Well, that’s what all the fat in our hips, butt and thighs is supposed to be for: to provide energy for a pregnancy, no matter what the conditions are. Also, some people don’t throw up much. I only threw up once or twice each pregnancy, but I slept some 16 to 18 hours a day with my first pregnancy, and 12 to 14 hours a day with my second. Nausea ( but not necessarily vomiting) is a sign of a healthy pregnancy. Crazy, right?
Mother nature is a bitch.
I got lucky on the first pregnancy - I didn’t even know I was pregnant until 3 1/2 months in. The second was… unfortunate. Imagine dealing with a 6-8 month old child while throwing up everytime your head is below your stomach and/or you are exposed to any strong smells.
Oh and you’re living in a new province with no family or friends around and you’re the only one employed so you can’t just lay around and be miserable. Although ginger, tea, flat ginger ale, dry toast and saltines provided some relief I don’t think I ever found a solution to the nausea, it just stopped one day. And I was eternally grateful.
It’s weird, I absolutely hated ginger during my first trimester - it almost made me throw up. (I only threw up twice, but I felt nauseous all the time.) What worked for me was eating lots and lots of fruit, especially grapes, strawberries, apple sauce (not apples) and above all, nectarines. Also, eating some form of protein helped - I remember having plain sardines or herring on toast for dinner several times. Although the thought of that now still makes me ill.
I read a couple of interesting articles while I was feeling miserably nauseous, and although I can’t say if they’re scientifically valid or not, it seemed to work for me. The articles argued that the pH of the stomach changes during pregnancy (as it does during hangovers, too), so what will really help nausea is to eat less acidifying food and more alkalinizing food. Some food we would call acidic is actually alkalinizing once it’s in the body, such as lemons. Once I read that, I started adding a squirt of lemon juice to my water, and then I was able to drink water again. I was getting really dehydrated before that because I just couldn’t stand the taste of water.
And then there was the fatigue - nothing I could do about that except sleep. I slept 12 hours a day and just couldn’t manage on less. I’m getting tired again now (same joint pain as pbbth), but I’m grateful I can still get by on 8 or 9 hours.
Pregnancy is indeed wack.
My toddler had diarrhea a couple of days ago. That was fun.
I’m on Diclectin, which is a combined vitamin B6/antihistamine pill, slow release, and if I take enough of it I’m throwing up but not so nauseous, which is okay. I’m only about nine weeks, so I’ve got another six or seven to go until it really levels off (if past pregnancies are a good guide).
Yeah, listen to your cravings- they are probably things you can keep down.
I have no advice (never threw up, but felt sick constantly for the first 11 weeks), but just wanted to say congratulations! We were pregnant at the same time last time.
How the hell are you coping with a preschooler *and *a toddler *and *being pregnant? A toddler is kicking my ass, and I’m not throwing-up-pregnant!
Good luck!
Crackers. I ate crackers for 10 weeks and then progressed to cereal. Nothing that smelled or needed cooking… One cup of tea a day and then sips of water all day long. My daughter was 16 months old when I became pregnant with her sister and she thought biscuits were a meal as I couldn’t bear the smell of any food.
I never threw up but for the first 12 weeks (both pregnancies) had nausea. It was like being travel sick from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep at night. Vile. I tried ginger tea. It worked for a few weeks the first time round but since then the smell of it turns my stomach, even to this day…
What did help a little was keeping crackers by the bed and eating them before I got up in the morning. Having a teeny bit of food in me before I even sat up took the edge off.
Everyone I know who has had this kind of all-day nausea has had a girl. Is that true here as well?
Nope. I’ve got two boys.
My kids and husband are eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and crackers and cheese and fruit. My kids are fine with it- I think Mr. Lissar misses having real food.
Yeah, our kids are the same age. The older one is pretty good- he’s almost completely potty trained and can dress himself with help. The problem is that he needs lots of stimulation, and normally we’re at the park/Science Centre/drop in centre every day. Right now he’s watching a lot of cartoons. The toddler desires death- he climbs, finds dangerous stuff, runs off- needs constant watching, which is kicking my butt.
Any typos are attributed to a)trying not to throw up right now b)being really tired in spite of just having napped.
For me the vomiting and feeling like crap was from months 4.5 on until the end.
I’m currently 15 weeks along on my second. The nausea finally stopped a couple weeks ago, but it was pretty bad, so much worse then with my first. I tried the multiple small meals, eating first thing in the morning all that. Vitamin B6 helped for a while. A couple days I couldn’t get up off the couch or bed, it was so bad. Never threw up, though.
My OB finally had to prescribe me a Bella band. It’s a little bracelet you wear that sends an electric pulse into your medial (?) nerve. It blocks the nausea message from your brain. Apparently it was designed for cancer patients and works on about 85% of people. Talk to your doctor about it, see if they’re willing to script it for you. It was about $150 and my insurance paid part of it. But it was SO WORTH IT. It’s the only reason I made it through the first trimester.
Now I’m in the second trimester, feeling some aches and pains and dealing with heartburn. I’m living on Tums to sleep at night. It’s so much harder the second time around, for me at least. I’m thinking this might be the last planned baby for us.
Good luck! Hope you feel better soon.
Ugh, eggs were right off my list. I’m at 29 weeks and still a bit put off at the thought. I survived on milk and mashed potatoes with sour cream and butter. Kept the nausea at bay with ginger candy, and whenever I felt too icky, I just napped.
BTW, only puked twice but still lost over 8 pounds. Last midwife appointment was the first one where I was above my pre-pregnancy weight again!
I did survive, clearly, but there’s a reason I only have the one child.
I have never been sicker or more miserable before or since. I puked for nine months straight. I was a fat girl going into it, but I lost 65lbs if you take my starting weight and subtract my weight from two weeks after my kid’s birth (once the swelling went down in my ankles.)
It was awful. You have my utter sympathy.
I kept down strawberry kiwi Snapple, if I was going to keep down anything at all, and I craved broccolli and lemon juice, and sometimes that stayed down, too. Lasagna on a day I thought I was feeling better was…memorable. Ugh.
Yeah, the Indian was memorable, too. I don’t mind throwing up in the morning before I’ve eaten anything, and tea and cereal isn’t even that bad, but I loathe puking in the afternoon/evening, after I might have eaten some real food. I can feel the rest of my body trying to flee.
Macaroni and cheese for my husband and kids tonight, and either mashed potatoes or just ginger beer for me.
Ick. Ick. Ick.
I thought of trimesters as fetal development stages as opposed to pregnancy stages.
Also the term ‘survive’ threw me, as pregnancy it is a normal state that women are equipped to survive, especially such a early stage, but it is a survival time for the fetus. Perhaps the word endure instead of survive would have worked better for me.
Some women. Lacking modern medicine, I would have died in early pregnancy with my first.
Charlotte Bronte died of morning sickness. There’s a term for it- Hyeremesis gravidarum. If you have it, you can dehydrate and/or starve to death.