Finding Zen and Combating Morning Sickness
Hi there! Today’s post is all about babies. Babies, babies, babies. Ok actually, it’s not really. It’s about the mamas. The thing is once you find out the baby is on its way, you become a mama instantly. You have to give things up and start putting the baby’s needs ahead of your own. Nothing could be more true when it comes to your body. Almost the second I found out that our little poppy seed was on the way, I started feeling t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e, terrible. Ugh. Morning sickness affects 80% of all women so this topic that will resonate with most expectant moms.
I found that I would generally feel ok in the morning but as the day wore on, I would start feeling a bit blah and by 4pm, I was full-on nauseous (morning sickness is a misnomer!). The 4pm-6pm time block at work always gave me so much anxiety because I knew I wouldn’t be feeling well and I would dread that time of day. I would get on the subway in the evening and start playing Scrabble on my phone telling myself that there was only one more stop until I could get off. A few times I even took the bus home so I could jump off if necessary (luckily never needed to). Basically, I just felt terrible. But I found over time I started to manage it better and eventually I started feeling less and less sick. Here are a few tips on what helped me cope with the dreaded first trimester morning sickness.
1. Eating. I ate all.the.time. I had snacks with me at work, in my purse, every time I went somewhere, I packed something to eat. My pre-pregnancy diet, while healthy, just wasn’t enough to sustain the life growing inside of me and I think it contributed a lot to my nausea. Adding in some more snacking even in the early weeks helped settle my stomach. For me, fruit and salty snacks worked wonders. I loved saltines, pretzel crisps and tortilla chips because they were relatively bland and nice and salty. There were a couple of nights, I’ll admit I had chips, salsa and guacamole for dinner. I don’t feel bad. Also, fruit was great because it helped with my hydration.
2. Water. Speaking of hydration. Being dehydrated is one of the worst things you can do when you feel sick. I sipped on water all day long, even if I didn’t necessarily feel like it. Sometimes juice, especially lemonade, which was nice and sour helped me and kept me hydrated.
3. Exercising. It is counterintuitive because when you don’t feel well the last thing you want to do is push through a workout but honestly, I hardly ever missed a workout during my first trimester. There were a few days where I came home from work so exhausted and nauseous that I just laid down on the couch but most days I would get changed and just start moving. Usually by the end I felt a lot better. In fact, I found YogaGlo to be wonderful for moving on days when I didn’t feel well. They even have a prenatal class to help you combat morning sickness.
4. Tea. Ginger tea was ok for me but what really helped was this Tummy Tea, which was made from peppermint. It did the trick every time. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without it. Best purchase ever.
5. Ginger candies. I tried both the hard candies and the chewable kind. Both were moderately helpful until I started associating feeling sick with ginger candies. Until then I used them a lot!
6. Ginger Ale. Ginger ale made with real ginger was actually helpful in settling my stomach. One day when I was leaving work I felt so miserable. I honestly think it may have been one of the worst days ever as far as how I felt went but I grabbed a ginger ale from a local shop and it actually helped a lot.
7. Rest. Resting was so important my first trimester. I would feel tired all the time and never wanted to do anything but when I had the chance to take a quick nap or just lie down and relax, I took it. It made a huge difference because when I was tired, I felt worse.
8. Acupuncture. I heard that acupuncture can be quite helpful for many different ailments so I decided to give it a try. I have to say I was a little nervous it was going to hurt at first but it really didn’t. Plus, I was impressed that my acupuncturist really seemed in tune with all the various side effects my body was going through (white tongue and dry mouth to name a few). The process itself was quite relaxing (until my tailbone started hurting at the end of my first trimester and then I got really uncomfortable lying on the table). I also used acupuncture for the sleep issues I have been having and while I can’t say it cured me completely, I think that it did help in combination with the other things mentioned above. One trick she taught me was to perform acupressure on myself and that helped when I wasn’t feeling well at work.
Readers, any tips for morning sickness? Have you ever tried acupuncture? What’s your favorite salty snack?