Eruption- May 5, 2013
Sometimes I’m really proud to say this, and sometimes I feel super guilty saying this after hearing the horror stories of my friends with Princess-Kate-Like-Morning-Sickness. You ready for this?
I went my entire first pregnancy without puking.
It’s true. It was crazy. Conception through delivery, no barfing. I was queasy and uncomfortable in the first trimester, but it never resulted in toilet hugging sessions. I felt like Jerry Seinfeld in that episode of Seinfeld where he explained he hadn’t thrown-up since 1980. It was 1993 by that time. That’s a huge vomitless accomplishment if you ask me.
When I made it through the first trimester this time I thought I was in the clear. No such luck. Here’s what went down, well, came back up…
Monday I had an event for a client at work where I was filming a presentation. A large part of my job is video work, stemming from my news shooting and editing days. We were at a very nice local hotel for the event. I got there early and had everything set up and ready to go. The woman I was working with was very kind and we chatted about families and I mentioned that I was expecting my second baby. As it often happens, when you tell someone you’re pregnant, they offer you food. She walked me over to the snack table of charming carnival food the hotel had on display for the event. They had soft pretzels ya’ll. Soft freakin’ pretzels. I suddenly needed something salty and was excited to indulge. I tweeted out this pic on Instagram…
That’ll teach me to brag. That’ll also teach me to dip anything in mustard, a condiment I’ve long had an aversion to. The 90 minute presentation got underway and I happily panned and zoomed across the room. The speaker’s remarks were interesting and I learned a lot. I only ate about half of the pretzel. Suddenly I wasn’t hungry. About halfway in I felt some rumbles. I got really hot and then really cold. I started feeling dizzy. I looked at the mirror over the snack table. Ooph! Pale. I looked down at what was left of the pretzel next to me. Ugh! I looked around to see if anyone was looking at me. I wiped sweat off my head. Oh God! No! Not here.
I quickly zoomed out, left the camera rolling and tried not to run, but just walk out of the room with any dignity I had left under the sweat. When I hit the hallway I sprinted to the restroom. I got to the first stall in the ladies room of this four-star hotel and made like a drunk in a first-star hotel. I cursed the pretzel the whole time.
Just the smell of mustard could do me in until this baby is born. I’m thinking this may have been just something disagreeing with me, not morning sickness. So maybe I can just say I made it through two pregnancies with no morning sickness? Is that too braggy? Yeah, maybe I’ll just shut up.
Spread it around:
I would cry through the grocery store because I just knew they were making it stink just to be mean to me. I carried a bag of citrus fruits with me at all times for the first 16 weeks or so, because without eating one of them nearly constantly, I would hurl. I still hurled, just less often.
Twin pregnancy= nausea like you wouldn’t believe.
hahaa. I only puked once and it was more of a gag reflex with a stringy orange.
The grocery store was a special kind of misery. The worst part was that all food aversions for me were surprises. Like I’d have no idea that a food would make me puke until I saw it. And then I’d puke. Re:bragging, I think pregnancy is full of lots of victories and battle scars and people are equally proud of both. It’s like I have a special kind of pride in my pregnancy challenges, the vomiting, the cysts and 2nd trimester surgeries, etc. They represent the physical sacrifices I made to get my kids here. But I also am really proud of the stuff I didn’t experience: difficulty with conception, dramatic weight gain, stretch marks and I feel very victorious about wearing my pre-baby jeans two days post partum. Whatever you struggle with in pregnancy, you’re proud to have struggled with, and whatever came easily seems to reinforce that you were made to have babies. It’s a win-win either way, I think.