The Worst So Far...

I hate to complain, but I'm going to do just that for the next little bit. Small...but getting really annoying.

I have come to the conclusion that the worst part about this pregnancy, so far, is the heightened sense of smell. I smell everything. Most of it is bad. I've always had a fairly good sense of smell. That's why I have a pretty good sense of taste. I also have a really keen smell memory...did you know that smell is the strongest memory trigger?...but I digress. Now I have the nose of a bloodhound. At first, it was so cool to walk somewhere and smell things I never had before. It was fresh, exciting and fun. One memorable day was when I could smell the laundry detergent used to wash a young man's clothes standing across from me on light rail. Nice and clean. Food smelled the best, fresh herbs, cooking chicken, the grocery store was amazing!

Now it has all gone bad. Very very bad. It began with me. I began to smell bad to myself. Strong and different. I sat in class, worried that I smelled like a street person...but when I would ask hubby dear if I smelled bad (who else could I ask?) the answer was always "no". My clothes began to smell to me. Even clean ones had a lingering odor. Then the towels. Yuck! Freshly laundered, it's alright, but let them sit in the linen closest for a week...stink city. Now it's my entire house. I've gone through an entire bottle of Frebeeze in the past week trying to eradicate smell. I know it's clean. The carpets were steam-cleaned two weeks ago. I've washed all the couch covers. The kitchen has been scrubbed top to bottom, the cupboards cleaned out, the floor mopped. The bathroom was done the same way...the fixtures sparkle. There is just something wrong with my nose.

Food does not smell the same anymore. Things I used to love are now too strong. Rosemary, my dear herb friend, smells bitter. Garlic is sour. Sweets still smell good...and baked products and fruit...but everything else is slightly off. Taste is getting weird too. I thought the heightened sense of smell would make food taste so much better. At first it did, but now I have to be so careful with seasoning and saucing. I don't like saucy food anymore. I find the sauce to be overwhelming. Plain, clean, and simple, tastes are best to me right now.

The up side, good smells still smell really, really good. But the down side is killing me. There are bad smells everywhere...and bad smells trigger the slight quaking, queasy nausea that I dislike. I feel like an ocean voyager who has never quite gotten her sea legs. Not really sick...but not 100% either. If this is the worst of it, alright. I have a three more weeks before the food cravings start gearing up. We'll see what my nose decides to do then.