Saturday, February 27, 2010

Mommy doesn't feel good......



I don't hate being pregnant...... yes, go ahead a gasp! :) But what I do hate about being pregnant is having morning sickness (HA - who came up with that name by the way, I have all-day-long sickness when I'm pregnant). After I reach around 15-18 weeks (depends on the pregnancy) then I start to like life again and I enjoy having a baby inside kicking around. I love knowing that my body is growing a life.

But... back to the morning sickness. I'm not pregnant (so if you are a friend - don't ask :) and no, I'm not lying) but I only have 2 children and want to have more. The thing that freaks me out the most when I think about getting pregnant again is the morning sickness and the 12+ weeks of misery I know will ensue.

With my first child I was sick EVERY day from about 6 weeks to 15 weeks and I threw up almost every single day. With my second child I was also sick EVERY day, but only threw up about 2-5 times per week, but I actually felt WORSE! (Sorry to be a little gross). I just find that interesting...

Another thing that was different is that with my first I was working full time and with my second I was working part time. I felt like when I was working full time it took my mind off the pain and discomfort of being sick, and although I worked part time with my second I still remember sitting on the couch feeling miserable an awful lot. I just had more time to dwell on it. Now I'm not working, so my next pregnancy will see me at home with 2 kids to take care of and no work to distract me! That seems a bit daunting.

To help with my morning sickness with both pregnancies I did try unisom and B6 - but I'm not entirely sure how much it helped. That was about all I used to help with morning sickness.

So, I'm looking for some tips on how to prevent morning sickness, or at least ways you've found to help endure it! I want to be prepared for next time I'm pregnant (who knows when that will be) because you don't usually tell anyone you are pregnant until the morning sickness is almost over.

So... give me your thoughts.

What types of medication (over the counter and/or prescription) have you tried?
What other remedies have you used?
Did you take a prenatal vitamin? Did not taking one help your morning sickness?
What types of things did you do to distract yourself?
How often were you sick and did you throw up?
How long did your morning sickness last with different pregnancies?
What foods did you eat to help with morning sickness?
Did you exercise and did that help with morning sickness?
What did you do with your older children when you felt too ill to play with them much?


Sorry... that's a lot of questions! But I know you can help me out. :)



PS - Check out the bragging post below. Don't be shy - let us know what you are good at.

11 comments:

Laura said...

With my first pregnancy, I was sick for only the first trimester (my dad actually figured out I was pregnant before I did because I was sick all the time). I threw up two or three times a week. In my second pregnancy, I threw up two or three times A DAY, while working full time and taking care of a toddler. And it lasted halfway through the second trimester. That was miserable.

Things that I found to help:

I kept a package of saltine crackers on my nightstand. Nibbling on one or two before I ever sat up seemed to help settle my stomach before I got out of bed.

(Cover your eyes if you don't to know about throwing up!)

I also had a glass of water on the nightstand. This may be gross, but I found that when I knew I was going to throw up, if I quickly drank a glass of water, it helped for two reasons. 1, I would throw up sooner (sorry, just being honest) because really, who wants to wait when you know it's coming. And 2, it was much less painful to throw up if there was something there to come up.

I did not take a prenatal vitamin for my first trimester because yes, it did make me more sick than I was if I didn't take it. I asked my doctor about it, and he said that your body produces plenty of everything the baby needs when it's so tiny at the beginning. So if it makes you sick, skip the vitamin (but only in the beginning--take it regularly as soon as you can keep it down).

I ate a lot of cold cereal when I was pregnant because it didn't make me sick. Now, I probably wouldn't say it's a great meal to fight morning sickness. The thing I think made a difference was that it was something that I already really liked. Foods that I was iffy on would never stay down, and forget about anything I didn't like.

Basically, if you find something that you can eat that doesn't make you sick, by all means, eat it! I know that nutrition is very important when you're pregnant, but think of it this way. It's better to eat a slightly less healthy meal and keep it down than to eat a super-healthy meal and throw it all up. Your baby will get more nourishment from food that stays down than food that doesn't. :)

In the car, I found it much easier if I drove rather than letting my husband drive. Something about being in control and constantly having my eyes on the road made it much easier and I felt a lot less sick when we did that.

My husband and neighbors helped a lot with Jane when I was pregnant the second time. Jane was in day care during most of the day while I was at work (I was sick there instead :P), so she had that interaction. In the evenings, my husband was good to play with her and take care of her during the time I was really sick. I also occasionally had a friend or neighbor over to just hang out for a while so i could rest while my husband was gone. On the days when there was just no one else around, we watched movies. That was distracting for both of us. :)

That was long. Apparently I have a lot to say about being sick...

Jared and Delia said...

I used just B6 with my second pregnancy and I think it helped slightly - I don't really know. I mostly had a problem with fatigue. I could barely stay awake so taking half a unisom was out of the question for me.

I was not sick one bit with my first pregnancy. With my second though I was constantly dealing with nausea until about the 14th week with it tapering off at the end - if I remember right. I only threw up here and there but was constantly dry heaving. I don't know which is worse. Actually throwing up and feeling better even for just a short while after or constantly feeling horrible and dry heaving all the time.

My point though, is that every pregnancy can vary. For me it seems that it can vary greatly. For some women their bodies handle each pregnancy in very similar ways. So...just hold out hope that it might not be as bad as you are anticipating. Maybe. :)

Exercise was totally not in my interests whatsoever since I was so fatigued all the time. I did however religiously take a prenatal vitamin. I think if you can stomach it, it is so so important to help ensure you have enough stores for the fetus to draw from, especially when your diet is abnormal from feeling sick.

I ate whatever was easy and didn't make me feel more nauseated. Like I have said, I wasn't sick with my first so I just ate everything. My second pregnancy though, I craved red meat - the bloodier the better (although I had sense to make sure it was cooked well) and vegetables - at least in the first trimester. You would think I would want crackers. Heck no. I wanted rare steak and roasted veggies. Potato chips were very desirable too. I just ate whatever figuring my body needed it and having food in my body helped me feel less yucky.

When I was fatigued and sick we got VERY familiar with pretty much every kid movie we own multiple times. I felt guilty the whole time, but knew that this was a brief period that would pass - and it did. I used paper plates to cut down on dishes. Meals were simple and lunch was like a two hour long snacking period. Luckily my son was three and could get stuff out himself if need be which is why he often ate goldfish, bananas, and water for lunch - a lot. I know...terrible, but it was that or ...actually just that. I don't have family nearby to help so we were in survival mode and my husband couldn't help much as he was in one of the hardest semesters of his undergraduate work. We didn't have the luxury of timing this pregnancy to our liking. :)If you are in the same situation just know it will get better and no one will suffer that irreversible damage doing that for three months. At least we didn't.

Jessie said...

My first pregnancy was awful--I was SO sick (throwing up 5+ (usually more like 10) times every day for the first 15 weeks) until my dr. finally told me about unisom and B6. When I started taking it then (at 15 weeks) I felt immediately better. I ended up taking it for the majority of the pregnancy (I'd try to stop taking it occasionally, but would always end up sick again, until about a month before I delivered).

My second pregnancy, I started taking the unisom and B6 from the beginning, and while I was still sick (throwing up 2-3 times a day for the first trimester), it was significantly better than my first. Again, I tried to stop taking it periodically throughout my pregnancy, but every time I'd be sick again the next day, until just a few weeks before I delivered.

I was very diligent about taking my prenatals with both of my first two pregnancies, and hadn't given much thought to them being a part of my morning sickness. When I found out I was pregnant with my third, though, I was on a trip, and hadn't brought my prenatals with me. As soon as we got home (I was maybe 5 weeks along, so just barely pregnant), I started taking them again, and the very next day I was SO sick, despite my unisom and B6. It occurred to me that there may be a correlation, so I stopped taking my prenatal, and low and behold, if I still took my unisom and B6 the night before, I wasn't sick (unless I stayed up too late, which was my own fault). I knew I should be taking my vitamins, so to make up for it, I started taking a folic acid supplement, and made sure I drank plenty of milk (and ate a lot of cereal, since those are so heavily fortified ;) ). Later in my pregnancy, I also needed to take an iron supplement, but as long as I kept on the unisom and B6, that didn't bother me either.

I won't lie, the majority of each of my pregnancies was spent on a couch in our living room, because I felt so crappy, and was so tired. My kids watched a lot more movies than they should've, and played on the floor in the same room as me. I also found some crafts for my oldest daughter (she was 3 during my 3rd pregnancy) that she could do by herself--playdoh, beads on pipe cleaners, even painting and coloring at the table. I felt better about things when I at least knew she was doing something other than watching a screen.

As for distracting myself--I spent a lot of time on the laptop, and doing puzzle books (like sudokus) and reading. As I started to feel a little better, I tried to be a little more productive by sewing or doing other such things to pass the time. I also know that during the times when I felt like I couldn't afford to be sick, like when I was supposed to be running primary or something, I wasn't. I don't know if there was some psychological factor involved there, or what, but I wish I could've turned morning sickness on and off (umm... mostly just off, really) for more of my pregnancy. :)

I can't think of any foods that actually *helped* with morning sickness (other than just eating what I actually wanted to eat), but I know that certain foods were worse for me--specifically tomatoes and green apples--every time I ate them, I was sick after. Also, I couldn't take my pills at night with water, or I would be sick. Milk was much more successful for some reason.

I doubt this is helping much for any of you, but I thought I'd leave my opinion here, since I definitely had to deal with this. I hope it helps someone out there. :)

BECKY said...

Ditto to pretty much what everyone else said.
For me, I don't feel that any certain food helped... what was important was to ALWAYS eat. Snacking on Saltines, Graham Crackers, Rice Chex, Tortillas, or Cheerios was VITAL to me not throwing up 1000 times more than I did. And always munching while on the road prevented some throwing up, but long road trips lead to throwing up no matter what.
So yeah, for me, even though the last thing you want to do is eat during those months, you have to force yourself to constantly nibble. Something in the stomach = a bit less nausea.

Tannie Datwyler said...

I added a poll on this - check it out!

Jennifer said...

Wow. So many women had the same problems that I did. :)
With my first pregnancy I threw up every single morning for the first 4 1/2 months. yuck. ew.
With my second, I only threw up twice the whole pregnancy. Strange.
AND- In relation to the pre-natals, I would take them at night before I would go to sleep. That seemed to help me so much to keep them down and not make me nauseated.
Funny thing-with my first pregnancy I craved Bacon all the time! Second-I didn't crave much at all.
And yes-we sure watched a lot of t.v. with my second pregnancy. We also went to families houses so my little boy could get some real run around playtime.

pawlyandsandy said...

I got nauseated if I didn't have food in my stomach during the first trimester with Erik. I remember having crackers near the bed to eat before I woke up. I definately got to the point that if I didn't eat I knew I'd throw up. Luckily I only threw up a couple times during that first part. So the trick for me was to eat FIRST thing in the morning and regularly thruout the day-not huge snacks just something. then I'd always take my pre-natal with dinner so it didn't upset my stomach.
I think your 2 kids might just distract you enough during your next pregnancy.

Heather said...

Prenatals made me feel more nauseated so I took them at night also. That made a big difference for me.

Rebecca said...

I was really sick from 5 weeks-13 weeks and would throw up 1-5 times a day. Then from weeks 13-18 I would just have random days that I wouldn't feel good. My OB prescribed me something for my morning sickness but I can't remember what it was called because I only took it a couple times...I was too scared to take anything while pregnant. I tried a lot of the natural remedies to cure my morning sickness but nothing really seemed to work except Sprite. I would just stay away from the foods that made me sick. I noticed though that on my days off I was a lot more sick than the days I went to work. So to distract myself on my days off I'd sleep, watch movies, go shopping if I had the energy, or go for a walk. Exercise definitely kept my mind of being sick.

I really like this post because I really have no idea how I could take care of a child while pregnant. I had no energy...and the thought of having to change a poopy diaper while pregnant..yikes! I just might have to space my kids out a bit to avoid that :)

Kristen said...

I don't know if it helped much but 3 months before I started trying to get pregnant I actually took a regular multi-vitamin (not a prenatal one) as directed by my family doctor. It was actually just Flintstone gummies. :) To be honest I could feel a difference in how awake I felt after I started taking them. So possibly they had some affect in how I felt once I got pregnant, not sure.

I kept taking them till my first appointment once I was pregnant (9 weeks) and the doctor gave me a prescription to get prenatals. My doctor gave me 4 different trial types in my take home bag the first day and a prescription to take to the pharmacist as well. Since it was my first pregnancy I just had the pharmacist give me what was covered under my insurance.

The first night I took my prenatals I was fine. The second night I threw up 1 hour after taking it. The next day the very same thing. Right then I said "I'm not going to deal with this for 6 more months!!" so I tried one of the trial types that the doctor gave me. It didn't give me any problems at all and right then and there I switched! I've been taking them ever since. So I believe if your prenatals are making you sick... stop, call the doc and get a new kind.

Also my first trimester was worst from about weeks 6-7 and got better and better after that but I never threw up during my first trimester other than from taking those prenatals. I was just nauseous in the mornings and had an uneasy queasy feeling all day. It was worse in the car and when I didn't snack. I was told by a lot of friends to eat protein in the morning so instead of paying a lot for the protein shakes I actually bought Silk Chocolate soymilk and it did help me in the mornings. I would sometimes eat it with crackers, graham crackers, or dry cheerios. I've never taken anything like Unisom although I've heard it helps.

I do think that going to work takes your mind off things. I always felt better once I was there and focused on what I had to do while visiting and laughing with coworkers.

I am not a traditional gym person but before I was pregnant I have always gone on 30 minute walks/jogs and did LOTS of work out in my yard (poss 2-3 hours at a time) such as raking, weeding, bending down, shoveling, etc. I am about 7 months along now and haven't had many aches (other than sitting at work for long periods) and am still going on walks with no problem.

I know a lot of people like to have their next child close in age so that they can play and be friends and what not together. But I had a coworker that had her second child 5 years after her first and she was so glad she did. Her oldest daughter was able to take care of herself and actually help her mommy while she was sick in bed with her second pregnancy. :) I thought back on my life with my closest sibling growing up and they were the ones I fought with the most! He he! I actually got along better with my oldest sibling (5 years senior) and now that we are all adults we are all good friends.

Tannie Datwyler said...

Kristen! Thank you for those fresh ideas. Seriously, I am going to try so many of these things you ladies have said!!