One of the pregnancy symptoms I expected to get and many have asked about involves food cravings in particular am I craving unusual things like ice cream. To my surprise, I haven’t craved many things though my one big craving has been milk and in high quantities.
By higher I mean I’m inclined to fill at least twice a day my green container, which I put in the refrigerator for the photo above, and holds 14 oz for a total of 28 oz minimum. As this company has free milk, it makes it easy to satisfy this craving. When we had our team dinner a few weeks ago, I even got two additional glasses of milk at dinner.
Milk actually tastes different to me now, sweeter, almost like raw, unpasteurized milk, which I drank now and then years ago, did. Apples also taste sweeter, and bananas which I generally would enjoy as banana chips (but am not now as those tend to have added sugar), taste more bland to me, still I know they are good for baby so I’m eating them here and there.
My mom was worried that I was drinking too much milk, worrying especially that too many hormones in the milk would lead me to have a bigger baby. Luckily, the milk I’m drinking in addition to being low fat at 2% does not contain any rBST. So I’m happy to keep enjoying it. I hope it is helping our baby develop a strong skeleton.
As far for forbidden foods, there is of course a long list. This includes alcohol, sushi, raw meat, raw eggs, uncooked deli meats, and spouts. Of this list, I miss sushi the most, though there are nights when having a glass of wine or beer with dinner is missed more by me.
Ironically, we did not go out for sushi during the time before we found out I was pregnant, though we did have raw oysters as an appetizer at one dinner. At Company C, the free lunch options often include sushi, which looks great from a distance. I was feeling curious one day, so I ordered the vegetarian sushi that makes an appearance on our menu from time to time and it looked great.
The food not only looked great, it tasted great as well. This is a dish I’d order as part of a restaurant meal to go the sushi dinners I’d have after I deliver our child.
In fact, having many menu items being unavailable to me has inspired me to try many dishes I would never have given a second glance before including lots of great vegetarian and vegan dishes. Yesterday’s meal allowed me to try a food and cultural that were totally new to me. The tea leaf salad, which I learned is the official dish of Burma, featured pickled tea leaves, nuts, and all sorts of vegetables, and was a symphony of great tastes.
I’m grateful these lunches have so many options for different eating preferences and that I’m able to try so many wonderful dishes and eat so healthily for myself and my baby.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 