Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Pregnancy Food Aversions: Why My Diet is 90% Popcorn at the Moment...

This pregnancy, so far, has been pretty easy.  I haven't had the horrible morning sickness that I had with Sadie and to a lesser extent with Maggie.  I haven't had to get multiple chest x-rays from various viruses turning into bronchitis (but thankfully not pneumonia!) like I did while I was pregnant with Patch (and was sick with something or another nearly the entire time).

There is one thing that is setting this pregnancy apart though.

Food aversions.

In the past I had mild food aversions, usually in the first trimester.  While I was pregnant with Sadie, I hated guacamole pretty much the entire time (which, if you know me, is bizarre), and I usually can't eat meat pretty much at all in the first trimester, but other than that it hasn't been a big deal.

This time has been a little different.  I keep reminding myself of how much milder this is than the morning sickness was with Sadie and at least I'm not in the hospital like I was when I was sick with Patch... but I still can't feel exactly good about my diet at the moment.

There are two things that I can eat right now without getting sick.  These are the two foods that are okay almost 100% of the time.  They are freshly air popped unbuttered popcorn and a certain type of California rolls that they have at Meijer.  Since Meijer California rolls (don't worry, there's no raw fish in California rolls) aren't an every day budgetary item around here that makes unbuttered popcorn my go to food.

Popcorn for breakfast... popcorn for lunch... popcorn, popcorn, popcorn.  The food that doesn't make me sick.

It's not that I don't have cravings.  I do.  I'll message Paul in the library and tell him that I am starving and that I need (fill in the blank with something that sounds wonderful) right this minute.  Was he really going to study for too much longer?  And he'll bring said item home and he does and I'll take one bite and... I'm sick.  Literally sick.  Running to the bathroom sick.  Instant sickness without the all day morning sickness sort of sick.

It doesn't help that 90% of food sounds bad all the time.  I'm doing a lot of cooking and serving and not eating because everything just sounds... kind of gross.

There are occasional exceptions right now.  Sometimes hot peppers are okay... and most days I can squeeze in one small, non-popcorn meal without getting too sick.  Yesterday I had a greek yogurt and patted myself on the back for a good hour after eating almost-the-whole-thing without incident.  Sometimes corn chips are okay (what is it with corn this time around?).

This may be the best not-gaining-to-much-weight-during-this-pregnancy-"strategy" ever... but I'm ready for it to fade.  Yet I can't help wondering if it will since at 18 weeks this clearly isn't a first trimester sort of thing.

I'm reminding myself that it could be worse.  This really isn't that bad at all.  I could have morning sickness all the time... whereas most of the time I'm feeling pretty good.

I did have one panicky moment where our popcorn popper broke (from overuse I imagine) and I scrambled over to Amazon to find the one kitchen gadget that I can't live without.  I found an air popper being sold by a store that was in a "damaged box" for $12 shipped that saved the day (and the box wasn't even damaged, so I have no idea what they were talking about).

So... popcorn and prenatal vitamins...

Have you had any pregnancy with intense food aversions?  Did it happen to ease up at any point, or last all the way through?

8 comments:

  1. Only one I ever had was eggs. My first full term pregnancy (we lost a baby before that) I could not abide eggs in any form other than a chocolate eggnog that killed the egg taste or in baked goods the entire pregnancy. With my daughter I was back to eating eggs sometime in the second trimester. My daughter has had weird aversions that actually continued after pregnancy. With her first it was ginger (after using candied ginger for morning sickness. It was two years before she could face ginger again. With her second it was radishes. He is now almost 16 months old and radishes are still a no go.

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  2. I Am 9.5 weeks right now, first pregnancy and oh my lord everything looks disgusting. Foods i usually love I can't even think about. It has so far helped me not blow up into something unrecognizable, so that's good i guess. But I've been craving apples, cottage cheese, and unfortunately crunchy cheetos...

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  3. How do you get enough calories with unbuttered popcorn? A 100 calorie the microwave kind is a bag big enough to split into three decent sized bowls for my kids. To get more than 1000 calories a day I can only imagine you would have to eat gallons! :) Is your Dr concerned about lack of protein or fat for the little one (since those don't come in prenatal vitamins)?

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  4. Liz- I can totally relate to the aversions lasting! I was weird about avocados for months after Sadie was born!

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  5. Anonymous (#1)- The first trimester can be so brutal! Hopefully you'll see a dramatic change in the next few weeks! And those are good cravings to have (I craved fruit like crazy with Patch!)!

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  6. Hi Anonymous #2-

    I've found that none of my OBs have ever been very concerned about how much I've been able to keep down as long as I'm keeping down liquids. I mean, this time I'm keeping down way more than with Sadie and still more than with Mae... and each day one meal is at least good (like the greek yogurt, which has tons of protein, that's why I was so excited!), so I'm not really all that worried either. From what most of the doctors I've talked to have said babied tend to take what they need from their mother's bodies... and at least I wasn't underweight going in (I actually checked today and found that one site that used height and weight to predict pregnancy weight gain said 8 lbs was the ideal amount for 18 weeks and that's exactly what I've gained, so it seems I'm on track!).

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  7. Yes, I have terrible food aversions with all my pregnancies. With my first child I lived on mac n cheese, and noodles with alfredo sauce. I couldn't eat meat until my 3 trimester, I couldn't eat fruit or vegetables least I gag on the texture. Then I started getting sick on noodles...
    Luckily I was then able to eat turkey sandwiches, even though you are not suppose to eat lunch/deli meat. It was the only thing I could eat, so what was I going to do. I could also eat the occasional chips or what have you, but meat, red sauce, stir fry, vegetables, fruit (especially apples)all made me sick.
    I can't eat popcorn, when pregnant, because the thought of the heart burn it will give me, is pretty much a food aversion. LOL

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