Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Fighting the monster

I know that most of you moms have had morning sickness, some worse than others. So I need all of you nausea warriors to give me your best advice. This is the first time I've been horribly nauseous and I really need some relief. There's a nutritional hole in my being and everything looks disgusting. Help.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry that you are nauseous, it makes being a mom to three more difficult I'm sure. I drank a lot of gingerale in the beginning, ginger has something in it to help with nausea. Not exactly nutritious but might provide relief, you could mix it with a juice to get a little more out of it. I've also heard if its hard to stomach prenatal vitamins, try to at least eat one of your kids chewable vitamins to get a little something. As much as I had good intentions to get good nutrients in the beginning I often just ate what sounded good at the time which was often greasy starches. Hang in there!!

Unknown said...

My Mom would say "Here! Here!" to Jenn. To her, ginger ale was a magic cure for just about everything - as were soda crackers. I did the bit of eating soda crackers before getting out of bed in the am. My nausea was mild, so that did it for me. Adding a little salt to your diet can be good for a while, but of course you need to be careful about the swelling. I'm praying for you Karen.

Anonymous said...

the ginger worked wonders for me too! I added a little to my tea every morning. I also asked for chewable prenatal vitamins. I hope you feel better soon

Chris J said...

i don't know you, but i had terrible nausea in my first trimester. i ate a lot of crackers and as weird as it sounds...subs. i loved subway subs and panera soup. now i don't really want either. the other thing that really helped me was a relief band. they are a little pricey, so if you know someone you can borrow one from (like we did) then it's totally worth it! they work like seabands, but with electronic pulses. i did not take my prenatal vitamins for the first 19 weeks.....my baby is fine, so far haha! they would make me sick. and my midwife told me that whatever i could keep down for the first tri, that is what i needed to eat. good luck!

roadrunner201 said...

Karen, I've been terribly ill, too. My diet is pretty poor right now as I try to eat anything that looks stomachable (like that word?).

I have found that SeaBands take the edge off quite a bit. At least this week has been much better than last week when I didn't know about them.

Also, ginger snaps work well. But you have to keep eating them. Jeff found a recipe for ginger tea where you just boil slices of ginger for 15 min and sweeten it with honey and lemon (if you want).

Anonymous said...

What worked best for me was to make myself eat something with protein in it early in the morning. Protein would always get rid of my nausea in five minutes or less (of course, making yourself eat it was often not easy). Also, I learned that taking prenatal vitamins at night (with food in your stomach) worked wonders.

Terrie

PhillySells said...

well, if 45 months of nausea
count for anything :)...
b complex 3x/day.
it does make some difference.
sleep... and you know it works
some if i willingly chose to get more sleep than usual.
my tactic
(as soon as joel walked in)
was sleep or vomit?
i usually chose to sleep.
second the protein.
nuts are my staple.
oh, and i did have some luck w/
those prego pops/candies.
they should be at babies 'r us
and other places.
they're all natural hard candies
w/ herbs that fight nausea.
otherwise, survival...
i would have to remind myself every night that it would end sooner or later.
much love, karen...
you know i know how you feel.

Linda said...

Karen,
I'll be praying for you. You already know all the things I tried, just be gentle on yourself and never be afraid to ask for help when it's bad. Juden had so much fun with you guys today, thanks so much. See you when I get back from vacation, I'll miss you.

Anonymous said...

I'm praying for you, Karen. I've tried it all to mostly no avail. This time around I wasn't able to walk from one room to another w/out throwing up. Do continue to remind yourself it won't last forever and humble yourself to accept help. Take the B-6 every day and see if you can get a hold of some Mommy's Bliss Morning Sickness Magic.
http://www.evitamins.com/product.asp?pid=7119
It doesn't work immediately but helped me a little this time around once it was in my system for a few days. I'm so sorry.

Karen said...

Thanks everyone for the tips and words of encouragement. I'm getting more in tune with what I can and cannot do and I think what seems to help the most is a healthy diet (no junk) and going to bed super early. Hopefully, I'll post an update soon, but for now, I'm lucky to get dinner on.

roadrunner201 said...

Karen, I was just "perscribed" the best thing ever for my morning sickness!

The bottom fell out on Monday, and for the next two days I couldn't keep a thing down. (That's not good for the baby!)

So my midwife told Jeff to give me 500 - 1000 mg (mcg?) of B12 and a Unisom. With in 45 min. I went from losing everything I ate to not even feeling queasy (too bad I was too tired from the Unisom to enjoy it).

Today I just took the B12 and it seems to be having the same effect, minus the need to sleep.

~Lisa

Anonymous said...

Hey it's Jenn Fox...Barrett -

This made sense to me so I'm passing it on to you...not that I'm a mom or anything, but I'm sure you're willing to try anything!!

Helpful Do's and Don'ts:

Do:

* Eat small meals often
* Drink fluids 1/2 hour before or after a meal, but not with meals
* Drink small amounts of fluids during the day to avoid dehydration
* Eat soda crackers 15 minutes before getting up in the morning
* Avoid foods and smells that increase nausea
* Ask someone else to cook for you and open the windows or turn on fans if the odor bothers you
* Get plenty of rest and nap during the day
* Avoid warm places (feeling hot adds to nausea)
* Sniff lemons or ginger, drink lemonade, or eat watermelon to relieve nausea
* Eat salty potato chips (they have been found to settle stomachs enough to eat a meal)
* Exercise

Don'ts:

* Do not lie down after eating
* Do not skip meals
* Do not cook or eat spicy food