8-9 Weeks Preggo

I'd like to set the record straight for those of you who haven't been pregnant yet and are worried about crazy cravings.

To begin with, I can't think of a single person I know (and I've got lots of friends with kids) who had a desperate moment when she woke up at two in the morning, grabbed her hubby's shirt, and pled with desperate eyes and a frantic voice, "I need pickles and ice cream now!"

Now, I'm not saying this doesn't happen to anyone; but from my experience, there's a more realistic scenario to expect:

More than dealing with cravings, I've had to deal with what DOESN'T sound good. To be honest, this ends up being more of a factor because after you've eliminated everything that doesn't sound good, there's not much left to choose from. This is even more difficult if you're dealing with nausea. You need to eat every couple of hours; but there's so much that doesn't sound good that your variety is limited--and if you're eating the same things over and over, those items quickly graduate to the doesn't-sound-good list because you're sick of eating them.

As for craving something . . . I have had foods that I either see on TV or hear someone talking about that sound good, and that food just gets stuck in my head. I want to eat it, but many times I don't actually eat the food for a few days, so it's nowhere near the must-have-now syndrome.

There are a few foods that I've wanted more than once. With my first pregnancy I ate quite a few burgers (and I had been off of red meat before the pregnancy) and grapefruit. The only reoccurring craving so far with this second pregnancy has been Japanese food. I think the main reason is because it's generally more bland than other foods I regularly ate pre-pregnancy (i.e. Mexican).

It's probably important to note as far as crazy cravings (e.g. a friend of mine craved marshmallow cream--straight from the jar!), it's hard to say with me. I love cooking. I love new things. I love love love pickled things--so pickles, olives, sauerkraut, etc. are all common players in my diet. The only thing I can think of that would be "strange" for me to eat would be the stuff I'm slowly eliminating for health reasons--processed prepackaged foods, foods with high fructose corn syrup or MSG, canned food, etc. And right now, those things haven't had much appeal, so I've been doing pretty well.

As for nine weeks progress--not a lot has changed for my day-to-day living. I'm finding strategies that work for fending off nausea--crackers before I even get out of bed and waiting 20 minutes to get up; toast/rice cakes with honey; avoiding high-sugar items, fried foods, and dairy; etc. I was eating a lot of yogurt at first, but now I'm starting to think that's the reason I wasn't feeling good--I eat very little dairy usually. I also switched from my prenatal to kids' gummy vitamins. I'll switch back once my stomach settles down.

My little peanut is about an inch long, but since this is my second pregnancy, he/she's already making its presence known in the form of a small baby bump. We'll get our pregnancy-confirmation ultrasound next week. I'm still super super nervous that it's going to be twins. I think I might cry if it is. Of course, I'll be fine with it; it's just really overwhelming to think of right now.