Week 24: A week of headaches, crazy cravings and crying

Hold the phone. I thought the second trimester was supposed to be all roses and magic and glowing skin? Is there something about week 24 that someone forgot to share with me? Namely, that it would be a nightmare week of headaches, poor sleep, truly bizarre cravings that came out of nowhere, and the worst part … uncontrollable crying? The last time I felt this emotional was when I was 15 and pining after a boy with floppy hair who played bass in a bad band. I thought this part of the pregnancy was over and out. Wrong, I was.

Now, I know headaches are a totally normal part of any pregnancy, but I’ve been experiencing a lot more of them this time around. Oddly, they say headaches are more prevalent when you’re preggers with a boy, but they also say morning sickness is more common with girls and I had the opposite experience. Anyway, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill headaches that have the decency to go away after an hour or two. This is the type of headache that wakes you up in the middle of the night with its dull, back-of-the-skull aching pain. I’m not normally a big fan of drugs and am especially wary of them while pregnant. So it’s bothering me that I’ve ingested what feels like so many tablets of Tylenol while pregnant. There isn’t one time when I’ve taken a pill and not worried that it’s going to do something terrible to my baby. But these headaches are truly awful and won’t go away without help.
Weird cravings are also something I didn’t deal with much throughout my first pregnancy. A few months ago, I couldn’t get enough of all-things salt. Then my cravings died down. But holy moly, if you could see what has passed for “dinner” for me this week, you would be sick. So let me share some of my guilty food pleasures, if you could call them that.

• Hummus and Laughing Cow spreadable cheese on a pickle.  And exactly 50 percent of the pickle has to have one spread or the other or it doesn’t count as a satisfying snack.
• Vanilla yogurt containing the following: pretzels, pomegranate seeds, blueberries, pecans, and – wait for it – hot cocoa powder.
• Prunes dipped in mustard and blanketed with a piece of toast.
• Pasta with melted cheese and, yep, more mustard.

Thankfully, cravings are manageable. You just eat a little of whatever odd thing it is you desire and, voila, the craving subsides. What’s even more difficult to control? Crying. “Sobbing” is a more accurate term to describe the type of unpredictable, stubborn emotion that pours out of your body when you’re pregnant. I think I’ve been especially blue this week because my body is really beginning to feel different. It’s suddenly more difficult to breathe in the morning. I become tired more easily when I exercise. And my tummy just feels so heavy. These changes come out of nowhere and it isn’t always easy to adjust to them – especially when you’re normally an active person who doesn’t like slowing down.
So, I started crying one day after my husband told me Costco makes generic vodka that is just as good as Grey Goose. I hid in the kitchen and cried for five minutes on another day when my 2-year-old was being fussy and, in my mind at the moment, really mean to me. And I cried in the bathroom on another night because I couldn’t fit all of the toiletries on one shelf.
Seriously. What problems to have!
I’m hoping this is all part of some odd week 24 pregnancy glitch that no one really tells you about. I’m sure next week will be better!