craving...ICE?

For over a week now, I cannot go anywhere without the wonderfully, oh so cold tasting ice cube in my mouth. I seriously have a cup sitting on my desk filled with ice and am constantly sucking on this new-found delicious treat. This is strange to me, since I have always ordered my drinks with "no ice please" or "easy on the ice (at sonic). Now I've already sent Jimmy twice to Sonic asking for just a cup of ice. I feel like I am always in the breakroom at work filling up more ice trays because I go through them every 2 hours or so.

I told my mom about it yesterday and she said one of her early memories of her mom was how much she craved ice. She said my grandma would always ask her children to give her their ice cubes when she was pregnant! Could this really be just an inherited thing?

I googled it today to see if others were in my same boat. Suprisingly, many are! However, the reason could be just a bit scary, so I'm looking into it further. Apparently, there's this disorder called Pica. It basically is an eating disorder that causes you to crave non-food items. Super weird things like dirt, soap, hair, cigarette ashes and ICE! Now rest assured, I am not wandering over to the playground and picking up dirt to eat or munching on my hair for an afternoon break. My cravings stop at the ice cubes. And the main suggested reason for craving ice is an iron deficiency. I go for my 30 week doctors appointment on Wednesday, so I'll run this crazy ice fettish by my doctor and see what she thinks.

At least craving ice is about as cheap and safe you can get...until my dentist sees what I've been doing to my poor teeth!

*some people have asked for some more recent belly pictures. my camera has decided to quit working as of late, so as soon as I can revive it or borrow one, i'll post some more...stay tuned!