In mediation

This pregnancy is going to force me to rethink my relationship with food. Food and I have gotten along fine up until now; I cook, I like a wide variety of foods, I'm willing to try most (vegetarian) things, I eat reasonably healthfully. If you ignore the occasional salt-and-vinegar potato chips or extra helpings of homemade ice cream (come on, our ice cream is good).

However, pregnancy nausea has come upon me gradually. First only when I was very hungry or very full, then when I was moderately hungry, and now it's present almost constantly--sometimes very low-key, but hardly ever gone. It's having the same effect that having a cold does on my appetite: even when I know I'm hungry, I don't want to eat. But if I don't eat it will only get worse. I haven't actually vomited yet and I don't want to, so I must conduct negotiations with my body under the new, wartime rules. The old taste guidelines don't hold; the old stomach limits don't hold. Small meals must be the rule now (which is actually better for the body anyway, I believe). The taste guidelines aren't so easy to figure out, though.

I went to the grocery store a couple of days ago after work, and looking at all the food was actually distasteful. Even though I was hungry. (Luckily most of what we needed at the time was boxed or canned.) I've discovered that most food sounds distasteful, except (at least today) cheese Pizza Bites and oven-baked French fries--I think it's a comfort thing--and also, luckily, fresh fruit. But if I make myself eat something else, it goes down fine. I'm not sure if my body is trying to psych me out or if it's helping me the best it can.

Mom (as well as our Mayo Clinic book) says it's important to have bland things around to eat at all times--crackers, or bread. I'm trying this, though the fruit strips we buy from Target actually sound better. Unfortunately they don't have very many calories, so they can't sustain me. Courtney told me that cold things--ice cream, mainly--stayed down best when she was at her worst morning sickness, and I tried this theory out on some peach sorbet and it seems to hold good. I'll listen to Mom and the book and have bland things around, but I'll also experiment with cold, and fruit, and whatever I find that works. Also, multivitamins.