Food Cravings

So I wrote a post about my food aversions, but haven't written at all about cravings!

In my first trimester, all I wanted at all times was chicken alfredo pasta. I could have eaten that every night for weeks. We only really made it once a week, but I craved it a whole lot. In fact, I craved Italian food in general, wanting pasta with marinara sauce often.

I also reverted back to a childhood diet. I ate lots of macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chocolate milk, popcorn… I just didn't want anything hot/spicy/ethnic (which, if you know me, is my favorite type of food).

One night I woke up DYING for a chicken buffalo wrap from Gonzo's Grille, which is on Long Island and absolutely inaccessible to me.

Right now, in the second trimester, I have craved chocolate and candy bars. My newest favorite candy in the whole world is Peanut Butter Snickers. It's like they have taken my two favorite candy bars (Snickers and Reece's Cups) and put them into one. Love it!

HALF WAY! Banana Baby!

In two days I will be at exactly 20 weeks, which is 5 months, and also half way. I've been wanting to write and update, but I have been super tired and worn out. Baby Selah is growing fast. She is now the size of a banana!



Recently, I have been feeling the baby move. Yesterday I felt her squirming around in there a whole bunch. To me, it feels like muscle spasms. Others say they feel like a fish is swimming around, or they feel a "flutter." It is such a quick, light feeling right now but I know it will increase as she grows. Phil keeps wanting to feel it but I know he wont feel it just yet. :)

I have gained 14 pounds so far, which is not too bad I don't think! My belly has popped out at around week 18-19, and is now very noticeable in clingy shirts. In loose fitting shirts, you might still think I am just getting chubs, and gaining weight around the middle. I am still wearing the same jeans I bought within the first month of my pregnancy, which are the same size I wore before I got pregnant, but they are comfortable and stretchy. They are quite possibly the most useful purchase I have ever bought!

I am looking forward to painting the baby's room, although we don't even have any other rooms painted in our house! I think it is the whole "nesting" thing that is persuading me to pick out paint colors. I cannot wait until the room is painted and the crib is put together. It will feel so much more real.

Tonight is our first birthing class. We will be learning the Bradley Method, which is a natural childbirth method. The class focuses on teaching nutrition, exercises, relaxation exercises, coaching for the fathers, and mostly just what exactly is going on in your body. We have an excellent teacher, Lindsey, who is an OM wife and mom and apparently a genius on everything baby. I'm looking forward to meeting the other women in the class who will be due around the same time as me.

Tomorrow is our last ultrasound, and I am really looking forward to it! This ultrasound will be more in depth, and they will look at the organs and how they're developing. I can't wait to see her again. It's unbelievable seeing her move and turn over, like she is just hanging out in there! Pretty crazy that I have a living human being just chilling in my tummy right now.

Recently I have been so tired. Just so utterly worn out and exhausted. Between OM and nannying, I have been working 50 hours a week, and I come home and just lay on the couch not wanting to do anything. The weekends are now a time to catch up on rest and laze around the house whereas I used to want to be out and about at all times on those two precious days off. So many people told me I'd have this superhuman energy in the second trimester... I don't know what they were thinking!

Heartburn, I hate you!

Lately I have been experiencing heartburn/acid reflux for the first time in my life… what a nightmare! It burns all the way down my esophagus, and in my throat. I have been trying to eat less acidic/spicy/citrus things, but that hasn't helped much. This is yet another sacrifice a mother has to make for her unborn child, albeit a small one. They say that heartburn comes and goes until the baby is born, and oftentimes get worse during the second half of the pregnancy… Bad news bears! (hehe I don’t know why I have a love/hate relationship with that saying).



In terms of the symptoms of pregnancy, acid reflux is not the worst. I'd say it's about 5th on the list (#1 being the worst):

1- nausea/morning sickness
2- bloat/weight gain/stepping on the scale and cringing
3- fatigue/extreme exhaustion no matter how much you sleep
4- lack of sleep due to the discomfort of a belly and the need to pee every couple of hours!
5- acid reflux/heartburn
6- vasovagal responses/passing out
7- acne from the extra oils your body produces

I am sure there are more unpleasant bodily experiences I have yet to have, but I sure hope not!