I was talking with a friend yesterday about what makes a person sick while they are pregnant, and what makes one feel better. I really don't get the evolutionary imperative behind morning sickness. I read an article a while back that said morning sickness is a sign of a healthy pregnancy, it stems from back when a lot of food was unsafe to eat due to food born illnesses. Still though, don't you think it is in the best interest of mother and fetus alike to be eating SOMETHING? This particular friend actually loses weight during her whole pregnancy, that can't be good! I usually lose for the first month or two and then pack on enough that one might suppose I was going to be birthing an elephant.
And it would be one thing if everyone was this way when pregnant, but some people feel fantastic, even better than normal while pregnant. It's kind of not fair. I had a friend the other day say she feels so good that she sometimes forgets that she is pregnant. Wow. From the moment I find out I am painfully aware, every day, every hour and every second that I am pregnant. Time slowwwwws way down and I can hear a clock tic-tocking ever so slowly counting down the nine months.
So, do you get sick (don't worry I won't egg your house or anything if you don't, we can still be friends)? If so, what helped you feel better? What foods did you crave? What were your aversions?
And Gretchen it must be said that when I told this friend that you craved McDonald's Cheeseburgers it about gave her a heart attack.
My list of worst offenders??
Hamburgers
Meat of any kind, except maybe, MAYBE a subway sandwich
Pizza
Prenatal Vitamins (this is particularly unfortunate)
Anything I have already eaten once during the pregnancy. Seriously, something can taste totally fine and sit well, but the next time I see it or smell it ....not pretty.
My list of things that, in general, are okay?
Dr. Pepper (gasp, I know)
Hard candy, like jolly ranchers and lemon drops
Funyuns (I know! Isn't that like the opposite of what you would think a pregnant person would eat?)
Ice cream
Taco Bell Tostadas (only $.89)
With Bentley even the sight of lettuce made me gag. With Gwen I threw up seven times from eating one yogurt. It's all a gamble. Oh and I will never, EVER, EVER eat at Red Robin again, don't ask.
So far this time tomatoes have been a pretty big aversion, which is sad because I looooove tomatoes and have several home grown ones in my fridge going to waste (not grown at my home, no.....that's another blog post).
So anyway, any advice? Did you ever use one of those acupressure bracelets? Any secret foods that worked for you?
I feel so grateful that in general I am only sick the first four months! My poor friend is deathly ill the whole nine! Yikes. I also feel blessed that it hasn't seemed as bad this go around. So keep praying, I am hoping to at least make it through Disneyland!
15 comments:
I was pretty sick for most of my pregnancy with Wes. I got a brief reprieve around 5 months but then it came right back. Ah, those were the days.
I was a really healthy eater before I got pregnant but after the nausea kicked in I couldn't handle anything that was good for me. Apples? Forget it. Whole wheat? No way.
Anything with melted cheese? Come on down! Salt? Deep fried? Absolutely.
It's a wonder I didn't gain more than 30 pounds. I fully expected to balloon.
Hey Kristi, Emily Gurney here.
With all pregnancies, I loved Saltines with Ginger Ale. Ginger is supposed to calm your stomach.
With my boy I loved chili dogs for the first time in my life- I hope reading this doesn't make you sick.
With my two girls- anything I didn't cook and definitely not watermelon. Mostly pizza since we lived down the street from Brick Oven at the time.
Just saw your post about pizza. In that case, bean burritos are about the same going down and coming up. They are recommended for chemo patients for that reason.
I wish I could help, but I don't want to eat anything (still) and have to force myself to eat at all. I'm gaining plenty of weight, so I must be eating something.
I completely agree that one day something is fine, and the next it's the most disgusting thing (how could Beau even suggest it?!).
All I could stand to think of eating at the beginning was breadsticks. Specifically from Fazolis because they are soaked in butter and garlic. Then I threw those up, and it hasn't been the same since. I can't even stand to think of eating Cafe Rio (so SAD!).
Good luck with finding food. I hope it gets better! Know that I'm thinking of you, and I can't wait to commiserate with you when you get here!
Couldn't eat:
Pizza, yogurt, eggs, chile, pretty much all red meat
Things that stayed down well:
Mashed potatoes with just a little butter (no gravy), dry Frosted Mini Wheats, toast, bagels smothered in mozarella cheese and baked for a few minutes (mmm, good)
Good luck!
Oh hey, I forgot to add that I couldn't handle prenatal vitamins either...at least from a prescription. But I did totally fine with the over-the-counter Walmart brand. Have you tried that? I just told my doctor it was that or nothing and they were fine with it.
My advice....I was sick for the better part of my 2nd pregnancy although i have been quite sick with all of them. I only gained 11 pounds total when i was pregnant with grace( i lost like 20 in the first 5 months and then gained 31 in the last 4).
I drink Diet Coke while i am sick and now even if i get a wiff of it it makes me want to hurl.
I did wear the Sea sickness pressure bands and they helped me alot. Everyone who knows me knew that i was pregnant with eleanor because they saw me wearing them, it is like a silent announcement.
I used to go get a bagel breakfast sandwich from McDonalds once a week and wash it down with a diet coke.
I took my prenatal vitamin right before i went to sleep, because then it had a chance to settle while i was asleep
Best of luck, my only other advice is dont let it get you down... that just makes it worse.
Dangit! Does this mean that a semi-colon blog post is now due? :) Here's a list of things to try, from everyone and anyone that ever heard that I was pregnant and sick. I have tried them all, and I will try not to sound bitter or sarcastic as I present them, worthless those most of them are. And still, I am telling you that NOTHING beats Zofran. But, give your Phenergan a try, by all means. :) They also now have some steroid that they can give you through an IV that will help you be able to eat better. I never got it, but a friend said it helped.
Anti-nausea "helps":
*Rose hip capsules made into a tea
*ginger
*ginger ale
*acupressure bracelets
*Coke syrup, a tablespoon at a time (you know the Coke flavored syrup you might use on sno-cones?)
*crackers in the morning before you get out of bed
*Skittles or jelly beans, one at a time every 10 or 20 minutes to keep your blood sugar up and some other reason I forget
*nuts (this one actually helped a little for a while)
*B6 vitamins and Unisom
*B6 shots in your rear at your doctor's office when you can't keep the B6 vitamins down orally
*if you're having a hard time keeping liquids down--a teaspoon of water every 5 minutes--small enough amount you can't throw it back up, but adds up over time (I DARE you to try this one while chasing a toddler around the house and caring for a small baby--every 5 minutes! Right!)
*Sprite
*Coke
*(Insert your carbonated soda of choice here)
*Ensure (that drink for old people--has lots of nutritional value and vitamins for when you aren't getting them anywhere else)
*Popsicles
*melted cheese
*exercise (going for walks or other forms of exercise release endorphins that help take away the nausea)
Umm, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Oh, and when they all fail, seriously, go ask your doctor about Zofran. Good luck!
So, I don't know how much help I'll be with this thing...I was really sick for six months. I was put on prescription meds because I was so sick. Those worked. Other than that, I used the acupressure bands, but I don't think they worked. As far as keeping things down...I was lucky to keep anything down. Good luck and loves!
I'm one of those people that will make everyone else mad. With Claire, I didn't really feel sick. I had a hard time with the smell of fresh tomatoes because we were living with my parents for the first trimester and they had about 8 plants that decided to go crazy producing right after my parents went on their trip, leaving me and M to deal with a kitchen FULL (like every container we could find) of tomatoes for a whole month. I also had an aversion to the granola bars I was taking to work after awhile. Early on I craved hamburgers, chicken nuggets, creamy dressings, and egg salad sandwiches (have you thrown up yet? apparently my body needed more protein) This was the first time in my life I actually liked any of those things. I actually did throw up once in that pregnancy. It totally snuck up on me one morning while attending a church class where we learned to can chicken soup. Still don't know if that was actually because of the pregnancy... Mostly with Claire I loved eating apples.
With Scott it was different. I actually felt gross. I never actually threw up, but I did notice feeling gross. I was turned off by all fish and by fried foods like fried okra and french fries. At the very beginning, gatorade and pretzels were my favorites, then later I was constantly mad my Dr. wouldn't let me eat hot dogs.
Before we had kids, M worried about what kind of strange exotic foods I would crave. Where would he find yum nua at midnight? Turns out that if pregnant women crave "weird foods" then plain old American food is weird to my body! ;)
Ok, with Morgan I was sick the entire pregnancy. I tried to everything, nothing helped (although I did crave Mac n' cheese and crunchy cheetos-I know disgusting) With Porter I was sick just over half of the pregnancy, so that was so bad. With him I really liked nectarines, rice cakes-they have to be flavored though, multigrain cheerios and then after that special K with strawberries. Another thing that has been mentioned is the Vitamin B6 and unisom. That did not help with Morgan, but it helped me with Porter. And about the prenatals don' stress about that. I have never been able to handle those. Anyways Good luck, and congrats.
wow...i can't sympathize with you because i generally don't get sick with any of my pregnancies. sorry :( but i do have some serious food aversions while being pregnant. i can't work with raw meats of any sorts and i absolutely can't eat anything that i had to cook. ie, i cooked for my family but couldn't eat it. sad i know!! but anything that was sweet or has a chocolate base...that was good for me!! good luck...thank heavens it is only nine months ;)
Hey Kristi - ZOFRAN saved Cristinne's life! I used phenergen a few times until I realized that if I took it I had to sleep for hours (everything knocks me out). I tried the bracelet thing and I didn't notice a difference. I drank Ginger Ale and Coca Cola to help calm my stomach. I was feeling really guilty about that until my doctor told me that if I was eating ding-dongs and drinking coke, it was better than nothing and it won't hurt the baby. Oh, the joys of these memories. I truely feel for you. I had a big problem with smells. Ryan had to stop wearing colone, I could barely use deoderant and soap - it all made me so sick. I hope that you can eat WHATEVER you feel like, and that the sickness goes away soon. Sorry :(
I ate jars and jars of pickles. And then one day I just didn't want any more and never ate one again. Also, I loved jalapenos and brownies. (But I love those all the time.) I couldn't stand walking by the fish or the pet food in the grocery store. I normally don't like these, but they were very heightened when I was pregnant.
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