You’d think I’d have some kind of game plan by now, since this is my third pregnancy, but I’m still trying to figure out how we’re going to make it through to week sixteen or so, since I’m exhausted, throwing up all the time, and very cranky. Oh, and burping and spitting, which is just charming. Early pregnancy blows.
So far we’ve had food dropped off by loving friends (my cooking, normally pretty good, has become very spotty), lots of takeout (and let me tell you, Indian sucks on its way back up) and lots of child-wrangling by friends and family when I can’t stand up due to combined nausea/hypoglycemia due to lack of food. I’m doing a lot of sitting down and my two kids are getting an awful lot of video/Youtube time. Okay, the three-year-old is- the toddler’s too little, more’s the pity.
Anyway, if you had a terrible first trimester, how did you survive? What insane things did you have to do to feed/clothe/take care of yourself and your family?
I thought it was going to be about college course loads on trying schedules. My first trimester as a fetus is a little blurry but I don’t think it was that difficult. I got knocked in the head a few times before anyone knew I was there but I lived. I went to grad school at a place with trimesters. That was difficult switching focus more often than usual but coffee and lots of coke (not the soda eeeewww!) helped.
I kid but I don’t have anything real to add now that I know what this is about.
I ate a lot of friend egg sandwiches (on whole grain toast, with lots of mayo) and pear nectar on the side. It was the only thing that not only stayed down and didn’t make me nauseated, but actually made me feel like a human being for up to 90 whole minutes. In a row.
This time round, I was in denial till about 4 1/2 months. Probably would have been right up until labour, but I couldn’t ignore the kicking for much longer
Several people I know have commented that ginger ale and fruit salad pretty much taste the same either direction. I know when I am nauseous I need foods and drinks to be absolutely ice cold as possible, and frozen grapes are fantastic. Figure out how to get some protein down, and you can probably manage quite well on fruit salad, ginger ale and crackers.
To this day, I still don’t know. Our kids are 13 months apart, and I threw up for 18 months. It was miserable. Every time I hurled, my hubby was holding my hair out of the way and had a cold, wet washcloth for my face when I was done. That’s one of the worst and best memories of pregnancy for me.
I’m just coming into my 16th week (with my first) and I still feel lousy. I’ve been very lucky to avoid sickness, but I’m completely exhausted ALL the bloody time, I’m having really bad back pain, and I’m basically insane. A colleague asked me how I was feeling the other day and I immediately burst into tears. And just this morning my husband, thinking he was being helpful, swapped the tea towel for a clean one, and I threw a screaming fit because he swapped it for one that didn’t match the oven gloves.
Yeeeeah.
So I have no helpful advice, but plenty of sympathy, and a fervent hope we all get through it soon!
Right now I am just focusing on getting through the next week or so (I am 38 weeks along) but I do remember giner tea and ginger ale helping. For the tea I went to a specialty tea store and got real dried ginger, rather than the grocery store stuff. Oh and tums. I went through tums like candy.
Yeah, the exhaustion is killer. The last two times, I went off the anti-nausea meds the day I had the babies. Sort of expecting the same thing this time. I’m eating a lot of yogurt and for some stupid reason I can’t drink water. Ginger only helps a little.
Bleargh. I just threw up again. It’s much worse throwing up in the afternoon when you have something in your stomach to throw up.
15 weeks here. My problem isn’t throwing up, it’s the other end. I don’t know which I’d rather have. I’ve actually lost about 7 pounds so far. It seems like the only thing I can eat without getting sick is pasta, but not too much. I only eat about a third of what I did before I was pregnant. My doctor tells me it will get better…I just hope it gets better fast!
The exhaustion and moodiness. I couldn’t find the TV remote and I cried. :dubious:
Also, this will be my fourth child. I never had any kind of sickness/moodiness/exhaustion with the other three.
I carried at least 6 granola bars in my purse at all times. I never left the house without a bottle of juice/tea/water/etc. I cried a lot.
Now I feel much better in the sense that I’m not nauseous all the time and I don’t get dizzy and want to pass out from the low blood sugar but I’m into the part of pregnancy where I’m having acid reflux and the baby keeps me up half the night moving around or dealing with pregnancy joint pain. It isn’t any easier, just different. I can’t wait until the baby is born and I mostly get my body back. Sure, the baby will own my boobs for a while and I’ll spend much of my day covered in poo and vomit but at least I can take a hot bath again and climbing the stairs won’t suck so bad!
Wouldn’t the science fictional null gravity beds be wonderful for joint pain? so comfortable to float without touching anything in a room that is the perfect temperature. sigh
[can you tell that the weather has my joints acting up?]
I keep hearing about pregnant ladies who cannot keep anything down, which leads me to wonder: why the hell would nature do this? If a pregnant woman has to provide nutrients for what amounts to two people, then she has to be able to feed herself, yes? Naturally, she won’t be able to do that if she throws up whatever she eats. It just seems so completely counter-intuitive to make it so that a pregnant woman literally cannot eat when she needs to now more than ever. And yet at the same time I’ve heard (I’ve got no cite readily on-hand, though I might be able to dig something up if anyone requests it) that there is a correlation between nasty morning sickness and healthier newborns.
It was a long time ago, but IIRC, vanilla milkshakes, gingerbread and Pepsi, …and when all that failed, IV rehydration. Early pregnancy does indeed blow.
My first pregnancy was awful until about month 7 or so. I puked all day every day until one day I just didn’t puke anymore. I lost a full 20 pounds - then gained 30 for a net gain of only 10 pounds. People who didn’t know I was pregnant were convinced I had cancer with how sick I got.
I found that listening to my cravings was the only thing that saved me. All I wanted much of the time was Elio’s pizza and canned peaches. I often puked them back up too but I would then return to eating what I had left without missing a beat. Amazing how morning sickness works.
The peaches were suggested by my OB. Make sure you get them in heavy syrup. I’m not sure how it worked, maybe coated the stomach or something.
I tried taking Reglen, a prescription anti-nausea med prescribed by my OB. It made me climb-the-walls crazy. Never again. The only other option I was presented with was another med (P-something or other) but in a suppository form. No matter how desperate I was I just couldn’t handle it.