Probably Won't Be Trying That Again

*Warning: I'm going to complain about pregnancy symptoms*

Last night I had the opportunity to get together with a friend who was visiting. We had a great time catching up and she asked me if I liked being pregnant. At first I told her, not really, I missed having my body, and most of all being able to eat what I wanted when I wanted. Then I moderated a bit because there are really a lot of interesting and fun things about being pregnant, like feeling MC move and it's actually kind of fascinating watching my body change. But I have to say, all of the eating issues are just getting kind of tiresome.

I never threw up in the first trimester, but I had a lot of bouts of nausea. Generally I would wake up and feel fine, eat breakfast and be fine, but then the nausea would start to set it about midmorning, and the only way to deal with it was to eat snacks, nibble at stuff (which included surprising fondness for potato chips, which really settled my stomach). It was annoying, because I never really felt hungry, but I always felt like I need to eat. Finally after we moved here from Chicago, I started feeling hungry again, which was thrilling, but food troubles seem to continue.

Even now, I still frequently go through bouts of nausea in the afternoon, and then in the evening, can just feel really crummy (for lack of a better word) after dinner. Kind of a combination of heartburn, indigestion, a touch of nausea and a definite feeling of over-fullness. I can't pinpoint to any particular food (unless it's really too spicy), but just to amount of food at dinner. I'm also like a constant burping and belching machine. It was amusing for the first 4 months, but I have to say it's gotten a little old. To try to combat this problem, as well as to the fact that I can now get ravenously hungry in the morning, I've been trying to keep the meals smaller, and add some snacks. The main problem is that I am just not a snacker. I like my three meals a day, with snacks reserved for special occasions, and that's about it, so I think I can end up overeating still, because I just want to keep my dinners bigger. But it helps, so I'm trying to stick with it. I can imagine the heartburn and over-fullness is only going to get worse, so keeping the meals small is probably a good idea.

Today I think I crossed over the top with feeling yucky. I stayed out too late last night with a friend and had a workshop this morning, so I decided I would treat myself to some coffee with caffeine. Generally, I've been sticking with decaf tea in the morning, with the thought that on occasion when I need I can switch to the caffeinated version and it will kick a good punch since I no longer drink it much. But it's pretty much been tea and not coffee, although I've had some decaf here and there. The coffee was great and I was interested and lively for my meeting, but then in the afternoon I felt horrible. Riding the train home, I thought perhaps for the first time in this pregnancy I might throw up, and I don't think other train riders would have appreciated it! Maybe it was the acid, maybe the caffeine, but I felt like my esophagus was just barely bothering to keep the contents of my stomach out of my throat. Now that I've been home a little while, and had some toast, water, and tums, I'm starting to recover a bit, although my esophagus still feels uncomfortably pressured. I don't think I'll be trying any of the real stuff again any time soon!