Of cravings and confiscated perfumes

I totally had no idea of what to expect of a pregnant woman. I had heard a thing or two about morning sickness but totally had no clue about what it was. Betty's was rather and all day sickness every day of the first trimester.

Throwing up after every meal or for no reason at all...suddenly she did not like the smell of my perfume or my Nivea lotion which she is the same person who bought me. At first I had to dress up in the guest room so that she could not smell the perfume or the lotion, then I had to shower immediately I got home from work. That meant that I could kiss her goodbye in the morning before I finished dressing up because once I applied the perfume, I could not go back to our bedroom.

So we all know how impossible that is and so one day after taking my shower at 4 am (I am usually in the office by 5 am) I could neither find my perfume nor body lotion. The only thing I am allowed to use in this house to date is Vaseline Petroleum jelly. At times I think she is just punishing me.

I hear women have cravings when they are paged....again I had no clue about what to expect. A friend of mine had a thing for potato crisps and she would leave the house at funny hours just to get crisps from a popular joint in Kisumu's Milimani estate not to mention that she lives several miles away. Her cravings were later on in her pregnancy though....

My Betty has the most weird of cravings not to mention that hers started on the very first day she told me she was pregnant. Her conversations immediately became plural...she craved chicken, fish, pizza, beef burgers and everything else that she only ate weekly or rarely. Meat was banned from our menu instantly.

If I complained her reply always was, "si ni mtoto wako ndo anataka."

Then the cravings started changing...I get that is when the real cravings started checking in. The bad thing was that they kept changing everyday.

I usually buy beef sausages but for some reasons the baby told Betty that all she could eat was pork sausages and not wanting to get into the baby's bad books this early I obliged, buying two 500g packs. She ate them once and the next time I was in the supermarket which was two days later she called and asked me to buy chicken sausages - needless to say I have no right to ask questions, the baby wants and the baby gets. I once again bought two 500g packs and only a few of the sausages were eaten.

So here I was with about 1.5kg of sausages to myself....that should be a good thing but for someone who leaves the house before 5 am and whose idea of breakfast is Ugali with Nyama at 10 am this was going to be tough few days. If you add the frequent power blackouts in my neighborhood which means I could not guarantee that the fridge will keep them fresh then I had big problems to deal with. Needless to say, that month I ate so much sausages I don't buy them anymore.

The real cravings she has though are for matoke and ripe mangoes....I say they are real cravings because she never liked matoke. I had to force her to prepare them for me but mostly she would just have me make them for myself. Today they are in our menu not less than twice a week - that's how I know that baby is definitely mine!!

However much prepared you think you are for parenthood, some things still take you by surprise. Everyday through this journey is a learning experience. I have five more months to go with this journey...

Do you have a rookie dad/mum experience I could learn from? Share in the comments section.

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