It Smells Bad In Here

I'm 8 weeks and 1 day pregnant now. This past week brought on two new symptoms: a sensitive nose and hypoglycemia.

I'm smelling all kinds of things now. Things I've never smelled or noticed before. I've even gotten a start on a list of offending smells. They include dry beans cooking on the stove, milk, my fridge, my microwave, and perfectly good potatoes (raw, not yet peeled or cut). The beans make me nauseous the whole day while they cook. The microwave is overpowering. And it took me a while to figure out, "What IS that smell?!" which turned out to be my 10lb bag of potatoes in the cupboard. Strange!

The hypoglycemia is expected but early. During a previous pregnancy, my gestational diabetes test revealed that my blood sugar, two hours after consuming a well-balanced meal, had dropped to 70, which is very low for pregnancy. Considering I normally ate every 3-4 hours, you can see that I was dropping into the hypoglycemia levels (below 60). My midwife and I discussed my diet again, which led to me controlling my blood sugar by eating every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, eating overnight, and ensuring I had protein at each "meal". Now, I'm seeing similar problems already with this one (I get nauseous and lightheaded about 2 hours after each meal and feel better after eating) so I am working on retraining myself to eat every 2 hours.

Some people might like having to eat that often but I can tell you that I most certainly do not. I dislike having to force down food when I'm not even hungry. After a while, just the thought of food becomes unwelcomed. I handle my nighttime eating requirement by either having a high protein shake on my way to bed or eating something when I wake up to pee. Protein is very necessary part of my day as well so I must always have something on hand. I keep cheese sticks, cheddar cheese, meat, peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, protein bars, and protein powder on hand at home. I also obtain a doctor's note for my midwife that allows me to bring my own food into places where outside food is not allowed (ie. movie theaters) since I can't go that long without it. In truth, I should probably also carry fast-acting glucose of some sort like diabetic do. It's an awful lot of attention to food when you put it altogether. It feels like food takes center stage and everything else gets pushed aside.

It also feels weird to have to tell my kids that they can wait until dinner to eat while I'm sitting there eating in front of them. However, I must remember that them eating an hour before dinner will ruin their appetite where I have no choice if I'm experiencing symptoms. I must eat RIGHT THIS MINUTE if I have symptoms even if I'm in the midst of cooking a meal. I feel like I'm being rude eating in front of them, but I'm really not. I'm just keeping myself from puking and/or passing out. Fortunately, the latter hasn't happened but I should probably tell them what to do if that ever happens.

So, there's an update. I thought I'd throw in a weekly update into my blog routine and possibly discuss some pregnancy things I've learned over the years. I hope you all don't mind.