Ok, so here is the rest of the post I promised you. Does posting twice in one day make up for not posting yesterday? I don't know, and you know what, it actually doesn't matter!

So, like I said before Veronica wrote on her blog about pregnancy cravings which prompted me to do a comparison between last pregnancy and this pregnancy. Last time round I was living in London, working full time in the City and commuting by tube, earning a comfortable disposable income and used to a social life played out in bars and restaurants.

Referring to my pregnancy journal I was experiencing cravings, nausea and related increased snacking as early as 4 weeks pregnant which seems remarkable considering that wasn't what happened this time, in fact I worried because of a lack of symptoms early in my pregnancy!

(extract from pregnancy journal)
Friday 14th October - 4 weeks and 1 day
I had my first experience of retching while brushing my teeth, nothing came up but I had to stop brushing and start breathing until the feeling went away. The noticeable feelings today are extreme hunger and extreme tiredness. Even after a good sleep I was exhausted. Also the breasts are way out of control. I commented to Ron before going to sleep that I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep on my tummy for much longer and not due to a protubing belly but more because the boobs are growing each day. I am definitely going to need new bras and sooner rather than later! My hunger was killing me so I went to M&S for supplies and picked up two of our favourite pizzas for dinner along with naughty chipsticks and a Chicken Caesar wrap and spicy houmous and pita bread for weekend snacks. It seems snacks are top of my list at the moment, almost every night after getting home from work I have been making a small plate of cheese and biscuits with fruit chutney to tide me over till dinner!
(end extract)

So the extract above couldn't be more different from my pregnancy this time round. At 18 weeks I can still comfortably sleep on my stomach with one leg up and a pillow between my knees, I am still wearing my underwired bras, I have had horrible nausea which caused me to vomit morning, noon and night indiscriminantly and on two seperate occasions the vomiting has caused me to become dehydrated resulting in unpleasant migraines and severe illness and exhaustion. I have lost 4 kgs since getting pregnant and still not gained any of that back despite not being ill anymore and actually getting my appetite back. This pregnancy I have not had the luxury of cash to spend in shops such as M&S (Marks and Spencers) or Pret or any other fantastic, fresh food cafe shops and the only junk food I have had in over four months is a couple of take away pizzas and Chinese one night. The rest of the time I have existed on white bread toast with peanut butter and jam, home made special fried rice and lots and lots of fresh fruit.

Last pregnancy I craved the following (with actual photos that I took at the time for my pregnancy scrapbook!)

Sorbet ice lollies in assorted flavours.

Toasted tuna fish and mayo sandwiches on white bread.

Fizzy drinks such as ginger ale.

And Appletizer.
And lots and lots of fresh fruit salad.

The interesting conclusion? That despite living in different countries, living different lives and having clearly different pregnancies, my cravings have been remarkably similar. This time I have eaten lots of icy poles (or frozen ice lollies - the ones in plastic), I still have tuna fish toasted sandwiches on white bread at least once a week and Amy loves them too, when I was really sick the only thing I wanted to drink was fizzy things like bundaberg ginger beer or flavoured homebrand fizzy mineral water and as I mentioned before, I have survived on fresh fruit.

The only unusual cravings I had last time around was for marmalade and sausage sandwiches at breakfast. I used to go into a Benjy's cafe on my way to work and try and explain to the Polish lady behind the counter that I wanted a sausage sandwich, on white toast and when she asked me what sauce I wanted, I had to convince her I wanted marmalade. It was a relief to go in when my belly grew and point to it so she understood! This time round the strangest thing I have wanted to eat was natural yogurt in the little tub with spoonfuls of dark brown sugar stirred in. I do have a childhood memory of eating this at a friends house after school for a snack but I am not a big fan of yogurt so it was a little odd.