"Any strange cravings?" Has got to be up there with "you know what you're having?" in terms of the question I've been asked most frequently during this pregnancy. And while I'm desperate to tell every curious well-wisher that I've been gnawing on coal during Corrie or sending the husband out for ice cream and pickles at 3am, the reality has been pretty dull.
Orange juice has become the most delicious and satisfying nectar you could imagine. In fact, I've just gotten out of a cosy bed to get to the fridge and chug down half a litre. And considering I'm trying to bank sleep credits in the last 8 weeks of this pregnancy, it takes a lot to get me vertical first thing in the morning.
And my morning sort of begins before I've even bedded down for the night. Most evenings, my other half will come into the bedroom & roll his eyes because I'm digging into a bowl of Fruit & Fibre while watching The Kardashians try and negotiate another life crisis.
A colleague told me early on to "Listen to my body & it will tell me what it needs". Great advice, except in the early days my tummy was barking at me to order a pizza and make sure there's apple pie for desert. So I tried to temper the vampiric hunger for carbs with as much fruit and veg as possible. But a lonely carrot in my lunch box wasn't quite cutting it, no matter how much hummus I drowned it in.
That's why I was glad I was taking Pregnacare, and I'm still religious about making sure I take my daily supplement. At least if my diet fails to make the grade day in day out, I've the peace of mind knowing that baby is getting all the extra vitamins and minerals it needs to grow.
I've become a lot more interested in nutrition in the last couple of years. Probably a combination of working out with a trainer who passed on healthy eating tips & doing a series called "Fridge Raiders" on Xpose where we'd snoop through the contents of a celeb's fridge and analyse the contents with a nutritionist. In one particular feature, Dr Eva Orsmond came and looked through my own fridge. And while she didn't like the look of the oven chips in my freezer, one thing she said really struck home. And that was that "the health of the next generation depends on the health and nutrition of the women having babies today".
I'd never really thought about it before. Kids were still on my whimsical "One Day..." List but it got me thinking. Then when I was going for a check-up with my G.P. she told me that I should take folic acid 6 months before a baby thought even popped into my head. And while at the time I thought she'd lost the run of herself, I still went to the pharmacy and perused the shelves. That's where I saw the Pregnacare Conception supplements which I thought I'd try. By the time I'd paid for them, I was pretty sure I was pregnant already. Still I felt good that I was helping my body be in the best possible shape for baby making.
Now I've graduated onto Pregnacare Max which has the recommended amount of folic acid plus vitamin D & calcium and the Omega 3 baby needs for brain and eye development. So I'm pretty sure our child is going to be the very first president who can see through walls. Still again it just feels like an extra bit of insurance. While I'm trying to eat enough fibre, protein, calcium (and go easy on the Eddie Rocket chocolate malt shakes), some days I'm not going to tick all the nutrition boxes. But at least this way I know that this little tenant who's doing somersaults in my tummy is getting the best start already.
