As I get older, my tolerance for things like colds, sleeplessness, and oh, morning sickness seems to diminish.
This is horrible! My first pregnancy or two, or something like that, I remember just dealing, getting through it, knowing it would be over. Now I cannot function at all, and I am incredibly miserable about being miserable, and not just being sick, if that makes any sense. I am a horrible Catholic, I offer it up, but I still cannot seem to both offer it up, and happily go about my daily duties.My bathroom is a disaster (oh who am I kidding, the house), the kids are eating crap (they made chocolate a cake for dinner and I let them eat it-keep in mind in a better feeling life I am crunchy), I am using disposable diapers, and I am schooling at the bare minimum.
I have a theory: if men got morning sickness, there would be an aisle in CVS dedicated to morning sickness remedies, in between allergy medicine, heeadache remedies, and Pepto Bismal. I know, I am sounding kind of feminist, and I don’t mean to, but think about it…imagine the work hours that would be lost! Or how about this, does your average man, not good husband person who has seen this and gets it, just men in general even, or to be fair, just people really know how debilitating morning sickness is? And I don’t mean hyperemesis gravidarum or anything, just plain ole fatigue and nausea, not knowing what to eat, not having energy, any movement or things with lights makes you seasick, smelling everything around wayyy too much…
I keep reading articles about how if I want to feel better, it is my responsibilty to eat right, yet how to eat right to prevent nausea is very vague, and I need to exercise to maintain my energy levels. Do these people not understand that the last thing you want when you are nauseous is a head of broccoli, and when you spend your day in exhaustion, a night in insomnia, it is not easy getting up in the morning to work-out (incidentally I do because of the diabetes concern, but I still feel like total crap). So I face it, it’s my fault for getting pregnant-“you want another kid, you gotta deal”.
OK, ending my rant now. I have been feeling really, really crappy for weeks now, and would do anything to crawl out of my skin and escape my body even for five minutes to feel normal. Since I can’t do that, I unfortunately had to subject you to my complaining. Hope you can forgive me.
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“I am a horrible Catholic, I offer it up, but I still cannot seem to both offer it up, and happily go about my daily duties.”
LOL! You are hilarious!
MS sucks, it’s beyond awful. Pregnancy is just not healthy. That’s what I think.
Ohhhhh,… fatigue, insomnia and lack of energy. I hear you. I’ve never had nausia, but I got bad headaches instead, (Ok I still do), that I believe are migraines.
By the way, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT that you are pregnant, look at it this way: YOUR HUSBAND DID THIS TO YOU!!! (wink wink) And therefore you have every right to complain and feel crappy even while offering it up.
Maybe still feeling crappy even while offering it up will just make the offering that much bigger. I mean, if you were actually going about happy about having morning sickness, it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice now would it?
Oh, I get the headaches too, they are constant. I think they make the fatigue worse.
Maybe still feeling crappy even while offering it up will just make the offering that much bigger. I mean, if you were actually going about happy about having morning sickness, it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice now would it?
I feel bad because I am not functioning on a level I should be to have a smooth household. I seem to remember this always happens though, and my family recovers.
Oh, feeling so much compassion and empathy! Morning sickness sucks, no doubt about it. Big hugs to Pansy!
I have hyperememsis, so as a queen of feeling yucky, may I give a little advice? Please, take what you like and leave the rest.(Some of this may be stuff youve heard before):
Think in the m/s food groups: sour, sweet, plain, crunchy, and smooth. Think about which taste and texture appeals at that time, then try something in it.
For me, liquids and solids are always taken separately, never together. It helps.
I found ginger did help before my m/s turned into HG.
Try a “baby shake,” if you can tolerate smooth and cold liquids. I find a smoothie can get things into me I would never be able to stomach. I use frozen fruit (strawberries and mango cubes are my favourite), milk (sometimes) juices (other times), a protein powder, blackstrap molasses (for ingestible iron), wheat germ (you won’t even know it’s there) and anything else that appeals at the time.
Unisom and vitamin B6 help a lot of women with normal morning sickness. You can get both over the counter.
Other than that…. hey, you’ve had a lot more kiddos than me, so you’re a pro. 🙂 You know what works for you.
Praying for you, and as for people who even dare to suggest you don’t deserve to complain because you chose to have kids…..grrrrrrr. How dare they? In the HG world, we call that a “cracker” (as in “have you tried crackers and ginger ale?”) Betcha they wouldn’t say that, or even intimate it, to someone with the perfect 2.0 kids. People suck sometimes.
You are being heroically generous to our Lord. You’re my hero! Go, Pansy, go!
Love to you, sister in Christ.
I have hyperememsis, so as a queen of feeling yucky, may I give a little advice?
I don’t mind advice that works. If I read one more time my problem is that I don’t eat a balanced, healthy diet, and that is the cause for MS, I will scream. Fact is, before pregnancy, and even in very early pregnancy before MS, I eat very, very well. I always eat crappiest when I have MS, because first, I resort to food I do not have to spend much time in the kitchen preparing…You described it perfectly as the “cracker”. Crackers have never helped me(and it is like giving half a teaspoon of children’s motrin to help a migraine)!!!!
Also, I keep reading about the importance of hydrating, but I cannot stand water, unless it is room temperature and bottled, but like you said, not with meals. And again, prior to MS, I drank at least 8 glasses a day. Does that make any sense?
I will take your smoothie advice. I have been avoiding smoothies because everytime I think of milk, I think “yuck”, but I can see doing mango cubes and protein powder in juice. Maybe even with a bit of yogurt (go figure why yogurt and not milk). That actually sounds like I can drink it.
Praying for you, and as for people who even dare to suggest you don’t deserve to complain because you chose to have kids…..grrrrrrr.
Also, I wanted to add no one has really said that to me…well maybe once, but my complaint is more the usual in women’s healthcare, the solution to every women’s ailment is the pill. “Irregular periods? Take the pill? Difficult pregnancies? Take the pill and don’t have kids.” You know the routine.
Please. If just “eating healthy” was the key, why did I get sick at the thought of orange juice, fish, and fresh tomatoes — foods I ate all the time pre-MS?
That baby smoothie sounds like a great idea. When my tummy started to turn at the sight of milk, I tried chocolate milk and that worked very nicely. Ovaltine became a staple while I was pg.
I tell puking preggies to eat whatever looks good and to do whatever it takes.
Smoothies help some moms, not others. Sorbet is actually a reasonable way to get fluids and the rozen sweet/tart without milk can really feel and taste good.
Some moms do well with lemonade and potato chips, too. Or mashed potatoes and carrots. Or pasta with nothing on it. Whatever it takes.
Try thinking about taking 3 bites of something every 15 minutes or so.
Miriam Erickson’s book “No More Morning Sickness” is one of the best common sense guides I have ever read. SHe actually listened to moms talk about what worked and then wrote it down.
For housework, pick the spot that most makes you crazy. Set a timer for 15 minutes and spend the time on that spot. WHen the timer dings, stop. Do this every hour or two. DOn’t try to get it perfect, don’t try to do it all at once.
I thought there were some concerns about ginger for pregnancy and bfing, though I’m not sure how substantiated they are (a brief Google didn’t clarify much.) Just mentioning it in case you want to Google it on your own before trying it.
Wish I had some helpful advice but nothing was very consistent for me between the 2 pregnancies, or maybe even within a pregnancy. It’s true — in pregnancy #1, plain chicken horrified, and even hamburgers eventually became sickening to contemplate, but the bottom-of-the-barrel choice, hot dogs, worked (and I didn’t do the nitr*te-free thing back then, more like Nathan’s at the gas station!) — so so much for “just eat healthy!” — something I tried hard to do at the start of at least pg #2. Leafy greens were one of the few things I actually lost one time as that was 10 or so weeks of more nausea than vomiting. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem to make sense, like fresh-made pizza being revolting and frozen pizza that is normally so inferior being positively craved.
like fresh-made pizza being revolting and frozen pizza that is normally so inferior being positively craved.
Ikwym. I cannot stand the thought of potatoes or french fries unless they are Mickey D’s ff.But it may also have to do with the having to cook thing. Cooking turns me off big time, and by the time whatever I cooked is done, I usually cannot bear to eat it.
I normally love green leafy veggies, they sre serious comfort food for me, but right now the thought of salad makes my stomach turn, but cooked veggies are fine.
I have gone through seven pregnancies, and seven bouts of this. Here is what worked for me:
Smoothies with protien powder. I froze bananas, and used other frozen fruit, with milk and whatever sounded good. I would have died without these, I think, as it was all I could eat for a long time.
After the peak of it, I still found eating difficult, and I found spelt bread. Spelt flour is soothing to the tummy, and toasted with a piece of yogurt cheese on it, I was close to human for a while!!
Kiefler, cultured milk, also helped me quite a bit.
Refried beans on tortills (??) for some reason would go down and stay down. Added avacado at some point, and again, close to human for a while.
As far as school, I stayed on the couch in a reclined position, and the kids came to me. The older kids did quite a bit of the little kid’s work with them. We got by, and it seemed not to leave any deficits.
Housework? Kids did it. Husband filled in gaps when he could. I made chore lists from the couch. The most important thing to me was the kitchen, and the room I spent all day in on the couch. I would do as Alicia said and spend 15 minutes or so on the area that plagued me the worst.
Meals? Kid’s and dh made lots of the dinners – grilled cheese and soup, spagetti, scrambled eggs, pancakes, fried eggs and toast, frozen veggies and pasta, and salads. I ate almost none of it, but it kept them alive…
I found my vitamins made me feel worse for a while, so I quit them. Added them back in later.
The world isn’t very sympathetic, to be sure, but individual women who have suffered this have always been pretty kind during this time. My homeschool group members brought meals to my family a few times, and took my little kids to their house to play once and a while. It all helped.
Wish there was more I could do. I will pray extra for you and the wee one, and the rest of your family.
Well, this made me think of the advice my doc gave me about MS (thankfully, I am at the tail end of it now!) He recommended B6 vitamins or unisom…or a less conventional approach:
(I didn’t try this because it just sounded gross to me…but as everyone can choke down different foods during MS…) Take a can of peaches in heavy syrup, drain the syrup into a glass of ice to make it cold, and then take a teaspoonful every 15 minutes to help quell nausea…
So, just in case you are desperate (B vitamins worked for me, so I never tried the peaches…)
As for the choc cake for dinner…I think hubby and dd would prefer that to the frozen pizza at least once a day for 3 months! (Might even be healthier than frozen pizza…)