Tuesday, September 24, 2013

How to Survive Morning Sickness

Alternate titles:  How to survive progesterone poisoning, How to survive the nine month hangover, The Art and Method of Staring into Your Trash Can at Work
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Morning sickness.  Ahh the dreaded first tri (and sometimes even longer) curse of any pregnant woman.  I was one of the lucky ones in that mine typically goes away once I hit about 14-15 weeks both times.  I was also one of the "lucky" ones that pretty much got morning sick as the pee was drying on the pee stick.   The joys of pregnancy.

Some tips and tricks I have learned in two pregnancies (and links in case you are too exhausted/sick to get off your couch and go get these thing):

1)  Eat sour candy.  For some reason Sour Patch Kids or Jolly Rancher Fruit n' Sour candy seemed to help me.  Preggie Pop Drops were also a hit in my first pregnancy.  Basically anything a bit sour and a bit fruity that I could keep in my mouth seemed to distract my head enough to function.

2)  Unisom and vitamin B6 taken at night was a huge blessing this second pregnancy.  I didn't know about this with Destructo and wish I had.  I take a half tab of unisom and a 50 mg pill of vitamin B6 at night and it has really helped.  I know this because the few night I forgot to take it, I was up all night sick as could be. This combo actually used to be a morning sickness medicine that isn't available in the US anymore (but according to my midwife is going to be available again soon.) 

3)  Sea bands.  I never personally tried these but a lot of my friends said they really helped.  I kept meaning to get some and just never did.

4)  Getting plenty of sleep.  Easier said than done when you feel like puking all night long.  But nights I didn't sleep much at all, I was also a lot sicker the next day.  And yeah morning sickness is such a lie.  I had worse middle of the night sickness or evening sickness than I ever did in the morning.  I think it should be called all day sickness or can strike at any time sickness personally.

5)  Fruit smoothies were a life saver both times.  I could not eat in the morning but not eating made it worse and it was a vicious cycle with no happy end in sight.  I started making strawberry banana smoothies and adding in whey protein to make sure I was getting some extra protein in it and this helped.  I also lived off of strawberries and yogurt this time around.

6)  Anything icy cold to drink in the morning (or whenever you are taunted by the evil morning sickness beast) seemed to help ward off some of the sickness.

7)  Ginger candy and ginger ale.  Ginger is said to soothe your stomach and I can say the ginger ale in particular helped me.  Watch though a lot of the grocery store ginger ales don't actually contain ginger.  Honestly though they helped me as well due to the carbonation.

8)  When I felt a episode of about to get sick coming on, I would take slow deep breaths and concentrate on not getting sick.  Lying down if I could also helped.

9)  I tried to avoid any strong scents.  Coffee really bothered me both times so I would use the door not through the kitchen at work.  I started taking the stairs more to avoid being trapped in the elevator with people who could smell like cigarette smoke or strong perfume.  Good exercise as well!

10)  Eating frequent small meals of protein and carbs helped.  Cheese and crackers, hummus and pretzels, peanut butter on crackers were all good and quick snacks.

11)  Chewing watermelon gum helped this time.  Not sure why.  But it did.

12)  Don't feel guilty if you aren't able to eat super healthily in first tri.  You can make up for it later.  Eat what you can, when you can. 

Okay I hope some of these tricks and tips might help you feel better.  If your morning sickness is really bad, talk to your doctor about Zofran.  I have heard it helps a lot. 


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