I put morning in quotes because that’s a laughable misnomer. I’d be fine with feeling this way before noon. No, I’m dealing with constant low-grade nausea that lasts pretty much all day long. I’m lucky in that I haven’t puked, but that could just be because I hate puking, so I’m using a lot of mental willpower to keep that from happening. I feel better when I eat, but I don’t want to eat when I feel like this.
So far I’ve tried:
–Ginger. Worked until I developed a MAJOR aversion to it several days ago. Now the smell makes me want to yak. The ginger aversion is the worst aversion I’ve had while pregnant. It’s bizarre. Just thinking about it makes me feel worse.
–Preggie Pops. These are basically suckers and hard candies that you eat to relieve morning sickness. Oddly, these have been the best things so far, but they’re a) expensive, and b) very high in sugar, so I’m going to rot out my teeth and not be able to afford this kid if I have these nearly as often as I want to.
–Sea Bands. One-size fits all, my ass–I wore them for four hours and I had angry red marks on my wrists that haven’t gone away 30 minutes later. I have no idea if they helped at all, because I slept almost the entire time I had them on. I’ll put them back on after I cook dinner cry but I can’t get away with them at work, most likely.
–Papaya Enzymes. Heard this one from a woman on another message board, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I didn’t notice much of a difference, and the jar says I’m supposed to take them “with meals,” which are starting to become few and far between.
HALP! Anyone else have any suggestions that I haven’t yet tried?
Back in the early 90’s when I first had morning sickness while pregnant, my OB had me take a B-6 and a Unisom sleeping pill before bedtime. I suppose it helped some- of course, check with your doctor before taking anything.
With my two subsequent pregnancies, I was sick almost all the time. I developed an aversion to almost everything, so I’d not eat, then I’d get sick because I hadn’t eaten, then I’d eat and throw it all up. The second pregnancy was so bad I only gained 9 pounds, and he weighed 8’13! By the third time, I’d figured out that I needed to have something in my stomach all the time and that helped, so I ate crackers, yogurt, chickpeas, albacore tuna… bland foods that were unlikely to create an aversion due to strong odors or tastes.
When I had hypermesis, I would mix up some lemonade from the unsweetened kind of powder with as little sugar as I could stand, and then sip it while nibbling on something bland and salty like pretzel sticks. It helped, some. Sometimes it helped me to throw up, sometimes it didn’t. If I had a specific craving it usually helped to eat a little bit of that food.
I also took a drug that is really meant for motion sickness, on the advice of my doctor, when things got too bad. I hated taking pills while pregnant but it sure beat going to the hospital for dehydration… hopefully you won’t get anywhere near that stage though. Still, know that safe options are out there, and if you’re concerned that your health or the baby’s health is at risk, it’s time to call your doctor NOW.
Good luck! I hope you’ll be one of the majority that find the nausea only lasts a short time.
Yuck. I’m feeling fairly similar, so I can sympathize, though it sounds as though I don’t have it as bad as you. Small sips of Sprite or ginger ale definitely help, and I’ve been hitting the pretzels pretty hard. Bland, salty and boring, but they settle my stomach. Bizarrely enough, pears do, too. As Alice the Goon said, making sure that I always have something in my stomach seems to be most helpful.
I think it does help to keep something in your stomach, if possible. Soda crackers and mild things like that, that you can nibble, might be useful. Also, sometimes soda pop will help. I know you don’t want too much sugar, but sipping might not be too bad. It’s something about the sugar and the carbonation, I don’t know just what.
What kind of ginger were you using? I know that in the herbal supplements aisle, there are gelcap pills with powdered ginger inside. (I use it for motion sickness.) They do smell a little like ginger, but if you hold your nose and swallow them really quickly you may get away with just a few ginger-flavored burps later. Not sure if this will help, though, since pregnant women have SuperNose ™.
Did you try something carbonated like club soda mixed with juice? Or Sprite? Or making an antacid with baking soda (there’s directions on the label)?
Peppermint hard candies are supposed to help, as well as peppermint tea.
Also, the bland foods (soda crackers, etc) as mentioned above. Good luck, I feel for ya. I was extremely ill during both of my pregnancies. As the OP noted “morning” sickness is truly a misnomer. I spent the entire day throwing up and feeling sick to my stomach through each of my entire pregnancies.
I had 24-hour nausea the entire first trimester, both pregnancies (luckily, it was gone the 91st day, literally). I never puked but was queasy all the time.
Motion sickness “cures” didn’t work for me, maybe because it was hormonal, not movement-based.
I’ll second the pears. Pear juice, specifically. I’d drink that with a fried egg sandwich with lots of mayo, salt and black pepper on toast - oddly enough, the only thing I could keep down.
Some women actually experience *low *stomach acid during pregnancy, which, ironically enough, has nausea and stomach upset and even a bit of acid reflux as symptoms. If you have acidy burbs and calcium (Tums) doesn’t help, try taking a sip of pickle juice instead. If your problem is not enough stomach acid, pickle juice will taste and feel great. (This is probably where the pickles/pregnancy connection began, from women unknowingly self-medicating.) If that’s not your problem, well, at least you’ll feel a few moments relief after throwing up!
In Chinese medicine, ginger is a “hot” herb. If your stomach is suffering from a lack of “heat”, then ginger can be quite helpful. But like all systems, it’s bound to turn into its opposite sooner or later, and ginger will not at *all *help a too hot stomach. For excess “heat” in the stomach, you want cinnamon. Cinnamon releases “heat”. Pear is “cooling”, as, in general, are white foods (except sugar). Bananas, yogurt, etc.
I had a friend who had really serious, “getting dehydrated, going to put you in the hospital on an IV” morning sickness, and what meant she survived the experience at all was Dr. Pepper syrup, straight, on a Sno-Cone. No idea where she got the Dr. Pepper syrup, this was back in 1983.
Try syrup of cola , as well. It’s an old-time fix for nausea that I have used with good success. The best way for me was to pour a bit of it in a glass over some ice, and suck on the ice cubes covered in cola syrup. The cold ice and the taste of cola is a good combo, and the syrup definitely settled my stomach.
On edit, this is probably what **Duck’s ** friend did.
What worked for me was to nibble one or two soda crackers first thing in the morning, before even lifting my head off the pillow. Half awake, reach out and grab cracker, eat while doing as little moving as possible. Then lie very still another 5 minutes or so. This technique got me through many mornings. Reading this thread, it makes me wonder if it really was just a matter of getting something in my stomach, since I would nibble virtually all day long.
I was going to say ginger, until you said no to that! I went through the same thing, and now I seriously hate ginger (real ginger ale /yack).
For the first couple months I kept crackers and pretzels and just ate them throughout the day. My tummy just always had this general uneasiness, and I found just a bit of food throughout the day helped. I never threw up, just food aversions etc.
I had the same thing going on, and cheese and crackers seemed to help the most, with pepper jack cheese REALLY helping the most. I’d also drink caffeine free soda; belching made me feel better.
Hmmmm. This sounds a lot like me. One of the few things I can have without messing me up at all is milk. I’ll try getting some pears and see how it works. Cinnamon sounds good too.
Preggie pops are expensive…so go to your local supermarket and buy their sour candies. Same ingredients, same effects, but sooo much cheaper. I did that when I was pregnant with my daughter and they helped tremendously! Don’t worry about rotting out your teeth, just make yourself less nauseous. You can eat healthy and be a good girl in the 2nd tri!
And lemonade. I drank more lemonade when I was pregnant than I have in my entire life.
If it gets so serious that you’re getting dehydrated, talk to your doctor. My wife’s was so bad that he finally put her on a drug called Reglan, which basically promotes peristalsis, the muscle contractions that move food down the line in your innards. It helped immensely, when she remembered to take it. heh. And no harm done to the little rugrat.
