Anyone eat Whole30 during their hospital stay?

[CaseyD]

I'm not crazy obsessively trying to stay Whole30 here, but I've learned through too much trial and error that I have to stay on the AIP version of the Whole30. I have way too many food reactions at this point in my life.

But, this is a recent thing I have learned about myself. I'm three weeks away from my due date on my second pregnancy and in discussions with the hospital that I will be delivering at, I've come to accept that they cannot accommodate my dietary restrictions. I'm stressing out about this, honestly. They don't have refrigerators that we can stick food in and the microwave is down in the cafeteria. I can bring food in, but they're not really set up to make that easy for you.

Does anyone have any experience with hospital stays where you brought in your own food, or have creative suggestions? I have a food dehydrator, but I'm a newbie with it and am pretty clueless on what to dehydrate (or how to make it actually taste good, apparently). Or, good portable foods that I can just buy and pack in my bag? I know I could do things like canned fish and olives - but what else? I need some help brainstorming how to handle this! I'm pretty limited too by the fact that I can't tolerate nightshades, so I don't know if I could even find a beef jerky that would work!

My pregnancy brain is just not helping me think this through right now, so I really appreciate any suggestions/advice anyone has!!

[coconutgirl]

They will have ice so you can bring you own cooler. Bring hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruits and veggies, meats you can eat cold (I like leftover chicken and salmon).

[CaseyD]

I wondered about the cooler idea because I read something about that a couple years ago pertaining to the father bringing a cooler or stuff to snack on during the labor. Eggs are out (allergic), which is a shame because that would be so easy, but I never thought of bringing a cooler with cold pre-cooked meats, fruits and veggies. That's a great idea! Thanks!

[Beets]

We had a doula for my son's hospital birth and she definitely had a cooler full of fruit, snacks and a thermos of icy cold herbal tea. Maybe call the hospital though? I feel like some hospitals have weird, medieval rules about what can or cannot go down during labor.

It's tricky, too, bc you don't know when you'll go into labor, right? Though I guess at this stage of the game you probably enjoy having cut fruit, etc., on hand.

I just kept thinking homemade larabar type things, but I know you said you don't do well with nuts. What if you soak the nuts? Any better? I don't have the same bloating. Maybe a batch of meatballs you can freeze and have a fam member bring in for you?

[CaseyD]

Luckily, the hospital I'm going to is cool with people bringing in food. I couldn't keep food down during labor before, so I guess I'm expecting the same thing this time around. I remember they let me have graham crackers (I wasn't paleo then), and it came right back up. But, I know I was STARVING after I had my first and couldn't get food in my mouth fast enough! So, if nothing else, I probably need to have a plan for having food right after the baby is born.

I actually have grilled meat that's already cut up and strawberries in the freezer. I need to come up with a plan for some veggies that I could easily stash in a cooler at a moment's notice too. I'm so scared what happened to my friend with her second baby is going to happen to me. She thought it was a false alarm but her mom was at her house at the time and called it on her. She got to the hospital and had the baby minutes later! The father couldn't even get there in time. The whole labor lasted less than 2 hours, when her first took almost 2 days! If something like that happens, I so won't be prepared and will have to have someone go get food (and probably everything else) for me.