When you first become pregnant google will become your new best friend. Googling a million questions a day, so I thought it could be fun to write up some tales of the first trimester.
Ok, this is my third pregnancy and I never experienced morning sickness with my first two, so I think this time round I was punished in threefold.
Sadly, morning sickness is something that effects many pregnant women with about 70-80% being affected by it. The sickness is caused by the hormonal changes that your body is undergoing which leads to feelings of nausea and vomiting.
While morning sickness is just all round awful. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all remedy that will work as a magic pill for everyone, the good news is there are several different things that you can try to alleviate these symptoms.
Ps. Why is it called morning sickness? I sincerely wish it was only in the morning… it is morning noon and night, and having to walk around pretending that you feel anything other than completely and utterly drained was a little exhausting.
I scoured the internet with a fine-tooth comb for anything that would help lesson the constant feeling of nausea.
Thankfully I'm in the home stretch now and the feelings of morning sickness have subsided (although now I have a million other complaints- lets just say being 38 weeks pregnant comes with other problems).
But I typed this blog months ago and tried these when I was in the thick of it with nausea so I’m ready to take you all along on this journey to let you know what worked for me.
But remember if any of these suggestions don’t work for me that doesn’t mean they wont work for you.
1. Ginger Tea
Ok full disclosure is that I hate green tea, I’m breakfast tea gal all day every day. But I mean on the off chance that it will end this sickness it is tempting me enough to force myself to drink a cup.
I tried two kinds: Three Ginger, and Ginger and lemon.
Results: It did not help. In fact, it made me feel worse, presumably because I felt sick as I tried to force down every gulp. Perhaps this one would work if you enjoy green tea.
I give this a 0/10.
2. Citrus Fruits (such as oranges, lemon, and grapefruits)
Having felt like I had already tried lemon in the tea I skipped this one, I don’t enjoy grapefruit and thought I’d end up worse off if I tried to make myself eat one.
But oranges, now we’re talking. I love oranges.
Results: Ok this one did slightly help, the first two mornings it alleviated the sickness. However, after that I was back to feeling sick again.
I’m going to give this one a 5/10 because even though it only lasted two days it certainly was an enjoyable two days.
3. Avoid greasy foods.
This one is very difficult for me considering I work in a chippy. However, I have to say it’s a worthwhile one to follow. Greasy foods 100% make the sickness worse. I ordered a Chinese a couple nights ago and then ten minutes later spewed the entire thing up. It was not worthwhile.
Results: 10/10
4. Avoid spicy foods.
If I’m being honest, I have been kind of craving spicy foods, and they haven’t been making me feel any worse. But I thought I would put this one in because it seems to be a popular idea among other pregnant women.
5. Having small frequent meals
Ok, there is a shimmer of light here… I found eating small meals did help a little and even if I was still sick (TMI warning) at least I had something to spew up so it wasn’t quite as painful.
Results: 8/10
Sorry guys despite the excitement and suspense that was building there for a happy ending if I’m being honest I kind of feel nothing really works and there seems to be no evidence to suggest otherwise other than the Chinese whispers from other pregnant women that have spread either from word of mouth of via the internet.
These all gave me the vibe of the never ending list of things people say kick start labour. I remember doing all those things like eating spicy food, curb walking, raspberry tea etc... and nothing ever worked for me. I used to say that if any of them worked for someone it was purely coincidental because they were trying to do them near their due date. And I feel that is applicable here as if any of these worked it was maybe just a coincidence…. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
You just have to ride this out and know that in the end it will be worth it and once the first trimester is over it does get better – my morning sickness finally held up at about 17 weeks pregnant…. And then I moved onto hella' heartburn, sleep insomnia and restless legs… Oh you gotta love pregnancy, right?
darn tootin