First off, thank you to everyone who comes and reads this blog! We are so happy to share all this craziness with you! But also, I think what is going to be the most fun is looking back at it in a few years and remembering what a wild ride it was. I truly feel so lucky to get to share this experience with two of the coolest chick’s I know and am proud to work with every day ;)
As you might expect, the first trimester around here was a bit of a struggle, to say the least. If you’ve had a baby (or maybe your wife or girlfriend has), then you know how tough it can be! Well, except on Alicia - she’s one of those rare breeds unicorns who felt totally fine those first 12 weeks. Myself on the other hand, let’s just say I’m proud to be still standing after that. That whole “You’ll turn a corner soon” thing the Dr’s tell you? Well, my corner was more like 20 weeks, not 12. So, yea, still standing is an accomplishment. And as for Amy, well, lets just say that she got sick but maybe she just handles it better than me. Really she just turned into a bloodhound who could smell anything in a 5 mile radius - including fully packaged Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups all the way across the studio.
So, this post is all about first trimester struggles and cravings (or in my world, what I could tolerate) and shoot outs to all the area restaurants who dealt with our odd requests!
How we Survived
Applesauce. Did you know you can survive off applesauce and goldfish crackers? Well, you can and I did. I’m not advocating it to be the best, most healthy route, but when it’s all that will stay down you just do what you can. Isn’t that what prenatal are for?! (Just Kidding). Tropical Snow was also usually a good choice, but my list ends there. If it was hot, get it out of here. Neither Amy nor I could really stomach hot food. Amy at a lot of Saltine crackers and pretzels. But her biggest struggle was drinks. Water tasted off, milk was too heavy, everything else was too sweet. She wanted carbonation without the aftertaste. One day at Wal-Mart I went to the water aisle and bought just about every brand/flavor of carbonated water or drinks that weren’t soda that I could find for her. Sadly, nothing worked. Except one day she walked in with a Squirt and that seemed to do the trick.
Cravings
The thing about cravings in the first trimester is by the time you get whatever odd choice that inevitably requires 3 or 4 trips to different stores or towns, by the time you get it and open it, you are throwing up in a trash can outside the gas station. Yep. It happened.
Thank goodness for a very sweet, supportive husband who went to O’Fallon at 8:30 on a weeknight because all I wanted was cheesecake from Mungo’s. Of course though, they were sold out (because if you know what’s good for you, when you go to Mungo’s you order the most amazing cheesecake that ever existed). Shoutout to Mungos who after my husband told them his wife was pregnant offered 2 free orders of tiramisu. However, as thoughtful as that was and considering this is baby #3, he knew that wasn’t the request and it wouldn’t do. So, he stopped at 3 different stores on the way home to find some form of cheesecake. He walked in the door a little past 10 with Mungo’s pasta con broccoli, salad and bread, cheesecake from Target, Dierbergs and Shnucks. I’d like to tell you I ended my night enjoying an amazing meal followed up by cheesecake, but in all reality, that ended up in the fridge and I ended up with applesauce.
A few weeks later all I wanted was a baked potato. Not the kind you make at home, only a Popeye’s baked potato. As luck would have it, it was Mother’s Day weekend so naturally Popeyes was fully booked and wasn’t accepting take out orders. I cried. One the phone. To the nice lady who answered. I told her I was pregnant and very sick and it’s all I wanted. She made an exception and let me order one to pick up at the bar. Then I cried because I was happy. Dang hormones. So, thank you Popeyes for never failing this girl! Best baked potato I ever had in my entire life that night!
Amy’s life revolved around Taco boats. You read that right - Taco. Boats. They are shells that look like boats that make tacos easier to eat. I think they made them literally every single night for a month. That and pasta salad. I’ve never met people in my life who love pasta salad they way Amy and Brad (and Lo, too!) did during that time. And of course, twinkles and nutella became a staple in our "session snack bag". Then there was the Berkmann’s cake fiasco. Lo turned one, yay! So, Amy ordered a cake twice the size of what they actually needed to make sure she had leftovers for a long time. Enter Brad. He was unaware of the plan and promptly threw all leftover cake away after 2 days. Tears were shed that day. You really can’t have your cake and eat it, too - even if you’re pregnant.
Alicia - well, she just didn’t eat much. She didn’t feel bad. And life pretty much went on as normal. Dang, unicorns. If only we were all so lucky. ;)
Since then things have gotten slightly better… But not any less weird and probably just more complex. Here is a current list of cravings and odd requests.
Hillary
- Subway Cold Cut Trio (Yes, I realize I shouldn’t have lunchmeat without warming it up, but I like to live on the wild side now and then), with only TWO tomatoes.
- Lemons (If you have awful acid reflux this is not a particularly fun craving)
- Hot Sauce - I’ll take it on everything, thanks. (Again, with the reflux….)
- Millside Taco Tuesday, tomato on the side (Why can’t Tuesday be every day?!)
- What I miss the most? Wine. I miss wine SO MUCH. Thankfully Chris found me some pretty close alcohol free wine :)
Amy
- Grilled Chicken Salad with either no chicken or chicken on the side (which she says she eats but I really just see her throw it away).
- Subway Chicken Bacon Ranch - with only HALF the amount of chicken as normal and double the cheese.
- Fried Mushrooms from Trenton House, but don’t you dare close the lid - Keep it open from Trenton to Breese or they will be rejected for sogginess.
- Corn on the cob with evenly distributed butter and salt, but hold the pepper.
- Brownie A La Mode from Dairy Queen. I’ll attest to how weird this is because she rarely eats ice cream.
Alicia
- Dairy King Swirl Crunch Cone - In a cup with a spoon.
- All other regular food because again, she’s a unicorn.
So, there you have it. Our struggles, cravings and then some. Hey, at least this time around I didn’t have to ask Amy to stop wearing her perfume. When I was pregnant with Sadie 2 years ago I had to ask her to stop because it made me sick. So, hey… let’s celebrate the small victories, right?!
