Morning Sickness? PSHAW!

I found out I was pregnant just shy of the 5 week mark. I did not have any symptoms, except that my boobs hurt a bit. I was flying high - sweet! No morning sickness for me! I'm going to be the best in shape pregnant woman ever! I can still run! I can still run FAST and I'm pregnant! (BTW, did I mention I'm a runner? Not a jogger...a runner).

Yeah.

Here I am at 7 weeks wishing I could still be saying all of the above.

I guess that's what I get for exclaiming, "I feel great" when my mom asked me how I was feeling right after she found out the news. This is also what I get for jokingly playing the "I'm pregnant" card with my husband when I didn't really need it.

I'm not sure when my nausea began because we took a cruise during my 6th week and since I was feeling great before the cruise, I thought a lot of the sick feeling was due to seasickness. Well, I've been off the boat for five days now and last night was the worst I have felt. I could not move from bed and was crying thinking, "How the hell am I gonna do this for 8 more months?" (Shortly thereafter I got it together and realized that I am not the first, nor the last, pregnant woman to walk this earth and many people have it worse than me!).

I think God must have heard me because today I actually felt pretty good and was able to get out for a run around our neighborhood after work, where the other days I crawled through the door and into my bed for a few hours of sleep.

Some things that I have found have helped:

Eating something every hour, even though I REALLY DO NOT feel like eating. If i can get the first few bites down, my stomach seems to find relief. At this rate, I will gain the 25-30 lbs in the first trimester. I actually passed out on our cruise and the doctors told me that I really have to try to eat often throughout the day to prevent it from happening again. That, and drink 8 16 oz glasses of water. I have maxed out at 48 oz so far...but am trying with the water. A woman at a training I was at for work commented, "You are going to be a really good mom because you always have snacks". Again, this woman did not know that I was pregnant - just that I had been shoveling food in my mouth every 2 hours. She probably was really thinking, "What a hog!".

I bought the Sea Bands. I kept reading about them in all of the books (more on the books later) and sort of turned my nose up at them thinking they were a hoax. Then, I was telling my boss about the cruise and feeling seasick and she casually mentioned, "Oh that feeling is the same feeling you have when you're pregnant" (NO, She does NOT know about my "condition" yet). "You should have gotten those Sea Bands - I used those during my pregnancies and they really helped." HALLELUJAH. Mental note made and filed. The hubs drove me to Walgreens and we bought them (After the aforementioned crying spell, he was ready to do voodoo witchcraft in our basement if it would help). I have not taken them off my wrists (except to shower) in the past 24 hours - have they helped? I don't know. All I can say is that I felt better today than in the past 12 days. I am lucky that it is winter so that I can wear long sleeves to hide them. We jokingly refer to them as the "sweatin' to the oldies" bands - because they basically look like those 80's type sweatbands for your wrists.

Halls Vitamin C drops. I had a somewhat sore throat last night as well so I sucked on one of these and I felt a little better. I took the bag to work with me and sucked on one continuously. I have also read that peppermint drops have helped other women.

Finally, I read somewhere that it may be helpful to take your prenatal vitamin at night, so I tried that today.

This was no scientific study or anything so I can't say "It definitely was those Sea Bands" or the combination of all of the above. All I can say is that I did the above three things today and did not do them in the previous 12 days and I felt good today. We'll see if this feeling lasts (cross your fingers).

Another thing that I have noticed is that I actually feel best in the morning and I deteriorate as the day goes on - so, like all the books say "morning sickness" is a complete misnomer.

I also feel very grateful that I have not vomited...yet. I just have the little ball of vomit in the back of the throat feeling all day long. "Livin' on the Edge" is not a fun place to be. Apparently the nausea lessens at the end of the first trimester so "I'm halfway there....OH-H I'm living on a prayer."

(You can tell how delirious I am. I just referenced both an Aerosmith and a Bon Jovi song in the last two sentences. I guess that's what you get for reading a blog that was named after a Bruce Springsteen lyric. YIKES.)