|
Week 13
~ Food Aversions
Just after I finished writing that last journal entry, things took a turn for the worst. Not only am I now exhausted but I have gone from being just nauseous to regularly throwing up! It's smells that start it. The smell of the Lysol all purpose cleaner I have been using to clean the kitchen (my mom claims it works better on grease than what I used to use) is one of the worst culprits. If I happen to inhale while I'm spraying the counters or sink I instantly start heaving. At least I'm in the kitchen and near a sink! The worst though is Tommy's dirty diapers. One scent of them instantly sends me running to the bathroom, and there is nothing I can do about that. He is unfortunately a very regular child so I have at the very least one, and often two or three diapers to deal with before Tom gets home from work. Over the weekend I hardly threw up at all because I made Tom change every dirty and wet diaper (if they are very strong smelling wet ones that does it too), but he's back at work today and I started throwing up again!
The food aversions are horrible too. I cannot eat meat except for chicken. And I can't handle raw chicken. Last Thursday Tom had a really miserable day at work so instead of just tossing chicken into a pan to cook which I can do without really looking at it much, I decided to bread it for him. His absolute favorite is breaded chicken cutlets, and they are fairly easy to make. But between tenderizing the meat and doing the breading I threw up a couple of times. All in all I think it was worth it because he had a nice surprise when he got home! The thing that bothers me most with food aversions is that I get hungry and when I think of food everything makes me get sick! And then I'll get these really odd cravings for something like a big fat juicy hamburger smothered with cheese on a toasted bun from a greasy little hamburger joint, and I know that I can't eat it, but I still can't stop thinking about it. Then I think about it so much that I start to feel ill because I actually imagine myself eating the meat. It's a no win situation! I know I can't eat any meat but chicken, I've tried. I made something with ground beef and got really ill after one bite. I also went out to lunch at an Indian restaurant with a buffet while my sister was here and tried to eat some different lamb dishes, but they all instantly made my stomach feel sour. All the chicken dishes were fine, but I'm getting pretty bored with chicken! Even with Tom's famous spaghetti, I could only eat the pasta and not the meatballs.
I also feel like a whiner. I can eat so many more foods now than I could with my last pregnancy, but at the same time I'm sick of it. I always get an aversion to something I love. Last time it was potatoes, couldn't go near them or smell them cooking. I had to keep my windows rolled up when driving because I could smell fast food fries cooking from a mile away! This time my first aversion is garlic. Tom, who is part Italian, once said, "I have never seen a non-Italian cook with as much garlic as you do. Come to think of it I have never even seen an Italian cook with as much either!" I get this from my mother. She is Mediterranean French and they cook like the Italians. But right now all it takes is the mere thought of garlic to make me ill!
I actually think that perhaps the morning sickness is getting a little bit better. I have more of an appetite now than I did before. Although I just realized its 5pm and all I've eaten today is a handful of cheerios, about 3 cups of popcorn and two cinnamon hard candies. We literally have nothing in the house to eat, or nothing that I can eat. As soon as Tom comes home I'll be dragging him along to the grocery store. I can't really shop alone because Tommy is a real handful right now and I also can't go down some aisles because of the food aversions. For instance cheese is really good to me right now and I'll often snack on some string cheese, but deli meats and hot dogs are in the same aisle so I'll have to send him down that aisle for me! And brie. I adore brie and have really been wanting some on warm fresh French bread, but of course being pregnant its on the no-no list! I think that is the first thing I'll eat after the baby is born!
I'm not hungry today despite having eaten so little. I have been drinking a ton. All last week I couldn't even stomach water. It made me throw up to have plain water in my stomach so I was drinking a lot of soda and diluted Gatorade and fruit juice and I constantly had that sickly sweet taste in my mouth, but now I can drink water again and I've just been downing it! No matter how much I drink I still feel dehydrated. My lips are chapped and my eyes are dry. So I think all the water I have drank today is keeping me from feeling hunger.
Ok, before you all start lecturing me, I have now eaten! Tommy woke up from his nap and ran to the kitchen asking for a snack so I peeled an orange and sliced and peeled an apple and made a tray with some crackers and peanut butter to dip the apples in (so we did have a few things in the house to eat! I guess I'm just sick of these same foods all the time.) I munched quite a bit even though I still didn't feel hungry! Now I'm getting reflux from the peanut butter, but I suppose it was good for me to get some food in me, especially because Tom called and said he'd be home a little later than planned.
I went for my first massage this weekend! I can't remember if I mentioned this in my last journal and I'm too lazy to check, but the one doula I'm considering is also a massage therapist and I figured I would make an appointment to have a chance to get to know her better and to hopefully relieve some of this back pain I've been having. She was wonderful! I felt very comfortable with her and she has extremely strong hands! I prefer a deep massage, not that I've ever had a true massage before, but when friends and family have given me a back rub I like them to really dig in. She does this. She has been doing this for nine years and was trained in Finland, where she is from, and uses a Swedish massage technique, not that I'd be able to tell one kind of massage from another. I just know that it felt good, at least during the massage. The next day I was in horrible pain. That night I couldn't get comfortable and my lower back was in agony. When I woke in the morning my neck and the tops of my shoulders felt like they were all bruised. She had said that after a first massage it is normal to feel very stiff and sore the next day because you are using and focusing on muscles that you don't use that often. I also know that my neck was the most tense part of me during the massage, and my lower back was causing me problems before I went in so it makes sense that that area would be sore after too. Today is much better and I definitely will be going back to her! I interview the other doula tomorrow night and deep down hope I don't like her because the decision will be much easier! Tom wants me to get weekly massages now, but the frugal me thinks it's too expensive. I definitely want to go back and I think I could treat myself to once a month, or a little more often if I feel I need it. I definitely think it will help going into labor relaxed as opposed to very tense! I also think it will be a great way to get to know my doula if I choose her. We talked the entire hour and I really like her and feel very comfortable with her.
Well that is about it for this week. My appointment with the midwife is in two days so I am sure I'll have a lot to talk about after that! I might even write my fourteen week journal a bit early. I will technically be exactly fourteen weeks on the day I see her. I hope she can hear a heartbeat on the Doppler as well. I can't wait to hear that sound!
|
