Sick and Pregnant

Today I have a cold. I felt it coming on yesterday, but I was in denial. Sleeping for 14 hours isn't exactly an indication that I'm coming down with something anymore. It's just been pretty standard for the last three months. My throat hurts, that is the worst part. That accompanied by a god awful, seal-like cough. I sound like a barking seal. Is that a thing? I feel like I should be hitting beach balls off my nose and clapping my hands when I do it. Don't toss me any whole fish though, I've heard I'm supposed to avoid sushi now that I'm pregnant.

I went into work this morning anyway, regardless of the seal cough, hurting throat and raging headache. I did just sleep 14 hours, what else was I supposed to do? In my defense, being responsible I did take my temp before leaving to verify that I was not running a fever. See, I'm not just a tough guy, I'm also a responsible mom in training. I am raising this fetus into a baby here. I do not want to parboil them in my amniotic fluid. It is important I watch myself. No more "power through the pain!" the way I used to. Well, there is lots of that actually. I just have to pay attention to the pain. Is this normal pregnancy and life stuff, or is the devastating life destroying stuff? Thanks to the Internet most basic questions can be researched before I decide to check into the ER.

I left work a few hours early after catching up on all my paper work. I stopped at the store on my way home to pick up a few essential items. Milk, half and half, whole wheat bread, 32 count soft baked chocolate chip cookies. Wait, that's not for me, I swear. It's just for my husband. Really. But the most important was a lemon, a piece of ginger root and honey. It is with these three simple ingredients that I can craft my homemade elixir! It is with those three ingredients that I can cure SARS, H1N1 and light case of the AIDS.

Peel the ginger and slice it very thin. Boil it for quite a while. Pour into a mug over a teaspoon or two of honey and squeeze in a quarter of that fresh lemon and Voilà! magic anti-sickness potion.

So then, here comes the onslaught of moms telling me that ginger is poisonous to pregnant women and honey is too. Thanks Internet. I have researched nearly every ingredient that I consume. Ginger is bad in high doses. Like concentrated ginger, say four pounds of fresh ginger dried and ground into a fine powder and stuffed into a capsule, yeah, that's probably not good. Can you overdose on ginger? Maybe not, but a shit ton of anything might not be good for you.

Honey is not recommended for infants before the age of one. Something about spores that can make us sick and a babies immune system isn't strong enough to handle it yet. This doesn't include fetuses. I can enjoy my honey, although I know I should be watching my sugar intake in all forms. Honey will soothe my sore throat and help my cough. I think two teaspoons today will be okay. Better then that 32 count tray of soft baked chocolate chip cookies, that's for damn sure.