Lemons, cut up, in water. Sniff, then sip. Helped the morning sickness a lot, for me. (Wash them first, since you’ll be sipping chemicals off the skin otherwise.) I also carried a slab of lemon in a ziplock in my purse, to sniff in emergencies.
Keeping a good protien balance also helps. All snacks should have a protien component so that you don’t have bloodsugar crashes (which can trigger nausea). Crackers didn’t do it for me, but meat/seafood/etc. does.
If your gut has slowed down, digestion-wise, nibbling crystalized ginger may also help. This won’t help if your gut has sped up, or not as much. Gingerale doesn’t have enough ginger to work well, but ginger tea does.
Accupressure bands (Sea-bands) work for some women. I didn’t try them.
Once you can keep it down, DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) supplements may be a good idea. Having enough DHA in your system may reduce your risk of pregnancy or post-partum depression. You can get vegan ones that don’t have fish oil, so you can avoid the fish-oil-flavored burps. Keep taking them if you are breastfeeding, too, as mammary glands harvest your DHA as much as the placenta does. If you eat cold-water ocean fish (fatty fishes) at least three times a week, you don’t have to supplement (though you have to pick and choose your fish to keep from being contaminated with mercury…). But there’s a reason the PPD rate in the US is vastly higher than Japan or Norway (levels of DHA in the diet).
BTW, I dreamed both genders while I was pregnant, but I’d dreamed as a child (repeatedly) that I’d have three sons when I grew up, and dreams of both genders notwithstanding, I always just felt that they were boys (except the second miscarriage).
hedra you’re a wild woman. When are you going to write a baby book of your own?
We told immediate family and very close friends as soon as we found out. We waited 3 months to tell everyone else.
As for leave from work, I took 12 weeks fully paid, which I managed by (1) having an emergency c-section (they paid for 8 weeks for that, though I don’t recommend having one just for the extra benefits) and (2) saving up all of my vacation time and using it for the last 4 weeks. I went back to work full-time after that. Aaron goes to daycare and my husband works at home, so he spends time with Aaron in the morning after I leave, and he’s always available in case Aaron gets sick or there’s some other type of emergency, so we’re pretty flexible.
Boy, this thread is fun. We’re planning on starting baby #2 in a couple of months although early toddlerhood sometimes makes we wonder if I can handle another. But most of the time, I’m very excited about the idea.
An idea, by the way, about names. When I knew I was having a boy, we had several names picked out and every day we would call him a different name. We gradually got rid of names we didn’t like after we’d said them for a day or two, and finally settled on Aaron, which just sounded right. It was a fun way to pick a name, I think.
I’m working on it, I’m working on it! Okay, so I’m actually working on the 9 or 10 children’s books manuscripts I’ve got in process first, but it IS in the works… Sometimes I just need the kick in the pants to try to focus again. I think perhaps I may need to shift tracks as I approach this next pregnancy, and see if I can use it as a launching pad for the book writing…
And my advice on names: make sure it yells well. My great grandmother’s advice, really, as she named her first son Oglebert (IIRC, might have been Adelbert), and couldn’t yell it convincingly (she’d trip up or want to laugh). Funny, he was known as Bert his whole life… Ever after, her advice was ‘yell it a few times before you decide to keep it’…
I know this thread is a little old but I wanted to add my best wishes! That is so exciting to be pg. And congrats to all the other Doper Mommies-to-be! I was pg when the WTCs went down. I know that it’s scary to be pg in these uncertain imes. I was scared to death! But just remember: your little ones are meant to be at this point in time for a reason. May they bring joy not only to you but to the world at large.
It took us 3 years to get pg but when it happened, it happened fast! We’d done the hormones, etc. The Reproductive Endocrinologist told us that (short of IVF) we’d never have a baby. So, I went back on the pill (to keep my infertility issues at bay) and we started the adoption process after taking 6 months off to just “be.” Before we went full force with the adoption, we tried one more month (remember, I’d been on the pill for 6 months) and got pg right away. I knew before I was even late: the boobs were killing me! 10 days post ovulation, I had a positve pg test. I still have that test. Sometimes, while my little son is playing in the bathroom floor, I take that pg test out and look at it and look at him and just marvel.
As far as pg books, I bought a set called Your Pregnancy Week by Week and Baby’s First Year Week by Week . They are excellent.
doulas: I have one girlfriend who used a doula a swears by it. But you really have to be more comfortable with your doula than your OB and be on the same page. A doula who is actively anti-med (I know three doulas personally, not professionally, and all of them were agast that I chose medicated childbirth – being anti med seems to be pretty normal for doulas - and my friend who used one was very anti-med) may not be very supportive if you decide you want to change your mind and get an epidural or a little Nubain. Fine if you are 100% sure that you don’t want meds and no amount of pain or duration of labor is going to change that. And fine if you can find a doula who will support your decisions.
The idea I recommend is having a “backup labor coach” other than your husband - especially for your first baby. My girlfriends and I tend to agree that our husbands were - well, mostly useless for the first baby (my friend who has had three says it gets better each time). A girlfriend or sister who has been through it will be able to give your husband some “breathers” and may know better how to help. One of my girlfriends has a labor team (she is the same one with three kids) and goes to the hospital with at least two friends and hubby. Course, with the last baby, she brought two kids along as well, so she needed a full staff…
Congrats Cricket. Motherhood can be a wonderful thing. You’ve never been in love like you’re about to be.
I got pregnant unexpectedly at 22 and I had serious denial issues about it, apparently. I was over two months pregnant when I found out, even though there were a lot of clues I missed.
For one, I thought I was eating and sleeping all the time because I was depressed. I don’t keep exact records of my periods, so I just knew it had been a while, but I believed that I was having “plumbing” problems and was terribly afraid I had uterine or cervical cancer. I was seeking treatment for this when they gave me an ultrasound. During the ultrasound they asked me if I thought I could be pregnant and I told them no, since I had broken up with my last boyfriend two months before. I was sure I could remember having a period since then. The lady performing the ultrasound was in training and she went to get a doctor and they mulled over the screen results, but seemed okay with my answer since I seemed so sure. About two weeks later I was thinking about that experience when it slowly dawned on me that maybe, just maybe… So I called a friend who had been through it and we made a plan to go get a test at a clinic the next day. That night she had a dream I was indeed pregnant, but she kept that to herself until after the positive test came back.
I was in so much denial that I even questioned the blood test. When the lady smiled at me and told me “It’s positive,” I had to ask, “Does that me I am or I am not pregnant?”
Anyway, my denial ended rather abruptly and I embraced my fate happily. My daughter is now 9 and a half years ago and life with her has been wonderful.
Hedra, you rock - so much great advice. You should be writing a book. I’ll remember about lemons and ginger if I start getting morning sickness. So far though, no problem.
Interesting info. about doulas, Dangerosa. One of the hospitals here has a doula program and I thought it sounded neat. However, I know I will be shouting DRUGS DRUGS at the first bare whisper of pain, so perhaps a doula isn’t necessarily a good fit for me. This hospital also has a post-partum doula program which also seems like a good idea. From the hospital’s Web site "Many doulas also bring much-needed confidence to new moms by offering postpartum care such as breastfeeding support and advice, newborn care and assistance with household duties.
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Works for me!
Thanks for the congratulations, presidebt and mmm… forbidden doughnut!
I caught a small cold while I was out of town over the weekend and am not enjoying being unable to take anything but tylenol. And pollen season is fast approaching! I talked to my regular doctor today and she said sudafed was OK so I rushed out to get some and am hoping for a bit of relief.
I stayed home sick yesterday duing the worst of the cold and by the end of the day was feeling much better. However, all of a sudden I thought my breasts were hurting less than usual. So, went into the bathroom and used up the last pregnancy test just to make sure I was Still Pregnant. How silly is that? :rolleyes:
Advice is not in short supply when you’re pregnant…
Here’s the book Mrs Trupa and I found the best source of lots of factual information with a minimum amount of warm-fuzzy-fluff:
Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year
by Robert V. Johnson (Editor), Mayo Clinic
ISBN: 0688117619
We started calling it our “Mayo Baby bible”
For Mr. Cricket, may I recommend:
The Bachelor’s Guide: To Ward Off Starvation (The Bachelor’s Guide)
by Clarence Culinary Culpepper, Margo Embury (Editor), Yardley Jones
ISBN: 0919845622
Even though Mr Cricket is clearly no longer a bachelor, this book is great for guys who have a hard time telling one end of the spatula from another (present company included, when I moved out 13 years ago.)
It has simple but tasty recipes, and doesn’t use any cooking terminology. It does use rather corny overly masculine words, which makes it sound like a cookbook written by a football announcer, but that can be funny in it’s own right…
It even has complete meal plans intended to impress the ladies, so you might luck out and get surprised one evening…
Trupa, thanks! As a matter of fact, Mr. Cricket doesn’t know one end of a spatula from the other but always promised he’d try to learn to cook when I became pregnant. I’ve been looking for a book like this. I’ll check it out!
As for the advice, I’ll take all I can get. I figure I’ve got a bit of time to sort it all out. Thanks for the suggestion about the Mayo baby book. I’ll check that one out, too!
I’ve had a bad belly for two weeks now… day and night. Yuck!