Bridget's Pregnancy Blog

Since I’ve gotten pregnant, I’ve been crazy about cheese. Not that I wasn’t a big fan of cheese before this- I’ve always liked it. But now, I like it on everything!

I noticed some changes in my food desires pretty early in my pregnancy. Aside from my constant desire for cheese and my suddenly thinking that any menu item at a restaurant that had cheese in it sounded like the most amazing dish ever, I also started having a few weird desires.

The funniest one I noticed was one night at about 14 weeks pregnant I got it into my head that a piece of cheese pizza with powdered sugar sprinkled on top would taste absolutely excellent. The pizza part of the equation was easy to find- a friend manages a pizza joint in town and was willing to supply a piece that evening. The sugar proved to be more difficult and entailed a search around neighboring groceries and convenience stores. Finally, after a heroic effort by my friends, I managed to get my sugar and cheese pizza. It was exactly as good as I anticipated and I haven’t really craved it since.

Aside from the cravings, I also noticed an odd aversion to certain foods. Before pregnancy, I always liked cabbage, but now my hormones made the thought of cabbage turn my stomach. I found this to be strange, since I had such good memories of particular cabbage dishes that I’d once enjoyed from local restaurants. I even tried to ignore the food aversion and taste some of the cabbage dishes my friends and Justin ordered when we went out to eat. But my stomach rebelled and I’ve been forced to accept that the baby just doesn’t like cabbage and I’m stuck with a cabbage-free existence until after January.

My most recent pregnancy craving is peanut butter. I had to do a little research on this one, since I’d heard conflicting reports on whether it is healthy to eat peanut butter during pregnancy. Apparently, the western medical advice is now that it’s ok to eat peanut butter as long as you have no allergies or history of allergies in your family. Since I don’t, I’m safe. Oddly enough, here in China they don’t have many peanut allergies at all. It is so rare that most people here have never heard of a peanut allergy. Pregnant women here are encouraged to eat peanuts, since they are a good source of folic acid and protein, both healthy for the developing baby.

I’ve got two months to go and am wondering what other foods might strike my fancy. I’m hoping for some healthy cravings, like fruits and vegetables, but I suspect I’m more likely to develop cravings for cupcakes and Swiss chocolate.