morning sickness: not just for mornings.

Growing up, I remember hearing horror stories from my parents about how sick my mom was during both her pregnancies. (Case in point: my dad had to cook up at church because my mom couldn't stand the smell of food in the house -- thank goodness he had an extra kitchen to use!) I had read that pregnancy-related nausea tends to be inherited, so I braced myself for the worst. Now that I'm nearing the end of the 12th week, with all signs pointing towards queasiness being on its way out, I have to say I've been (relatively) lucky. (Knocking on our wood coffee table right now!)

Weeks 6, 7, and 8 were the hardest. First of all, "morning" sickness is such a terrible name -- in my case, it was usually "early and late" sickness, meaning that I felt the worst when I first woke up and then starting at about 6pm until I went to bed I got steadily worse again. I ate a lot of baked potatoes with cottage cheese, fruit, and saltines. I also found that starting the morning with two packets of apple-cinnamon instant oatmeal, milk, and a handful of frozen blueberries thrown in got me through the next several hours in decent shape (this is still what I eat for breakfast every morning -- I'm scared to go off it!). I never actually threw up, but the foods that got me closest (and that I haven't eaten since) were butternut squash ravioli, acorn squash and quiche -- three foods I ordinarily love and now can't stand the thought of. Oh, and sweet foods (chocolate, especially) and coffee were off limits, too, which is pretty much unheard of for me!

In week 9, I suddenly felt great again -- which really, really scared me. This was about the time I found out that I had the subchorionic hematoma, so I was in a tailspin of worry. But never fear -- queasiness came roaring back the morning of parent-teacher conferences, naturally, so I struggled through two days of putting on a smiling face while subsisting on a diet of saltines and peppermint tea. The "morning" sickness continued through weeks 10 and 11, and just as I was about to start week 12...it faded.

I'm still not feeling completely normal -- if I don't eat on a regular schedule, I start to feel ill, certain foods are still off-limits, and at the same time I'm able to eat foods I never was before (I actually used ketchup, which I've always hated, on some Belgian fries at the French market in Chicago last weekend instead of my usual mayo) -- but I'm crossing my fingers that, as is true for 90%+ of women, the end of the first trimester will also be the end of the perpetual queasies! And after 7 months of meat-free living, I'm actually looking forward to turkey on Thursday...