First let me just say that the fact that I am making two humans inside my own body is fascinating. Like, the human body can do so much but if you think about everything that is happening inside of mine at the moment is almost creepy. (According to my baby growth app I made fingerprints last week.) Being able to bare children is the single most amazingly terrifying beautifully uncomfortable wonderfully magical thing I think I will ever do. And it's all by God's design.
You know in Genesis after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit? Part of their punishment was that men would have to care for the land (like hard manual work) and women would have painful childbirths. I wonder if Eve had morning sickness when she was pregnant with Cain and Abel. And I also wonder why it's called morning sickness when it would be more accurate to call it all day sickness.
Now everyone's pregnancy is different and the more people I talk to the more I find that to be true. For me, I had zero symptoms until about 6.5 weeks. The morning sickness crept up slowly on me at about the same time the breast tenderness and general exhaustion made it's first appearance. Despite the fact that I was some form of nauseous for most of weeks 7-15 I only threw up four times. My "morning" sickness was usually a subtle nausea followed by food aversions and intense smell sensitivity. For most of that time frame I could not eat regular size meals. I had to eat several small meals throughout the day with plenty of snacks in between. If I went more than 2 hours without something to eat the subtle nausea would turn into full blown nausea, sometimes accompanied by dizziness or a headache or both. I learned quickly to eat almost constantly and keep my water bottle full at all times.
I stayed strict keto up until 7 weeks when my body decided I couldn't eat meat anymore. Chicken, steak, all fish/shrimp, etc. were all off the table. Part of it was a smell thing. The smell of any protein was enough to cause a gag reflex and send me running from the room. The other part was the texture. Everything tasted fine but trying to chew any protein was next to impossible. I made the mistake of trying a piece of Alex's chicken at a wedding. It took me several minutes to swallow, the whole time telling myself not to panic and not to throw up at the table. After I finally swallowed my appetite was immediately gone. I was still hungry but the veggies and potatoes all tasted wrong and my stomach was in knots. I couldn't eat them. And my nice, perfect, juicy steak sat untouched.
Carbs quickly became my friend. (Very not keto, so keto was officially done.) Without much protein to keep me full, I turned to breads and grains. I started most mornings with a small bowl of cereal - some variation of cheerios, granola, frosted flakes, mini wheat squares, and life. I had to mix them - at least three different kinds to one bowl. I ate a whole bowl of cheerios once and promptly threw up. I don't know what the science behind that is but I never got sick after eating a variety bowl of cereal.
When I got to work I'd eat a granola bar. An hour later I'd eat some veggies w/ ranch. An hour after that I'd have another granola bar or a handful of cereal. For lunches I ate a lot of spaghettios (weird, I know). Something about the combination of tomato sauce, cheese and noodles tasted good in those first really bad weeks. Then I'd have pretzels or greek yogurt in the afternoon followed by an apple or other fruit. Dinners were a lot of pasta and veggies with tomato sauce or very bland sauce. I ate nuts to fill the protein void and added boost chocolate powder to milk on days when I was just so hungry but nothing sounded, tasted or smelled good enough to eat. I had ritz crackers for all the other in between times and at home I ate a lot of cottage cheese and applesauce. Applesauce has a calming effect on my stomach.
We went from buying a half gallon of milk every couple of weeks to a gallon of milk (sometimes two) every week. I have heard that you crave things with nutrients you lack so I think I was lacking calcium. I guess I was building two sets of bones which requires a lot of calcium! I never had intense cravings. It was more like intense aversions so I'd eat whatever wasn't causing my stomach to turn sour, which many days was a short list. Mac n' cheese was a pretty safe bet.
But I was lucky in the fact that I could keep food down (minus those four times). Ginger helped with the nausea a bit, but I don't really like ginger so it was a last resort, usually reserved for car rides. Motion sickness was never an issue for me until becoming pregnant. Alex and I were still carpooling to and from work at that point so he would drive most days and most rides were spent with my eyes closed and the window cracked. Sour candies also helped minimize the nausea. My friend, Christina, gave me these organic candies that are the size of lemon drops. They are pure sour bliss and come in multiple different flavors. They saved me in many lengthy meetings where I couldn't bring a snack in and didn't want to have to run from the conference table mid conversation. And of course, water is the magical cure all. I say that kind of jokingly because any time I have a skin issue or a health issue my doctors ask if I'm drinking enough water. But in all seriousness I could tell a difference on the days when I didn't drink enough water. Staying hydrated made a world of difference.
Around the same time the nausea started I got what I perceived to be a common cold. We had flown to San Diego and back in 36 hours. I was exhausted, nauseous and cranky and all that combined with the changes in cabin pressure led to a nasty headache and congestion the following morning. Fun fact, most drugs are out of question for pregnant ladies - decongestant? Forget about it. Aleve? Put the bottle down. I googled to see what, if any, cold meds I could take and learned that some sudefeds are ok but there is one ingredient that is in some but not others that you can't have when you are pregnant. I had sudafed in my purse, but just the pills, no labels. I thought I'd better not risk it and made some tea instead. Sitting with the vapor under my nose helped, and it kept my hands warm. My office is always cold. I got a nasty sore throat that same week. I was worried about strep so I went to the doctor. He told me I was pregnant and exhausted and prescribed rest and tylenol if my headache got too severe. (Strep test came back negative too)
The initial congestion/headache lessened after a few days but it hasn't fully gone away in the 12 weeks since then. I'm 19 weeks tomorrow and still congested as ever. I think my doctor said I can take a decongestant in the third trimester - what a happy day that will be. In the meantime, don't mind me. I sneeze and blow my nose A LOT. I'm not sick, just pregnant.
You know in Genesis after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit? Part of their punishment was that men would have to care for the land (like hard manual work) and women would have painful childbirths. I wonder if Eve had morning sickness when she was pregnant with Cain and Abel. And I also wonder why it's called morning sickness when it would be more accurate to call it all day sickness.
Now everyone's pregnancy is different and the more people I talk to the more I find that to be true. For me, I had zero symptoms until about 6.5 weeks. The morning sickness crept up slowly on me at about the same time the breast tenderness and general exhaustion made it's first appearance. Despite the fact that I was some form of nauseous for most of weeks 7-15 I only threw up four times. My "morning" sickness was usually a subtle nausea followed by food aversions and intense smell sensitivity. For most of that time frame I could not eat regular size meals. I had to eat several small meals throughout the day with plenty of snacks in between. If I went more than 2 hours without something to eat the subtle nausea would turn into full blown nausea, sometimes accompanied by dizziness or a headache or both. I learned quickly to eat almost constantly and keep my water bottle full at all times.
I stayed strict keto up until 7 weeks when my body decided I couldn't eat meat anymore. Chicken, steak, all fish/shrimp, etc. were all off the table. Part of it was a smell thing. The smell of any protein was enough to cause a gag reflex and send me running from the room. The other part was the texture. Everything tasted fine but trying to chew any protein was next to impossible. I made the mistake of trying a piece of Alex's chicken at a wedding. It took me several minutes to swallow, the whole time telling myself not to panic and not to throw up at the table. After I finally swallowed my appetite was immediately gone. I was still hungry but the veggies and potatoes all tasted wrong and my stomach was in knots. I couldn't eat them. And my nice, perfect, juicy steak sat untouched.
Carbs quickly became my friend. (Very not keto, so keto was officially done.) Without much protein to keep me full, I turned to breads and grains. I started most mornings with a small bowl of cereal - some variation of cheerios, granola, frosted flakes, mini wheat squares, and life. I had to mix them - at least three different kinds to one bowl. I ate a whole bowl of cheerios once and promptly threw up. I don't know what the science behind that is but I never got sick after eating a variety bowl of cereal.
When I got to work I'd eat a granola bar. An hour later I'd eat some veggies w/ ranch. An hour after that I'd have another granola bar or a handful of cereal. For lunches I ate a lot of spaghettios (weird, I know). Something about the combination of tomato sauce, cheese and noodles tasted good in those first really bad weeks. Then I'd have pretzels or greek yogurt in the afternoon followed by an apple or other fruit. Dinners were a lot of pasta and veggies with tomato sauce or very bland sauce. I ate nuts to fill the protein void and added boost chocolate powder to milk on days when I was just so hungry but nothing sounded, tasted or smelled good enough to eat. I had ritz crackers for all the other in between times and at home I ate a lot of cottage cheese and applesauce. Applesauce has a calming effect on my stomach.
We went from buying a half gallon of milk every couple of weeks to a gallon of milk (sometimes two) every week. I have heard that you crave things with nutrients you lack so I think I was lacking calcium. I guess I was building two sets of bones which requires a lot of calcium! I never had intense cravings. It was more like intense aversions so I'd eat whatever wasn't causing my stomach to turn sour, which many days was a short list. Mac n' cheese was a pretty safe bet.
But I was lucky in the fact that I could keep food down (minus those four times). Ginger helped with the nausea a bit, but I don't really like ginger so it was a last resort, usually reserved for car rides. Motion sickness was never an issue for me until becoming pregnant. Alex and I were still carpooling to and from work at that point so he would drive most days and most rides were spent with my eyes closed and the window cracked. Sour candies also helped minimize the nausea. My friend, Christina, gave me these organic candies that are the size of lemon drops. They are pure sour bliss and come in multiple different flavors. They saved me in many lengthy meetings where I couldn't bring a snack in and didn't want to have to run from the conference table mid conversation. And of course, water is the magical cure all. I say that kind of jokingly because any time I have a skin issue or a health issue my doctors ask if I'm drinking enough water. But in all seriousness I could tell a difference on the days when I didn't drink enough water. Staying hydrated made a world of difference.
Around the same time the nausea started I got what I perceived to be a common cold. We had flown to San Diego and back in 36 hours. I was exhausted, nauseous and cranky and all that combined with the changes in cabin pressure led to a nasty headache and congestion the following morning. Fun fact, most drugs are out of question for pregnant ladies - decongestant? Forget about it. Aleve? Put the bottle down. I googled to see what, if any, cold meds I could take and learned that some sudefeds are ok but there is one ingredient that is in some but not others that you can't have when you are pregnant. I had sudafed in my purse, but just the pills, no labels. I thought I'd better not risk it and made some tea instead. Sitting with the vapor under my nose helped, and it kept my hands warm. My office is always cold. I got a nasty sore throat that same week. I was worried about strep so I went to the doctor. He told me I was pregnant and exhausted and prescribed rest and tylenol if my headache got too severe. (Strep test came back negative too)
The initial congestion/headache lessened after a few days but it hasn't fully gone away in the 12 weeks since then. I'm 19 weeks tomorrow and still congested as ever. I think my doctor said I can take a decongestant in the third trimester - what a happy day that will be. In the meantime, don't mind me. I sneeze and blow my nose A LOT. I'm not sick, just pregnant.
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