Man vs. Food Aversions

For the first several weeks after finding out the I was pregnant, I was feeling pretty darn proud of my eating habits.  Over the past year, Jeromy and I have really improved our diet, especially in terms of what we cook.  We had gotten into a groove of eating dinners of lean meats and vegetables, and had pretty much stopped eating pasta, rice, etc. at home.  We had also switched to buying pretty much everything organic.  Picture weekly trips to Whole Foods where we smugly filled our re-usable grocery bags with all kinds of fruits and veggies and free-range chicken.   Back at the house, Jeromy would grill pieces of salmon while I made a salad or baked cauliflower and broccoli.  We were eating like health-conscious, environmentally-aware grown-ups.  

I had read about women who gleefully began "eating for two" within hours of seeing the positive pregnancy test.  Women who demolished entire packages of candy or potato chips on a daily basis, and ended up gaining 15 pounds during their first trimester.  Not me, I thought.  I was still making it to the gym most days, and was following all the Golden Rules of Pregnancy Eating, from "Thou shalt eat tons of leaf greens" to "Thou shalt NOT eat lunch meat."  I was the best pregnant lady ever!

.....Until the food aversions and cravings set in a few weeks ago.  Suddenly, I was eating nothing but  goldfish for lunch.  Goldfish!  Such packaged snack food hasn't entered our house in years.  The idea of eating meat or vegetables now sends me into a fetal position. If the aversion/craving monster that has taken over my body had its way all the time, my diet would consist of: plain pasta, naughty delivery pizza, cranberry-applesauce, macaroni and cheese, pumpkin pie, and Mexican food. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

One of the worst parts, though, is that the cravings and aversions change all the time!  Poor Jeromy needs a flow chart to keep up with them.  A few recent conversations:

Jeromy: What do you want for lunch?  

Me: (unintelligible grunt) 

Jeromy:  How about that vegetable pho you liked last week?

Me:   Ugh.  Don't even MENTION vegetable pho to me.

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Jeromy:  Why don't you try to eat something? 

Me:  (pathetic whimper)

Jeromy:  Here's the rest of the goldfish that you took with you to Colorado...how about those?

Me: I DO NOT WANT THE GOLDFISH!!!!!! EVER. AGAIN.

(Silence)

Jeromy:  Um, ok.  I guess I'll eat them then.  I finished the rest of the box while you were gone, anyway.

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Jeromy:  I'm trying to decide what to make for dinner...is there ANYTHING that might be appetizing to you?

Me:  Macaroni and cheese.

And you know what?  The poor guy when out and bought me some Mac and cheese.

***GEMS FROM JEROMY***

"I'm sorry that you're miserable.  If it makes you feel any better, it's making me miserable, too."

Baby Highlights So Far

Since I'm starting this blog after some of the big first events in the Smith Baby Saga have occurred, I'll do a little re-cap.

The Test(s)-- O Jeromy of Little Faith

The first test I took was apparently too early; it was negative.  But, as I still had my hopes/suspicions, I took another test three days later and saw the Holy Grail of the those Trying to Conceive--or "TTC" as some of the books and websites annoyingly put it--the double pink lines.  Unfortunately, you have to take the tests first thing in the morning, when Jeromy is not at his most cheerful or lucid (to be fair, I'm the same way, but the pee stick adrenaline had me WIDE awake this time).  I showed Jeromy the test as he stumbled out of bed to get ready for work.  He took one look at the very faint second line and said, "well, that doesn't look very convincing," which burst my bubble just a bit.  After I explained to him that, according to all of my obsessive reading, ANY second line, even a very faint one, is a good sign, he became cautiously excited.  He still found it very hard to believe that a piece of plastic purchased from Target could make any kind of medical diagnosis, which IS kind of amazing if you think about it.  I took two more tests over the next four days, which helped Jeromy become convinced that a bun was, in fact, in the oven. 

*NOTE: When I sent my immediate family an e-mail with the big announcement, I did actually attach a picture of the three positive tests, but as my darling brother (see previous post) squeamishly declared the picture to be "T.M.I." (Too Much Information) I have refrained from posting the picture here.

The Waiting--Rebecca's O.C.D. Fit

When I jubilantly dialed up the doctor's office the day after taking the third test, I was shocked to hear that they weren't even going to have me come in for another three weeks.  THREE WEEKS?!  I stomped around for a while muttering about cruelty towards pregnant women, especially ones like me who are a little bit O.C.D.  I mean, sure, I had immediately run out and bought What to Expect When You're Expecting and had been doing my homework, but they didn't know that, did they?  How did they know that I wasn't sitting around eating sushi and deli meats with unpasteurized cheese and washing it down with tequila?  I calmed down a little bit after reading online that it was pretty standard to wait that long, but I still think it's kind of crazy.

The First Appointment--Jeromy's Initiation into the Mysteries of the OBGYN Office

The big day FINALLY arrived, and we were off to the doctor.  Jeromy was able to take some time off from work, so he accompanied me, we won't say excitedly, but willingly, into one of the scary inner sanctums of the female world, the OBGYN office.  We had to sit in the waiting room for a while, and while I tried to think non-nauseous thoughts, Jeromy went to his happy place by playing solitaire on his phone.  Every few minutes he would look up and warily eye the several super-pregnant women in the room to make sure they weren't going to give birth on the spot.  After he used the restroom, I had to explain to Jeromy why there was a little metal door on the wall in there.  It was pretty funny to try to look at the whole situation through his eyes.

When we finally got to go back to the exam room, I realized that they really couldn't have made it any less husband-friendly.  We're talking anatomy posters and 3-D plastic models, not to mention the fact that the only chair in the room besides the doctor's stool was placed directly across from the exam table.  Think about it.  I almost sent poor Jeromy back out to the waiting room. 

The nurse went through a bunch of the boring medical history stuff with me, and then said that they were going to do an ultrasound---bingo!!!  I didn't think that they would do one so early.  So we got to go to another room, where, luckily, the guest chair was back behind my head.  The ultrasound was really reassuring and neat to see.  The doctor confirmed how far along I was by measuring the size of the baby (somehow), and we could even see the heartbeat!  Very exciting.  They printed a few pictures for us, gave me a tote bag of pregnancy magazines and brochures, and sent us on our way! 

The upshot of the appointment is that my due date is May 21st, everything looks fine so far, and we go back on November 2nd, when we should be able to actually hear the heartbeat.  Yay!

To Blog or Not to Blog...

When I told my favorite brother Travis that I was thinking about blogging during my pregnancy, he gave me such a disgusted look that you’d have thought that I had asked him to move to Austin to be the baby’s personal diaper changer.  Ironically, at the time of our conversation, I was helping Travis look over his TWO websites (one for his wedding to Victoria, and one for their trip around the world)….hypocrite, much?  I do kind of understand his reaction, though.  I’m sure he was imagining everything from detailed accounts of every weird/gross/boring symptom to sentimental raptures about the beauty of becoming a parent for the first time.  Certainly, there are some very self-involved, overly-mushy family and/or pregnancy blogs out there.  I really do hope to avoid these pitfalls, but I guess we’ll see!

So, while I do realize that a very large percentage of the world’s population go through pregnancy with no fanfare whatsoever, I have decided to start this blog for the following reasons:

1.    To show my brother who’s boss.  Who says that climbing to the Everest base camp, trekking through China, and RVing in New Zealand is more interesting to read about than having a little person grow in your belly?  Ok, probably a lot of people.  I’m actually really excited to read their blog.  I guess we’ll say that each Titus sibling will be having his or her own unique adventure over the next several months.

2.    To have more interaction with the outside world.  I used to talk to at least 150 people a day (if you count distracted 14-year-olds as “people”) and now I mostly talk to the dog and Jeromy.  They are both very loving and try to be good listeners, but neither has much idea what I’m going through; Lainey, because she’s been spayed, and Jeromy because he’s a guy.  So, the whole pregnancy thing has been a bit lonely thus far, mostly because of the first-trimester secrecy factor.  I thought about joining an online birth month community, but quickly vetoed that idea.  A group of hormonal women typing at each other from the anonymity of the computer…how stressful is that??!!

3.    To share this experience with any friends and family who are interested, especially those who don’t live nearby.  I figure that this will help me avoid flooding Facebook with updates and pictures that not everyone cares to see.  If people are bored or disgusted by the blog, they don’t have to read it.  :)