Freakout #2

I told you I'd be freaking out again! So today I was lying awake in bed at around 8:30am. With the sun rising earlier these days, I find it hard to sleep past 8am, which is really annoying since I just want to enjoy sleeping in while I still can.

I decided to flip through The Pregnancy Bible, reading the chapter on common pre-natal tests. So far, so good. Most of it was stuff that I already knew. Then I flipped to a section on common pregnancy complications. Again, most of it was stuff I already knew. Then I hit a section on Listeriosis, which is caused by a bacterium found in unpasteurized milk and cheese, and raw or undercooked food. I read on. I need to avoid unpasteurized cheeses such as brie (already knew that), and also unpasteurized goat milk products.

Hold up. Say what? Then I remembered eating a sample of goat cheese on a baguette at Whole Foods last week. Was it unpasteurized? And what about the undercooked foods? One week ago we went to dinner at The Keg and had steak. My steak was prepared medium-well. Is that considered under-cooked? Then I read that you shouldn't be eating foods that have been cooked and then refrigerated for re-heating later on. I'm guessing that this referred to consuming prepared foods at the supermarket, like those Maple Leaf fresh foods. But did this also apply to leftovers? Technically leftovers were cooked and then are refrigerated for later consumption.

Heart pounding. Freaking out. Reading on. Listeriosis is hard to detect, with symptoms appearing between 12 hours and 30 DAYS after contaminated food is eaten. It can result in miscarriage, preterm labor, newborn infections, or stillbirths. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I couldn't take it anymore. I closed the book and woke up the hubby, who was sound asleep. The poor thing is a good sport about the whole thing. I think I owe him a nice fancy dinner out after all this is done. Anyway, I digress. He did point out that I freak out about any little medical thing - I have a terrible terrible fear of salmonella, so I obsessively wash hands after I handle eggs or chicken. He said that I should just calm down and stop worrying, because it won't do me or the baby any good. I know he's right, and I'm trying hard not to think about it, but it still freaks me out. I'm hoping to talk to the sis about it later (she's a med student) to help quell those fears. Hopefully she yells at me and tells me that I'm freaking out over nothing.