Quote:
|
Originally Posted by nighten
Because it's a uterine toner and very good for pregnant women to take. But since I haven't been able to tolerate the tea, I've been doing encapsulated on days when I know I can handle it if I (sorry if TMI) burp it a bit. That means I'm not taking it every day but pretty much every other day so at least I'm getting some benefit from it.
I crave coffee still but don't drink it as the caffeine is bad for me. I guess in my mind, honoring one's cravings or revulsions are fine so long as there's a balance of what's good for you. I give in to my cravings usually and avoid the revulsions but when it comes to something I think is important -- well, that's the dilemma I guess. Make sense?
|
It makes sense, it's just not the way that I see things.
It's like this: I really believe that eating too much meat is not healthy. Shortly before we started TTC Miss BooBah, I went vegetarian. For me, this came very close to being a vegan diet because I didn't eat eggs or milk, but I wasn't really a vegan (still used honey, wore leather, etc). I took my B vitamins and was very pleased with myself for giving up meat entirely. Then I got pregnant, and I could think of *nothing* but getting my mouth wrapped around, of all things, hamburgers. Greasy, yicky hamburgers which I rarely ate *before* I went vegetarian. I couldn't get them off of my mind, but I kept telling myself that meat is not healthy, that I was getting all the vitamins and protien I needed, etc, etc and so forth. Eventually I did cave in, but it was after the first trimester had passed and all of the important stuff had happened already.
My daughter has a congenital kidney defect. When I found out about it, I thought at first that there could have been nothing to cause it in the things I'd done during the pregnancy. I went over everything in my head and the only thing that I might have done during the weeks in which her kidneys were forming was pump gas into the car. I let it go... and then, about a year later, I learned something about kidney development in utero: it requires an awful lot of vitamin B12, as well as healthy fats to happen correctly. I felt like someone had smacked me in the face; I
did do this to my daughter, by failing to do the one thing that I had promised myself-- to listen to my body and
trust my intuition. If I had relaxed and eaten those stupid hamburgers when I wanted them, my baby girl might not have had to go through all the tests and medication and crap that marred her first year of life. We might not have had to go through it! It wasn't a problem to listen to my cravings when I was pregnant with BeanBean; I didn't have many, mostly I had aversions to things which I already knew to be less than healthy for pregnant women (caffiene, sugar, etc). The things that I did crave were high in vitamin C-- grapefruit, oranges, more grapefruit, brussels sprouts (which I'd *loathed* before that pregnancy, but I couldn't get enough of them during the second and third trimesters...). It's not hard to honor your cravings when all that you want to eat is grapefruit and cream of wheat.
It's much more difficult when what you want is a nice, juicy burger and you've just been so proud of yourself for being meat-free for a few months.
This time around, I have random cravings for bacon. We can't afford bacon, but when I have the chance I eat some. I always feel better after two or three slices, so I know that even given the opportunity, I won't sit down and eat the whole package. I figure, there's something in bacon that this baby needs right now, and it's not my job to ask questions but to provide.
I can theorize to my heart's content about what redeeming features bacon may or may not have, but it all comes down to the fact that my BellyBean needs it and I need to get it for him.
Just the same way as when things repell me, I know that I need to avoid them. I may not know why, but I know that I do. While I was pregnant with BooBah, I was able to drink caffienated beverages when I wanted them (infrequently) and they never made me feel ill. After she was born, I had a nice big cappuccino. She nursed and went to sleep. Her brother nursed and woke up at 1 am to puke all over daddy; even at 20 months, he was so sensitive to caffiene that he couldn't tolerate it in my breastmilk. He's three years old now, and he's still very sensitive to caffiene and sugar, while his sister is 17 months old and can drink the remains of Mike's coffee, and we'll have nothing worse to worry about than stains on her clothing. (Not that we encourage her, but you get the idea!)
I guess what I'm saying is, if something tastes really awful to you, perhaps there's a reason for it. Maybe you don't *need* a uterine toner right now, maybe your baby needs your uterus to be relaxed for the whole pregnancy. If you liked the taste of raspberry leaf tea before you got pregnant but now you can't stand it, well, that sends a message-- there's something about it that you don't need and probably shouldn't have.
). The gelcaps are more expensive, but they're totally worth it.
: Even if she doesn't think what I'm doing is *better* than what SIL does, doesn't she realize that her other grandchildren are addicted to SUBSTITUTES for nursing???
Thanks for the tip!
I know that even if I do everything right things can go wrong, but I also know that I'll feel better about everything if I do the very best that I can do when it comes to trusting my intuition.
