Friday, February 20, 2009

the culprit was broccoli

I've been fortunate enough to not have extreme morning sickness. Ok, besides some inconvenient nausea, really, my first trimester went without a hitch. This second trimester, however, hasn't left me so lucky.

So here's the story of how my husband made me throw up. This might be kinda long.

It started when I had my first doctor's appointment about a month ago. It's was more of an orientation, actually, where I sat with about 20 other pregnant women and filled out paperwork. There was a lovely midwife there to answer any questions we had, as well as throw out a few important things, like "don't eat too much sugar". I didn't think too much of it until she said it, like, four times. So, as a good mom-to-be, I evaluated my diet and decided I was doing ok, but should probably lay off the juice. No big deal. But for some reason I decided to mention it to my husband. Now, Big Deal.

Fast forward to that Sunday night when I was unsuspectingly sitting with him at Bible Study. And, as usual, our host had a plate of cookies out that I'd been thinking about all through the 26th chapter of Matthew. When, at the end, we were all released to the cookies, Jim leaned over and said with all seriousness, "You may have half a cookie."

(Now, before you start sending hate mail to my husband who clearly didn't understand the long-standing rule that you never EVER tell a pregnant woman what she can or can not eat, please know that he did it in love. He's just concerned for the baby, he said.)

But that didn't stop me from looking at him with a look of absolute shock and stubbornness, saying, "I will eat a WHOLE cookie." I didn't even flinch. You would have been proud. But I did feel kinda guilty since the Bible talks about submission and all. Though I think there's a little known pregnancy clause found in some later-discovered manuscripts.

But I digress. After a short "discussion" I agreed to only eat half. But a few minutes later he presented me with a whole. See, he really is a good guy.

The problem was that the cookie was peanut butter. I really don't like peanut butter cookies at all. If it wasn't for the previous conversation I would have offered the rest to him. But I didn't. Out of spite, I ate half. Then I offered the rest to him. Did I show him or what?

So at this point many of you are wondering how this has anything to do with broccoli.

Well.

The next day we had our heartbeat appointment, and again the doctor asked some health questions that included something about drinking milk and calcium. Doh. I don't really like milk. Never have. Well, how about yogurt? That I could do. Oh, and don't forget your green leafy vegetables. Those are important. Dangit.

That night as I was making dinner for us, Jim "suggested" I have some spinach salad. But I gave him a look that said, "I don't even like spinach when I'm not pregnant. Good luck with that one, hon." Instead I added some raw broccoli on my plate and didn't think anything of it.

Until I ate a piece. It made me gag. Like when your stomach lurches and it's mildly unpleasant. No worries, I'd finish my mac and cheese in peace and quietly get rid of the green leafy stuff later. But I wasn't quick enough and Jim noticed my broccoli piled on my otherwise empty plate. So he made a comment about how I should eat it, and I instantly put on my defensive whiny voice complaining how, "seriously, Jim, it'll make me gag. It's gross. I tried already I promise. In fact, I'll eat one more piece and you can see how it makes me gag. And then you'll never make me eat broccoli again."

So I ate the broccoli. And exactly 18 seconds later I lost my entire dinner. Every single bit of it.

And he felt soooooo bad. He even held my hair back for me and rubbed my back like the loving husband that he is. And made all sorts of promises about not making me eat any more food ever if I didn't want to. But I wasn't listening because I thought it was way too cute that he was holding my hair and rubbing my back.

Gosh I love that man.

And aside from a few minor instances, that's been the worst of it. But really, is it so bad when you can get a blog post out of it AND brag about your husband?

11 comments:

Crafty P said...

that is funny and disgusting all at the same time.

I love broccoli, but I pretended not to like it (a trick to myself) the whole time I was nursing so that I wouldn't overtly cause gas in my sweet babies tummies. Cause they already were a mess about sleeping I didn't want to add insult to injury.

I'm just wondering why you would choose to eat broccoli raw. I mean it tastes SOOOOOOO much better steamed and with a little lemon and salt. yum!

where was I headed here.... oh, I think it's cute how he's acting very concerned about what you eat (and don't eat), but you're darn right about the "unspoken rule" of never tell a pregnant woman what to eat or not to eat.

I craved big fat green olives from Penn Mac in the strip while I was pregnant. gosh they were good.

Anonymous said...

I love this story! I gotta say preggo or not, I am not a fan of broccoli except in cream of broccoli soup. Amazing what cheese and cream can do for getting down those greens!

Anonymous said...

You two (three) are adorable. Keep the stories coming. Gives me lots to smile about during the day.-DR

Anonymous said...

Cute Story,
As for the broccoli: when pregnat with Hannah, I age raw broccoli every day. Couldn't get enough of it and turns out the kid loves broccoli. But when I was pregnant with Ashlyn even the smell of steamd broccoli made me gag, which was bad because her big sister loves the stuff. Anyway, glad to hear Jim learned his lesson about giving you eating advice, sorry it was at your expense. But honestly, unless you have totally atrocious eating habits, the baby will be fine. Grubelet will take waht he needs from your body before he suffers. So keep taking your vitamin, try to eat reasonably healthy but when you are feeling bad just eat whatever is appetizing.
Love you guys!

Rach said...

Yeah once you have the baby and you are breastfeeding, you can't eat broccoli anyway, so just give it up now! :)

Happy said...

Well, this is interesting. We both have pictures of veggies on our blogs today, although mine is of carrots which I used to bake a cake with.

It is very cute how your hubby is concerned with the nutrional needs of his little one! Better than him not caring at all although he seems to have gone a little off the deep end with the half a cookie bit. All in good intentions, though, so what can you do? Aside from sneak cookies when he's not looking.....isn't about moderation anyways?

I moderately ate through a thousand bags of Oreos with one of mine. And he turned out just fine. A little hyper, that's all.

Love the house! Congratulations, that must be soooo exciting for you two! Can't wait to see how you decorate it...no paint fumes, for you, though Miss Preggers.

Muthering Heights said...

He will learn not to dictate your diet soon enough...the more pregnant you become, the more likely you will be to bite his hand when he tries to mess with you plate, hehehe. :)

mrsbuckett said...

For me it was pork chops. Right after Angus was born I had to eat one though I swore them off and got sick to my stomach at the thought of them. The thing that was a 2x a month staple has become nonexistent in our diets in this household ever since. Funny how pregnancy does stuff to you. Praying it continues to go smoothly. :)

erin w. said...

Awe, Jim's sweet. Learning all the prego stuff along with you! I wished I coulda met him. Someday! Perhaps we'll make a trip to your El Paso super cool red door home on our trip to San Diego next year.

Megan said...

I agree with Crafty, steamed broccoli with a little salt is so much yummier!
Oh my - Matt would not have survived telling me to only eat a half a cookie! You are a gracious woman - and of course Jim is a great hubby!

Charlotte said...

His concern is so cute!

I have had ridiculous morning, noon and night sickness throughout and I have been making a very yummy fruit smoothie that I can actually keep down with 2 servings of green leafy veggies. I made it for some friends and they all loved it and wanted the recipe, so I am posting it to facebook today. I will tag you so you can check it out. You cannot taste the veggies and it really is yummy. Harry can't get enough of it and it has been a nutritional savior for me. If you can stand making it, I think you'll really like it. (If I ever get around to blogging again, maybe I'll put it up there too. :))