I am a Hobbit

Yesterday I had an egg on toast for breakfast. First Breakfast. For Second Breakfast I had porridge with sultanas, pecans and yoghurt. Shockingly, I don't think I had morning tea.

Overnight (i.e. since dinner time) I ate 2 delicious muffins (blueberry ones given to us - I have since received the recipe!), a banana, and some dried dates and sultanas. A fairly light overnight offering.

I am currently on First Breakfast for today, after about 3.5 hours sleep...and no, that wasn't all in one batch either. Munchkin had a hungry night. First Breakfast today is porridge with yoghurt and blueberries from the freezer. Munchkin will want his breakfast soon too, I am guessing.

If you've ever watched or read The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, you may recall a scene where Aragon is leading the Hobbits to the elf city of Rivendell. They want to stop and eat, but they've already had breakfast. Their response is along the lines of that was First Breakfast, and what about Second Breakfast? Aragon is obviously not familiar with the eating habits of Hobbits. They do not stop. Aragon does, however, concede to throw a couple of apples their way.

Hence, I am a Hobbit. My eating habits have always tended towards Hobbitousness. I eat often, and I eat small. Boyo, on the other hand, can pack away a fairly large tea and happily not eat again for hours. It doesn't seem to matter how much I try to squeeze in there, I will still invariably be hungry within a couple of hours. This Hobbit-like characteristic is somewhat annoying. I can get really ratty when I'm hungry. And I mean REALLY ratty. Irrationally so. Usually when we are out and about and I have, yet again, forgotten to supply myself with suitable rations! We still manage to forget that the first thing one should always do when Amy is ratty is to offer food...whether or not I think I am hungry. You never know, sometimes I am and don't realise. Either way, food is a good starting point! I now try to carry some nuts and raisins in my handbag for these such occasions.

Pregnancy and having a baby have in no way allayed the frequency of my need for food. Quite the opposite in fact. Munchkin is so named because at as early as 6 weeks pregnant I got a case of the serious munchies. I suddenly started finishing dinner before everyone else (this is quite remarkable - I am not known as a fast eater!). I would wake up in the middle of the night (sometimes several times) with a growling stomach, feeling almost physically sick from my need to eat. During pregnancy, I did get morning sickness...it was a constant yucky feeling from week 8 till about week 15-16. But I didn't eat to stop it. I had a little homeopathic remedy to use, and eating didn't really help much anyway. Nope, I just ate from sheer hunger. By 9 weeks pregnant, I couldn't fit any of my trousers. And I just couldn't seem to stop eating!

In the hospital, eating was an issue. I was there for 12 days around Munchkin's birth. Every time someone came to visit me, they brought food (my reputation is well known in my family, and my new friends here are catching on fast!). I ate through 1kg of mandarins about every 2 or 3 days. Fruit is not featured highly on the hospital menu. Dinner was brought to me at 4:30pm. Breakfast wasn't until 7am. I was up every 1-2hrs during the night, either from needing the loo, being incredibly uncomfortable and needing to roll my whale-like body over, or because some idiot had decided to talk right outside my room, or the garbage trucks had turned up at 3am outside, again. You get the general idea. Creamed rice, mandarins, muesli bars and whatever other offerings compassionate people brought me were consumed in the wee watches each night.

Things haven't changed much since. I had a couple of weeks just after having Munchkin where I had no appetite. But being up several times a night does have an effect eventually. Have you ever noticed that the more up and awake you are, the more you need to eat to fuel your body? I guess it makes sense that my eating habits are very Hobbit-like. I mean, yesterday I was up at 4:30am. So I ate breakfast (number 1) around 6-7am, then needed something more by 10am. Morning tea would just not be enough, so I opted for breakfast number 2. It did manage to tide me over until lunch.

Well, this Hobbit has now consumed her First Breakfast and is needing to organise breakfast for her young son, who has been wide awake on her lap while typing this (thank you, Munchkin, for not needing to eat just yet so Mummy could write her blog!).
Happy eating, folks!
Amy