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When I was pregnant with Iris, my first baby, I puked all the time. In fact, when we first suspected I was pregnant I told Chuck (in all of my 19-year-old wisdom) this can’t be morning sickness because I’m sick all day long.
Are you laughing yet?
In fact, it was so bad with that first pregnancy that anytime I was in a new place (including the US Consulate) I would immediately visually stake out every bathroom and garbage can…just in case. I can’t even begin to tell you all the places I threw up during those nine months. I tried every idea out there to curb my morning sickness.
Crackers before getting out of bed.
Ginger ale.
Peppermint.
Ginger Tea.
Nothing worked. I am sorry to say that I don’t have the cure for morning sickness for you (though I’ve heard these Preggie Pops are great). What I do have is a life hack that helped me survive a miserable pregnancy.
Fast forward three and a half years.
When I was pregnant with Enoch, my fourth baby, I was so sick I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I was the very sickest first thing in the morning but I’ve got news for you…babies and toddlers don’t care how sick you are. They still cry and poop and expect to be fed. In an effort to survive, I came up with this plan.
In the evening when I was feeling my “best” (keep in mind this is a relative term) I would plan a crockpot dinner for the next day. Many days Chuck would get it going before he left for work in the morning. This was a huge help, but he worked construction so he was up and gone early, long before the kids were awake. I had to find some way to get through the mornings with a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a one-year-old. Here is what I came up with.
In the evening, when the kids were in bed, I would make three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and place them in plastic bags. Then I would add a bag of pretzels, fruit, and sippy cups filled with fresh water. I would place these on the small table in our living room. When the kids would wake up in the morning I would change diapers and then move to the couch in the living room. The kids would sit at the table and eat their breakfast while I tried not to puke supervised from the couch.
Once lunchtime rolled around and I could walk around a bit I would cook up a pot of oatmeal and feed that to the kids for lunch. This simple swap between breakfast and lunch helped me to survive a very difficult pregnancy. A bit unconventional? Sure. But seriously, why do we even have rules about what foods we eat at different times of the day? The kids were fed and happy, and I was able to do as little as possible at my sickest time of the day.
Seriously, this one adjustment was life-changing for me!
A reader on my Facebook page mentioned that she invested in a mini fridge (like this one) and kept in next to her bed. She had it stocked with ginger ale and crackers. How smart is that? You can even pick up a small fridge on Amazon for less than $50! I seriously love this idea. Had I thought of this I would have kept it stocked with high-protein foods like cheese sticks and greek yogurt.
And in case you are suffering here are some morning sickness resources:
Best foods to eat for morning sickness relief.
Do I have Hyperemesis Gravidarum?
How to Get Rid of Nausea Naturally
30 Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness.
Did you suffer from morning sickness? What did you do to cope with it?
Well i guess you could say that there is a small blessing from being so sick……you didn’t gain any weight!!! Like me!! Haven’t had a baby in three years, but I’m still fat!
Kristine,
Yes, that is true! Excessive weight gain certainly wasn’t an issue for me. Now, at 41 though? Yeah…I’ve got a bit of a weight issue.
I have HG with my pregnancies. I lost 76lbs last time, and I’m down 46lbs at 5 months this time. Sometimes even looking at water makes me hurl. But with 3 kids, I’ve also done many of what you listed above, and just take each day one at a time.
That is brutal!
Ugh, that is so horrible!
Love the breakfast/lunch switch! I puked rarely when I was pregnant, but felt right on the verge of it 24/7 with all 6 of my babies. The only time I felt okay was when I ate. So I did… constantly. Not very good for the weight let me tell you. My last was the worst, 28kg (about 60lb) and he was 4 weeks early! Thankfully good genes helped it disappear pretty quickly…
I puked less and less with each pregnancy NOT because I was less sick, but because I got better at not puking 🙁
I remember being pregnant with twins, feeding breakfast cereal to the baby in his highchair (he was 1 when twins born) and braiding the 5 yr olds hair with a bucket at my feet- while my hubby waved and wished me a ‘happy day’ as he dissappeared off to work with a grin on his face. Love our 6 kids, not such a fan of pregnancy.
Yes. I have always suffered from 9 months of morning sickness. I remember strapping my toddler into the high chair while I vomited in the bathroom, when I was pregnant with my second. She was screaming, I was puking…it was horrible.
I wish I had seen this last year! I honestly don’t remember how I survived morning sickness with a toddler. It was the darkest period of my life to date. I do know she got fed and clothed every day, and that the encouragement of a few amazing friends texting Bible verses and checking up on me carried me through. Now I have a few more weeks before I get to tackle the challenge of a newborn and a toddler– hey, at least it shouldn’t involve incessant vomit on my end!
Yes…well…I’ve been through quite a lot in my life. 15 surgeries as a child, then Crohn’s disease since the age of 18, studying molecular biology at university doubled in pain in the lab so very often. But, nothing beats the horrible 9 months I was pregnant with my second set of twins while looking after the first girls who were just around 2 years old. Nightmare. Horrible, never-ending, exhausting nightmare.
So I feel you, sisters. Some pregnancies are better than others. And some are just plain terrible.
I love the suggestion of the breakfast and lunch swap!
I was sick in all of my pregnancies, one particularly badly when the only thing I could keep down for about four months straight was steak. In my last pregnancy, I distinctly remember my two-year-old holding my hair back and patting me while I puked in the toilet…
This sounds especially terrible, but I found that if I ate immediately after puking, I could keep it down much better the second time…but it sure ruins your feelings about food (puke up the spaghetti? Let’s go back and eat some more!). I also found that I had to eat constantly because I would always get sick eating on an empty stomach. Crackers turned my stomach more than anything else first thing in the morning. Yogurt, eggs, and berries were lifesavers at times, though.
i also found that taking the prenatal vitamins with milk somehow helped keep them down. And that I had to take them immediately before bed, because if I didn’t go straight to bed I’d get sick 45 minutes later every time.
I had five children and it was the third pregnancy that just about killed me. If he had been the first, I don’t think I would have had anymore. It started at two months and lasted thru the seventh month. Every day, all day. I gained a grand total of 17 pounds. The first two were unusual in that I was hardly sick at all. The fourth and fifth ones were pretty normal, what most other women experienced. Go figure.
I had severe sickness as well but meds, no way. However, an organic tea No to morning sickness tea alleviated my nausea and vomiting all in a sudden and it’s totally preservative-free and organic.
Thanks for the tip! I have never heard of morning sickness tea.