On Morning Sickness

Since week 6 of my pregnancy, I've been on that hellish roller coaster of ickiness known as morning sickness. At first, I welcomed the bouts of quease. It made me feel like this pregnancy thing was really happening. It acted as a confirmation each day . . . keeping my fears at bay. If I was feeling sick, the baby was sticking. After a while, though, I'd say maybe 2.5 weeks, I grew tired of it.

My friend Lindsey describes it best as a perpetual hangover.

Without the beer, of course! Though, sometimes I surely felt like I needed a drink!

I thought it had let up a bit at the beginning of week 10, but -- much to my dismay -- it returned with a vengeance after only two days of respite. For those of you who haven't been pregnant before, morning sickness as a title itself is incredibly misleading. The general nausea, gagging, dry-heaving, and -- yes -- violent puking can take over any time of the day. However, I consider myself one of the lucky gals.

The nausea may have been severe at points, but I've only truly lost it four times.

• Once, I didn't eat soon enough after waking. Rookie mistake.
• Another time, I came upon a smelly, unflushed toilet in a public restroom.
• The most recent episode was yesterday morning. I don't really know what happened. I think I'm getting cocky and just expecting it to fade as I continue my way through the second trimester.
• And then there was that unfortunate incident with the banana. That was the first and the worst.

(Temporary) Cures:

• Greek Yogurt -- black cherry and blueberry
• Simply Lemonade (specifically the classic variety)
• Eggs*
• Cocoa Bumpers Cereal
• Blackberry Sorbet Pops
• Sleep
• 4-mile jogs, seriously!

* Eggs quite honestly gross me out, yet forcing them down is essential during particularly bad episodes. Without them, I find myself much, much sicker. I've read it's because protein helps.


Triggers:

• Grocery stores
• Food blogs
• Public restrooms
• Anything dark, green, and leafy or vegetable-like
• Bananas

Even hearing Stephen list foods when I didn't know what I wanted to eat would make me gag. He'd say "asparagus" and I'd have to bury my head in a pillow. And it seems the triggers would change from day to day and week to week. Like I said, though, I consider myself lucky. I kept most of my food down and only had a couple mental breakdowns along the way (one was right before the half marathon, when I felt particularly ill from getting up too early). My mother, on the other hand, had severe morning sickness for five months when she was pregnant with me.

Thanks, mom.


What I've learned is that when I'm in the throws of morning sickness, I cannot force myself to eat anything that doesn't sound appealing (*cough* BANANAS! *cough*). Laying in a horizontal position is best, preferably with my eyes closed or in a dark room. The effectiveness of those little seasickness bands is debatable, and there's tons of anti-nausea stuff on the market (like ginger gum) that simply doesn't work well enough to justify the investment ($7 for 24 pieces). When in doubt, I drink ginger ale. Yeah, I know it's soda. That seems to do the trick at work when I'm on the brink.

Along with morning sickness, food aversions have been an issue. Only in the last couple weeks have I been able to eat what I'd call "real meals" again. During the worst of it, I was eating cheese pizza most every night. Cereal. Applesauce. PB&J. And that was pretty much it. Of course, knowing that I'm growing a little person, I felt guilty not being able to eat well. It really concerned me. But my midwife assured me that the baby was getting the nutrients it needed from my prenatal vitamin (which smells like dead, rotting fish) and my stores (so, how I ate in the months before pregnancy).


I worried, too, about not gaining enough weight. My midwife assured me that it's normal to not gain or even lose weight in the first trimester. Right now, I'm up one or two pounds. In week 13, I've having more good days than bad days. I can tell I'm over the worst of it (but am still crossing my fingers). But I'm eating well again and better fueling my exercise (more on that in another post).

Just don't say bananas, please.

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