Assistant (to the) editor

By Melissa Tucker

The Great Pregatini

Posted March 31, 2008

So, in a recent column I revealed to the Sync-reading world that yes, indeed that is a baby bump and I'm not just eating too much. (Well... I probably am eating too much.)

Since then, I've had lots of feedback from people I know and people I don't. They've all been very supportive, of course. But I guess I should have mentioned how far along I was in the column because I've been asked about morning sickness more times than I can count.

I'm past all that now. I'm around 22 weeks and I have terrible heartburn, but I haven't puked in weeks — and I'm thanking the porcelain gods for that.

Since everyone is so keen to hear about my morning sickness, here are a few things that made me puke, when I was afflicted with it: Colgate toothpaste (just once, thankfully), raw broccoli and salad dressing (extremely unpleasant) and salsa (my favorite thing in the world).

Now, all of that is over. And for the first time, this pregnancy thing feels real. On Friday night, I felt him kick for the first time. For a split second I thought it might be gas, but then I realized it wasn't because it was unlike anything else and also in the wrong spot. Since then, the kid has been kicking me all the time. It's pretty cool.

It feels stronger to me than it does to my husband, he can barely distinguish the kick from my pounding pulse — which is a lot stronger now that I've got all this extra blood volume.

My sister said when her first baby kicked her it freaked her out because she was home alone. I wondered why that woud freak her out though ... unless she happened to be home alone watching Alien — an unfortunate coincidence but highly unlikely.

But that's the latest in my pregnancy world.

Oh, I almost forgot. Weird cravings. I haven't craved anything I would consider weird, unless it's strange that I want chocolate all the time. And when I've had something sweet, I want something salty and vice versa. It's a vicious cycle. I've just learned to keep small portions of chocolate around so that I can have a little bit and be happy.

And that's a side affect of pregnancy I'm more than happy to have.