How Strange Are Your Pregnancy Cravings?

Pickles and ice cream anyone? That’s the long standing joke. Cravings aren’t a joke though. It’s not like the craving you get for your mom’s mac and cheese at Thanksgiving. It’s like a strange sort of addiction that you just have to satisfy. The kind that has my poor husband running to Olive Garden for a bag of breadsticks at 8:00pm or hunting down Ben & Jerry’s at midnight.

With my son, I craved sweets and bread most of the time. In my first trimester, I ate whatever I could keep down, but by my second trimester I wanted things like yeast rolls, garlic bread, and anything with sugar. I cried for days when my midwife suggested that I change my diet after a bad sugar test. After that I had to appease my sugar craving with low glycemic fruits. 

Based on my cravings, everyone was sure I was having a girl. At the time, I thought I wanted a girl so I was thrilled. I was so convinced that I bought a tiny Christmas bow for her to wear (I was due in December). It wasn’t a girl though. My son still likes sweet treats, but thankfully he eats more than M&M candies and bread.

I used to think that pregnancy cravings were a sign of what the baby’s favorite foods would be. My mom said she craved cheeseburgers the entire time she was pregnant with me and they are still my favorite food. That hasn’t proved to be true with my son. If it’s true with this second baby…. He or she is going to love pickles and oranges! Here lately, I want pickles and oranges just about every day. Not together, thank goodness, but I snack on fresh oranges a lot at work and order extra pickles on my sandwiches. Today I spent quite a few minutes searching the convenience store for large dill pickles to snack on. Unfortunately, they were all out.

I guess I should be glad that I’m not craving the sort of unhealthy things I ate during my first pregnancy. But did it have to be pickles? I have a thing about being cliché – I hate it. Craving pickles is very much a pregnancy cliché. So much so in fact that women often get asked if they are pregnant just because they ask for a pickle. Yet here I am trying to decide if I should buy dill pickle flavored potato chips since the store is out of large dill pickles or go the healthier route and buy popcorn. 

Since I didn’t want to be late to work, I opted for the popcorn. The cravings don’t go away though, so tonight I’ll be headed to the grocery store to buy a giant jar of pickles. My mouth is watering already!

Although it’s cliché, it might make for some cute pregnancy pictures. Later, I’ll have to say things like “Yes, I really did crave pickles!” because everyone will think I made it up.

What did you crave during pregnancy? I want to know …unless you were craving cheese. Then don’t tell me. I can’t even think about cheese! In fact, that’s all I can write about it without feeling sick. I can’t even go to that section of the grocery store!

That’s another thing… the aversions! I didn’t really experience that with my son. I wasn’t a big fan of any food in the beginning. I was too sick. After that there was nothing that was really off limits. This time, I have a definite aversion to cheese. It’s totally gross. Especially… I can’t believe I’m going to actually write this word… cheddar. I can’t even go to that section of the grocery store these days!

Okay, so tell me, what were your cravings and aversions? Were they cliché like pickles or totally different? 

Written by: Sara Parise