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pregnancy cravings…

Sprinkles Ice Cream

Sprinkles Ice Cream

Half and Half Tea House

I'm so glad to finally have my appetite back (that first trimester nausea knocks me out, and I don't want to eat anything for the first four months!). Similarly to my pregnancy with Ruby, I have been craving the most random things. Right now (usually at 9pm at night), I want:

-shaved ice

-boba milk tea

-spicy cheetos

-mint chocolate chip ice cream

-french fries (specifically steak fries)

-a frosty

-a slurpee

-vinegar

-hot sauce

…pretty healthy stuff, hunh? It's like a teenager took over my body. I always find it funny to see what hormones do to your taste buds. Why can't I crave carrots or an avocado? What have you guys craved if/when you've been pregnant? Have you ever sent your partner out to get you something really crazy?

All I have to say is…the baby made me do it.

{Photos by Bonnie Tsang for Oh Joy from our past food adventures at Sprinkles Ice Cream and Half & Half.}

72 comments

  1. I am about to have my first baby in 6 days (give or take) and the first trimester was full of cravings for spicy food. I could not get enough sriracha sauce on everything! Good luck with baby number two!

  2. Did you ever crave the same thing and eat it constantly and then get sick of it?? That is what happens to me…and I’m also craving things I can’t have, like sushi, bloody steak, etc!

  3. Cherry slurpees/icees and Starbucks ice were the craziest things. Every time we got in the car, I came home with one of these two things. I also ate chicken philly cheesesteaks and Chipotle Steak tacos like they were going out of style. And strawberries. I could not get enough strawberries. So weird.

  4. Cherry popsicles and hamburgers! Unfortunately we had mountains of orange and grape flavored popsicles left over because I refused to eat them. 😉

  5. During my first pregnancy, I craved fresh fruits and fruit juices and now my son loves to eat all kinds of fruits. For my second pregnancy, I craved sweets, especially chocolate and spicy food (not together, but that actually doesn’t sound too bad!) Now my second son has a very sweet tooth and loves spicy food! Yes, I agree with you in that the baby made me do it.

  6. I didn’t really have cravings as much as I did aversions. Before I was pregnant I ate a ridiculously healthy diet of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and salad/veggies every night and bread was the enemy. These foods made me want to vomit my first trimester. I ended up gaining way too much weight because I suddenly could only stomach bread. My kid is 4 and I still can’t stomach a chicken breast. Thank goodness for thighs.

  7. As someone who was a vegetarian for several years… I craved hamburgers, all day, every day. And not a fast food burger, a good home cooked, grilled, burger. Also pickles… I could eat a whole jar in one sitting 🙂

  8. Not a single food craving, just a whole bunch of food aversions so far at 16 weeks. I can’t wait to get a food craving because then I’d probably eat an entire meal for once.

  9. Well I’m not pregnant, but my mom craved apples/apple juice for both me and my sister. My friend craved peanuts/peanut butter on everything! My other friend wanted meat all the time. It was the funniest thing, we would be sitting in church and she would be like I need a burger and she would eat one for lunch and one for dinner. Sometimes I think about what my cravings will be.
    xoxo Allison over at Allison’s Eye

  10. You’ve just listed all my normal non-pregnant-lady cravings. Oh boy, I don’t even want to know what it’s going to be like if I ever am pregnant…!

  11. You just made me feel so much better. I have been stuck on ramen noodles and saltines for two weeks now and I have been so worried that my baby will be malnourished by the end of the first trimester when I (hopefully!) can eat again. I guess the human race has continued, so I shouldn’t stress too much. So far, if I’ve been able to down anything else, it’s been chocolate chip sour cream pancakes. And I’ve been craving fig newtons, which I hate, and a McDonald’s cheeseburger, which I haven’t had since childhood. Pregnancy is so weird.

  12. I craved whole milk very early on in my pregnancy, and then the cravings mostly subsided. There was one night that stands out in my husband’s mind when I firmly insisted we needed to have veggie lasagna for dinner, and it scared him a little! I also needed an occasional strawberry (had to be strawberry) milkshake.

  13. First pregnancy: rhubarb pie. Sent Hubby out and he came home with a piece from a restaurant! Also fizzy water (not colas).
    Second pregnancy: turkey (fortunately, it was Thanksgiving time), Chinese food, cottage cheese, applesauce, salty nuts and, again, fizzy water.

  14. In my pregnancy I craved cucumber (not the classic pickled cucumber!)….this was really crazy…I ate 2 cucumbers a day, craved for cucumber when I woke up so the first thing I did was going to the fridge and cut me a big piece of cucumber…. So healthy and funny…

  15. In the beginning it was really bland, carby food like applesauce, pasta, bread, and Pringles.. Then in the second trimester I went on a watermelon binge, and finally I had a major sweet tooth which is pretty unusual for me. While I was in the hospital being induced I was on Pinterest looking at dessert recipes, specifically this image of an apple pie with a cinnamon roll crust. It was agonizing since I was only allowed Popsicles and ice chips.

  16. Everything bagels, chicken hard shell tacos, oranges and pancakes. I was never a fan of pancakes but then I saw a commercial for IHOP and pancakes. I had to have them constantly after that. We found the original pancake house in redondo beach which has the best breakfasts ever, so I made my husband take me there every weekend (we lived in silver lake at the time) Food tasted so much better when I was pregnant. Probably why I gained 50lbs!

  17. Korean women tend to eat a lot of nengmyun– a vinegary noodle soup that is super delicious, especially in the summertime. That and the dongchimi gooksu (with green tea noodles) at myongdong kyojoa in Koreatown is soo good.

  18. Oh, as for my own craving, I craved fruit like crazy, which is weird because I normally don’t like fruit. As soon as I gave birth, I stopped wanting to eat fruit (tragic, I know). Interestingly, my daughter is obsessed with fruit.

  19. Um, i have these same cravings and am NOT pregnant. What does that say about me?
    (p.s. I think a lot of these say we are children of the 80s who grew up in the Philly area 😉

  20. When I was expecting my third I craved butter and ate toast constantly. I remember another pregnant mother at the library saying she craved grapefruit and thinking how elegant and chic that sounded in comparison to buttered toast!

  21. My friend was addicted to cucumbers throughout her pregnancy and ate them all the time. Now her daughter, who is 4, loves cucumbers… even says they are her favorite food! Not a typical 4 year old response!

  22. I was a caesar salad junkie. Breakfast, lunch and dinner that’s all I wanted for months and months. I also had a healthy addiction to strawberry milkshakes. The last month I think I had one a day.

  23. Finishing up my 8th month of pregnancy thus far….
    My craving from day one has been citrus: oranges and cuties.
    A fruit is good,but too much fruit= too much sugar so I’ve had to manage how much citrus I ate. D’oh…

  24. After a rough 20 weeks of “morning sickness,” all I wanted were nectarines! I could go through a case in a couple days. Now my daughter loves them. 🙂

  25. Pineapple and olives – at the same time! I rest my case!! That was with Kitty, this time it’s either been Spinach and Avocado salad (from a girl who doesn’t like avocados) or dolly mixture sweeties or tropical fruit (mango with lime juice – just amazing!)

  26. It will get better, I usually just start to feel better around 16 weeks and then its a whole new world by 20 weeks!
    Joy

  27. Hi Alia,
    It gets much better after the first trimester I promise. I was so sick in the beginning too and barely wanted to eat anything!
    Joy

  28. I craved citrus fruit during my first pregnancy – oranges, mandarines etc…couldnt get enough! i also loved cheesy flavoured crisps.
    With baby number 2 I also prefered savoury over sweet…I had two boys!

  29. I’m just about done with my first trimester and the nausea is alive and well. I’m having the opposite effect and eating constantly is the only thing that makes the sick feeling subside! Oh and chewing gum. I’m counting down the days till I can enjoy food just to enjoy it. Can’t wait to find out what you’re having Joy!

  30. I’m finishing up my first trimester as well! The nausea is subsiding–my only craving and food that helps to resolve my nausea is meat and cheese, preferably in the same meal. This baby is going to be a carnivore!

  31. I’m 10 weeks now and I can’t eat too much healthy… all my body wants is chocolate and this desperates my partner (is our first)
    but after reading all you I don’t feel so guilty hehe

  32. The only thing I really craved was orange juice once I got past all the first trimester nausea where everything smelled disgusting!

  33. half & half is the most ridiculously amazing thing.
    it’s ruined all other boba for me.
    that and living in England means, i can only dream about half&half now.

  34. I ate many many bowls of honey but Cheerios with really cold milk. Had to be ice old or I couldn’t keep it down. I also craved salami. Cooky.

  35. My weirdest craving was for creme brûlée and berries AND macaroni and cheese – AT THE SAME TIME. My husband took a photo. Other than that it was a lot of peanut butter, cereal (which I never liked before), and fast food burgers!

  36. Breakfast foods. I ate SO MANY eggs and every combination of breakfast sausages/bacon/egg/cheese possible. But what I found interesting was that my postpartum/newly breastfeeding cravings were even stronger. SWEETS. I must’ve cleared an entire box of Oreos in 2 days.

  37. With my 2nd pregnancy it was black olives; but a very specific brand of black olives, it could not be just any black olive. And lots of them!

  38. Joy, I haven’t kept up with your blog very well in the past year or so – just came back because now I’M pregnant, and I remember how badass your pregnancy posts were when you were pregnant with Ruby! Congrats on #2!!
    I’m only 7 weeks along, so I’m still in the “UGH NOTHING PLEASE” camp personally – will be interesting to see what kinds of cravings I get since I’m vegan.
    Anyway, I’m excited to follow along! 🙂

  39. I feel you on the vinegar! I’ve been diving in to pickles, kalamata olives, and dousing everything in lemon juice and vinegars. I make cole slaw and broccoli slaw salad all the time to curb that craving!

  40. I’m at 30 weeks & early in my pregnancy I wanted potatoes. I was eating bakers, french fries, mashed potatoes, etc, everyday. Lately though, I’ve been craving jalapenos. I’ve been putting them in everything!

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