Being 9 weeks pg is hideous

[Enid]

I can't stay awake in the day and can't sleep at night. I feel sick all the time. I am really really grumpy. I hate cooking atm and yet have a dh and two children that expect lovely home cooked meals. I have to work four mornings a week and I couldn't bloody care less about it.

All I want to do is sit in front of the telly and eat chili crisps.

I hate feeling like a slob.

I have no energy.

Plus we are in dispute with our feckless builders who are STILL in our house despite being nearly 4 months over schedule and I am constantly worried I am going to have a miscarriage.

I am the size of a house already and hardly any clothes fit me and yet I am trying to keep it a secret from work.

pthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Should've kept yer knickers on then....

lol

I'll remember that next time

it seemed like a good idea at the time, that's the problem

Awwww...poor Enid!
Sending you lots of sympathy.

I felt terrible in the first trimester and even had to go part time at work. Didn't really look pregnant though until around week 25.

As for meals, maybe your DH/relative/friend could help out until you feel a bit better or you could make big batches of food and freeze ready to defrost before you set off for work. Alternatively, am sure you have a local take-away or you can all live off sandwiches/soup etc.. for a while.

Feel like a slob and enjoy your pregnancy, get as much help as you can. Take some time off work if you can and if you can't make sure you have plenty of 'me' time on return.

Good luck with the builders. and tea

Chacha (31wks)

it is the pits of a time enid. it really is. it will improve I promise! this time around I felt HORRIBLE at 9/10 weeks (always felt fine with the others) and decided it was all a horrible horrible mistake, and that if it didn't progress I would probably actually be quite relieved! But things really improved at about 11 weeks and it has been OK since then (apart from the size of a house much too early thing)..

tell your dh that homecooked meals aren't happening for the next fortnight unless he either makes them himself or includes pasta, sausages and roast chicken in that category. He won't mind!

at least autumn is coming and you can hide yourself under woolly clothes. I was 9 weeks in the summer and there is nowhere to hide in a t-shirt....!

Aw enid, a big soppy sympathetic arts centre hug from EC2.

1. agree with Toothy, keep your drawers on next time
2. eyes on the prize, all being well. Another sweet baby will be the reward for all this bloated volatility! I met a local pal with her gorgeous newborn at the station last night and I was first smitten with warm envy for them all (her dh had their indesputably hacked-off toddler doinging around on his shoulders) and then I actually thought of you and some of the other Mn who are pregnant at the moment (my antenatal pals Wills and Tortoiseshell for starters ) and was so happy for you too. Like pph says, break out the sausages or cash in some matrimonial favours. Tideford Hey Pesto counts as "cooking" in my books, especially at times like these.

Message withdrawn

or alternatively raise the energy to do one big trip to M&S and buy everything that is freezable and yummy looking (you can get a LOT of fishcakes and chicken and broccoli cakes into a freezer). If your dh says ANYTHING about extravagance bare your teeth and snarl at him from your prone position on the sofa...

thanks so much. pph, great posts thanks. The M&S idea is a very good one. He will moan though. Actually he might moan less if it is Waitrose so maybe I'll go there this afternoon.

I think the horrible bit is that I am a 'do-er', and my family just look at me dumbstruck if I am ever ill/feel sick/don't cook lovely meals/don't organise everyone etc etc.

I have to keep dh sweet by feeding him well. He is good about tidying and cleaning etc but I have dug myself into a hole by being such a good cook

I can't really bear to try and imagine a sweet baby at the end of this as I am still worried about miscarrying.

I just hope this is a massive hormonal surge and that things will selttle down soon.

I also hate drinking Lucozade but I just can't stop myself

I'm sorry enid nix that idea then
But Waitrose and M & S Gastropub is definitely on I think

yes! hurrah. It will sort out a big problem.

What can a former domestic goddess turned slob cook her family without feeling hideously guilty? I feel a book coming on.

enid, if he moans, cry. you'll only have to do it once... he will be so horrified that he will be whipping up chicken in cook-in sauces with rice in a jiffy (actually some of those aren't bad at all, if you look at the labels. there are some quite good curry ones which are very low-effort if you have 2 chicken breasts knocking about).

actually I don't think it is bad to leave your family dumbstruck once in a blue moon, makes them appreciate how much you do normally, and how rotten you really must be feeling. both good things...

ooooh, also steak is good. men like steak. and you can tell them to cook it themselves - it is like barbequeing - man's cooking. ditto lamb chops. mashed potatoes, frozen peas.... bob's your uncle!

How easy is it for you to conceal packaging convincingly enid?
If you don't already buy it, I can honestly recommend that pesto. It is better than any other pesto in a jar I have found.

lol

excellent advice pph

Tuna and salmon might be too smelly for you at the mo but IME men like those too and grilled with a pesto crumb crust they definitely count as "real" cooking chez nous

where do you get it marina?

I just cant serve him pesto and pasta though. He classes that as children's food and gets terribly sniffy.

He sounds awful I know, he's not really.

ooh yes I think that might work (salmon pest o thing)

Message withdrawn

Waitrose, sorry, should have made that clearer.
If that is not a "proper" meal in his books you can try grilling some cherry tomatoes while the pasta is cooking, and bashing them in, skinned, to the pasta and pesto.
Another easy dish that always makes dh smile is pasta with chopped broccoli added for the last three minutes of cooking time. Drain, mash in a jar of Monegasque anchovy fillets with olive oil, oil and all, plenty of black pepper and grated pecorino.
A revered foodie Mner copied that recipe from me for her own use after eating it at my house. (Swells with pride).
Is any of this helping at all or does your dh not think pasta is a proper dinner full stop...

Definitely Lloyd Grossman. Man may be a creepoid in RL but the puttanesca can be chucked over roasted med veg and served very effectively alongside grilled tuna with plenty of flat-leaf parsley

other easy no effort food:
big roasting dish. free range/organic full chicken legs. chop up all of any of potatoes (new are nice and you don't have to peel them!) courgettes, an aubergine, sweet potato, mushrooms, parsnips, carrots (but you have to parboil them first, so scrap the carrots) - drizzle with olive oil, scatter with oregano salt and pepper, slam in the oven and lie on the sofa. dinner ready in 30/40 mins.

small roasting dish. chicken breasts or thighs. cover in a generous layer of pesto. put in the oven for 20 mins. serve on mini pasta rice or shells (think soup pasta). add some steamed green beans if you are feeling energetic.

salmon. (buy big packet of wild alaskan frozen). in the morning, bung in bowl with lime/lemon juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, grated ginger if feeling energetic, chopped red chillies if feeling super energetic. in the evening grill for 5 mins, serve on rice. again, steamed courgettes or something will do on the side.

You can do exactly the same with duck breasts, but use orange juice (tropicana is fine - don't bother squeezing!) instead of lime. Grill for about 15 mins, serve sliced thinly on little pasta again....

congratulations Enid is this no.2? I felt awful from about this tiem until the 12 week scan and then felt much more myself so fingers crossed that you'll be the same. Keep thinking about the lovely scan you'll see soon

on the fod front I advise getting so ready meals in - lasgne and frozen peas won't harm dh and the kid(s) once in a while

no he loves pasta

actually that broccoli thing sounds good, we do something similar with a bit of cream added.

Its just the tyranny of cooking for the girls, putting them to bed, reading their stories (actually that is the worst bit of the day, the Wishing Chair is making me feel really really sick) then having to come downstairs and start cooking again. I know I should just ask him to do some of it...but I am cursed/blessed with girls that think my bedtime reading is infintely superior to daddys.

no yummy recipes will get round that.
Did you feel this way with dd2 I wonder? I do feel bedtimes is a tyranny now they are at school, there is so much more to chat about and read.

no definitely feel more put upon this time round! A nearly 6 year old and a nearly 3 year old are rather more emotional work than one 2.5 year old (which is what I had last time)

Thanks compo. This will (hopefully) be no. 3.