So...

[deird1]

As the suspicious among you might have noticed, I'm rather pregnant.

13 weeks, in fact. Which means I got knocked up just before changing country – thereby managing to hit five of life's most stressful events (job change; marriage; buying a house; getting pregnant; changing country) in a single year.


Do NOT Do This In A Foreign Country

I am:
- away from all friends and family, excepting the husband
- away from all my Aussie comfort food
- rapidly increasing my German pregnancy-related vocab, as none of the nurses speak English

Out of all of these, the biggest issue is definitely the food.


I haven't just had morning sickness; I've had severe enough morning sickness to land me in hospital. It has DRAMATICALLY screwed with my eating habits. There were several stages of this.

Stage 1: Waking up in the morning feeling queasy, being a bit off my game until it passes, and reasoning that, if this is morning sickness, I'll handle it easy.
...HA.

Stage 2: There is nothing in this world but vomit.
This included a total lack of appetite. Imagine that eating involves stuffing food into your ear canal. And you know it's a good, nutritious thing, and you know you should do it – but, dammit, I don't want to put food in my ear. Food shouldn't go in my ear. And the idea of spending my time trying to put even more of the stupid stuff in my ear is just... too much. Don't wanna.

Stage 3: My sense of smell is superpowered and it HATES ME.
This lasted for weeks. It included instances of me banishing the husband to the other room because his cereal smelled noxious, making him stay on the other side of the bed because he smelled of human being, and telling him to turn around because his breath smelled of air.

This is where the being-in-a-foreign-country became a total pain. Because
- my body was rejecting anything that smelled bad (or at all)
- my body was convinced that anything that tasted even slightly different to what I was expecting was poison and should be expelled with extreme force
- my body kept coming up with exciting ideas of foods I could eat ...if I was in Australia where they sell those foods

So the husband was getting sent out on food errands, coming back with the closest German approximation, and having me take one bite, spit it out, and reject the entire packet. The poor man has had to finish a whole lot of leftovers he wasn't interested in eating in the first place.

Stage 4: I feel awesome! ...and now I don't.
I currently spend most of the day feeling fine, and small, random portions of it throwing up with gusto. It's rather cramping my style.


As I say, the food thing is a pain. But the rest of foreign-country-ness is a pain too. I'm suddenly stuck in a situation where I don't know the people, don't know the medical system, and can't really go and tourist.

I console myself with the thought that, if we were living in Detroit as originally planned for this year, my pregnancy plan would be to wait until I was in labour, drive across the border, and find the nearest Canadian hospital. Comparatively speaking, this is way easier.



So... yeah. There's my news. And the reason I haven't been posting terribly much. Hopefully my blogging frequency will increase as my vomiting frequency lessens.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

thereby managing to hit five of life's most stressful events (job change; marriage; buying a house; getting pregnant; changing country) in a single year.

Oooooh that sucks. Congratulations on the upcoming arrival, though!

[kerkevik_2014]

Does this mean a) you are going to be giving birth to one of they foreigners I've heard about?
b) you've made absolutely sure no monks and/or satanic nuns were involved (to the unitiated check Buffy S5 and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)
c) you need people to smuggle contraband Australian food in?
d) you need a definitive list of Australian food shops in the greater German area ie. the EU (at least if you read the Daily Mail.

Congratulations btw... er, I think ;-)

[petzipellepingo]

I console myself with the thought that, if we were living in Detroit as originally planned for this year, my pregnancy plan would be to wait until I was in labour, drive across the border, and find the nearest Canadian hospital.

It's actually right across the Tunnel crossing. However, why would you have to give birth in Canada?

At any rate, congratulations on the pregnancy but not on the food related nastiness.

[brin_bellway]

I see Kerk beat me to my first two thoughts. They were, in order, "Does this mean your kid'll have German citizenship?" and "Are you sure there aren't any of those ex-pat shops around?".

"Congratulations! ...I think" was thought number three, which isn't that far down the list.

[bruttimabuoni]

*g* I am suspicious, so, yeah. I did wonder. But yeesh, you are managing to do so many big things all at once, that's slightly suboptimal. In a happy way.

On vomiting, I have nothing to offer. Sucks. Eat ginger things. Jelly has also worked for me in the past, but not always. Drink lots. You know this. Let it pass soon.

[curiouswombat]

Congratulations! With any luck you'll be over the pukiness very soon.

And yay! We get even more of you at Writercon!!

[velvetwhip]

Here's hoping the vomit-stage passes soon and you can enjoy the prospect of being a mother.


Gabrielle

[rebcake]

I mean, that's awful. Except the part that is awesome! I offer you my congratulations and my sympathy.

I was not going to call you out, but I was pretty sure that there was a deird2 on the way! Because: been there. In Italy.

About morning sickness, I can only suggest zweibach, care packages from back home, and the passage of time. And the promise that while this will pass, something else not pleasant will take it's place and that by the end of the pregnancy, you will be so annoyed with it all that you will welcome a squalling, wrinkly, sleep-depriving, sucking being with enthusiasm, because it's an improvement. Heh. It really it pretty cool. Seriously though, this is probably the worst part and will be a distant memory before you know it. Stay hydrated!

P.S. Here in the States, the medicos recommend a BRAT diet when recovering from a rumbly tummy. That's Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.

[juliet316]

Congrats on your pregnancy. Hopefully the morning sickness passes/or eases up soon.

[elisi]

Congratulations!

And I hope things get easier from here on out. The nausea does go away, promise!

[snickfic]

Congratulations! I'm so sorry about the yuckiness. :( I am, however, feeling extremely smug, because your comment about heightened smells a few weeks ago did make me wonder. I didn't ask, though, because I was afraid it would be rude to go about diagnosing people's possible reproductive state. :)

Anyway. Yay!

[frayadjacent]

I suspected as much. Congratulations! I hope the sickness subsides soon and the rest of your pregnancy goes smoothly.

[immer_am_lesen]

Congratulations! :-D

I just read all that, and nodded through it all. Been there, done that just a few months back.
The whole 'why do I have to eat' is so true- I do like the ear-canal analogy. I kept trying to explain to my husband that it's like being made to eat cardboard, when you really don't want to eat cardboard, but know you have to for the sake of the child inside. And to keep myself alive and breathing, of course. Meh. EFFORT.

Smell- hahaha. I had the 'hot water smells awful' problem with #1, and this time around it was the smell of cooking meat, most foods, occasionally hot water, and things like coffee, scotch....blergh.

Anyways, you have my empathy. It'll pass, believe it or not. #1 was from weeks 6-10, this time it's been worse, I think from 6 to...gosh. about four months in, I think. But I did get my appetite back.
Just keep making yourself eat small snacks, whatever you feel like eating. Keep up the prenatal vitamins, and then yeah, whatever you think 'hmm, I want to eat that', do it. If it's spaghetti with creamed corn, do it. If it's a tin of tuna followed by chocolate, do it. All food is good food, in the end. I luckily never had the throwing up, but found that lemonade helped with the not-wanting-to-eat, and eating crackers, toast, just small nibbly things. Keep trying foods, they will eventually be likeable again. :-)

[immer_am_lesen]

Heh, just read all the comments- if you go looking for 'zweibach', you'll be getting a lot of confused shopkeepers wondering why you want two creeks...try 'Zwieback'- so, rusks. :-)

[brin_bellway]

it's like being made to eat cardboard

Do you think so? I've never been pregnant, but my body reacts very strongly to those supposed "48-hour" stomach bugs (I wasn't hospitalised, but I arguably should have been), and I would much rather eat cardboard now than eat food in that condition. But then, I was one of those kids who ate paper for fun.

(I also like the ear-canal analogy. It does sound about right.)

[immer_am_lesen]

Oh, and re. not being able to find your comfort foods...this is where parents (and possibly sisters) step up, surely. I believe it's part of parental duties to lavish things upon a pregnant daughter. Make them feel really guilty, and may food parcels flood in! :-)

I agree with the ginger-drink comment, but will add that while ginger ale was one of the few things I could stomach with #1, it did nothing for #2. :-( I'm sure if you get a small bottle of ginger beer/ ale at the supermarket, hubby can manage to finish the rest if you don't like it. :)

[immer_am_lesen]

...as in, being made to eat *anything* is just totally unappetising and uninteresting. No desire for food whatsoever, so it may as well be cardboard you're trying to eat- nothing tastes right, the textures are wrong, it's all just....wrong. And so very sad, because it all used to be favourite food.

[octavia_b]

Congratulations! And sympathy! I well remember that heightened sense of smell where the smell of ANYTHING made me puke. There used to be an Indian takeaway next to my workplace in London and I think I spent more time in the bathroom than at my desk for the first few months of my pregnancy. I lived on fruit and crackers for months because they were the only things I could (a) swallow and (b) keep down.

But it gets better! And despite the language barrier I'm pretty sure that Germany has an awesome healthcare system so you're in safe hands.

[deird1]

Thanks! I am excited; it's just covered in several layers of vomit. :)

[deird1]

Thanks!

a) Yes. Assuming Australians count as foreign from your perspective. :)
b) As far as I can tell...
c) Some should be arriving soonish, I believe.
d) So much. But Stuttgart hasn't been terribly helpful in that regard.

[deird1]

Thanks!

My reasons for fleeing to Canada are twofold.
1) American healthcare costs a MINT.
2) American healthcare has higher mother/child mortality rates than almost every other western country.
Put it together, and I'm rather intimidated. Throwing myself on the mercy of nearby mounties sounds very comforting by comparison.

[deird1]

Thanks!

Don't think they get German citizenship. I should do some googling.

[deird1]

So far I'm managing with lots of diced pears...

:)

[deird1]

You get huge, waddling Mez at Writercon! Woo! :)

[deird1]

Thanks. I hope so.