kosher Deli, where frankly, if you show up and order an egg salad sandwich, you're missing the point. I caved. I ordered the turkey club (mmm, fried pastrami bits playing the role of bacon), and loved every bite. Did not regret it for a second. I tried to convince myself that it didn't count and I would go back to the resolution, but then I peed on the stick, my world came crashing down, and all of a sudden I could not get enough protein. And interestingly enough, really only in the form of turkey at first! Turkey burgers, turkey sandwiches, turkey meatloaf. Good god, I've created a monster! I'm officially over the vegetarian experiment for now. Perhaps we will resume some time in the future. In the meantime, back to my regularly scheduled eating program...whatever that is.