Baby Blog

I am so hungry this week. The books may tell you that you don’t have to eat much extra food during your pregnancy, your body seems to tell you different. Its strange, I get up, eat my morning cereal with milk and two hours later I’m on the verge of ravenous. Today errands got away from us and lunch was an hour late and it was hard not to wolf down the chicken penne once it was in front of me. Hungry and pregnant never seem to be a good combination.

The baby books always tell you yes you will be hungry but you should only indulge in a few extra celery sticks or some cottage cheese. Please. Okay I know there are a few out there with a very healthy palette but for most of us, baby doesn’t want celery sticks. Am I right?

When it comes to cravings there really is no right approach. Luckily my cravings have always been focused around the lack of dairy in my normal diet. I crave calcium and iron when I’m pregnant so a lot of spinach and eggs is what I want. I have a friend who craved an entire box of doughnuts every day. My sister ate a big slice of chocolate cake every day and another friend couldn’t get enough ice cream. The books say have a little of what you crave but that’s easier said than done.

When you are pregnant and hungry and gaining weight regardless of what you eat its hard to imagine how much of a difference that extra slice of cake will make to your body after the baby has come out. Trust me, when I was pregnant with my ten pounder I was huge and thought extra snacks wouldn’t do any real harm. I still haven’t been able to drop the extra pounds almost three years later. All I lost was the 25 pounds caused directly by being pregnant.

So ladies, I hear you, I know you are hungry and I want to eat all those yummies too but there are consequences. I am a baker and have learned a few tricks over the years. Use applesauce instead of butter and then eat three cookies and immediately give the rest away. This works because are you really going to turn around, knock on the door and ask for your cookies back?

Hang in there mommies, we can get thru this.