Treading Water in Stormy Seas

That's what the 1st trimester of pregnancy feels like sometimes...ok...most of the time.

Today I just read a chapter with the kids from the book, By the Great Horn Spoon, which is about a boy and his butler who travel by ship from the East Coast to San Francisco in the 1847 Gold Rush so they can strike it rich and save his aunt from having to lose her house. It's a really fun book. Anyway, their ship is racing another ship to get to San Francisco, and of course, the other ship is ahead on the Atlantic side. So the captain makes the bold move of traveling through the treacherous Straight of Magellan at the southern tip of Chile instead of taking the safer but longer route around the Horn. For 38 days, the ship and its passengers are tormented by storms, high seas, high winds, and low visibility with a few hours of respite here and there.

38 days...that's a long time...and for an odd reason, it reminded me of my pregnancy. It's like that. And I remember it being hard with my others, I just forget how hard it really is. Oh well, no turning back now. And each time Spencer does or says something just totally cute, I'm reminded about how worth it this all is. I'm deep in the process of creating a LIFE! A complex organism with intricate details of structure and function...no wonder why it's exhausting and difficult!

And then I'm just me...even though I do fall apart emotionally some days and let the house go to pot and just have the kids eat cereal all day long, I have to pick myself up again the next day and at least try to do better, try to BE better. Even if it's just having more patience with myself when the house looks horrible and no one is eating balanced meals.

So one thing I've been trying to do better this pregnancy is to try to eat better things for pregnancy. Early on, I found this website:

http://wellnessmama.com/6065/how-i-avoided-morning-sickness/

and this one:

http://www.mommypotamus.com/the-real-cause-of-morning-sickness/

So neither one of them is from a medical journal or written by a doctor, but they are written by pregnant moms who are trying to provide adequate nutrition for their bodies and their growing babies. One of the first things that was interesting to me, that I found agreeable, is the need for a pregnant mom to eat a high amount of protein (80g a day!) and healthy fats (like coconut oil, butter, olive oil). Proteins are the building blocks of life, so that makes sense. And healthy fats are actually good for you. Not to mention some of these foods are high in iron...something I'm usually short with during pregnancy. Sometimes I find that a piece of buttered bread/toast just hits the spot. I'm eating about 2 eggs every morning and they always taste so good. And that hamburger I got from In N Out the other night? That mostly chased away the sicky feeling I was having several hours before that.

Instead of waking up and having a few crackers to start my day, I have a small handful of pecans. And two odd things are happening...so far, I've only gained 4-5 pounds (usually I gain 10 almost instantly). The other odd thing...I have food aversions to highly sugary food. Like the Gatorade my kids make? It totally repulses me. The cookies Rob made the other night? I could hardly stay in the house. It's so weird. So I don't know if this has something to do with the high protein diet I'm eating or if this baby of mine will be sensitive to sugar in his/her lifetime (it's a possibility...I have a couple of nieces on Rob's side who can't handle sugar very well).

One thing is for sure, you don't know how strong you are until you're stripped of your strength and have to battle things out in your weakness. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. I'll get through this. And I'm also a bit glad my family needs to take on extra responsibility. It's good for them, too.