A Pregnant Pause

I definitely always freez a LOT of food. That way me and my two sons always have a meal almost "ready", since i often do not have lot of time cause another baby coming...

I agree with the marketing approach; I did that in my first pregnancy so that I could make what seemed appealing (though I kept basics in all the time: pasta, peanut butter, fruit, raw vegs.) We were on a tight budget so I had to satisfy cravings in little doses! Though, I'll admit, I ate ice cream at Baskin Robbins every day (it was on the way home from the grocery store!) for a few months. Then I craved lemonade (it was winter and I found every neighborhood diner that had lemonade! They were so kind!)
Try to balance the nutrition you need with your cravings as you can. Both you and baby need it!

I'm currently pregnant and had bad aversions the first trimester. I did whatever I needed to do to eat. I caved into my cravings and then once they settled down I was able to start eating a healthier diet. I really like the marketing idea, wish I would've known. I'm in my third trimester and am able to cook most things. We don't eat fish becuase I can't stand the smell but other than that, not much else bothers me.

My advice is go with the flow and do what you need to do to get through these next several weeks.

With #1, I ate watermelon and pimento cheese for six months. I got pregnant in April, so it wasn't too bad on the budget. Who knows what hubby ate, but I would say not much since he'd watch me eat the watermelon and pimento cheese and then barf it all up and do it again, over and over again. The last three months, I ate everything in sight, including an entire family size bag of chips with dip the night I went into labor. NEVER ask for an antacid in a hospital. NEVER...

With #2, we ate whatever I could pull into the buggy before #1 and morning sickness drove me to the car. Ever had sour kraut and peanut butter together. Trust me, no one was craving it, that was all we had one week. #1 ate nothing but baby food and nursed. He was 10 months when I realized I was three months pregnant. Thought the throwing up was from the migraines. ;) When morning sickness finally passed, and he was weaned, we had a few normal months where I just did shopping once a week as normal. Once he stopped eating out of those little jars, hubby and I got to eat again.

With #3, we were finally well off enough that hubby just brought home take out for the first three months. After that I seemed to bloom. She has always been the easiest of the three.

So, anyone wonder why there's not a number 4?

When you are well enough to cook make two or three of everything and freeze in single or double portions.

With my second child, I didn't have morning sickness at all, but I got "afternoon sickness." Basically I was nauseous from after lunch until early evening. I just cooked dinner in the morning, then my husband could reheat it for the family.

I'm a fish, veggies, and salad type--but when I was pregnant, I was absolutely starving at all times (especially in the first half of the pregnancy), and I craved steaks, potatoes . . . and beer! I actually kept alcohol-free beer in the house--never before or since--and had one every day. I have no idea what all of that was about, but my family still laughs about how they can tell I am pregnant because I start eating like a teenage boy.

I didn't have cravings or morning sickness, but I had aversions! With my son, I could not stand the smell or taste of coffee (I've been a coffee drinker since I was a toddler - no joke), and all meat smelled rotten. I had to ask my husband to smell the meat before I cooked it, because I couldn't tell if something really was rotten.

With my daughter, it got worse: EVERYTHING smelled rotten.

Weirdly, I could sort of hold my breath and eat, even though stuff tasted wrong, it didn't make me nauseated. The up side of this was that I also didn't get the ravenous appetite and didn't gain much weight in fat (but made up for that in retained water - scared the heck out of my doctors but my blood pressure stayed low).

I probably should mention that my pregnancies weren't typical; I never got a positive pregnancy test (I had to fight with doctors until the movement was obvious!) and both went over term - 10 months and 10 months two weeks.

Congratulations KUIK,

This may seem a little "radical" but if your aversions are really bad such that you accept that you might need to live on crackers and toast for a few weeks, how about switching some responsibilities with your husband? Let the person who is going to be doing the eating do the planning and even preparing?

Then stock up on your staples (crackers, rice...). Eat with him if you can, eat toast if you can't. Try to convince your husband to choose things that make good leftovers; then he can have them for lunch if you take a pass on dinner.

If he's reluctant, point out that this will mean that he can eat whatever he wants for a while. And try not to interfere much. You'll learn about his preferences and he gain an appreciation for how much work/thought goes into feeding him (sorry for the sexist assumption).

Meanwhile, instead of food responsibilities, you could take on some things in his portfolio - laundry? taxes? vacumming?

P.S. I've been there twice with the tummy trouble. With my first, my dinner for 8 weeks (from 6 to 14) was a small microwaved potato sprinkled with a little salt. I'm 18-weeks pregnant with my second and lost 6 pounds in my first trimester. A tip that I just recently learned from a friend of a friend is too space out liquids and solids. Wait at least 30 minutes after drinking to eat, wait at least 60 min after eating to drink. That did actually help a little.

With my second, and now third pregnancy I try to stock the freezer about from the minute I know I'm pregnant until those aversions kick in for me in a few weeks. I make double meals and if there's a meal with similar ingredients, I'll go ahead and make that at the same time and freeze it. For us that's easier on our budget, especially because we aren't near a grocery store often. Cravings have to wait out here in the country!

I only have one kiddo, but when I was pregnant with him I craved spicy food, like seriously burn your mouth and breathe fire spicy food. I would do weekly grocery shopping and still abide by my menu. But, here's the deal. When I was pregnant, I craved stuff by the week. For instance, I craved homemade meatloaf so bad at one point in time. I made a meatloaf and ate it for 3 days. Then, that just wasn't enough, I needed MORE meatloaf. So, I made another one. This happened often. I think I did the weekly thing for Nachos, meatloaf, chicken n dumplings, and bbq chicken.

So, if you're like me, try just doing weekly or bi-weekly menus. That way you can adjust to what you're craving. Oh, and always leave a portion of your monthly budget for those night-time cravings.

Did I mention I needed a banana split or Sundae every SINGLE night the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy? Yes ... I gained a lot of weight with my little one (you know ya'll were wondering!!).