17 Weeks...Pregnancy in Japan

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We got back from a wonderful trip at midnight last night; I am surprised I can function today after all the walking and the lack of decent sleep.  It was all worth it though!  We left a week ago Friday at 6:00 am.  I started the morning by vomiting, and then I tried to eat something but couldn’t even bring myself to eat a whole apple.  Halfway to the airport I threw up the partial apple I ate, and when we were in line to check our baggage I took one last trip to the bathroom and threw up whatever was left in my stomach.  I like to call this morning the Grand Finale of morning sickness.  I slept it off on the flight to Hong Kong and felt like I woke up a new woman, a hungry exhausted woman, but a woman (which is new in the past 4 months).  I was wearing my maternity pants (still too big but great for traveling in) and a fitted t-shirt so I looked pregnant (and not just to myself and Adam) and I wanted to eat lunch (I can’t remember the last time when I actually wanted to eat food).  I saw a burger king at the airport and knew right away I wanted the burger king chicken nuggets.  I ate the whole 5 piece nugget myself, which filled me up so much I wasn’t able to eat my French fries. 

When we got to Japan I felt great!  However they had to take my apples (I had packed 6 for my breakfasts) because they don’t let you bring produce from China.  However I wasn’t worried, I felt great and I had eaten chicken nuggets!  Throughout the week I was able to eat something at anywhere we stopped (mostly cucumber rolls, miso soup, green salads with vinegar dressings, French fries and doughnuts…oh and how can I forget snow cones…I ate 5). I wouldn’t say I stepped out too much but I did eat a bite or two of Adam’s meals.  I continued snacking ever 2 hours.  Adam carried a backpack with the cameras and my snacks (our agreement…I carry the baby…Adam carries the snacks…this gave us more walking time and my back a break from carrying a purse).  Instead of feeling nauseated when I had gone too long between snacks I just felt like I had low blood sugar, like I couldn’t speak properly, my brain wasn’t working and like I could faint.  Sounds scary, but it is amazing what a few Oreo cookies can do.  My fruit roll ups and candy gave us 15 min. to find somewhere to get something substantial while carrying a bag of cereal or gummy bears and snacking consistently bought us about an hour.

I have started to have cravings and besides the Burger King chicken nuggets I only want to drink water, anything else and I wish I just had a glass of ice water.  I dream about vinegar.  I would love a salad (iceberg lettuce) with vinegar on it and I have had serious desires for NC BBQ, not the meat just the sauce.  I also crave cinnamon, like just cinnamon…I haven’t given into that one yet and I have tried cinnamon sugar on things and that just doesn’t cut it for me.  I also have lustful thoughts of snow cones (to the point where I climbed 5 stories worth of stairs and walked down a hill after already walking up a steep hill and after 2 nights of no sleep, just because I heard that there was a place that had snow cones at the end.  I have actually been thinking about snow cones since the day I read in my travel book about a “great little place to take a break complete with Japanese snack, green tea and snow cones”.  I still enjoy my French fries, however I have branched out to onion rings (as long as they are covered in catsup – again with the vinegar).  I read that your cravings may have something to do with the nutrients your body is lacking…please tell me the nutritional value of French fries and fried onion rings.  I would also like to know anything about what is in vinegar that my body needs.  The others I have figured out…I am so thirsty all the time and water is the only thing that does it for me…iceberg lettuce, and snow cones are more creative ways of drinking water.

I have some bad news though…when we arrived back in Hong Kong for our 5 hour layover (ironically we could have gotten home before we even left the airport) Burger King was closed, so no chicken nuggets. 

A huge plus is that my face has cleared up, my skin is glowing and my hair is wonderful!

A very new thing is my crazy hormones.  Up until now I felt like my emotions have been totally under control.  I certainly don’t hold things in but I tend not to take things personally and I don’t let things bother me so the only time I cry is when I am totally overwhelmed i.e. the day before we moved to China…I had been so busy and I had so many things to do that when I was finally done I let it all out, not because I was sad to leave but because I had no more time and still felt like I had so many things to do.  Now I cry (or start tearing up) at the drop of a hat, I saw a group of special needs teenagers touring with us and I cried because I was so happy that they had the opportunities to have friends and go on trips together and be around people that love them.  I heard a Dixie Chick song that one of them wrote to her brand new baby and it took everything in me to keep from crying and making the Japanese people on the train think Adam was mean to me.

****Cool Week 17 Fact: My baby is getting ready to nurse; he/she is sucking and swallowing.