When I found out that I was pregnant, I was so happy for many reasons. I was recently married, turning forty and was able to get pregnant for the first time, a prayer had been answered! I was also happy and looking forward to having an excuse to eat what I wanted. The pregnant woman cravings are well known, so it was my chance to eat what I wanted without a word from my husband. Captain Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, French Fries, Hot Fudge Ice Cream Puffs. And what a man I have, he comes to every office visit with me. Then one day, he asked the question, out of the blue, “Dr, why doesn’t my wife crave broccoli?” I thought to myself, that’s all I’ve been eating for years, let me eat what I really want now! Well the doctor said women crave all sorts of foods and some of them do crave vegetables. But, it called her attention to my weight gain. I had gained twenty pounds in my first twenty weeks, the healthy limit for a woman of normal starting weight is zero to eight pounds. My doctor decided to check my “one hour fasting glucose” level, it was high. I have diabetes on both sides of my family, and knew I was at risk. When my husband heard of the possibility of having a large baby, maybe even c-section, and frequent pokes of the baby once born for glucose monitoring he was quite upset. My doctor put me on a diet, my husband policed my eating, and I was scheduled for the “three-hour fasting glucose test”. Well, I went back to my pre-pregnant way of eating, and the weight gain slowed, and I passed the three-hour test by a few points. This was at week twenty-nine. I am now at week thirty, still have to diet, but at least I don’t need insulin or other monitoring. Geez, that was close.
The lesson learned, even though there is a lot of hype about the pregnancy cravings, one cannot always give into them. Oh, well. Not eating junk food is healthier, though not as much fun, but a very, very small price to pay for a healthier baby who is a dream come true.
