It was just like one of those occasions when you find yourself in meteorological disbelief. You know the kind when you hear the weather caster say that the weather’s going to break a certain time, and two minutes before the designated time, you conclude that the weather man was full of [expletive deleted]. It seems utterly impossible that the relentless rain/snow/what-have you can dry up that quickly. And then, lo and behold, at the magical time, the rain stops, as though someone turned off the faucet, the ominous clouds break apart, and the sun moves in. So, it was with my morning sickness.
It started early on. Not in the very first days, as I recall, but definitely within the first few weeks. I was blessed in that my body was not gripped by the gut wrenching vomiting that plagues so many other women. And “morning” sickness turned out to be a misnomer. It really had nothing to do with the time of day. Instead, at some random hour—there was no discernable pattern--I would feel the first wave of nausea come on, and generally a day or two later, it would go away. And that’s how it stayed for about two months.
One day, I would have an intense craving for Indian food; the next day, I’d be jonesin’ for a cheeseburger or sushi (cooked or veggie only, of course). I found that once I had satisfied a craving, I wanted nothing more to do with that food, e.g. if I had Indian food on Monday, by Tuesday the mere thought of tikka masala, or the aromatic Indian rice, was revolting. I learned it was best to not allow myself to get hungry, as it seemed to bring on the next wave of nausea. The challenge was that the act of eating was often so unappealing, which was a curious thing for me. I had always loved eating and I have never been a picky eater. But these days, I definitely knew what I did and did not want to eat, and it appeared to change daily. Poor Joe. I managed to find a few things that became my “safe foods”: cucumbers, oatmeal, oyster crackers, applesauce, plain pasta, and cottage cheese. As for beverages, I mostly wanted water—and ice water only. Not room temperature, not cold, ICED water.
I missed how I used to delight in eating. During this spell it was as though every food choice had to be carefully vetted against my very fickle taste buds. I also had never felt so consistently “off”. Having always been a pretty healthy person, losing multiple days in a week to nausea was a frustrating experience. After a month of this, I started to count down the weeks until the beginning of the second trimester. And then one day, somewhere between weeks 9-10—sooner than I had expected—it all stopped. And just like that, the dark clouds of morning sickness disappeared, the sun returned, and with it so did my very healthy appetite.
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