First, a few things I've learned due to my "Pregnancy Nausea and Vomiting:"
1. How to spell "nausea." (All the vowels confuse me. I still can't spell "nauseous" without looking it up.)
2. That it is possible to vomit in the sink the entire 60 seconds my Whole Foods latke is heating in the microwave, and immediately after the beep, rinse my mouth and sit down to eat the whole thing, garnished with sour cream.
3. That I can go back to sleep within 15 minutes of eating a 3:45 AM bowl of cereal.
More interesting, though, (to me anyway) is my own personal list of ways to cope. It's quite possible that this list will help absolutely no one else, since what may help one person is likely to totally gross out another person. Still, I want a record, because I hope to forget all of this very soon.
1. Eat many times a day, in small amounts. (Yes, this tip is on many other lists.)
2. Put lemon slices or a dollop of lemonade in drinking water. This came up because the smell of the refrigerator was disgusting me, and the water tasted like the refrigerator smelled. (We use Britta pitchers. I have since figured out that the smell is cold apples.) The lemon pleasantly flavors the water, allowing me get closer to the 64-ounce per day goal. (I don't think I've ever actually reached the goal though.)
3. Having something beside the bed to eat in the middle of the night, or the every-two-hours I have to get up to pee, is helpful. I started with crackers and rice cakes, but these are dry and crunchy, so they take a long time to chew and swallow, and they result in many crumbs. So I switched to strawberries, which are excellent.
4. Watermelon is also helpful. Fruit in general has been a good bet, except for the few weeks that anything sweet made me sick.
5. Lemon drops, peppermint, and ginger candy.
6. Eating heavier foods soon after getting up seems to help in refilling the empty stomach that results from sleeping. I like the aforementioned latkes and tapioca pudding, as well as biscuits with grape jelly.
7. Any type of breakfast buffet is great. Also, a few nights when nothing seemed tolerable for dinner, we went out or ordered takeout. It seemed to help not to have to think too much about what I was going to eat or to have to smell it as it was cooked.
That's all I can think of for now.
Finally, a theory: I was thinking the other night about what purpose morning sickness served, and my theory is that it requires you to fundamentally change your routine from early on in your pregnancy, perhaps in ways that foreshadow the changes that are to come due to the actual baby being born. For example, as someone who loves sleeping, perhaps it is good for me to realize NOW that I can get up in the wee hours to care for myself, and technically also the baby, and the world will not fall apart: eventually I will feel better and go back to sleep, and still be able to function the next day.
I don't know, just an idea. Perhaps other mothers have some thoughts. (Yikes, I just implicitly referred to myself as a mother!)
A few good things to come this week: it's spring break! And on Friday, I go to the doctor again, and we get to hear the baby's heartbeat. (I haven't heard it yet.) The following week, I have my first ultrasound.
2 comments:
I like your theory. My husband, ever the scientist, sticks with the evolutionary explanation of guiding you away from foods that might harm the baby, but I prefer yours. And I was surprised at how well I adjusted to the lack of or inconsistency of sleep after Ollie came.
Oh, and I really liked fruit too, even in the early weeks.
So exciting to hear the heartbeat and do the ultrasound. You're having your first one later than mine was, so it will probably look a little like a tiny baby and not just a gray blob!
I think after the baby's birth you are blessed with weird hormonal capabilities for barely sleeping at all, which of course fade away before the first birthday.
That is exciting about the heartbeat and the ultrasound. Ry didn't go with me to every appointment, and he was always worried they would do an ultrasound/reveal the gender when he wasn't there. I called him after an appt and said "I heard the heartbeat!" And he replied with "Is it a boy or a girl?" ... he has learned a lot since then. :) Anyway- you are about 2/3 of the way through the first trimester. Which means the "golden days" of the pregnancy are almost here! (2nd trimester)
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