Not the Perfect, Paleo Pregnancy

Yes, I’m married to Paleo Pete and yes, I have access to the best food in Southern California, but lately I’ve been feeling anything but “Paleo”.

Let me back up.

I got pregnant back in September 2013 and Peter and I could not be more thrilled. I think Peter had wanted to be a father since the minute we met. I went back and forth, physically craving children when I was 30, feelings of indifference from 32-33, but recently that began to change again and at the ripe old age of 34, we went for it.

Given my age and previous health issues, which were some of the main reasons I went Paleo, I was slightly concerned about my ability to conceive naturally. Of course it didn’t help that my OBGYN was trying to shove pills down my throat to make the whole process easier and faster. I told him to go pack sand and despite the fact that I knew little to nothing about the proper way to conceive (don’t you just have a lot of unprotected sex a couple of weeks after your period?), after a couple months of “trying”, we were successful. Our friend Michelle at Nom Nom Paleo warned us last year during Paleo f(x) that Paleo women were fertile and boy was she right!  

In my head, I KNEW I was going to have this fairy tale pregnancy. I have an impeccable diet and work out regimen (I was on a strength training program at the time courtesy of an old CrossFit buddy). I couldn’t wait to start blogging about it for all of our followers and share any insights, tips and ideas for my fellow pregnant Paleos.

That is, until around week 5. I know, pretty early to throw it all out the window huh?

Well, we had some early on scares which led to multiple trips to the ER back to back and a general lack of respect for my recommended OBGYN’s office. And it also led to me wanting to eat bad food to “make myself feel better”.

Paleo diet out the window.

Everything turned out to be fine, all a scare generated by my amazing doctors. So a few thousand dollars later (yes, I do have insurance), Peter and I decided to switch to midwife care. This coincides with the timing of my “morning” sickness. All day, every day.

At the time, we hadn’t moved into our new kitchen yet, so Emily and I were still working out of my home office. I felt so guilty, but pretty much half way through each day, I’d leave her in the office to just take to my bed. I obviously realize how fortunate I am to be able to do that, as I still don’t understand how my friends and sister who have to go into an office do/did it.

But at any rate, because of this nausea, I had major aversions to meat and protein. I pretty much could only eat eggs. And maybe some Pete’s Paleo Bacon. My major craving at the time was tater tots. Yup. So Peter obliged. Between that and making me egg muffins to have in the fridge for the instant I woke up, because if I didn’t eat immediately, I’d be on the verge of tossing up bile. Bless his heart, because I know my “cravings” have not exactly challenged his culinary prowess.

One weekend I was feeling good enough to actually leave the house (I’m pretty sure I was extremely Vitamin D deficient during my first trimester despite living in sunny San Diego) and went to work a Pete’s Paleo sampling event at a local CrossFit competition. Well it turns out that not eating well, being cooped up inside and pregnant probably do affect my immune system because I got some gnarly bug or bacteria infection there and was not a happy camper for over 8 days. However, on the bright side, it did make morning sickness seem like child’s play. Unfortunately, during this 8 days my diet went from bad to worse. I couldn’t keep anything inside of me, so I basically survived on white rice, and sometimes I even treated myself to white rice and scrambled eggs!!!

I made it through the other side and this happened to coincide with week 12. And all of a sudden, the same way it started, my morning sickness was over. Just like that.

Unfortunately the bad habits had settled in nicely. I wasn’t exercising anymore and strict Paleo was (and still is) a foreign word to me.

But if there is anything I understand, it’s the power of stress on the body. And I decided not to let my non-ideal choices during this time stress me out.

And that is my message to any of you who are pregnant or  thinking of becoming pregnant. Revel in the joy that is making a new life, but don’t take life itself so seriously that you don’t enjoy the journey. Of most people, I obviously understand the importance of a good diet. And I know what I will do to get back on track, but in the meantime, I’m not going to give myself grief over the poor choices I occasionally make. Things with baby Lois Marie and I are tracking along nicely according to our kind midwives and we cannot wait to welcome her into this world come June.