Monday, October 12, 2009

Adventures in Pregnancy

From all the movies and tv-shows that I've (Elizabeth) watched, I developed certain expectations about pregnancy.  Those included -
1. I will crave bizarre foods that my husband will be duty bound to find for me
2. I will eat Ice Cream every day with no consequences
3. I will be deferred to by strangers because of my growing waistline.

Well, my waistline has yet to reach monstrous proportions so I haven't been deferred to yet.  And I'm not craving anything more bizarre than lots of salt, so Cliff has yet to go on a midnight run to the grocery store.  But surely, ice cream has quickly become my constant companion...right?

Wrong.

Here's why.
Firstly, I've always been slightly lactose intolerant.  I started drinking soy milk almost exclusively about 5 years ago, so now whenever I drink milk....let's just say there's rumblin in my stomach.  I've always been able to do yogurts, cheese, ice cream, etc, but just in small amounts.

This is no longer the case.

Several weeks ago, Cliff's parents came into town to help out with curtains (his mom) and laying a laminate wood floor (his dad).  Afterwards we celebrated our great achievements by getting mexican food and Lou and I indulged in lots of queso.    Several hours later I started feeling very uncomfortable - it seemed like my throat was swelling shut.  For hours I had to forcefully breathe deeply because otherwise it seemed like I wasn't getting enough air.  I thought it was odd...but didn't know why it happened.

A couple of days after that, I reheated some of the left-over queso and had it with lunch.  And then at work  I felt my throat swelling again. I realized with horror that it was the cheese  that was the culprit.  I called into my OB's office and asked if it was possible to develop a sudden allergy during pregnancy  - like to dairy.  And much to my horror, it is.

And as time has passed, I've discovered that it's not just queso that does me in.  ANY dairy product - cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, they all cause my throat to swell and so they are ALL off limits.  EVEN CHOCOLATE IS OFF LIMITS.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

So today, in a fit of self-pity, I bought at H-E-B
1) Soy yogurt (in strawberry and peach)
2) Faux sour-cream (made with soy and tofu)
3) Faux cream cheese (made with soy and tofu)
4) Non dairy "ice cream" (made with soy)
5) Fruit popsicles
6) Chocolate Soy Milk

I just had some of the faux sour-cream and it was pretty good actually.  I'm excited to try the cream cheese and the yogurts as they are my only hope to enjoy dairy-like substances during this pregnancy.  But really, my deepest hope is that this is only temporary and that post-preganancy I'll be cavorting gleefully back in the land of cheese and ice cream.

Till then...
Don't judge me when you see me eating soy yogurt.  I'm not a vegan.  I'm just pregnant.

3 comments:

Jessica said...

That really stinks to hear! Are you allergic to the Lactose? Cause my dad is lactose intolerant,and we just discovered Beyers Lactose free vanilla ice cream, that literally tastes like the original normal stuff, and he is addicted too. Worth a shot maybe!

Arwen Elaine said...

Sorry about the ice cream....and no chocolate! Ack! But on the bright side - the ticker says that you are down to "199 days till the big day". Congratulations! You are out of the 200s!

-Arwen

Paul Rimmer said...

Of course, to prevent judgment, you could simply have some bacon with your hippy-cream.

I am sorry to hear about the no-chocolate.