Like many on these boards, I'm a big fan of both pregnancy and belly expansion. My ultimate favorite, of course, being when those two things are combined. As such, I really enjoy when people record pregnancy progressions in a way that makes it seem like it's happening in real-time, and bonus points if there's a non-pregnancy reason for the expansion.
Exhibit A: my favorite video on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotMA2Y_juc I love this depiction of a growing pregnant belly being caused by constant snacking, so much so that I wrote the following story based on it. Nothing explicit, just a humorous story involving some major food stuffing/belly growth. Let me know if you particularly like it, I left it vaguely open for sequels.
I'll leave you with a quote to add to the mood, from one of my favorite YouTube pregnancy vlogs: "Instead of being nauseous, now I'm hungry, all the time. I can't get full. I just, I eat and I eat and I eat and I eat and I feel like I'm an endless pit, because I can't get full [...] I wouldn't be surprised if I gained 10 pounds, just because, I have eaten everything in the world and I just can't stop."
So without further ado, please enjoy this cautionary tale about a pregnant woman who tries in vain to ignore her craving for chocolate.
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As if the multiple tests, doctors' appointments, and recent appearance of a tummy bulge hadn't been enough of a clue, Rebecca knew for certain now that she was pregnant: less than an hour after lunch, and she was so famished it felt like her stomach was about to start digesting itself. Her lunch hadn't been massive, but it hadn't been small either- a sizable sandwich, loaded up with veggies, beans and hummus. The sort of thing that would've kept Rebecca satiated until dinner before, but no longer made the cut since she was now eating for two.
She took a walk over to the office refrigerator, pulled open the door, and surveyed her options. The only thing that was hers for sure was a carton of strawberries she kept around for eating with yogurt (WHY had she forgotten yogurt today?! That would be perfect!) Fruit was what you were supposed to reach for anyway, much better for baby (and momma) than the chocolate that REALLY would've hit the spot right about now. She took the carton containing a paltry four strawberries back to her desk, and they disappeared into her mouth them before she even logged back into her computer.
Ten minutes later, her stomach growled audibly. Rebecca rubbed it gently, a bit perturbed. It was another four hours until the office closed; any shorter and she might've been able to hold out, but that was just too far away. Her stomach howled again at the prospect of not being fed; the girl at the desk next to hers gave a surprised look in her direction. Blushing and smiling awkwardly, Rebecca got up again and trotted over to the fridge to find something to calm the beast within.
There was nothing else of hers in there, much to her dismay. Someone had a lunch they hadn't touched yet, perhaps because they were caught up in a meeting running long. Someone had left a single raw tomato that they probably had plans for, likely for livening up an otherwise dry sandwich. And there were a handful of condiments. assorted things anyone could use and which no one remembered where they originally came from.
Not willing to deprive some poor souls of their lunches, Rebecca pulled out a jar of olives that had been at the office almost as long as she had. After taking a quick glance around, she popped one of the salty morsels into her mouth, scraping away the meat and spitting the pit into her hand. She did this again, and again, and again until the jar contained nothing but brine, and her belly contained twenty or so olives. She dumped the brine in the sink, gave the jar a quick rinse, and turned back toward her desk. Before she even made it three steps though, she felt a telltale tightening in her belly- that wasn't enough.
"What more do you want?!" she hissed down at the slight bump in her middle, which due to her lunch and this latest snack was just a bit more pronounced than when she woke up today. "There's nothing left!" The only response she got was another audible grumble, just as Ted from accounting was rounding the corner to the kitchenette. "Whoa, baby hungry!" he chuckled, refilling his coffee cup and smiling at Rebecca with practiced water-cooler insincerity. Rebecca forced a laugh and gave her belly a rub.
"Baby's gonna get what it wants!" she said with a levity she wasn't feeling through her mounting embarrassment. Finally at her breaking point, she opened up the freezer and took out what she knew was waiting for her there: a pint of strawberry ice cream. Screw her weight loss successes of the last year, screw her commitment to a healthy wholesome pregnancy, this was an emergency.
"I'll just have a bite or two to take the edge off," she told herself internally, but the second the first spoonful passed her lips she knew she was done for. Freezer-burned as it was, the ice cream tasted to her like the nectar of the gods. She easily would've devoured the entire pint, if half of it wasn't already missing (from someone in the office who thought it wouldn’t be missed). Half of her was furious at missing out, but the rest was grateful about being kept from falling TOO far off the wagon.
The spoon scraped the bottom of the carton and terror seized Rebecca has she had a horrible realization: she was still hungry. How was that possible?! That last snack should've been more than enough to keep her until dinner, maybe even to spoil her appetite. Maybe it was the fact that she got less food than she was expecting initially, or maybe it was the sugar and fat of the ice cream making her crave more. Either way, it was still hours before dinner and she felt more ravenous than ever.
Back at the fridge, she was out of options. She had no money for the snack machine, and everything in the fridge belonged to someone else. Now it came down to triage: what could she eat that would fill her up AND would be least likely to be missed?
She grabbed the loose tomato, thinking someone could've forgotten it in there. She bit into it like an apple, trying to catch as much of the juice as she could but feeling some drip down her chin regardless. She had just finished cramming the last of the fruit into her mouth when she heard the footsteps of a few people heading in her direction. Wiping away tomato juice from her mouth, Rebecca skittered over to the snack machine and pretended to consider her options.
Four of her coworkers came in, cracking jokes about the client they had just met with. They also mentioned how much they liked the new caterer the company had gotten for that lunch meeting, though sandwiches were hardly the most inspired choice. They set the leftovers down on the counter, talked a little more about lunch (making Rebecca's belly quiver with hunger) and were on their way.
Whirling around, Rebecca almost cried with relief: two half sandwiches sitting there on a platter, for anyone to take. She snapped up a veggie one - those always made it to the end of the meeting, despite being the healthiest option and damn tasty - and crammed half of it into her mouth without a thought.
Still chewing contentedly, Rebecca couldn't take her eyes off the other half sandwich sitting on the plate before her. It was turkey, and she hadn't eaten meat in months; more of a health thing than anything else. She was planning to get back into it for the pregnancy, but after eating so much already this afternoon, it seemed a shame to break her diet when she really SHOULDN'T be hungry anymore.
Still, it wasn't likes she was breaking her anti-chocolate vow, and it was better to be safe than sorry. Rebecca grabbed the other sandwich and headed back to her desk, only to almost collide with her coworker Colleen, who was rushing in the opposite direction. "I saw there were leftovers!" the young woman nearly chirped with excitement. "Peabody's makes the best sandwiches and I forgot my lunch today, this is like providence!" Rebecca froze in place and slowly looked down at her sandwich. Colleen's eyes followed suit, then flicked to the empty platter in the kitchen, and she realized that the sandwich between them, lightly touching Rebecca's modestly swollen stomach, was the only one left.
For the span of three heartbeats each woman was wracked with guilt. How could Colleen take food from a pregnant woman? And how could Rebecca take food she clearly didn't need (the last of the previous sandwich she devoured was still half-chewed in her mouth) from a woman who had no lunch? Each considered conceding the prize to the other, but also clung to hope that the other would offer it to them first. Finally, her conscience getting the better of her, Rebecca slightly opened her mouth to capitulate, but right when she did her stomach let out a growl far louder than any than had come before now. Both their eyes widened at the sound, but Colleen's ultimately softened with pity. She put a hand to Rebecca's bump (which was half food-baby by now, truth be told) and gave a small pat.
"You take it, eating for two after all," Colleen said with a forced smile. Rebecca smiled and nodded in gratitude, afraid to say anything and reveal the fact that she already had food in her mouth. She headed back to her desk and downed the turkey sandwich, unbuttoning her jeans for comfort. "If I keep eating like this I'll need maternity clothes before I finish my fourth month."
Despite the stretching of her belly, unbelievably, Rebecca still felt a pang of hunger deep in her gut. She steadfastly ignored it, since it was clearly psychological, but found it harder and harder to concentrate on her work. She looked at the clock on her computer screen- was it seriously only 2:30?
No, she'd already eaten too much and there wasn't anything around even if she wanted it. She was an adult, she could wait another two and a half hours to fill her gut. Well, that plus the drive home. And the food preparation time. It'd probably be 7pm before she was actually eating, almost 5 hours from now, and the hunger was just gnawing and gnawing and oh my god it's only 2:32?!
In a flash Rebecca's chair was vacant and spinning lazily, as she walked quickly and, she hoped, calmly back to the fridge yet again. Besides ketchup, mustard, and some long-forgotten moldy tupperware container, only one thing remained: someone's lunch, a healthy-looking chickpea salad all wrapped up. Despite her extreme guilt, the hunger wracking Rebecca's body was too much, and she took it out.
Not willing to risk getting caught with someone else's lunch, she ducked into an open bathroom (thank god for the unisex, single-person setup) and chowed down on lunch number 3 (or 4, depending on how you looked at it). The chickpea salad was exactly what she hoped it would be: fresh, filling, and crisp, but it was also something she didn't expect: spicy as hell. After just three bites she was feeling the heat, and halfway through she was visibly red in the face and sweating. This made her eat even faster than she already wanted to, and she was done within two minutes of closing the bathroom door, but her mouth was on fire and she desperately needed something to quench it.
She crumpled the paper plate and crammed it into her purse, hiding the evidence. Blinking through tears, she flushed the toilet for appearances, washed her hands, and stepped back out toward the kitchenette, blinking through tears of spiciness.
She stumbled to the sink, pulled down a mug from the cabinet, and filled it immediately with lukewarm water. She downed it, mentally singing the praises of this tepid stream flowing down her throat from a #1 Boss mug. She finished the mug and immediately refilled it, and repeated the process two or three more times. She finally took a deep breath of relief, and realized someone standing over at the vending machine was staring at her. As she turned he awkwardly averted his gaze, dropped all the change in his hands, and cursed.
"What, has he never seen anyone drink water before?" she thought irritatedly, rubbing her belly absent-mindedly, only then realizing that the volume of water she'd just downed, plus her feeding frenzy this afternoon, plus her earlier decision to unbutton her pants left a healthy slice of her naked belly exposed to the world. She pulled her shirt down immediately and tried to rebutton her pants, but she was just too swollen at this point, there was no way that button was fastening. She ducked back toward the bathroom and rummaged through her purse for a hair tie.
"I was hoping I wouldn't need this trick for another two months," she grumbled internally, pushing the hair tie through the buttonhole and hooking one end onto the button that was tragically too far away. Even with the makeshift extension the pants cut into her bloated belly just a bit too much, but it would suffice for now.
Though, if the continued gnawing in her belly had any say in the matter, not for much longer.
"You've GOT to be kidding me," Rebecca muttered to herself, checking to make sure that the guy at the vending machine had gone. She looked into the fridge, not knowing what she hoped to find, but finding what she knew to be there: absolutely nothing. She'd eaten the place clean, and yet her rounded stomach clamored for more.
Between the wardrobe malfunction, the earlier awkwardness with Colleen, the unquenchable hunger and the guilt of overeating, Rebecca was completely done with the day, despite it not even being 3pm. She went back to her desk, saved her work, and sought out her supervisor, Patrick.
She caught him coming out of a conference room, slapping someone from sales on the back and laughing far too hard at something that couldn't have been that funny. He was still winding down from the laugh when he noticed Rebecca, and she was dismayed to see his eyes immediately dart down to her belly that her shirt, after several minutes of moving around, was only barely keeping hidden.
"Wow, Becky, time flies like crazy, huh? Seems like just last week you announced that bun in the oven to the office, and here you are swelling up like a cantaloupe!"
Rebecca wasn't sure which annoyed her more: the use of a nickname she hated, the fact that it WAS just a week ago that she had told her coworkers about her still-early pregnancy (she wasn’t THAT big!!), his nonsensical simile, or the fact that without asking, Patrick had both his hands probing and rubbing her bloated, sloshing gut. Lots to hate about her present predicament, but after she gave the matter some additional thought, the belly-rubbing was definitely in the lead.
"Haha, yeah, it's just flying by," is what she actually said. "Speaking of that, I have to get to a doctor's appointment. They had to reschedule me, I'm so sorry about the late notice."
Patrick gave a dismissive face and swatted away the notion with one of his hands (leaving the other one squarely on her belly). "Don't even worry about it, Becky. Do what you need to do. I'll get Colleen to finish anything you've got leftover for today." That last bit made Rebecca wince a bit in guilt, but she thanked Patrick and extricated herself from his belly-grip. She gathered her belongings, avoided the looks of her coworkers, and headed for the elevator.
On the walk through the parking lot, Rebecca stopped to look at her reflection in a car window, specifically her belly. It wasn't THAT big, even given her uncharacteristic midday binging. She was bigger than usual, sure, but not that much bigger. At 15 weeks, her midsection was normally a gentle convex slope, and now it was a...less gentle slope. She looked maybe 6 months, max, compared to her usual 4. So, bigger than usual, but not absurdly so. Not yet, she grimly reminded herself, as her belly grumbled for attention yet again.
20 minutes later, but seemingly an eternity, she was parked in her own driveway, through her front door, wearing roomier clothes and ripping open the cabinet doors in her kitchen. She went after the things she could eat immediately without so much as heating them up: she downed a container of roasted peanuts, followed by a can of corn, and a box of Honey Loops cereal. It wasn’t until she was finishing her third piece of cold leftover pizza that she swallowed, took a deep breath, and inspected the damage to her waistline. With the added food, she was definitely looking like she was in her 6th month, maybe approaching her 7th.
She rubbed her belly, feeling the new curves and feeling disappointed in herself. "That's it, no more. That's all I'm eating, I don't care how hungry I get." She rubbed the bulging mound again. "No more snacks for me. No sandwiches, no meat, no bread, no...eggs..." and yet, moments later, there she was frying up an omelette, her protruding belly adding some difficulty to navigating the stove.
After the omelette she opened the fridge door to see what else could possibly fill the void within her. She took out a carton of orange juice and without even bothering to close to fridge, drained it all in one go, dribbling just a bit of the juice down her chin and dotting the increasingly stretched-out shirt covering her middle. Sighing and wiping her mouth with her hand, she immediately looked back in the fridge for more.
Out came some greek yogurt, even though she couldn’t stand the taste without fresh fruit. She spooned it into her mouth, wincing at the flavor, but this was a dire situation. It was gone in a moment, and predictably she needed more.
Tonight was going to be a leftover night; her fiance Alex had made a great soup the other day, and neither of them tended to feel like cooking on Wednesday nights. But...in a case such as this, when it was either consume their planned dinner or succumb to the siren call of her secret chocolate stash, Rebecca had no choice. No matter what, she couldn’t let that last wall of resistance fall.
Spoonful after spoonful of soup disappeared into her mouth, and the lower the soup level in the pot got, the more her belly swelled, simultaneously crying out for more and bemoaning the volume already packed away inside her.
She finally let the spoon clatter to the inside of the pot and let out a wet burp. Her roomy shirt was now stretched tightly around a spherical belly that easily looked 8 months pregnant. Rebecca gave her massive gut a gentle rub, and nearly cried when, despite being more full than ever before in her life, she realized she wanted more. She resigned herself to her fate, crawl/waddled to the counter, and retrieved a loaf of sliced wheat bread.
“It’s just not fair,” she said aloud between mouthfuls of bread. “I’ve been able to control myself all year. I went to the gym. I even gave up chocolate. I knew I was going to lose my figure temporarily during this pregnancy, but-” she swallowed and looked down at the sphere of food (and some baby) that was now pressing into the table.
She stood up and stretched, looking around frantically for something else to stuff in her face. The cabinets were bare, the breadbox was now empty; the fridge, barren though it was, contained her last hope of satisfaction. She waddled back to the fridge and pulled out a package of sliced deli ham. Her fiance Alex still ate meat even though she’d been avoiding it. And while she hated to kill the diet that had been good to her, she HAD already had that turkey sandwich earlier...in for a penny, in for a pound. Two pounds, actually, of pure meaty goodness.
“This is going too far,” she said as she dangled slice after slice overhead, practically slurping it down. She had forgotten just how GOOD meat was, especially succulent, salty ham from the deli. The taste distracted her from the discomfort of cramming yet more food into her critically overloaded stomach. And in the matter of two minutes she was tossing the meat’s former container into the trash, and rubbing its new basketball-sized container absently.
This was it, the moment of truth. She’d eaten as much as she possibly could, while avoiding the one thing she couldn’t allow herself to eat. If this didn’t work, she had only two choices: die from unfulfilled craving, or break her vow and eat the forbidden food. She looked, terrified, at her enormous mound, feeling it gingerly and dreading the feeling she already knew was coming.
There it was. Still hungry.
She moved faster than a woman her size had any right to, into the bedroom and onto her knees by the bed. Reaching her hidden stash was no easy feat, considering it involved crawling under the bed; she quickly found herself in a ridiculous position, head and chest under the bed, butt in the air, and massive belly smushed up against the floor, the pressure on her overloaded stomach almost making her gag. She pulled herself back out (surely she imagined the sound of a cork popping when her belly was freed), retrieved a broom from the closet, and used it to slide the hidden package closer.
Rebecca had been an intense chocoholic most of her life, and only recently had managed to resist it for any amount of time. Still, she must’ve known she would be back to it eventually, considering the treasure trove she kept hidden here, just in case. Several bars of milk chocolate, one of decadent dark, some with a caramel center, and a bag of fun-size candy bars she had told Alex that she’d given away last Halloween. Up until now Rebecca had held onto the hope that she’d be able to take one look at the chocolate and put it back with her willpower intact. Maybe the extreme tightness in her gut would held to heighten her resolve, and perhaps it did. Regardless, the power of the craving deep within her was too much, and a single second after opening the box, she was tearing through wrappers to get at the delights within.
She awoke from her chocolate-induced stupor to her cell phone ringing. It was on the floor and she was on the couch, that much she knew, so she rolled over slightly to reach it...and the weight of her easily-9-months-pregnant-looking belly made sure she completed her roll and fell off the couch with a yelp. Now on her hands and knees, she looked down to see a pendulous globe of flesh hanging off her body, nearly touching the ground, shirt and skin alike smeared with chocolate. She sat on her knees and went upright, clutching her massive belly. She felt overly full, she felt nauseous, she felt fat and sleepy and scared from the fall but one thing she didn’t feel was the craving. It had finally quieted.
She smiled with relief and answered the still-ringing phone. “Babe, I’m at the grocery store,” came Alex’s voice through the speaker. “I can’t remember, are we out of orange juice?”
Rebecca’s smile faded as the reality of her massive binge came back to her. “Uh, we’re pretty much...out of everything.”
“Haha, sure. Can you go the fridge and just look? I have a few more questions.”
Gritting her teeth, Rebecca got to her feet (with some difficulty) and waddled to the fridge. She knew what she’d find, but it seemed like a just self-punishment to honor Alex’s request. She opened the door, and what had been a decently-stocked refrigerator when she had returned home, was now completely empty. She answered Alex’s questions (“huh, I could’ve sworn that I just bought ham!”), said goodbye, and hung up the phone.
She looked down and for the first time realized she couldn’t see her feet, thanks to the massive belly that was now eclipsing them. That she woke up this morning with hardly a little bump, and 12 hours later she had ballooned into a woman who looked ready to pop (with twins, even!)...it was unthinkable. Her roomy shirt, positively swimming on her on a normal day, was barely able to keep her belly contained. She didn’t even think the human stomach was capable of stretching as much as it had...she laughed despite her shattered bikini dreams.
“Well, if nothing else, I have a potential career as a competitive eater ahead of me. At least while I’m pregnant.” She tried to imagine what she would look like if she had another binge like that at 7, 8, 9 months pregnant - surely she’d actually burst. She rubbed her belly (“hey, at what point did my belly button pop out?!”) and while she grimaced at the nausea that hung around her like an aura, she couldn’t deny, now being on the other side of the binge, that her diet had made her miss the feeling of being full. Maybe she’d indulge like this again sometime before her due date. Or maybe she wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too soon, since she was hoping to finish the pregnancy weighing LESS than 300 pounds, thank you very much.
Her cell phone rang. Alex again. “I forgot to ask, want me to pick anything up for you for lunch tomorrow?”
She groaned involuntarily at the idea of eating more food ever again. “Salad. Definitely.” She paused for a moment. “And, maybe pick me up a Hersheys bar?”
Mom might be a recovering chocoholic, but baby definitely had a full-blown addiction.
Exhibit A: my favorite video on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotMA2Y_juc I love this depiction of a growing pregnant belly being caused by constant snacking, so much so that I wrote the following story based on it. Nothing explicit, just a humorous story involving some major food stuffing/belly growth. Let me know if you particularly like it, I left it vaguely open for sequels.
I'll leave you with a quote to add to the mood, from one of my favorite YouTube pregnancy vlogs: "Instead of being nauseous, now I'm hungry, all the time. I can't get full. I just, I eat and I eat and I eat and I eat and I feel like I'm an endless pit, because I can't get full [...] I wouldn't be surprised if I gained 10 pounds, just because, I have eaten everything in the world and I just can't stop."
So without further ado, please enjoy this cautionary tale about a pregnant woman who tries in vain to ignore her craving for chocolate.
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As if the multiple tests, doctors' appointments, and recent appearance of a tummy bulge hadn't been enough of a clue, Rebecca knew for certain now that she was pregnant: less than an hour after lunch, and she was so famished it felt like her stomach was about to start digesting itself. Her lunch hadn't been massive, but it hadn't been small either- a sizable sandwich, loaded up with veggies, beans and hummus. The sort of thing that would've kept Rebecca satiated until dinner before, but no longer made the cut since she was now eating for two.
She took a walk over to the office refrigerator, pulled open the door, and surveyed her options. The only thing that was hers for sure was a carton of strawberries she kept around for eating with yogurt (WHY had she forgotten yogurt today?! That would be perfect!) Fruit was what you were supposed to reach for anyway, much better for baby (and momma) than the chocolate that REALLY would've hit the spot right about now. She took the carton containing a paltry four strawberries back to her desk, and they disappeared into her mouth them before she even logged back into her computer.
Ten minutes later, her stomach growled audibly. Rebecca rubbed it gently, a bit perturbed. It was another four hours until the office closed; any shorter and she might've been able to hold out, but that was just too far away. Her stomach howled again at the prospect of not being fed; the girl at the desk next to hers gave a surprised look in her direction. Blushing and smiling awkwardly, Rebecca got up again and trotted over to the fridge to find something to calm the beast within.
There was nothing else of hers in there, much to her dismay. Someone had a lunch they hadn't touched yet, perhaps because they were caught up in a meeting running long. Someone had left a single raw tomato that they probably had plans for, likely for livening up an otherwise dry sandwich. And there were a handful of condiments. assorted things anyone could use and which no one remembered where they originally came from.
Not willing to deprive some poor souls of their lunches, Rebecca pulled out a jar of olives that had been at the office almost as long as she had. After taking a quick glance around, she popped one of the salty morsels into her mouth, scraping away the meat and spitting the pit into her hand. She did this again, and again, and again until the jar contained nothing but brine, and her belly contained twenty or so olives. She dumped the brine in the sink, gave the jar a quick rinse, and turned back toward her desk. Before she even made it three steps though, she felt a telltale tightening in her belly- that wasn't enough.
"What more do you want?!" she hissed down at the slight bump in her middle, which due to her lunch and this latest snack was just a bit more pronounced than when she woke up today. "There's nothing left!" The only response she got was another audible grumble, just as Ted from accounting was rounding the corner to the kitchenette. "Whoa, baby hungry!" he chuckled, refilling his coffee cup and smiling at Rebecca with practiced water-cooler insincerity. Rebecca forced a laugh and gave her belly a rub.
"Baby's gonna get what it wants!" she said with a levity she wasn't feeling through her mounting embarrassment. Finally at her breaking point, she opened up the freezer and took out what she knew was waiting for her there: a pint of strawberry ice cream. Screw her weight loss successes of the last year, screw her commitment to a healthy wholesome pregnancy, this was an emergency.
"I'll just have a bite or two to take the edge off," she told herself internally, but the second the first spoonful passed her lips she knew she was done for. Freezer-burned as it was, the ice cream tasted to her like the nectar of the gods. She easily would've devoured the entire pint, if half of it wasn't already missing (from someone in the office who thought it wouldn’t be missed). Half of her was furious at missing out, but the rest was grateful about being kept from falling TOO far off the wagon.
The spoon scraped the bottom of the carton and terror seized Rebecca has she had a horrible realization: she was still hungry. How was that possible?! That last snack should've been more than enough to keep her until dinner, maybe even to spoil her appetite. Maybe it was the fact that she got less food than she was expecting initially, or maybe it was the sugar and fat of the ice cream making her crave more. Either way, it was still hours before dinner and she felt more ravenous than ever.
Back at the fridge, she was out of options. She had no money for the snack machine, and everything in the fridge belonged to someone else. Now it came down to triage: what could she eat that would fill her up AND would be least likely to be missed?
She grabbed the loose tomato, thinking someone could've forgotten it in there. She bit into it like an apple, trying to catch as much of the juice as she could but feeling some drip down her chin regardless. She had just finished cramming the last of the fruit into her mouth when she heard the footsteps of a few people heading in her direction. Wiping away tomato juice from her mouth, Rebecca skittered over to the snack machine and pretended to consider her options.
Four of her coworkers came in, cracking jokes about the client they had just met with. They also mentioned how much they liked the new caterer the company had gotten for that lunch meeting, though sandwiches were hardly the most inspired choice. They set the leftovers down on the counter, talked a little more about lunch (making Rebecca's belly quiver with hunger) and were on their way.
Whirling around, Rebecca almost cried with relief: two half sandwiches sitting there on a platter, for anyone to take. She snapped up a veggie one - those always made it to the end of the meeting, despite being the healthiest option and damn tasty - and crammed half of it into her mouth without a thought.
Still chewing contentedly, Rebecca couldn't take her eyes off the other half sandwich sitting on the plate before her. It was turkey, and she hadn't eaten meat in months; more of a health thing than anything else. She was planning to get back into it for the pregnancy, but after eating so much already this afternoon, it seemed a shame to break her diet when she really SHOULDN'T be hungry anymore.
Still, it wasn't likes she was breaking her anti-chocolate vow, and it was better to be safe than sorry. Rebecca grabbed the other sandwich and headed back to her desk, only to almost collide with her coworker Colleen, who was rushing in the opposite direction. "I saw there were leftovers!" the young woman nearly chirped with excitement. "Peabody's makes the best sandwiches and I forgot my lunch today, this is like providence!" Rebecca froze in place and slowly looked down at her sandwich. Colleen's eyes followed suit, then flicked to the empty platter in the kitchen, and she realized that the sandwich between them, lightly touching Rebecca's modestly swollen stomach, was the only one left.
For the span of three heartbeats each woman was wracked with guilt. How could Colleen take food from a pregnant woman? And how could Rebecca take food she clearly didn't need (the last of the previous sandwich she devoured was still half-chewed in her mouth) from a woman who had no lunch? Each considered conceding the prize to the other, but also clung to hope that the other would offer it to them first. Finally, her conscience getting the better of her, Rebecca slightly opened her mouth to capitulate, but right when she did her stomach let out a growl far louder than any than had come before now. Both their eyes widened at the sound, but Colleen's ultimately softened with pity. She put a hand to Rebecca's bump (which was half food-baby by now, truth be told) and gave a small pat.
"You take it, eating for two after all," Colleen said with a forced smile. Rebecca smiled and nodded in gratitude, afraid to say anything and reveal the fact that she already had food in her mouth. She headed back to her desk and downed the turkey sandwich, unbuttoning her jeans for comfort. "If I keep eating like this I'll need maternity clothes before I finish my fourth month."
Despite the stretching of her belly, unbelievably, Rebecca still felt a pang of hunger deep in her gut. She steadfastly ignored it, since it was clearly psychological, but found it harder and harder to concentrate on her work. She looked at the clock on her computer screen- was it seriously only 2:30?
No, she'd already eaten too much and there wasn't anything around even if she wanted it. She was an adult, she could wait another two and a half hours to fill her gut. Well, that plus the drive home. And the food preparation time. It'd probably be 7pm before she was actually eating, almost 5 hours from now, and the hunger was just gnawing and gnawing and oh my god it's only 2:32?!
In a flash Rebecca's chair was vacant and spinning lazily, as she walked quickly and, she hoped, calmly back to the fridge yet again. Besides ketchup, mustard, and some long-forgotten moldy tupperware container, only one thing remained: someone's lunch, a healthy-looking chickpea salad all wrapped up. Despite her extreme guilt, the hunger wracking Rebecca's body was too much, and she took it out.
Not willing to risk getting caught with someone else's lunch, she ducked into an open bathroom (thank god for the unisex, single-person setup) and chowed down on lunch number 3 (or 4, depending on how you looked at it). The chickpea salad was exactly what she hoped it would be: fresh, filling, and crisp, but it was also something she didn't expect: spicy as hell. After just three bites she was feeling the heat, and halfway through she was visibly red in the face and sweating. This made her eat even faster than she already wanted to, and she was done within two minutes of closing the bathroom door, but her mouth was on fire and she desperately needed something to quench it.
She crumpled the paper plate and crammed it into her purse, hiding the evidence. Blinking through tears, she flushed the toilet for appearances, washed her hands, and stepped back out toward the kitchenette, blinking through tears of spiciness.
She stumbled to the sink, pulled down a mug from the cabinet, and filled it immediately with lukewarm water. She downed it, mentally singing the praises of this tepid stream flowing down her throat from a #1 Boss mug. She finished the mug and immediately refilled it, and repeated the process two or three more times. She finally took a deep breath of relief, and realized someone standing over at the vending machine was staring at her. As she turned he awkwardly averted his gaze, dropped all the change in his hands, and cursed.
"What, has he never seen anyone drink water before?" she thought irritatedly, rubbing her belly absent-mindedly, only then realizing that the volume of water she'd just downed, plus her feeding frenzy this afternoon, plus her earlier decision to unbutton her pants left a healthy slice of her naked belly exposed to the world. She pulled her shirt down immediately and tried to rebutton her pants, but she was just too swollen at this point, there was no way that button was fastening. She ducked back toward the bathroom and rummaged through her purse for a hair tie.
"I was hoping I wouldn't need this trick for another two months," she grumbled internally, pushing the hair tie through the buttonhole and hooking one end onto the button that was tragically too far away. Even with the makeshift extension the pants cut into her bloated belly just a bit too much, but it would suffice for now.
Though, if the continued gnawing in her belly had any say in the matter, not for much longer.
"You've GOT to be kidding me," Rebecca muttered to herself, checking to make sure that the guy at the vending machine had gone. She looked into the fridge, not knowing what she hoped to find, but finding what she knew to be there: absolutely nothing. She'd eaten the place clean, and yet her rounded stomach clamored for more.
Between the wardrobe malfunction, the earlier awkwardness with Colleen, the unquenchable hunger and the guilt of overeating, Rebecca was completely done with the day, despite it not even being 3pm. She went back to her desk, saved her work, and sought out her supervisor, Patrick.
She caught him coming out of a conference room, slapping someone from sales on the back and laughing far too hard at something that couldn't have been that funny. He was still winding down from the laugh when he noticed Rebecca, and she was dismayed to see his eyes immediately dart down to her belly that her shirt, after several minutes of moving around, was only barely keeping hidden.
"Wow, Becky, time flies like crazy, huh? Seems like just last week you announced that bun in the oven to the office, and here you are swelling up like a cantaloupe!"
Rebecca wasn't sure which annoyed her more: the use of a nickname she hated, the fact that it WAS just a week ago that she had told her coworkers about her still-early pregnancy (she wasn’t THAT big!!), his nonsensical simile, or the fact that without asking, Patrick had both his hands probing and rubbing her bloated, sloshing gut. Lots to hate about her present predicament, but after she gave the matter some additional thought, the belly-rubbing was definitely in the lead.
"Haha, yeah, it's just flying by," is what she actually said. "Speaking of that, I have to get to a doctor's appointment. They had to reschedule me, I'm so sorry about the late notice."
Patrick gave a dismissive face and swatted away the notion with one of his hands (leaving the other one squarely on her belly). "Don't even worry about it, Becky. Do what you need to do. I'll get Colleen to finish anything you've got leftover for today." That last bit made Rebecca wince a bit in guilt, but she thanked Patrick and extricated herself from his belly-grip. She gathered her belongings, avoided the looks of her coworkers, and headed for the elevator.
On the walk through the parking lot, Rebecca stopped to look at her reflection in a car window, specifically her belly. It wasn't THAT big, even given her uncharacteristic midday binging. She was bigger than usual, sure, but not that much bigger. At 15 weeks, her midsection was normally a gentle convex slope, and now it was a...less gentle slope. She looked maybe 6 months, max, compared to her usual 4. So, bigger than usual, but not absurdly so. Not yet, she grimly reminded herself, as her belly grumbled for attention yet again.
20 minutes later, but seemingly an eternity, she was parked in her own driveway, through her front door, wearing roomier clothes and ripping open the cabinet doors in her kitchen. She went after the things she could eat immediately without so much as heating them up: she downed a container of roasted peanuts, followed by a can of corn, and a box of Honey Loops cereal. It wasn’t until she was finishing her third piece of cold leftover pizza that she swallowed, took a deep breath, and inspected the damage to her waistline. With the added food, she was definitely looking like she was in her 6th month, maybe approaching her 7th.
She rubbed her belly, feeling the new curves and feeling disappointed in herself. "That's it, no more. That's all I'm eating, I don't care how hungry I get." She rubbed the bulging mound again. "No more snacks for me. No sandwiches, no meat, no bread, no...eggs..." and yet, moments later, there she was frying up an omelette, her protruding belly adding some difficulty to navigating the stove.
After the omelette she opened the fridge door to see what else could possibly fill the void within her. She took out a carton of orange juice and without even bothering to close to fridge, drained it all in one go, dribbling just a bit of the juice down her chin and dotting the increasingly stretched-out shirt covering her middle. Sighing and wiping her mouth with her hand, she immediately looked back in the fridge for more.
Out came some greek yogurt, even though she couldn’t stand the taste without fresh fruit. She spooned it into her mouth, wincing at the flavor, but this was a dire situation. It was gone in a moment, and predictably she needed more.
Tonight was going to be a leftover night; her fiance Alex had made a great soup the other day, and neither of them tended to feel like cooking on Wednesday nights. But...in a case such as this, when it was either consume their planned dinner or succumb to the siren call of her secret chocolate stash, Rebecca had no choice. No matter what, she couldn’t let that last wall of resistance fall.
Spoonful after spoonful of soup disappeared into her mouth, and the lower the soup level in the pot got, the more her belly swelled, simultaneously crying out for more and bemoaning the volume already packed away inside her.
She finally let the spoon clatter to the inside of the pot and let out a wet burp. Her roomy shirt was now stretched tightly around a spherical belly that easily looked 8 months pregnant. Rebecca gave her massive gut a gentle rub, and nearly cried when, despite being more full than ever before in her life, she realized she wanted more. She resigned herself to her fate, crawl/waddled to the counter, and retrieved a loaf of sliced wheat bread.
“It’s just not fair,” she said aloud between mouthfuls of bread. “I’ve been able to control myself all year. I went to the gym. I even gave up chocolate. I knew I was going to lose my figure temporarily during this pregnancy, but-” she swallowed and looked down at the sphere of food (and some baby) that was now pressing into the table.
She stood up and stretched, looking around frantically for something else to stuff in her face. The cabinets were bare, the breadbox was now empty; the fridge, barren though it was, contained her last hope of satisfaction. She waddled back to the fridge and pulled out a package of sliced deli ham. Her fiance Alex still ate meat even though she’d been avoiding it. And while she hated to kill the diet that had been good to her, she HAD already had that turkey sandwich earlier...in for a penny, in for a pound. Two pounds, actually, of pure meaty goodness.
“This is going too far,” she said as she dangled slice after slice overhead, practically slurping it down. She had forgotten just how GOOD meat was, especially succulent, salty ham from the deli. The taste distracted her from the discomfort of cramming yet more food into her critically overloaded stomach. And in the matter of two minutes she was tossing the meat’s former container into the trash, and rubbing its new basketball-sized container absently.
This was it, the moment of truth. She’d eaten as much as she possibly could, while avoiding the one thing she couldn’t allow herself to eat. If this didn’t work, she had only two choices: die from unfulfilled craving, or break her vow and eat the forbidden food. She looked, terrified, at her enormous mound, feeling it gingerly and dreading the feeling she already knew was coming.
There it was. Still hungry.
She moved faster than a woman her size had any right to, into the bedroom and onto her knees by the bed. Reaching her hidden stash was no easy feat, considering it involved crawling under the bed; she quickly found herself in a ridiculous position, head and chest under the bed, butt in the air, and massive belly smushed up against the floor, the pressure on her overloaded stomach almost making her gag. She pulled herself back out (surely she imagined the sound of a cork popping when her belly was freed), retrieved a broom from the closet, and used it to slide the hidden package closer.
Rebecca had been an intense chocoholic most of her life, and only recently had managed to resist it for any amount of time. Still, she must’ve known she would be back to it eventually, considering the treasure trove she kept hidden here, just in case. Several bars of milk chocolate, one of decadent dark, some with a caramel center, and a bag of fun-size candy bars she had told Alex that she’d given away last Halloween. Up until now Rebecca had held onto the hope that she’d be able to take one look at the chocolate and put it back with her willpower intact. Maybe the extreme tightness in her gut would held to heighten her resolve, and perhaps it did. Regardless, the power of the craving deep within her was too much, and a single second after opening the box, she was tearing through wrappers to get at the delights within.
She awoke from her chocolate-induced stupor to her cell phone ringing. It was on the floor and she was on the couch, that much she knew, so she rolled over slightly to reach it...and the weight of her easily-9-months-pregnant-looking belly made sure she completed her roll and fell off the couch with a yelp. Now on her hands and knees, she looked down to see a pendulous globe of flesh hanging off her body, nearly touching the ground, shirt and skin alike smeared with chocolate. She sat on her knees and went upright, clutching her massive belly. She felt overly full, she felt nauseous, she felt fat and sleepy and scared from the fall but one thing she didn’t feel was the craving. It had finally quieted.
She smiled with relief and answered the still-ringing phone. “Babe, I’m at the grocery store,” came Alex’s voice through the speaker. “I can’t remember, are we out of orange juice?”
Rebecca’s smile faded as the reality of her massive binge came back to her. “Uh, we’re pretty much...out of everything.”
“Haha, sure. Can you go the fridge and just look? I have a few more questions.”
Gritting her teeth, Rebecca got to her feet (with some difficulty) and waddled to the fridge. She knew what she’d find, but it seemed like a just self-punishment to honor Alex’s request. She opened the door, and what had been a decently-stocked refrigerator when she had returned home, was now completely empty. She answered Alex’s questions (“huh, I could’ve sworn that I just bought ham!”), said goodbye, and hung up the phone.
She looked down and for the first time realized she couldn’t see her feet, thanks to the massive belly that was now eclipsing them. That she woke up this morning with hardly a little bump, and 12 hours later she had ballooned into a woman who looked ready to pop (with twins, even!)...it was unthinkable. Her roomy shirt, positively swimming on her on a normal day, was barely able to keep her belly contained. She didn’t even think the human stomach was capable of stretching as much as it had...she laughed despite her shattered bikini dreams.
“Well, if nothing else, I have a potential career as a competitive eater ahead of me. At least while I’m pregnant.” She tried to imagine what she would look like if she had another binge like that at 7, 8, 9 months pregnant - surely she’d actually burst. She rubbed her belly (“hey, at what point did my belly button pop out?!”) and while she grimaced at the nausea that hung around her like an aura, she couldn’t deny, now being on the other side of the binge, that her diet had made her miss the feeling of being full. Maybe she’d indulge like this again sometime before her due date. Or maybe she wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too soon, since she was hoping to finish the pregnancy weighing LESS than 300 pounds, thank you very much.
Her cell phone rang. Alex again. “I forgot to ask, want me to pick anything up for you for lunch tomorrow?”
She groaned involuntarily at the idea of eating more food ever again. “Salad. Definitely.” She paused for a moment. “And, maybe pick me up a Hersheys bar?”
Mom might be a recovering chocoholic, but baby definitely had a full-blown addiction.
