Milk Without Cookies

It's that time again in our home. I am about 6 or 7 weeks pregnant with baby #2. I spent a considerable amount of my first pregnancy leaning over a toilet bowl (or sink, whichever was available) vomitting. So much so, that I spent a day in the ER receiving fluids via IV, and lost 6 pounds during my first trimester.

Given my significant investment into morning sickness, I did some reading last time around. What I found is that no one really knows what causes morning sickness, and given the small amount of the population afflicted at any given time, there really isn't any motivation to find out or to find a cure! Thanks, Doc!!

Here's what nobody tells you about morning sickness:

At its worst, MS (morning sickness) is not just nausea in your stomach, but also in your head, a dull dizzying ache, that seems like it will never ever go away.

Unlike other times of nausea, throwing up generally does not make you feel better.

Medical advice to eat before you get out of bed sometimes helps to absorb acid, and sometimes just gives you something to puke up. Sexy!

Eating is also pretty much the last thing you want to do anyway.

Saltine crackers have a sweet and disgusting aftertaste.

MS is accompanied by exhaustion.

MS can of course occur at any time of the day when the acid accumulates in your stomach, but for me, it's usually worst in the morning.

MS is often followed by bizarre cravings to fill the ever growing pit in your stomach: pizza, french toast sticks, hash browns, and french fries are some of this body's favorites!

Last time around the magical cure for me was a drug called Zofran. Our friend Kevin pointed out that he had to take this when he was undergoing cancer treatments so that he could keep down some nutrition. This is an expensive solution, and what pregnant woman wants to take hardcore medication anyway?

So here I am, suffering an illness that no one can or cares to cure, hoping that it won't last as long as it did last time around (like 16 weeks!). I suppose the big cure is the birth of our next baby, which is scheduled for sometime around Christmas Eve!

I wonder if this generation of women will be known as the Oprah generation.

Like her or not, this woman is a driving cultural force. She has made it her business to effect cultural change. She started with things like her Book Club, and this year, she has actually enlisted her viewers in catching sexual predators, and paid them healthy rewards for their participation.

She has been open over the years about her weight loss struggles, and recently she has taken on the Great American Debt Diet, encouraging Americans to get out of debt, and reach financial freedom.

Yesterday, her buddy, Dr. Oz was on talking about the evils of the American diet, including partially hydrogenated oils (which are in pretty much everything), enriched flour (that should be called un-enriched flour), and the American favorite high fructose corn syrup (liquid sugar).

So instead of hitting Aldi today, where I can find everything fast, cheap, and full of the above ingredients, I visited Aldi's granola big brother Trader Joe's. I bought all of the stuff the Dr. Oz recommended including Salmon, natural peanut butter, good oils, greens, etc. I was delighted to find that even the chips were free of the evil ingredients above.

Seriously, I couldn't help but wonder how many of the other members of the shopping throng were influenced by Oprah's show yesterday. It seemed awfully crowded for a Tuesday morning.