Oh dear heavens, writing this post honestly gives me PTSD. I am so glad morning sickness is over… which btw is not at all only in the “morning.” Before I got pregnant, I heard people talk about morning sickness or feeling tired all the time, but never realized how miserable those first couple of months actually are until I went through them. Honestly, it feels like a blur and thank the Lord daily that it’s passed. Now I only feel pregnant when I have to get dressed, roll out of bed or sneeze/cough/ move my abs a certain way- hello dissecting abs, you’re painful! I’m not complaining and so thankful to be having a baby, but I could definitely do without 4 months of sickness lol! Comes with the package, I know, and to all my friends and you all that have told me were constantly vomiting or sick the whole pregnancy, my whole heart goes out to you!! I can’t even begin to imagine and hope that this post helps at least alleviate some “morning” sickness even if it just makes it a little bit more bearable.
Also, I do have to say…. I will be going over things that worked for me that you can suggest to your provider in order to find the best option that works for you. I am not your doctor or provider so this is not a post advising you to try any of these things without running them though your doctor/provider-medication or not. I will not be liable for anything you try without their consent.
6 WEEKS
FIRST TRIMESTER SYMPTOMS
-NAUSEA -ACNE (horrible horrible cystic breakouts on my cheeks) -FATIGUE (I used to love naps and often needed them daily- but like a good 45-60 minute nap. After being pregnant, I found just laying down for 25 minutes asleep or not gave me such a boost of energy. I would even do this in the car in between errands. It blew my mind how much energy it gave me. It didn’t always last but definitely helped. -FOOD AVERSIONS (I had aversions to coffee, salads, Chick-Fil-A but really anything fried except sometimes french fries lol, plain water, pretty much any kind of food that I would normally eat and stuck to fruit and carbs like crackers, bread, even pizza/bagel bites/pizza rolls so healthy lol but gotta do what you gotta do) –BREAST TENDERNESS –BLOAT -FREQUENT URINATION (I would wake up at 2:30-3am literally on the dot for weeks! It finally stopped around the beginning of the second trimester. -INCREASED SENSE OF SMELL (I felt like a bloodhound haha but I felt like I could smell anything a mile away which didn’t help with the nausea lol)
12 WEEKS
FIRST TRIMESTER RECAP
So as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t “feel” pregnant until about week 5 (I told my husband I was pregnant exactly week 6). I actually really felt it during a 5 hour nurse practitioner job interview that week. Thank God, I had mint mentos with me which I just kept eating which seemed to help a little, or at least distract me. But, we ended up having a lunch interview at one point and could not wait for it to be over. I literally thought I would have to run to the bathroom a few times and was the first time I felt that rush of nausea. I ordered lemonade which seemed to help and forced myself to eat some of my food because I read that you’re more nauseous when you don’t eat. The next day or two I had a work shift and oh my goodness I could not wait for it to be over. I felt SOO sick. By then, I ordered nausea lozenges, had nausea wrist bands (I’ll link them all below) which kind of helped but can’t say it completely went away, so I just ate those during my shift (not the bands-the lozenges lol). I remember feeling SO awful and was like oh Lordy, one how will I hide this for a few more days from my husband since our photo shoot was scheduled in a few more days for that Saturday and really didn’t want to spoil it and two this is going to be a long few months. Thankfully I worked a 12 hour shift next day too, he was busy working on the house that Friday and Saturday we had the photoshoot and as exciting as that day was, we went straight to the store to get some meds because I had to help out with a birthday party and felt so sick haha! There are lots of different pregnancy safe medications that you can take out there and sometimes you have to try a few to find what works or just stay away from medication altogether and try other options. I work in medicine so I’m taking medicine lol!
12 WEEKS
Throughout the next four months, even with medication, I was always nauseous. Thankfully I only threw up once which was during the first day of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale haha because I worked the day before, pretty much pulled an all nighter to get everything ready and when I was scrolling through my computer the motion of my screen moving just set me off. I feel like I would be most nauseous when I was super tired or towards the end of the day when meds wore off. Certain foods or smells also made me so nauseous. I lived on a carb diet and literally ate bagels with cream cheese and a strawberry acai refresher with lemonade daily-sometimes multiple times a day. I could also eat fruit and yogurt with granola for breakfast and Ramen Noodle Soup days I was home sat well. I had and still have cereal just about every night because even now, I feel like eating heavy at night just doesn’t sit well and makes me feel so full. For “meals” I had to stay away from anything fried. Grilled cheese seemed to sit well. Basically bread and cheese anything haha including pizza sometimes or like pizza rolls/bagel bites at times which seemed weird because I couldn’t stand anything fried, couldn’t even look at the Chick-Fil-A sign, and don’t even mention salads (eek!). I also had a complete aversion to coffee. I couldn’t stand the smell! From a girl that drank 4-6 shots of espresso a day to cold turkey nothing, I was pretty shocked lol! I tired to tone down the shots so many times but I would alway get a headache and just felt miserable withdrawals. When I got pregnant, I had none of that and just stopped drinking it altogether. In fact, when I tried to drink coffee pregnant even with a ton of milk my heart would go crazy and would feel lightheaded. So strange! Oh, I also had a complete aversion to water. I could not stand plain water but putting lemons in it helped so much!
MORNING SICKNESS REMEDIES
I mentioned some of this above but…
MEDICATION: I took vitamin B6 and Unisom (doxylamine) every night up until maybe a 2-3 weeks ago (I’m 23 weeks). During the day especially the first several weeks, I took B6 a few times a day and then the Unisom only at night. It seemed to help the most out of everything I tried but I still felt nauseous all day long-it just lessened the symptoms and could feel it wear off by like 5-6pm which was awful on work days because I just wanted to crawl into bed. Talk to your doctor about dosing and which medications are right for you as well as if it’s safe to take depending on your history or whatever other medications you’re on. Speaking of medication and doctors… look into your prenatal vitamins to have your doctor switch them if you feel like they are making you sick! It’s super common and I had to switch mine. Taking them at night vs morning also helps!
SOUR THINGS: -Granny smith apples (I would literally eat these laying down in bed with my eyes closed about to fall asleep). -Sour Patch Kids (Always kept them in my bag or sometimes SweetTarts) -Strawberry Acai refreshers with lemonade instead of water. This gave me my caffeine fix, kept me hydrated and probably the reason my doctor told me to tone down whatever I’m doing to have gained 10 pounds in a month rather than 2-4 hahah! I normally drink only water so drinking all these drinks filled with sugar and stopping working out probably wasn’t the best at maintaining a healthy weight but honestly first trimester is survival mode.
NAUSEA WRIST BANDS: I wore these acupuncture type bands all the time and can’t say they helped but can’t say they didn’t. It claims to help with nausea and I felt nauseous 24/7 so it didn’t hurt to wear them. I would wear them to bed and work and just put extra pressure on the acupuncture spot when I felt extra sick.
CARBS: I always had some kind of pretzels or crackers at my bedside and would snack on them before I got out of bed. I also had some kind of snack in my car/bag. I also ate peanut butter cliff bars which didn’t seem to make anything worse.
TONING IT DOWN EARLY: This was nearly impossible for me with my work schedule, church/practice, house things because the earliest our days usually end is easily 9/10 pm but I did find that the later I stayed up and out the sicker I felt.
PINK STORK MORNING SICKNESS LOZENGES: I ate these 24/7 until my mouth became raw but felt like they did help some. BUT it does have B6 in it so again, talk to your doctor especially if you’re already taking B6 so you don’t take too much which can be harmful to your nervous system. THIS BRAND also sells teas, vitamins and other products that have great reviews in helping with nausea.
People recommend eating frequent small meals, eating high protein meals at night and just avoid being hungry and props to you for those of you that could do that, but for the longest time, I just couldn’t really stand food at all especially anything out of the bread category so I honestly just tried to take my vitamins and eat whatever I could when I could. I told my doctor all the junk I was eating and he’s like do what you can now, but straighten it up as soon as you can. You’re going a child, so give yourself some grace but also try to be as healthy as you can when you can. It took me well into the second trimester to start being more mindful of what I was eating because I started feeling better. I had to torture myself by reading all the gross things in hot pockets and pizza rolls so that I would stop getting them even though sometimes thats all that sat well and hello they’re delicious! I knew they were bad for me and reading up on it was enough to force me to find alternatives because in reality, it fills you up but how much nutrients are you really getting from that? Whole wheat bagels and cream cheese fill me up/sit well too so between the two I’d just chose bagels because it’s a healthier option. Also, the phrase “eat for two” baffles me! You’re not eating for two… by the third trimester when you need the most calories, you need an extra 200-ish calories (depending on your weight) which is just a little less than 1 cup of avocado!! With the holidays around the corner I’m trying so hard to be mindful of what I’m eating and trying not to overdo it-like I mentioned above, my doctor told me to slow it down so I’m listening. It’s honestly so hard because all the junk is just so good haha! I used to never eat half the junk I do now but it’s crazy how all the “healthy” rules flew out of the window so easily after the morning sickness went away haha! But, I’m trying and hoping to finish off the second half of my pregnancy eating as healthy as possible and trying to be as active as I can be. We’ll see how that goes haha but we’re in this together! So if you need any motivation or have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask! 🙂
5 WEEKS
