Food, Glorious Food

Eating is always a topic of discussion when it comes to being pregnant - everybody's all about "eating for two"; interestingly enough, current conventional wisdom suggests that we only need about 300 calories more a day than we did prior to becoming pregnant. Current personal wisdom suggests that fitting more than half a plate of food into my gullet in one sitting would be a bad idea, seeing as how internal space is at a premium. Ironic that my favorite holiday is soon approaching and I'll barely be able to scratch the surface of my favorite dishes. Boo. Good thing Thanksgiving usually means eating leftovers for a few days, eh?
So what has "pregnancy craving" meant for me - oddly enough, Flipper has had some interesting effects on my usual dining proclivities. While there have been no late night runs anywhere, or pickle and ice cream pairings, the first real and true craving I had (and within days of finding out about Flipper's presence) was for the very thing I had turned away from some nine years ago: meat. Yes, sports fans, this pesco-vegetarian (a vegetarian who eats fish) fell waaaaaaaaay, waaaaay off the tofu wagon. And guess what the mouth-watering, mega-craze item was that I could not live without for nearly a daily basis for the first 2-3 weeks . . .an Arby's roast beef sandwich. But here's the deal - now I won't touch it with a ten-foot pole; this is the other odd effect - my taste crave changes every so many weeks. For about a month, I may want carne asada tacos and tostados, or for six weeks it'll be Chinese food, or a trimester of egg and cheese croissants, or two weeks of blueberries. For the most part, I roll with it; apparently whatever I want is filling a basic need and for the most part, it's pretty healthy stuff - except the week I was all over those pumpkin doughnuts . . .oooooooh yes. The only item of real concern was at about the second trimester, I had a deep need for unsweetened iced tea (and still do); this needed to be passed through the OB because tea, while not a bad thing, does contain some caffeine - Kim said, "No big deal, and the caffeine thing is only an issue during the first trimester." So, I roll with that, too. Right now, though I am in an ambiguous phase; I don't get super cravings, so I don't always know what to eat. This gets frustrating. With Kennedy, the formula was pretty simple: Taco Bell. Anything with beans at Taco Bell. This would explain why she is so gassy.
Related to the food thing is the newest issue. Today's checkup went well - heartbeat is at a happy 145 and she's growing well. The issue is the glucose tolerance test in which my results came back one point over the cutoff for normal. What that means is that there is potential for gestational diabetes, although with it being one point over . . . chances are low. Anyhoo, this means a mandatory three-hour test with fasting, more glucola crapola drink and four more blood draws (a fasting baseline and three more draws at hour intervals). I look forward to this in very much the same way I look forward to getting stitches or speaking in front of 4,000 people. On the bright side, at least we'll know what's going on and how to deal with it. On the not-so-bright side, the glucola drink ruins Sunkist soda for me because it tastes just like it; good thing I don't drink soda much anyway.
So - cross your fingers for an "all clear" on Thursday!