My Stomach, The Liar

I was pretty sick my entire pregnancy with India, so now that I'm at the halfway point with this pregnancy and only getting sick at night, I'm thankful.

But today, I'm going to talk about something I don't talk about with hardly anyone because I don't want to be seen as a whining, hormonal, prego: my stomach is a liar. 

Let me explain. 

Some people experience morning sickness, or what should be termed Anytime of Day Sickness, or perhaps, All Day Sickness, and lose their appetite.  Some have an appetite, but can't decide what to eat.  Some can't eat very much without losing their lunch.  My stomach does something different: it lies! 

Not joking, my nausea manifests as extreme hunger with nausea.  Yes, when I'm preggo sick, my stomach tells me I'm hungry and I need to eat.  So, like I normally do when my body asks for something (like chocolate), I eat.  And I eat well.  A full meal.  My stomach is mostly happy and I'm ready to relax.  But no, what's this?!?  Soon after I eat, my stomach starts growling and grumbling and asking for food??  No big deal, right?  I'm probably just hungry. 

Lies. 

My stomach is actually plump full, but my body is telling my mind something very different.  Maybe it's just used to eating two suppers (yes, when I'm not pregnant, I eat more than my husband).  Either way, it lies as much as Paula Abdul did as an American Idol judge. 

Pregnant, sick, nauseated and "starving" in my usual position on the couch.  2010.

Have you ever tried to deny yourself something your body was asking for every minute, for hours, for days, for weeks, for months?  Like sleep or food?  Yep, not fun.  Sometimes I give in, sometimes I just go to sleep because the desire is so strong, and sometimes I barrel through it, getting sicker by the minute, all while crying to my husband and writhing on the couch about how "I'm so freaking hungry". 

He knows all about my lying stomach, but encourages me to do whatever I want.

Is there such a thing as pregnancy Prader-Willi syndrome?  Because I think I have it.

What happens if I give in and eat?  I gain weight.  Massively.  Because, of course, my body doesn't need the food at that point.  I gained 17 pounds in the first 10 weeks of my pregnancy with India, because of this "lying stomach syndrome".  I finally figured out around week 10 or 11 of my pregnancy that my stomach was lying and I needed to fight it.  You can maybe imagine my disgust when I discovered that.

It was and still is quite a difficult feat to ignore my screaming, nauseous body.

Maybe you think I should just give in and listen to my body.  That's nice advice, but according to the above of gaining 17 pounds every 8 weeks, well, I would easily gain over 85 pounds and that's not taking into account all the water weight I gained at the end of my pregnancy with India.  I could easily go over 100 pounds if I "listened" to my body.  And remember, I'm not really hungry or needing the food an hour after my last meal.  And it doesn't work to eat something healthy, like a piece of fruit...that just makes me sicker.

Maybe because of my lying stomach condition I already gain a lot.  Thankfully, I lose it all right away too, but it is slightly stressful and frustrating in the mean time because I feel completely powerless to gain and eat in a healthy manner.

In the end, no, I can't eat like I normally do and I can't listen to my body to know when I'm full.  I know that.  But I do have to make some sort of amends with this pathological liar called my stomach.

And for the most part, I think I'm doing an alright job.

Has anyone else been blessed with a lying stomach?  Or had to eat insane amounts of food in order to avoid vomiting?