My husband sums up my pregnancies in a pretty accurate way. The first trimester: Oh my god, what were we thinking? The second trimester: This is SO EASY. Let’s have another baby!! The third trimester: GET THIS THING OUT OF ME.
He isn’t too far off, even though he’s probably teasing me a bit. My first trimester with Chloe was horrible. I was sick all the time and had a hard time keeping anything down. I lost about 10lbs the first three months, and my nausea stuck around until I was close to 16 weeks along. I was surprised and horrified to find out that it returned in the third trimester.
I keep hearing that no two pregnancies are alike so I was hoping that maybe things would be different this time around. I got my first wave of nausea on 9DPO and it was so powerful that I couldn’t enjoy Christmas dinner. It was manageable for weeks, though, and mostly nonexistent. I was surprised at how much I was eating and how much I craved. My nausea came back in full force at 8 weeks, though, and has been kicking my butt ever since. I’ve thrown up a few times, but I’m mainly suffering from nausea. I feel like I have the stomach flu 24/7 and as a WAHM, I’m surprised at how draining this actually is. I feel like I’m in survival mode instead of enjoying my pregnancy. These are some of my symptoms and ways I’ve been treating them.
Staying Full and Hydrated
Having a full stomach makes me feel a little bit better, but I admit it’s hard to force myself to eat when nothing sounds appetizing and my stomach is churning. It’s a vicious cycle, though: if I don’t eat I feel awful, but I feel awful so I don’t want to eat. I’ve found that if I eat something small every 2 hours I feel so much better than if I eat a whole meal at once. It’s hard for me to say what I eat each day since it varies so much due to my cravings and aversions. There are days I can’t stomach the sight of pizza, and other days where it’s all I want to eat. I drink a LOT of water throughout the day, too.
Snacks
When the nausea is really bad, I snack on graham crackers. I keep some in my purse if we’re going out. I haven’t found any other snack that really calms my stomach. I’ve tried other crackers, but the taste and texture don’t agree with me. Saltines are great, too, but we never have those on hand (and I always forget to buy them at the store!).
Keeping Hydrated
I like water and normally drink a lot, but I drink even more when I’m pregnant. I easily drink 10 16oz bottles of water a day. It helps if I sip them slowly instead of drinking them quickly. I’ve found that if I drink anything too fast, it makes my stomach feel unsettled. Ginger ale helps a lot, too, and I sip that when I’m feeling nauseated. As long as I drink something slowly, I feel okay. I never leave the house without a water bottle in my bag!
Smells
I had a strong aversion to smells when I was pregnant with Chloe so I don’t know why it surprised me so much when it happened this time, too. My husband doesn’t want me to lift anything heavy so he’s been doing all of the laundry lately. I made the mistake of switching loads today and decided to throw another load in the washing machine. We use All Free & Clear and the smell of it sent me gagging. I have also had a really hard time changing Chloe’s dirty diapers (she still won’t poo on the potty!) and have thrown up from the smell before.
Aside from having aversions to smells, I can also smell everything. It drives me crazy when I’m in the grocery store or at a restaurant! I don’t have a remedy for this other than to avoid obvious triggers.
Morning Sickness & OTC/Prescription Remedies
I had some nausea here and there during the earlier weeks, but it was very manageable. I didn’t start throwing up until I was closer to 8 weeks and once I started, I was desperate to try anything to make it stop. Morning sickness leaves me feeling like I have a bad hangover. It makes me want to lay in bed all day and be lazy. That isn’t really an option for me, so I did try many different remedies to help me cope.
Sea bands
My RE recommended wearing a sea band to me at one of my appointments. She said that a lot of her patients swear by them and as long as I never take it off, it should work. I did find one at Target for under $10 so I figured I’d give it a try. It doesn’t give me immediate relief but I have found that after I’m wearing it for awhile, I really do feel better. I take it off when I shower and heaven forbid I forget to put it back on — I’m almost always dry heaving and wishing I’d remembered to slip it back on after my shower! It doesn’t always curb my morning sickness, but has done a pretty great job at keeping it at bay.
Medicine
The first over the counter medicine I tried was Emetrol. It’s thick and syrupy and tastes awful, so I gagged when taking it. It did take the edge off my nausea, though, but it was expensive and the bottle was small. It could have been an expensive OTC medicine to continue taking for as long as I needed it.
My OB prescribed Zofran at my 9 week appointment and it absolutely helped curb my nausea and vomiting… but it left me with horrible constipation, even after one pill. Horrible thought-I-was-going-to-die constipation. Enter glycerine suppositories (isn’t pregnancy glamorous?!) and Colace, increased water and fiber intake and a whole lotta praying. I didn’t have any relief until I stopped taking Zofran, which meant I had to suffer through nausea again, but I decided it was well worth the alternative.
B-Natal pops helped me a lot in my first pregnancy, but didn’t do anything for me this time around. The only thing that has truly helped kick morning sickness to the curb was a combination of never taking off my sea band (even in the second trimeste), making sure my belly is full, and drinking ginger ale.
What helped you survive the first trimester?
pomegranate / 3414 posts
Graham crackers were my go to cracker.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
I felt fine as long as I kept my tummy full. I couldn’t get enough fruit and pretzels.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
Hot water with a fresh slice of ginger. I think I also tried a numi ginger tea, but I liked my version better. I was hungry like a beast and had to snack like crazy after 9am, I remember carrots, apples and jason almond butter, cinnamon waffles, strawberry smoothies…all before noon! Breakfast was always unappetizing so I had something bland like oatmeal or wheatabix cereal.
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
Lucked out with minimal nausea but insane exhaustion. Napping at my desk and 7 pm bedtime.
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
Oh god… Just thinking about the first trimester (or first half, for me!) nausea is having me gagging. I survived with baggies of cheerios everywhere I went, sucking on super sour candies (I liked sour patch kids and spitting them out once they turned sweet), and a lot of cold food. Even the thought of meat cooking and the fumes produced… Gag. (and this is coming from a girl who normally loves her steaks and burgers!) I never tried sea bands and so wish that I did. Good luck mama..
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
vitamin b6 + half a tab of unisom is the only thing that worked for me! i tried everything (including acupuncture) other than zofran!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Sounds like there are lots of good options for helping with morning sickness!
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
Ughhhh….I’m so sorry you’ve had a rough go of it. It’s so miserable. Zofran, even with its unpleasant extra side effects, was the only thing that really helped. And by helped, I mean I was still queasy all the time but I actually lost my cookies fewer times a day.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
Just making sure I ate small amounts throughout the day helped me… usually something carby like bread or crackers. I found that if I ate too much I’d get nauseous, but if I let myself go too long without food I’d get nauseous too… so I really had to find that right balance. I was so glad to be out of the 1st trimester because once I hit 13 weeks I felt like my old self again!
apricot / 329 posts
Diclegis!!! (Aka Diclectin in Canada, aka half tab of Unisom + b6) Diclegis is the time-release pill (Rx) version of the trusty old Unisom+B6 trick and it changed (saved?) my life!
I have taken it every night for the past few months and it makes me functional again! I’m 16 weeks and still have morning sickness (I know because even on Diclegis I still vomit about once a week and feel a little green in the evenings before I take my next dose). I also got an Rx for Zofran but the constipation side effect scared me off–with Diclegis I don’t really have any side effects.
persimmon / 1367 posts
Thanks for this – my nausea is making me crazy right now! I tell my husband all the time that its like having the worst hangover ever for weeks at a time. The only thing that’s working for me right now is sour candy – once I have that I can keep other things in my stomach, which seems to help a bit.
honeydew / 7589 posts
Izze! It’s sparkling water with 100% fruit juice mixed in, you can buy it in lots if flavors. It did wonders for settling to stomach and keeping me hydrated when plain water made me want to throw up.
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
oh my goodness, I drank so much ginger ale it was ridiculous. My first pregnancy I didnt get sick much at all my second one I was throwing up at 22 weeks. ugh. its hard! I forgot how hard it was in between, Love your husbands sum ups hahaha pretty accurate!
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I luck out with 1st trimesters but I have the utmost sympathy for those who have a rough time.
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
I ate Cheerios non stop with my twins. We would literally be on our way to a restaurant and I would have to eat a few Cheerios to combat my nausea.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
ugh I hated the first tri! My morning sickness lasted through 18 weeks. It was rough. I swear by the morning wellness tea from earth mama wellness baby
guest
Greek yogurt and protein! That helped me to reduce my Zofran needs.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
I had nausea until I was 22w along. It felt like a hangover every single day. The only thing that helped was napping. So I napped. Not really possible for #2, huh? Ugh. I feel for you!
guest
I had pretty much the exact same experience (Zofran constipation and all). I was horribly nauseous and sick from week 6 until week 24. I had the same weight loss problem and then as soon as I got my appetite back, gained like crazy. What helped me most was sucking on hard candies like lemon drops, eating breakfast before I got out of bed, and avoiding any places or things that I knew would make me gag (i.e. seafood restaurants, public restrooms, body shops, etc.) It’s so hard in those first few months but as soon as the second trimester hit I was in HEAVEN!