12 Weeks Prego

I remember getting so excited to hit the 12 week mark during my first pregnancy. The nausea was rough, and everyone promised that it would get better during my second trimester. In my mind, 12 weeks=3 months=first trimester. Boy was I disappointed when I found out the second trimester didn't start until 14 weeks or later. I actually dealt with nausea for about 16 weeks with my first baby. I'm believing this one won't be quite so long.

I can say that the nausea has lessened ever so slightly. I'm still on the couch more often than not, but I've made it into the kitchen a few times to clean dishes or cook dinner (usually still with my hubby's help), and I have avoided a lot of problems by eating saltine crackers on a regular basis. They fix most anything:

**Morning sickness: Before I get out of bed in the morning, I eat a few crackers and let them settle in my tummy. By the time I get up, I'm okay to make breakfast without getting sick.

**Random crippling hunger pains: Hunger strikes and I can barely walk to the kitchen, let alone fathom the idea of dealing with the refrigerator smell (more on that later), I grab my rescue bag of crackers and down a few until my hubby has time to make me some real food.

**Late Night Tummy Rumbles: No matter what I eat during the day, hunger strikes right after I brush my teeth and my head is hitting the pillow. Enter trusty saltines again.

This is probably one of my least healthy habits, and I'm almost ashamed to admit it. But there are a few beliefs that allow me to eat the evil white crackers:

1. Listen to your body. My body knows what it needs. And right now if it doesn't get that thing, it will rebel in the worst way--usually in the form of retching. And I know my body doesn't particularly enjoy that.

2. This isn't a permanent habit. It's only a few weeks. I'm biding my time to get to a healthier meal plan, and since I've done this before, I know that I will get my appetite back, and I will change to better foods.

3. Eating saltines bothers me because, as a general, rule I try to avoid white food. White flour predominant in crackers is a big red flag. While I haven't switched my crackers to a healthier option--I'm sure Kashi has something that's better for me; I have switched my white bread (toast with honey is another staple keeping me alive right now) to the best bread I can find--made locally with minimum ingredients, and everything inside is as healthy as it gets.

On another note, my sensitivity to the smell of the fridge has reached a horrifying level. I must keep my nose firmly plugged when opening the fridge or else whatever I ate last is sure to reappear. What's interesting is that other fridges don't bother me, just mine. My husband has cleared old leftovers, cleaned shelves, and I even put a big open container of baking soda in there; but I still have to be at least 50 feet away before the door opens. Last pregnancy it was both my fridge and the teacher's lounge--when I walked in, I could instantly smell every single food/meal/snack that had been microwaved or stored in the lounge. What kind of smells do you struggle with? Do you find that it's the familiar and everyday smells that bother you more? I do.

*Photo courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt