Morning (All Day) Sickness...

Ugh. So I've been feeling "not so well" the past couple of weeks and I guess you could call this a rant. I hate that I had the preconceived notion that morning sickness is mostly in the morning and involves throwing up or feeling nauseous every so often (as opposed to constantly). Well, that is not my experience!

I wake up at 3:30am to get to work at 5am every day. I love the shift but it does not love me... or it doesn't agree with pregnancy. The first few days I woke up with morning sickness I had the hardest time getting through my shower, let alone the morning regimen that consists of brushing teeth (gag me!), brushing hair, putting on pants that really don't fit well anymore, and eating breakfast... yeah right. I read through some advice by the ladies on my "gluten free and pregnant" chat boards... they all say Glutino pretzels work... I would love to try them but I can't bring myself to buy a tiny bag of pretzels for $10! So I asked for cheaper alternatives... the response was an overwhelming: PROTEIN! Well, for a couple days I would snack on some nuts throughout the morning and that seemed to work. But that gets old REAL quick. Now I can't stand to look at a cashew, let alone eat one. And meat, oh no, meat is like the grossest thing in the world. I can't even watch KFC commercials.

I did some more research and every thing I read mentioned eating saltines before you get out of bed and before your body has a chance to feel sick. We all know saltines are a no-no on the gluten free diet but I thought maybe eating right away was the real trick. It was! So now I probably look like a psychopath but the minute my alarm goes off I run (literally) to the kitchen and try to scarf down some food (luckily no one sees this). For the time being it is Panda Puffs cereal (a gluten free peanut butter flavored puff cereal, kind of like Reeses Puffs). I can only stomach about a third of a regular serving but it's enough to keep the nausea away until I finish getting ready. So, I mastered my early mornings, more or less. Then comes the rest of the day...

I get to work at 5am. I used to snack on the nuts during the first couple hours but just a couple days ago realized that Cheetos are a very tasty snack around that time. Hey, don't knock it til you've tried it! They're salty and greasy and do well... at least it's not a peanut butter and pickle sandwich! Right around 9am the nausea starts up again. It's a different kind of nausea. I can tell it's more related to my empty stomach and now I know that once I eat lunch I'll feel a ton better. The only problem is NOTHING sounds good. Ever. So I force myself to eat something that is basically tasteless. Usually it's a baked potato from Wendy's. Sometimes french fries are the only thing I can stomach. Occasionally I can have a chicken salad or a taco salad but that's a rare occurrence. Well, after lunch I usually feel regular. By that I mean I enjoy about 3 hours without nausea. It's fabulous! And as long as I eat immediately after work and snack every hour I can usually stretch my nausea-free moments to around 5pm. But then the real nausea kicks in....

Nights are the WORST! Come 7pm I get so nauseous. Food in general is so unappealing. I usually gag trying to swallow anything. I can't wait to fall asleep so I don't have to feel anything. The first week of "night sickness" I just suffered for the most part. Poor Brian had to watch without being able to help. He's so sweet, always offering to run out and get something... I just wish there was something to get. After some research though I found a few things that are supposed to help. First one: vitamin B6 supplements. Second: ginger. So night before last Brian ran to WalMart at 1am (I still wasn't asleep and had to work at 5am, can we say stressful?) and got some ginger and B6 vitamins (and Taco Bell for himself, lol). I couldn't swallow the vitamin without regurgitating. And we weren't sure what to do with the ginger that I would be able to stomach... so that night was a bust. The next night though, Brian made me some weird tea with the ginger. It actually tasted pretty good! Reminded me of a Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks without the milk and he iced it for me. It did calm my stomach somewhat and I was able to sleep. I still couldn't swallow the B6 though. Then yesterday after work (during the time I feel decent) we decided to go shopping for some maternity pants. Right now I'm using the rubber band trick where you loop a rubber band through your button hole and around your button so you can keep your pants unbuttoned. It works but it's not attractive! While we were out Brian reminded me to buy some PSI bands. They are plastic "bracelets" that put pressure on a certain acupuncture spot on your wrist that is supposed to cure nausea (from morning sickness or motion sickness). Christine's daughter, Reina, uses them for car sickness and they worked for her so I figured I'd try it! Well, I bought some and they worked! I slept so well last night! It even decreased (did not "cure") the nausea enough that I was able to take my prenatal (horse pill) and B6 vitamin without puking them back up! Fabulous!

So I'm slowly but surely getting used to dealing with the nausea. Mornings - eating before anything else and snacking every 1-2 hours. Midday - pretty much set as long as I force myself to eat lunch. Evening - try to snack every 1-2 hours and wear the PSI Bands. Nighttime - wear the PSI bands and if necessary, drink some ginger tea and take B6 vitamin.

But, incase you didn't notice.... I guess I should count my blessings. I haven't actually thrown up yet!