Half-way mark

So, I am now at 21 weeks of this pregnancy and we are starting to realize that our lives are going to change drastically in September (and hopefully not too much earlier).

This pregnancy is different than I imagined it to be. First off, I never in a million years dreamt that I would have twins. I’ve had some friends tell me that they really wanted twins. I was never one of those women! I like to be in control, have routine, live a life that is relatively predictable. (Now that I think about it, if I really valued those things, I wouldn’t have moved to a foreign country!)

I really didn’t imagine that I would be as sick as I was for the first 17 weeks. I thought life would carry along as normal, and occasionally I would remind myself that I was pregnant. It’s hard to forget you are pregnant when you are constantly nauseated and have headaches every day with migraines 2-3 times / week. Thank goodness, that has passed.

People have asked what I’ve been craving, so here are the short lists:

Things I survived on in the first trimester:
- Eggs (which I basically ate daily for weeks)
- Oranges
- Peanut butter toast
- Honey Nut Cheerios and corn flakes
- Dr. Oetker frozen pizza with tomatoes and spinach (on the days when I couldn’t even bear to open the refrigerator)
- Almonds
- Crackers and cheese
- I can’t forget vitamin B6 and dried ginger every day to help with nausea (in addition to wearing Seabands)

Foods I crave now, but can’t have:
- Old Chicago pizza, specifically the ham and pineapple calzone
- Chipotle
- Greasy diner food – ham and eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, etc
- Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies and Swiss cake rolls, which I haven’t had since I was using my paper route money to buy them

Foods I crave now that I do eat:
- Bananas, which are also helping decrease my leg cramps
- Onion, garlic, spinach calzones (made them three times last week)
- Pineapple
- Fruit and yogurt smoothies
- Granola (or “Rranola” as my nephew calls it) – great recipe here
- Nutty Bars (Thanks, sis, for sending these!)

Now that I made this list, I remember that I made a list of foods that I hadn’t tried before I moved here. I’ll write about that next. Inşallah (God-willing), you’ll hear from me a little more often in the next couple months.