Pregnancy Must Haves...

My pregnancy started off with lots of morning sickness... and midday sickness... and night sickness. There was a period  of time when all I could do to keep from vomiting was shove food into my mouth nonstop. When I was in this period, I literally ate something in between every patient that I saw in clinic (these patients took anywhere from 15-30 minutes). I would bring a big bag full of various foods along with me to work every day). 


I also had lots of cravings.... not really any of those weird (pickles and ice cream) cravings but they were still odd. Like one day I craved Chili's... as in the restaurant. And not just one item on the menu, I wanted 3 different things. So, I drove out to the 'burbs and got myself some Chili's To Go. Another time I craved fried mushrooms, which was odd because it's not something I really eat... ever. Most of the cravings were things that I would normally eat and I usually craved the same thing for weeks at a time. It's those special cravings that I couldn't have done without. I decided to make a little list of my early pregnancy must haves (These are for the first half of my pregnancy... I'll have a different list later for the second half later). 

1. Skyline chili (with noodles and lots of cheese) - by the way, you can only get this in OHIO. Luckily I had some stocked up from a good friend of mine from Cincinnati and I happened to go to a wedding in Columbus right around the time that I ran out of my stash. We found a grocery store that had it and stocked up again. There was one week where I literally ate this for every lunch and dinner. 

2. Tums - Gotta love the heartburn. And my love of spicy food doesn't help with the heartburn. Sometimes the Tums help a little. 

3. Ginger chew candy - GREAT for nausea. I highly recommend it. The problem is that there were times when the nausea was so bad that it came back IMMEDIATELY when I finished a piece of the candy.

4. The book "Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here." This book is SO cute. A good friend of mine sent it to me early in pregnancy... it was a WONDERFUL. P and I read it to our little guy quite often. It's from the perspective of a baby still in his mom's belly. 

5. SI joint belt - I prescribe these for pregnant patients at work all the time so when I started having low back pain early in pregnancy, I figured I better try one out for myself. It's great! Now I can recommend them to patients from first hand experience!

6. Pillows (lots of them) - Sometimes sleeping with a big ol' belly just isn't that comfortable. It helps to prop body parts onto pills. 

7. Hard pretzels - another thing I ate all the time. Yum. 

8. "Belly Laughs" by Jenny McCarthy. A hilarious, straight up, honest book about pregnancy. She talks about all the things that pregnant women go through and she doesn't hold back.. constipation, hemorrhoids, gaining weight, cravings, gas, baby kicks. I laughed out loud many times. She covered it all! And, it's a quick read... highly recommend it!

9. Goldfish crackers - Loved these pre-pregnancy, loved them even more since I've been pregnant. Only problem is... I can eat an entire container in one sitting. 

10. Panera french onion soup- which by the way, they serve at any time. One morning, I was at the hospital working and around 9 am have the most intense craving for french onion soup. I ran across the street to Panera and they actually had the soup ready! Thank goodness. French onion soup for breakfast... yeah, that's normal. 

11. Panera lemonade - drank this every day for the first few months I was pregnant. It's good. 

12. Finally, and most importantly.... a good support system. P has been amazing! He's such a good sport and always willing to go out of his way to make sure I'm comfortable or get my food cravings. Wonderful husband and perfect daddy! 

And by the way... GO CARDS!!!! (I'm currently watching a very stressful baseball game!)