I thought I would be able to eat anything I wanted...

Now that I was pregnant, I thought I would be able to eat anything I want and have a good excuse for getting fat. But now there are so many things that you can't eat because they are dangerous to the mother and/or baby.

I wanted to eat hot dogs and turkey sandwiches so bad. But they are bad for the pregnant ladies. I wanted to eat tuna but some sites say it is ok to eat in moderation (no more than a can a week or something like that) while others advise to stay away. You can't eat raw eggs so ceasar salad dressing is out. You can't eat deli meats. My job involves attending a lot of meetings where lunch is brought in and they usually bring in sandwiches so it made it tough.

I guess there are risks to everything and normally I am not really concerned with what is good or bad for me because it changes all the time. I mean I am not careless with my health but I don't see the harm in having some fried foods once in a while. But it is amazing how my mindset changed dramatically when I became pregnant. I didn't think eating a hot dog would be the end of the world. But there was this nagging thought in the back of my head that said, "What if?" What if this is the hot dog that will kill my baby? I just didn't want to take any chances so I stayed away from all of the things that you are supposed to stay away from when you are pregnant.

It is funny because my mother thought I was being overly cautious. That very well may have been the case but when I heard a story about a woman losing her baby because of the all of the turkey sandwiches she ate, I wasn't going near it. Of course this story was told to me by my pregnant friend who is neurotic with this type of thing so if it was true, I can't say. But I was going to take the 'better safe than sorry' route. All the while my mother is telling me how she ate full pizzas and drank beer when she was pregnant with me and did't I turn out ok? I guess you just have to give a little slack to us first timers.