A Princess Is Born

Have you ever taken a beloved toy away from a child? Or encouraged them to give up their favorite pacifier? Well food is one of my well-loved toys—it’s something I like to play with, plan, and organize. Mothers are always saying not to play with your food, but it can be a pleasurable pastime or hobby! Therefore, the first three months of pregnancy were horrible for me. I couldn’t eat anything and I discovered for myself what a misnomer “morning” sickness is as my nausea and other symptoms did not contain themselves to one section of the 24 hour day. Towards the end of the first 3 months I called my mom in tears because I was so hungry, but I was petrified that whatever I ate would come right back up. Being the wise and wonderful mother that she is, she suggested pretzels and although I only had stale ones available at that moment I tried them and they stayed down. On the weekend I ventured to cook a meal of baked chicken breast, canned organic green beans, and basmati rice and to this day I remember how absolutely amazing that meal tasted.

The next 9 months were unremarkable food wise. I had few cravings (although cocoa crispies cereal with strawberries on them were a favorite breakfast for a while) and no more nausea. The rest of the pregnancy was characterized by stress. I didn’t used to think of stress and food at the same time, but I have learned they are related! I worked full-time throughout my pregnancy and we also decided that it would be a wonderful time to buy a house and move in before the baby was born. We started looking in January and didn’t move into until a week before my due date. By April we were prepared to move—-a look in our living room revealed boxes stacked from floor to ceiling! At the same time my best friend and sister was engaged and she asked me to be the matron of honor so there were wedding plans in there somewhere. Finding a dress that would fit me when I was nine months pregnant along with fielding threats of not to go into labor before the wedding was finished were more items on my plate.

Finally, on August 5th, I went into the hospital to be induced. They don’t allow you to eat anything after midnight on these occasions, but again I had butterflies in my stomach plus and I wasn’t in the least hungry. The Princess was born by 3 pm that afternoon and I had my long-awaited meal soon after. I don’t remember particularly what it was, but I was hungry!

After that I didn’t cook for quite some time!! My husband cooked for me, my mom cooked for me, and some wonderful ladies in the church also cooked for me. The next couple of months flew by and before I knew it, it was time to go back to work again. Those first 8 months of the Princess’ life are a bit of a blur. I don’t remember having time to cook and plan meals let alone eat them! Princess was a wonderful baby, slept well at night, grew, and loved interacting with people.

Meanwhile, everything was wacky. I had cravings like I had never experienced before which were mostly for sugar and carbohydrates. I was tired all the time and my PMS symptoms were off the charts. My midwife and chiropractor encouraged me that these symptoms were related to hormones could quite possibly continue up to a year after I discontinued nursing. In other words, just sit tight and wait it out! I always planned on nursing the first year at a minimum so this wasn’t particularly encouraging news. My midwife suggested birth control, but that was something that I wasn’t ever willing to try. So meanwhile, I just plodded along trying to make the best of things and not succeeding particularly well.

In 2011 for the first time in my life I decided to make a New Year’s Goal. Not a resolution because I wanted to make certain I would not fail and just one goal to try to keep me focused. I also decided not to make it very detailed so I would be able to report some progress no matter what happened!

You can read Part One here

Continue to Part Three!

First image courtesy of Rachel Hofton at flickr.com