Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Pregnancy Journal: Got Milk?









From 5 Minutes for Parenting

By Kelly

A wave of faux shame washed over me as I reached into the milk cooler at Target yesterday. No one around me knew it, but I needed that gallon of 1% the same way an alcoholic needs her vodka. I was almost drooling as I tucked the jug into my big red cart, behind the toilet bowl cleaner and the bananas.

Turns out, I’ve developed quite the milk addiction.

Want proof? That gallon I bought at Target? It was the fourth gallon of milk I bought in the last six days. The previous three gallons are already empty and accusing and lying squished in the bottom of the recycling bin.

It’s common for pregnant women to field the “So what are you craving?” question. Normally, I don’t have much exciting to report.

I did eat approximately 384 cherry Popsicles when I was pregnant with Natalie, my firstborn, but that could be attributed to the hot California summer and a lack of air conditioning as much as hormones. I also develop an abnormal and potentially lethal lust for the McChicken during the first trimester of each pregnancy. But that only lasts as long as the nausea.

So this sudden craving – no, make that passion – for milk caught me by surprise.

I know I can chalk up some of my milk-lust to my love for cereal. I have a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch, topped with berries, every morning for breakfast. (No. Seriously. Every morning.) And it’s not uncommon for me to grab a bowl of Raisin Bran and strawberries or Cheerios with bananas before bed.

But here at 31 weeks, I’m also gulping glasses of milk in-between meals and during my mid-morning slab of peanut butter on toast. Most damning is the fact that each sweet I eat – a chocolate chip cookie, a fun-sized Snickers bar, a Pioneer Woman cinnamon roll – demands that I drink at least 10 ounces of milk to quench the raging thirst. It’s not uncommon for me to need three glasses of moo juice to wash down one slice of pie.

I tell myself it’s not a horrible habit. At least it’s somewhat healthy. (Although I will admit – when I passed the three-gallons-a-week mark, I stopped buying from the local dairy with grass-fed cows. At $3.50 a half gallon, I couldn’t afford my habit.)

I guess my real problem is, I’m not sure which came first: My milk addiction or the sweet tooth fueling it?

So how about you? What’s your most notable pregnancy craving?

Kelly drank two glasses of milk and ate a French breakfast puff while writing this post. You can also find her blogging at Love Well.

16 comments:

  1. Celery. Plain celery with nothing on it. I was an addict, die hard. I planned my day around it, knowing which grocery stores had it best sliced and ready to eat if in an emergency, insisting we eat wherever hot wings were served so that I knew they'd also bring me a plate of celery... I kept it by my bed, in my purse. EVERYWHERE.

    Then, after the baby was born- craving gone completely.

    Steph

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  2. This pregnancy it is definitely sweets. With my 4th and 5th pregnancies it was healthy things--crisp apples, fresh salad, etc. And my weight gain reflected that. This time, I can't get enough baked goods and desserts. Mostly chocolate. And my weight gain reflects it. ;) I'm going to have to find some self-discipline soon. With my first pregnancy I wanted McDonald's fries and hot fudge sundaes all the time. I probably stopped at least 3 times a week! Second pregnancy was enchiladas (which I didn't like before that).

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  3. Oranges....about 6 pounds a week. At least it was winter so they were in season, but I couldn't go more than a few hours without having one. Orange juice just didn't do it for me though...must be Navel Oranges...

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  4. With boy #1 it was cranberry juice!! Towards the end I wanted s'mores and I had one every night!! You know they can be made in the microwave! With boy #2 it was orange juice!! I was much better at curbing the sweet cravings with boy #2 (and I also only gained half of what I did with boy #1!) but I did love Cherry Chocolate Chunk Light Ice Cream from Publix every once in a while!!

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  5. Kelly - I have the SAME addiction!!! Milk all the way. We have gone through so much milk, I can hardly keep up with it. AND the sweets...the other craving I've had this whole pregnancy has been sweets like pastries & cookies. It's dangerous that I love to bake those things b/c I sure have indulged more than I probably should. But it all just sounds so good! And cereal is always my best friend during pregnancy....it's so fast and easy and carb-filled and I get to have MILK on it!! :-) Thank the Lord for cows!! Mooooooo....

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  6. Salty food! French fries, cheese sticks (the fried kind), fried rice and soy sauce, summer sausage and cheese and crackers, fried chicken, pizza... Oh help me I need more salt.

    And consequently, water. I wake up soooo thirsty every night.

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  7. My first trimester is always marked by a need for baked potatoes. This time I was chugging orange juice as well. BBQ sauce is another staple. I swear I'd eat my own hand if it had BBQ sauce. With my Natalie I settled into a 3 scoop a night ice cream problem. Topped with hot cocoa mix. That was a hard habit to break. And a lot of pounds to lose. Cereal is hardly a pregnancy craving for me, it's just something I generally live off of for meals, snacks, etc. Oddly, this time I have a pint of Haagen-Dazs in my freezer that's been there for weeks. I'd rather have some fruit. Or maybe french onion dip. It will change I'm sure. Maybe later today.

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  8. Oh, I had the milk craving with my first. And I only like dry cereal, so it had nothing to do with that! With my second, it was all about the carbs. Bread, bagels, english muffins, pasta ... all I wanted. All nine months.

    Interestingly enough, I also craved McDonald's during the first trimester of both pregnancies, but until now I've never heard of that with anyone else. Oh, and Pizza Hut with the first, which wasn't very smart, because I ate so healthily during the pregnancy, and rewarded myself after she was born with pan pizza and breadsticks, and was promptly horribly sick to my stomach for the rest of the night, and now, two and a half years later, still can't stand the thought of Pizza Hut.

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  9. I craved milk too! I drank 2 - 3 gallons a week, and the hubby insisted I drink organic, so that was $11 - $15 a *week* for milk. Thank God I didn't crave anything else.

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  10. WIth #1 I too craved milk. Except we lived up North (And that's far North in Canada) and it was 5.89 for a four litre container. And I could drink a 4 L container in one day. My mother in law gave us milk money. Seriously.
    With my second I craved baked potatoes. Which to that point in my life I didn't even like.
    Still love them. Fortunately they are waaay cheaper than milk.

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  11. Anything spicy. Preferably Mexican. Preferably Qdoba's burritos and chips with queso...I try not to indulge more than once a week and then I usually make a Mexican dinner another night...Mmmmmmm...

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  12. Yuck! I can't stand milk - the idea of consuming that much is like the reports of ladies drinking pickle juice.

    I didn't really crave anything particular, although I really wanted ritz crackers and processed cheese at one point. I got the processed cheese (which - ew) but being celiac I had to make do with chips in lieu of the crackers.

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  13. Wow, I am fascinated by your milk passion! I wish I had a cool craving story like that to tell!! Much of my first pregnancies were all about feeling queasy, so nothing sounded good, and trying to figure out the one thing that would be the perfect food that would take away the queasiness...because i would only feel worse until I actually ate something. Man, pregnancy is fascinating, isn't it?

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  14. For me it was chocolate milk for a few weeks. I weaned myself off it because it was starting to get expensive. Hershey's syrup in white milk just wouldn't do.

    I'm almost 38 weeks now and my current craving could possibly be orange juice. The not-from-concentrate kind.

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  15. wow - Stephanie and I had the same craving for celery! I thought I was the only one so far. I made sure we always had a 3 pack of the celery hearts from trader joes in the fridge since I ate at least 1 bunch of celery a day. Once I gave birth the only celery I wanted to look it was stirring a Bloody Mary!

    No cravings with the other 2 pregnancies at all.

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  16. [...] you read between the lines of last week’s Pregnancy Journal post about MILK, ALL THE MILK, I CAN’T GET ENOUGH MOO-JUICE, you might have deduced: Kelly might be [...]

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