Feeding the fetus
I've decided to just post as I go along. I'm so used to having a blog to tell about my life that this waiting period seems surreal, like it's happening in a vaccuum. We have five weeks to go before we can properly tell anyone we're pregnant (though we'll likely tell the family as soon as we confirm a heartbeat) and my head is trying to wrap around it all in between work and moving and fandom and everything else.
When I was in college, we had this thing called the "Scrounge Line". If you were a "scrounger" (a college student living off-campus and low on funds or otherwise frugal) you could go sit in the commons in front of the place where people took their trays in to the dishwashers. As they passed you, you could point at the leftover food on their trays and ask, "Gonna eat that? Can I have it?" They'd tell you if they were sick or just didn't want to feed you, or they'd give it to you. There was a whole etiquette to it, actually. It was all very cool. I subsisted that way for the better part of a year once, until I asked someone for something on her plate and she said, "No, I have mono." I figured it wasn't worth it, after that.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, I ate really well doing that. The food all tasted crappy anyway, so I looked at plates and instead of thinking, "Hey, pizza! Look, sandwich!" I thought "Hey, fiber! Look, iron! Some calcium!" Since I was eating for sustenance rather than pleasure, I got a really varied and rich diet from other people's leavings. It was great.
For the last week, since thank all the Gods in heaven I do not (yet) have morning sickness, I've been feeling a similar feeling. I wake up and have my one treasured cup of coffee (which now feels like a luxury, not the taken-for-granted necessity it has always been) and think to myself, "What shall we feed the fetus today?"
This grosses my partner out. :) He says, "It's not a pet! Don't talk about it like that!" But I persist, if only in my own head. I mean, what is pregnancy, anyway? You feed the fetus, take it to thevet doctor, and shelter it until it's ready to move on and become a baby. Essentially, I'm just a walking, talking chrysalis right now, for something that's about half an inch long at most. There's not a lot of stuff I can do in this scenario, and passive waiting makes me crazy, so I am very focused on the part I can control. Except for the childbirth part, which gives me fucking hives and which I am just not thinking about yet. Shut up. It is the first trimester and I have time.
So anyway. Fetuses like: whole grain, beans, certain fishes, meat, cheese, yoghurt, milk, broccoli and other greens, veg, fruit, potatoes, nuts, and other healthy schtuff. Fetuses do not like: a diet composed of nothing but starch and cheese (damnit), tuna, lunch meats, caffeine, alcohol, lots of refined sugars, or, apparently, salami and garlic. Just the smell of the last two is...yeah. Eccch.
I've been eating like a fucking queen. Today's bean salad (1 head steamed broccoli, cut up; ½ can black olives, cut up; 1 can dark red kidney beans; 1 can garbanzos; 1 tomato, cut up, ½ lemon worth of juice, ⅓ C salad dressing, serve with cottage cheese) was awesome, and the morning was yoghurt and granola and blueberries and orange juice. I miraculously have almost no sugar cravings (rock!) and an infinite desire for cucumbers on bagel with cream cheese. I haven't eaten so many fresh fruits and veggies in ever. Also, spicy South Indian food. Yum.
So, thus far, pregnancy kind of sucks (I cried all the way home from the office yesterday, for no reason at all, and slept 10 hours last night) but the food is fantastic. Who woulda thunk it?
When I was in college, we had this thing called the "Scrounge Line". If you were a "scrounger" (a college student living off-campus and low on funds or otherwise frugal) you could go sit in the commons in front of the place where people took their trays in to the dishwashers. As they passed you, you could point at the leftover food on their trays and ask, "Gonna eat that? Can I have it?" They'd tell you if they were sick or just didn't want to feed you, or they'd give it to you. There was a whole etiquette to it, actually. It was all very cool. I subsisted that way for the better part of a year once, until I asked someone for something on her plate and she said, "No, I have mono." I figured it wasn't worth it, after that.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, I ate really well doing that. The food all tasted crappy anyway, so I looked at plates and instead of thinking, "Hey, pizza! Look, sandwich!" I thought "Hey, fiber! Look, iron! Some calcium!" Since I was eating for sustenance rather than pleasure, I got a really varied and rich diet from other people's leavings. It was great.
For the last week, since thank all the Gods in heaven I do not (yet) have morning sickness, I've been feeling a similar feeling. I wake up and have my one treasured cup of coffee (which now feels like a luxury, not the taken-for-granted necessity it has always been) and think to myself, "What shall we feed the fetus today?"
This grosses my partner out. :) He says, "It's not a pet! Don't talk about it like that!" But I persist, if only in my own head. I mean, what is pregnancy, anyway? You feed the fetus, take it to the
So anyway. Fetuses like: whole grain, beans, certain fishes, meat, cheese, yoghurt, milk, broccoli and other greens, veg, fruit, potatoes, nuts, and other healthy schtuff. Fetuses do not like: a diet composed of nothing but starch and cheese (damnit), tuna, lunch meats, caffeine, alcohol, lots of refined sugars, or, apparently, salami and garlic. Just the smell of the last two is...yeah. Eccch.
I've been eating like a fucking queen. Today's bean salad (1 head steamed broccoli, cut up; ½ can black olives, cut up; 1 can dark red kidney beans; 1 can garbanzos; 1 tomato, cut up, ½ lemon worth of juice, ⅓ C salad dressing, serve with cottage cheese) was awesome, and the morning was yoghurt and granola and blueberries and orange juice. I miraculously have almost no sugar cravings (rock!) and an infinite desire for cucumbers on bagel with cream cheese. I haven't eaten so many fresh fruits and veggies in ever. Also, spicy South Indian food. Yum.
So, thus far, pregnancy kind of sucks (I cried all the way home from the office yesterday, for no reason at all, and slept 10 hours last night) but the food is fantastic. Who woulda thunk it?
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