Craving pickles

The mind of a teenager is a funny place to be. With the same oppositional attitude I'd previously used to rebel about everything around me..I turned around and used as a positive. I used that same stubborn streak to prove everyone that not only could I raise my baby but do it right.

My first steps were the obvious, sleep and food. I did a ton of sleeping. Which was why my mother wasn't surprised when i told her I was pregnant, she'd guessed. I'd never been a sleeper. Suddenly i couldn't get enough.

I ate and ate, determined not to have an underweight baby like the doctor predicted. I was about 90 lbs when I conceived. The doctor was so certain at my one and only ultra sound that i wouldn't be keeping the baby, he never printed a picture out. When I ask him for one, he more or less told me that he didn't think I would want one. I never had another ultrasound.

I am grateful I lived at home with my mom, who is a fabulously healthy vegetarian cook. Looking back on my first grocery trip, I remember buying everything diet. What does a fifteen year old truly know about nutrition? I thought diet equaled healthy. A fact I am embarrassed of now, but I was too young to know any better.

My friends were great and kept me stocked in snacks from what I call a gas station diet. I also had a major pickle craving. Which I now cant recall if it started because I thought pregnant woman should eat pickles or not?? But I know it turned into a major craving. My daughter is now a total pickle addict herself and I always wonder if there is a link there? Somewhere toward the end of my pregnancy I ate a jar of pickles that just didn't taste right, that was enough to kick the habit.

I had morning sickness that was more throughout every minute of the day sickness. I'd so to school, eat an egg sandwich and orange juice and run to the bathroom. There is nothing attractive about morning sickness, especially when your a teenage girl still hoping to be attractive to teenage boys.

Needless to say I still gained a healthy forty pounds. What did you crave during your pregnancies? Did your children have a liking for those foods later in life?