Vegan. Pregnant, Army Wife, Growing our Rainbow Baby & Living in Germany.

Written by: Krystal Ros

Welcome to my life. Vegan. Pregnant, Army Wife, Growing our Rainbow Baby & Living in Germany.

I know…that’s a lot to take in. I already hear you thinking out loud: “How does this chick live in Germany without drinking beer or eating delicious schnitzel!?”

Well, for one, I’m 6 months pregnant so I wouldn’t be drinking alcohol anyways. (Even though a lot of European countries give the OK for pregnant women to drink wine and the occasional beer. Cultural differences I suppose)

Wait but why am I talking about drinking? Oh, right. Not everyone knows what being straight edge is…

For me, it started about 13 years ago. I was 17 and hanging with some cool kids in the music scene who didn’t drink or do drugs. Since I was dating one of them, I thought I would give it a shot and see if I could have a good time without alcohol. Turns out, it was the best decision of my life.

I am often asked how I don’t drink in Germany or what DO I do for fun since I don’t drink. My husband doesn’t drink either so I guess we are a good match. We survive just fine and I think we have plenty of fun.

Still with me here? Ok, good. Moving on! Now you’re wondering how I survive PREGNANT in Deutschland without eating meat, eggs, dairy, cheese, and all the mouth-watering pastries Europe has to offer? Well, unfortunately I don’t have a witty/comical answer for you. Sorry.

I’ve been vegan for about 7 years now so I’m no stranger to finding the alternatives and cooking most meals at home. Before I was vegan, I was vegetarian for most of my teenage/young adult life anyways. I’m used to adjusting and making do with what I have. Thankfully there are TONS of vegan options at the local grocery stores and even a few vegan restaurants in the bigger towns. It hasn’t really been an issue here and boy am I thankful for that!

I can say with complete confidence that being vegan is the thing I’m most passionate about in my life. I wouldn’t change it for the world. (or for any amount of tasty pastries) I’m not here to preach to you, or tell you you’re a bad person for your food choices. You do you! I’m here to share my life with you and a big part of that is food. Who doesn’t love food? I do. I literally start planning dinner when I wake up and imagine now that I’m pregnant!

F.R.E.A.M (Food Rules Everything Around Me)

No joke you guys, food really does rule everything around me, pregnant or not, it’s my life. Even in this small, German, middle of nowhere farm town.

“But, like…what do you eat? Where do you get your protein? You still eat chicken and fish though right?” “You’re pregnant, don’t you crave meat?”

My answer is simple: I eat whatever I want! I can pretty much veganize (yeah that’s a real word) anything you eat and make it my own. Hellooo homemade peanut butter cups, blueberry muffins, chewy chocolate chip cookies, banana streusel muffins, chocolate cupcakes, French toast…need I say more? Okay Maybe I have a lot of time on my hands since I’m not currently working and don’t have my own car.  Protein? I get mine from plant-based sources and definitely get plenty of it!

I haven’t had any weird pregnancy cravings and actually didn’t have any morning sickness! Well, some nausea, but nothing crazy. Don’t worry about me and the tiny alien boy doing summersaults in my belly….we are doing great, super healthy, eat well, and have no issues. ☺ Oh, to clarify: chicken and fish are still meat so no I don’t eat those things. I don’t eat anything that comes from an animal and neither does the baby boy in my belly.

Being pregnant has been pretty wonderful so far aside from my constant worrying, over thinking, and counting down the days until my next OB appointment (which are every 3 weeks here!) Before this little rainbow baby, I had 2 miscarriages. One last October, and the 1st was January 2015. This isn’t a sad post so no tears! Granted they were very sad times and after they happened I constantly questioned what was wrong with me, why the universe didn’t want us to have baby, or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

Welp, this past February, I again saw those two little blue lines appear on that plastic stick thing you pee on. Maybe the 3rd time really is a charm? My rainbow baby.

Okay I’m going to be real with you, at first I wasn’t phased, and immediately thought the worst, “ugh…here we go again”. I didn’t want to go through another miscarriage or have to get another D&C here (which I wont even get into because it was by far the worst experience of my life) I waited a couple days to tell my husband, Gavin. I also told him super nonchalantly in the car. I probably threw it in a sentence that went something like “So today I made some really yummy cookies! I also made a cute flower crown…oh yeah and I’m pregnant again…”

The whole pregnancy experience here in Germany is much different than in the United States! My first OB appointment wasn’t until 13 weeks. Talk about being a complete nervous wreck and google-ing every symptom probably 20 times a day. I needed to calm down.

Seriously ladies, we all need to simmer down with the google machine and WEB MD.

Fast forward to now, nearly 27 weeks pregnant and doing excellent! I couldn’t be happier and we will welcome our little boy around the end of November.

LIFE OF A NOT-SO-TYPICAL ARMY WIFE IN GERMANY

There are so many adjustments I’ve made since moving to Germany a year ago and I can’t say it’s been fun or even easy. Okay…who am I kidding: IT HAS SUCKED and been quite the rollercoaster. Being a military spouse is hard, but being a spouse HERE, is next level. I also don’t see myself as the “typical” army wife, so it’s even more weird. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband with all my heart and am so proud of him and will always stand by him, BUT this place is such a different way of life.

I don’t work other than selling my homemade kombucha, flower crowns, and clothes I need to get rid of (basically half of my closest needs to go, any takers?) Work is hard to come by unless you want to work at the food court, the commissary, or the gas station. Not worth it to have to work weekends when that’s the time we get to spend together. Hello? When else are we suppose to travel Europe!?

I also don’t have my own car and we aren’t within walking distance to anything other than our neighbors in this little Pleasantville neighborhood we live in. For real, the houses are all the same, brightly colored, the soldiers leave the same time every morning, and (most of) the spouses stay at home with the kids. It’s kind of creepy actually.

Being pregnant here is quite common. It’s all military families, and I want to throw out a random guess and say 6/10 women are pregnant at all times here. That’s a lot of babies. I guess I fit in on that front, at least for now. Maybe it’s something in the water?

Anyways, that’s me in a nutshell. 31, pregnant, vegan, straight edge, not-so-typical army wife, and living in Bavaria, Germany. Third time really is the charm and this baby boy has given me such a sense of purpose and excitement while we live overseas. If you want to follow my pregnancy/European adventures my IG is @krystalxcastles . WARNING: Prepare to see a lot of food posts that may or may not commence drooling and or kick your pregnancy cravings into overdrive. Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m always open to new faraway friends, especially pregnant in such a faraway place myself.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to my friend Chloe at sexymamamaternity.com for introducing me to her amazing business, the cutest clothing, and allowing me to share my story with you guys. I’m thankful for cool moms doing cool things and letting me be a part of it! I can’t wait for motherhood guys.