======================================================================= STORIES FROM MISC.KIDDERS ==================================== One thing I found that helped me immensely was making sure to take my prenatal vitamins about 15-20 minutes after a meal and cutting the vitamin in half and taking half after lunch and the other half after dinner. I've been doing better of late but I still can only eat small amounts at a time. You may even ask your OB about another brand of prenatal vitamins. I found that I couldn't take the StuartNatal but the NatalinsRX seem to be doing ok. Take care! ==================================== I felt queasy all day for 14 weeks. I only got sick twice, once when they did a ultrasound at 10 weeks and and when they did an ultra sound at ]15 weeks for the amnio. Both times I was trying to force down the 32 oz. of liquid they tell you to drink before the ultrasound. So, one big no-no is drinking a lot of liquid at once or eating and drinking a lot at the same time. I felt great first thing in the morning so I didn't do all of the eating before you got out of bed stuff. I found that if I brought along a selection of things to munch on all day I felt a little better. I.e. I'd bring a sandwich, fruit, and crackers to work. Every hour I'd eat something like half the sandwich, fruit, a couple of crackers. I also got some sugar free mints to suck on. Having something in my mouth frequently helped. I also brushed my teeth a lot. Bending way over, head below waist was not a good idea either. I kept up my exercise but at a slower rate and usually felt good while I was doing it. Fresh air made me feel better or at least got my mind off of things. Otherwise taking things slowly and getting more rest, I've gotten to love my before dinner naps while my husband cooks dinner, made me feel better all around so the queasiness didn't bother me as much. But it was great when it stopped. They say that it usually stops at 12-14 weeks. Good luck. ==================================== My sympathies. I suffer from severe morning sickness (well, it's really all day extreme nausea). My first pregnancy, it started in the second trimester and I spent 6 weeks in bed, throwing up several times a day. My second pregnancy, I was sick 8 days after I missed my period, and my last upchuck was 3 days before going to the hospital. This is part of why we're stopping at two. Now, what to do. Keeping something in your stomach is good; ginger helps - either candied ginger or ginger snaps are good. You might check with your doctor on whether taking supplemental chromium is okay. I don't have any studies to back this up, but my feeling is that my nausea was part of my general problem with blood sugar/insulin handling and chromium helps my hypoglycemia. (I also got gestational diabetes both times. This is not to say you will, but this is just what happened to me.) Anyway, the chromium might be helpful and if it won't hurt, you might try it. Eat a small protein snack (fruit and cheese, for example) before going to bed, especially if you are waking up feeling queasy. Frequent small meals of things that are easy on your stomach are best. And remember, this too shall pass. I realize my experience sounds horrible and it was, but other than the vomiting, I didn't have any horrible pregnancy problems, so I guess it sort of balanced out. Anyway, I hope this helps, and that I haven't scared you. I was really an extreme case and I haven't heard of anyone else having as much trouble as I did. ==================================== Nibble all day long. Don't try to eat anything substantial until you start feeling better. I had the same problem - never did vomit - but just felt like it all the time! Don't worry about "eating right" at this point in time. By the time I was 12 weeks it had pretty much passed for me. ==================================== I also had morning sickness for most of the day. It too started about six weeks into the pregnancy. I just want to assure you that it doesn't last forever (even though it feels like it! I think I'd rather have measles than be naseated). I was rocky for about six weeks but then it started to subside rather rapidly and I felt terrific. This seems to be the most common pattern I've heard of from other pregnant friends. It may even be shorter. One thing I did that helped a little was drink tea (Lemon Lift or Constant Comment) to settle my stomach. Lifesavers popsicles also made me feel pretty good (but there's no accounting for pregnant peoples' tastes). Just take it very easy on yourself and rest as much as you can; it seems to help not to move your head around too much. Good luck and congratulations. You'll feel better soon. ==================================== My wife swears by ginger ale and peppermints. It has be real ginger ale (i.e., there has to be ginger in it). You can also get ginger pills at health food stores. My wife likes the starlite peppermints (the round ones with red/white swirls), but a friend of ours who was nauseated from chemotherapy much preferred some very strong breath mints. >I'm currently in my 6th week so any ideas how long this will last? > 2 weeks, 1st trimester, forever? Everyone's different. My mother-in-law claims she was still throwing up in the delivery room, but most people get over it much sooner. ==================================== I had continuous morning sickness with this pregnancy for almost the whole first three months. I'm sure part of it was due to the amount of stress I was under with work and a 2.5 yr old. Try to reduce your stress -- use relaxation techniques. Exercise oftens helps with an overall better feeling. Also, a high-protein snack before you go to bed at night might work. A glass of milk and a bran muffin, for instance. In fact, a high protein diet is a good idea -- my childbirth instructor recommends at least 80 grams of protein per day. Good luck -- it'll pass eventually. ==================================== I also had all day morning sickness for the entire first trimester. I did not throw up all the time, but felt constantly queasy. My doctor told me the more nausea the better, since that means all the right hormones are present. I did get a prespcription for Phenegran when I had to fly out of town. I took it a couple of other times when I really felt awful and had to keep going. Then about the 15th week I woke up feeling fine. Since being pregnant I have read that the wrist bands you can buy for seasickness work well for morning sickness. Evidently they press on an acupuncture point. I would ask around where you can buy them. My little boy turned two today, and I barely remember being sick. BUT, I know enough to be sympathetic. If you try the bands and they work, let me know. Good luck. ==================================== Morning had nothing to do with it. Neither did what I ate. Most of the time I could hardly bear to look at, or think about food. The main thing is to not get dehydrated. The things that I drank were Coke and Hawaiian Punch. My doctor also recommended popsicles and Jello. Basically the point is to keep some calories and fluids coming in. ==================================== Unfortunately, I have little practical advice. What worked for me was to give up on what I _should_ be eating and eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it. (For some reason, what I mostly wanted was scrambled eggs and chocolate cake. Most of the time anyway. Sometimes any food at all would throw me, even commercials for food on TV.) Sometimes having a yogurt shake in the morning worked better than eating something more solid, but I learned to avoid orange juice like the plague. (An added benefit to having a shake was that it came back up easier :-). The big thing to avoid was ever getting hungry, because once I got hungry, anything I ate would come back up. Saltines never worked for me - someone told me that saltines are digested pretty much in one's mouth, so my theory was that my stomach needed something to digest, which altines didn't provide. Grapes worked better. There was an article in the July '89 issue of Scientific American: The Gastrointestinal Tract in Growth and Reproduction by Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg. It talks about how pregnancy affects the digestive tract. Although it doesn't give any practical advice, it really meant a lot to me that there was some real physical reason for why I might be feeling off. And it also gave me a good response to those nasty people who told me feeling sick was all in my head. ===================================== First of all, I feel for you. I am in my 15th week. When I started to feel nausea, my mother-in-law suggested me to eat saltines before getting out of bed. I tried it for a while, but for me, a few pieces of bread work better. As long as I have some food in me, I only had mild nauseous feeling all day. p.s. Try not to drink anything while eating. Drink it after you finish eating. This helped me, too. ==================================== I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it *might* last for eight months. My wife was sick the entire pregnancy, both times. The doctors do not like to admit this, but it isn't really that uncommon. The second pregnancy was worse, she ended up in the hospital due to dehydration. (Prolonged vomiting causes dehydration.) That time, the doctors gave her Tagamet and Reglan - common ulcer medications. Please, please, note that *most* women do not have this much of a problem; I am not out to spook you. However, my wife found it distressing to be constantly told "it will get better" when it didn't. Also, there *are* things they can give you if it gets bad enough, but they probably won't tell you that in advance. ==================================== As to how long it lasts, well, it varies. My mother was sick with me until her sixth month. A co-worker was sick til the end of her fourth month. A fof (friend of a friend) was sick her whole pregnancy. Doctors expect it to end after your third month, for some reason. Good luck, I sympathize. ==================================== One other thing. I had a girlfriend with this problem, who was fine as long as the food appeared before her and she just had to eat it. She could not cook it, or smell it cooking or ... well ... it was *really* hard to eat. So her husband brought her takeout, about six times a day, and she was better. At least, she was keeping it all down. Unfortunately, this requires a devoted, nearby, husband or friend. ==================================== I had morning sickness for most of the day too, partially because I was sooooo tired. The more sleep I got the less sick I was. When I couldn't stand the thought of food popsicles worked real well. The idea is to keep something in your stomache at all times. My doctor also suggested Dramamine, and I took partial doses several times a day. This helped alot with the nausea. ==================================== I'm four months pregnant now, but I still occasionally vomit if I do something really silly like try to brush the insides of my back teeth, or have a coughing fit, or wear tight clothing. I was very sick my first trimester and I found some things helped me a lot. In no particular order: 1. Realizing that there wasn't going to be a "better time of day" for me. I was just going to feel like crap all the time, and I should just get used to feeling like death. 2. Realizing that actually vomiting never made me feel better, so I just better not get my hopes up. Vomit if necessary, but don't push it, and don't get depressed when you feel just as bad afterwards. 3. Cleaning up messes as soon as possible. Since I felt constantly more nauseated than I had ever before felt without vomiting, I lost all my clues as to when I would actually hurl. I "missed" more than once, and the smell/sight/ vague consciesness of vomit would make me feel even worse. I took baths when necessary, and I kept spare clothing available. I was also thankful for the plastic liner in my trashcan at work. 4. Eating as often as possible. Small meals--almost constantly--helped me the most. I would nibble nuts, drink sweet drinks, bight on some pickled ginger, or eat a real meal ALL DAY LONG. More than an hour without eating spelled disaster for me. 5. Believing my food preferences. If I thought milk sounded very unappealing, forcing myself to drink it anyway meant pretty much instantaneous upchucking. Conversely, I felt like sour or piquant food might help, and it seemed to. Pickled ginger, greek olives, and lemonade were all foods I found comforting. 6. Having the nerve to tell innocent people that they are making me feel worse. I teach undergraduates, and I just had to tell them to please not bring certain kinds of food to class or to my office hours. They were great when they knew why. 7. Wearing very loose clothing. Nothing pressing on abdomen, waist, or neck. 8. Not getting too tired if I could help it and not getting sick if I could help it. A cold on top of nausea meant double the nausea. A sleepless night was followed by a vomitous day. 9. Realizing that I could have felt a lot worse and it would still have been worth it to me. Reading the section about extreme nausea beeing related to high-HCG, and therefore viable pregnancies, over and over and over and ... 10. Having time pass. I felt much better when I hit my 13th week. As I've said, I still lose it, but much less often. And now I've got the frequent meal trick down, and my growing belly is a more obvious sign that I am in--as they said in my grandmothers day--an interesting condition. (People cut me more slack now, and I have to explain or excuse myself less often.) ==================================== My wife found it useful to have a box of soda crackers on her bedstand. She ate a few before getting out of bed. She also found ginger tea (take fresh ginger, cut into thin slices, steep in boiling water) helpful. ==================================== As long as I chew someting it feels better. So I take carrots, celery, crackers, cucumber, yogurt and all that stuff thats not fattening. ==================================== My wife went through a period where all she could hold down was soda crackers and ginger ale. Our son turned out healthy, so don't worry too much about the baby. I think she did feel better after she threw up. That stage did pass after awhile. ==================================== Watch what you eat--sometimes that will do it to you. Otherwise eat stuff you don't mind tasting twice! (Gross but true.) Also a good joke to tell your partner. If your illness continues into your second trimester, or you throw up more than three times a day, or you can't keep anything down (low nutrition) or you aren't going to the bathroom very much (dehydration) then call the doctor and in no uncertain terms tell them you are throwing up too much. This can be devastating to the baby, but they will be hesitant to prescribe you anything for fear of lawsuits. The usual treatment for morning sickness is to tough it out, and that's what they'll usually say. If you feel like you are abnormal, like the first sentence in this paragraph, INSIST to be given something and state why. If it's any consolation, I am sure people will tell you that morning sickness is thought to be a good sign that your pregnancy is strong and growing. I am emailing you because I only have experience with the first trimester and I'd rather my coworkers not know as we are trying again and I don't want anyone to find out until I'm in my second trimester. If you have any other first trimester questions, please ask, as I remember it very well. ==================================== In misc.kids you asked: WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS MORNING >(ALL/DAY) SICKNESS!? I've been nauseated since Fri (1/31). So far >I haven't actually thrown up but that's basically due to will power >and fear (although I kinda think I'd feel better if I did). You probably won't!! >The remedies I have so far are: 1) saltines (all day and before getting >out of bed), Saltines or matzos helped me. >2) coca-cola classic, You may want to avoid this--has caffeine which isn't great for you or baby and can give you heartburn to go with your naseau! >3) Emetrol Don't know anything about it. >I'm currently in my 6th week so any >ideas how long this will last? 2 weeks, 1st trimester, forever? Mine cleared up right around the end of the 1st trimester--I never actually threw up either but often said to my husband "Today just may be the day!" Things that helped me: small, frequent meals staying away from very odiferous things for a while (i.e., tuna, garlic, etc.(luckily I was able to resume eating garlic later!! yum yum)) avoiding long car rides/opening car window It will go away eventually!! Then you can start the heartburn--boy was I glad to find out that Rolaids are OK for mom and baby! Also, my grandmother told me that having heartburn meant I would have a hairy baby! (He didn't seem exceptionally hairy...) Congratulations and enjoy it! Once you have the baby, all the attention and interest shift away from you--although that can be a relief! ==================================== My wife had the same "morning" sickness. The doctor would give her one vitamin E shot per week, which helped a lot. Unfortunately, they only lasted five days, and were not covered by insurance. Good luck. THe end result is worth it, but that doesn't help now. ==================================== I had a friend who swore that fresh ground ginger in a morning cup of tea (before she got out of bed - her husband made it for her) was the key to curing her nausea during pregnancy. Your mileage may vary. Good luck! ==================================== GOOD LUCK!!!!! I know exactly what you're going through. Mine lasted 24 hours/day for the whole first trimester. I made sure I didn't let myself get hungry, I kept saltines around constantly, and I carried a cup with a lid in the car (my drive to/from work was over an hour, so I enevitably had to use the cup once or twice during the drive). Three months is the longest I've known it to last (in all the women I know). I hope you feel better soon, and it's well worth the bother!!! ==================================== >No one said pregnancy was easy. But they DO, dammit! They run all those cute pictures of pregnant women glowing, postpartum women wearing pure white nightgowns (riiiight, and these aren't ads for industrial-strength bleach, either), and articles on "How I climbed Mount Everest and Earned My MBA While 10 1/2 Months Pregnant". Pregnancy *is* hard, but most of us are surprised to find this out. So- called "morning" sickness was the only part of the pregnancy I was prepared for -- and it was the easiest complication for me to deal with. (I'm not saying this is true for everybody; I had mild morning sickness, so I was much more concerned about the total exhaustion I felt during the first trimester.) ==================================== For me, nothing made the morning (all day) sickness go away, but it helped to eat bland food. I found myself only eating things that were white- potatoes, noodles, stuff like that. Chinese noodle soup was a thing that I found tolerable, and I ate it for lunch a lot. ==================================== My doctor suggested that I take the vitamins with my biggest meal. He also said that I should be able to handle them better after the 1st trimester. A co-worker told me that her vitamins said not to take them with orange juice which is what I do religously. My vitamin bottle said nothing about orange juice but I'm not ruling it out either. I'm just past the 1st trimester and I've been all right with taking them after breakfast. ==================================== I can feel for you. Yesterday I hit week 12 and since about week 6 I've felt green around the gills. I feel much better now. It was really bad about 2-3 weeks ago. All I can say is bear it and I hope you have a partner who treats you well while you are feeling poorly. My husband has been a champ through this. ==================================== Hi, I am 5-1/2 months pregnant and still get morning sickness, mine last for 3 days by that time I so dehrydrated then they have to put an IV in me it is not fun! Try to stay away form caffeine, it seems to give me cramps and actually upsets my stomach. Just try to stay calm, I know when I get upset and start crying that's when it all starts, stress has alot to do with it. Have fun! ==================================== Unfortunately, everyone is different and your sickness will work its own way out. I can sympathize because my wife was really sick with my son. In the first trimester, she *lost* 12 pounds and had to have an IV to be rehydrated. All in all, pretty miserable. She came out of it gradually and by the end of tthe 4th month was over it. She also quickly (relatively) put the weight back on and ended up gaining a net of 30 lbs for the pregnancy. Nothing helped her. She ate what she could when she could and tried to keep down fluids to keep from getting dehydrated. Probably worse than the constant nausea was people telling her she wasn't really sick, that it was just "morning sickness". Somehow, I felt that throwing up 10+ times a day counts as sick. I hope you're a lucky one and that you get better by the end of the third month (or sooner!). Advice? None really other than keep focussed on the end game - the beautiful baby that comes at the end. Good luck. I know how miserable this is. p.s. I'll give you 2 light-hearted stories related to this. One day I was at work and my wife was home and she called me about 3:30 and said "I feel like I can eat a pizza from , but it has to be NOW". I called up and ordered the pizza for pickup - ran out of work - picked it up on the way home and had the pizza there 20 minutes after the call (better than Dominos :-)) The other (and you may have heard this) is that people will tell you being sick is a sign of a very healthy baby. Well, after a while, my wife didn't want to hear it. The day she got her IV, she was lying on the table (had to be there for 4 hours) and she commented that the next person who told her that she was going to punch. A little while later, the OB came in and, trying to cheer my wife up, uttered the cursed "this is often a sign of a healthy pregnancy". my wife and I looked at each other and broke up. The OB asked what was so funny and we told her the only reason my wife hadn't punched her is that she had the IV in. Try to keep your spirits up! ==================================== Congratulations! The morning sickness is either caused by or coincides with the presense of HGH, human growth hormone in your blood stream. Women who have a nice high level of HGH and "morning" sickness tend to miscarry less than women who do not. So, the next time you can't look at a plate of food, remember that your body is doing the right things for baby. (That was the thought I held on to, the few times I actually tossed my cookies...) You may also want to check with your ob/gyn about your weight loss. They had me come in and give a urine specimen every couple of weeks while I was losing weight, to make sure there weren't any ketones present in the urine. If ketones are present, that means you've burned off your fat reserves, and now your body is turning to burning off muscles. This means you really aren't getting enough to eat, and at that point, they may resort to putting you in the hospital and feeding you intravenously. This is really rare, so don't get all worried--but you might want to arrange an appointment with a Doctor that can arrange a urine test. I found that when I was "morning" sick, if I just got up, and tried to do something resembling a normal routine, I'd start to feel better after a while. ==================================== In a blender, mix 8 oz very cold milk, 1/2 banana, a squirt of honey and a heaping tablespoonful of nutritional yeast (usually sold in bulk at health food stores, it's sort of flakey, yellowish stuff, looks more like something you'd feed to your goldfish; Red Star is the only brand I'm familiar with, there may be others) Anyway, get this down and keep it down and you'll probably be okay for the rest of the day. Everytime you start to feel queasy eat a little carbohydrate (just a little will do, but if you've beel losing weight, you might as well go ahead and eat the whole brownie! I was usually sicker in the evening so dinner was a problem. Often the only thing that appealed to me was a baked potato with salt on it, which is not such a bad choice, actually. Finally, when I couldn't face anything for dinner, my husband would drag me to the local Vietnamese restaurant and order a bowl of the special noodle soup (rice noodles in broth with a squeeze of lime and some bean spouts and some sliced beef). No matter how rotten I felt I could alway manage that soup and once I had the soup inside me I rallied enough to eat anything else that wasn't deep-fried. Finally, I consoled myself that mausea usually indicates a healthy baby (I'd had 3 pregnancies where I wasn't nauseous and miscarried). ==================================== I read somewhere that a woman got great relief from morning sickness by using SeaBands, bands worn around the wrists to relieve motion sickness. I've had mine for a few months -- once my flight had a lot of turbulence, I put them on, and felt fine. They are ribbed material with a plastic knob that presses into an acupuncture point on your inside forearm. ==================================== Congratulations. I am about 6 weeks further in my pregnancy and have come out of the morning sickness stage (well, almost) but boy was it lousy!! I thought I had the flu, which laid me out for a week before I went to the doctor's. I was throwing up a lot and nauseous all the time. Dairy products can be really bad for stomachs normally, partly because of fat, but I found nonfat cottage cheese or yogurt, which are high in protein, would really help me get through the night, my worst time. (I would get up and throw up at 4:30 every a.m.) Proteins are slow to digest, and my theory is that that helped me get through the five hours from bedtime to 4:30. At 4:30 I had more protein and a very small helping of cereal or a piece of toast. I was miserable and tired but this eating habit really seemed to help. If I missed 4:30 by a couple of hours, I would be sick all day. However, I actually managed to gain weight, which hasn't been your experience. You may feel too sick to eat, which is the opposite of how I felt: I had to eat to beat the nausea even for ten minutes. I also ate a lot of baked potatoes, prunes, crackers, water, and fruit. Ice cream, coffee, tomato sauce, and oranges seemed to make it a lot worse. ==================================== Sorry to hear about your morning sickness -- I too was sick the first several weeks of each of my pregnancies, though I don't think it was as bad as you are experiencing. Two things I did that helped was first to think that the morning sickness was a good sign -- studies show the rate of miscarriage is lower in women with morning sickness -- and that at least I knew I was pregnant ;-) My friend, pregnant at the same time, had no sickness, and had to wait for the baby to move to feel really pregnant. This didn't help physically, but did help mentally. Physically, the thing I noticed was I felt the worst when my body was having to work harder -- if I got chilled and my body was working hard to keep me warm, or if my blood sugar dropped very suddenly or very low, if I got overtired, etc. So I began to be more careful about these situations. I was very sensitive to smells too and couldn't stand having food around me. I enlisted several of my co-workers to bring me lunches and snacks from the cafeteria -- I had told them to bring me stuff from a limited list that I felt I could probably keep down, e.g. plain breads and bagels, apples or applesauce, clear soups. That way I didn't have to smell the cooking smells, and I didn't have to choose something that I didn't want to eat -- they just brought it to me and I had to convince myself to eat it for the baby. I ate several times during the day, in small portions. And prayed that the morning sickness would be over after the first trimester, as most cases are. As I do for you now! ==================================== Well, I am presently 9 weeks, and have lost 3 punds so far!!! I think I fit into the "sick" category quite well. I'm sitting here munching on Triscuits as I type. If I stop feeding for 10 minutes I feel sick!! This is such a pain. This is also my second pregnancy. My first started just before my hubby was activated for the Gulf War. So I had the incredible stress of him (possibly) going to Saudi -- he didn't. But he *did* miss the first 7.5 months of my pregnancy!!! Some snacks I have found that work: Triscuits (strange, I've never liked them before..) pretzels bagels & cream cheese jello That has been my diet. Lunches have stayed pretty close to what they were before, but that's all. I can't stand so many things that I normally love (orange juice!!) During my first pregnancy I was sick for 24 hours a day for the first 12 weeks, exactly!! With this one, I'm fine most of the day (as long as I keep that feedbag on!) but around 7:00 pm I hit the wall. After that I can't stand to be awake. My husband usually arrives home from work around 7:30 pm, so he only sees me sick. He's pretty frustrated with me, he seems to think it's psychosomatic ( remember, he missed this the first time!!) Any suggestions on dealing with him? And helping him deal with me? Oh, and I told my doctor about this (he was wondering why my weight gain was negative!!!) And he gave me some "Nestrex" which is a tablet of vitamin B6 and glucose. I've only been on it for a day, so I can't tell if it has helped. ==================================== John McDougall, M.D., who has written several books (one called the McDougall Program, another the McDougall Plan) about health and diet issues -- he, despite being a real MD, takes a strong preventative and natural approach to health. There was a column written by him about morning sickness in an issue of _Vegetarian Times_ some time back. I don't know where the issue is, but he claimed to have taken some women with severe 'morning' sickness that had not been helped by any conventional methods, and put them on a VEGAN diet. (That means vegetarian, with no dairy) He claimed some high rate of success, like 90% or something. You might want to look for his books at the library and see if there is something you can use, and try it out for a week. I think his wife has also released an additional book of recipies, don't know what it's called. ==================================== I collected these a while ago, but before I post them, here's from a great card I saw. It goes something like: "Congratulations on your pregnancy -- sometimes the first few months are a little rough, but you can't keep a good woman down." You open it and it says: "Or a good breakfast either." ==================================== * Set the alarm for middle of the night and eat something so that you don't wake up on a completely depleted digestive system. Bananas worked well for me at about 3 am; then at 6 am when I got up my blood sugar level wasn't too low. * Keep cool. Dress lightly or keep temperature in house low. Being overly warm will make you feel more nauseous. * Citrus fruits and juices. The acid in citrus fruits helps. My doctor told me that the hormonal changes early in pregnancy can lower the amount of acid in the stomach and this may be why some women experience nausea. Sucking on lemon slices was good. You need to be a little careful with this, though, because the acid can also damage the enamel of your teeth if you do it too much. * Lay down and rest every chance you get. I noticed that when I didn't get enought rest that the nausea was worse. Also, I felt less nauseous when laying down. * I've heard that raspberry tea works for some women; you might try it (It didn't for me).now!) that seemed to settle my stomach was a dill pickle. A friend told me to get a lemon and suck on it as soon as the nausea arrived. I thought she was crazy, because of the acidity of the lemon, but for some reason it really worked!!! Keep the lemon rind in your mouth and it will keep you from vomiting and stops the nausea FAST. Mine always happend around 9:30 am and I used to carry lemons with me to work ==================================== My ob thought I was nuts but this is what helped me: cheese. Actually I found that cheese, yogurt, and milk helped A LOT!! I finally got smart and took extra calcuim supplements and it did the same trick (chewing on TUMS works the same - it's just calcuim too). It's worth a shot - I've had baaaaddd morning sickness and believe me, I would try ANYTHING. Best of luck ==================================== Oh dear. I just got over my sickness a month ago FINALLY! As far as I know there aren't any remedies, but many things she can do to help it: Never have an empty stomach (that means eating every 2 hours). Keep the blood sugar up. For me that meant drinking caffeine-free Coke several times a day, including first thing in the morning. Try checking out an herbalist. I was going to do that but never had the energy to find one (humorous, huh?) and I've heard they can help a LOT. I found some pregnancy tea in a health food store that seemed to help a little. Get lots and lots of sleep. Ten hours a night will help the sickness lot. Eat anything you want to eat, even if it sounds unhealthy (though stay away from alcohol). Prenatal vitamins made me sick so I just don't take them until my morning sickness is gone. Good luck! Morning sickness is THE WORST PART of pregnancy and when it is over, your wife's world will come alive again! ==================================== A friend who has had 3 kids recommended a vitamin tonic that her midwife told her to take. It's called "Floridix Iron and Herbs" and is available in liquid or pill form. It's "all-natural" and sold in health food stores. It has lots of iron (obviously) and B6. Apparently, the form of iron in this supplement is more easily absorbed and does not cause the usual gastric disturbances. Many people say that B6 really helps cure morning sickness. The stuff is pretty expensive: I paid $17 for a 2 week supply! And, of course, noone should take it without checking with her doctor first. ==================================== Lie down whenever it gets bad--even on the bathroom floor. It helps immediately. Avoid all bad smells. Somebody else has to take care of the trash, cat food, etc. Get toothpaste that isn't peppermint flavored if mint bothers you--this means a children's flavor. Then there's the usual advice to eat small, non-fatty meals frequently. Breakfast in bed. ==================================== mix in a blender: 8 oz milk 1/2 banana 1 tsp. honey 1 heaping TBSP or more of nutritional yeast* a few strawberries or other soft fruit (optional) hold your nose and sip carefully until you get it all down. If it stays down, and it usually will, you are home free as long as you remember to eat a little something the minute you start to feel queasy again. It helps to have another one of these around 4:00 in the afternoon and maybe another just before you go to bed. *you can buy this in bulk at health food stores. Red Star is one brand, there may be others. It's kind of a yellowish flakey stuff. hope this helps. ==================================== MY doctor gave me vitamin shots of B6 3 times a week. It helped until I could take B6 pills. Not a tremendous help but ti did kep the vomitting down. ==================================== I've only had 5 vomiting episodes, but they were fairly bad ones. My stomach will not stop heaving until I put just sugar in it. My nausea is directly related to my blood sugar level, but the vomiting does seem to get triggered by really odd things. If I start to feel nauseous, I suck briefly on a Brach's Peppermint Cooler (God's gift to morning sick women) and prepare something with lots of complex carbohydrates to follow it up with. If I try to eat anything without the brief concentrated sugar to relieve the nausea, I chuck it right back up. They're nothing but empty calories, however, so I try to suck on one only until the nausea feels gone. ++++++++ Definitely a your mileage may vary thing. Every woman's pregnancy and morning sickness is different. But I'll list some of the other things that worked for me. I got really desperate one day for *something* that would help my stomach calm down, and I was pawing through the refrigerator and came across a jar of pickles. Out of desperation, I tried the stereotypical pregnancy food, and much to my surprise it worked. I think it was more the vinegar than the pickle though, because I noticed that just about anything that was acidic (salsa, ketchup, etc.) had the same calming effect. I also found that having one really huge meal in the middle of the day helped to keep my blood sugar up for hours. It didn't seem to work if it was breakfast or dinner, so my lunch would consist of as much of my stomach's favorite foods as I could stuff down. Stuff that was low in simple carbohydrates and included as many food groups as possible seemed to work the best. When I feel the nausea start to turn into that "uh oh, my stomach wants to get rid of this *now*" feeling, sometimes lying down in a dark room helps, but more often than not the only way to feel better is to just chuck up whatever is being rejected, suck on a candy, and listen better to my stomach as I fill it back up again. +++++++ Yeah, the bit about the small meals didn't work for me either. Neither did the bit about having tea and crackers in bed before getting up; actually i think the tea made matters worse. Actually, the first few weeks i discovered three "safe" foods that i could eat without worrying: strawberry yoghurt, bananas, and chocolate. I have no idea why these worked, but at that point i was ready to try anything! I can only give you two bits of advice: 1. This too shall pass. Try not to get too stressed about it, because stress is guaranteed to make it work. You're near the end of the first trimester; things are normally much much better in the second. Hang in there!!! 2. If it really starts to bother you, tell your doctor about it. And if it ever gets to the point where you can't even keep fluids down - i hope it doesn't happen to you, but it did to me - call the doctor IMMEDIATELY. Okay, it takes time for an adult to really dehydrate, but the more you sit around and wait the worse you'll feel. There are anti-nausea drugs which are relatively safe, and certainly safer than risking dehydration. ++++++++++++ I can "be sick" if I just think about brushing my teeth. (Yes, I am still brushing my teeth, but with quick trips to the toilet along with the process. :-)) I can be brushing my hair and knowing that I will soon be brushing my teeth and "there I go" to the toilet. I have this problem with ( 1 + MAXIMUM ) number of bites of a particular substance. ("This sandwich is GREAT" on X number of bites, then "RETCH" with one additional bite.) I have just coughed with a tickle in my throat - and off we go. My lovely college-aged son "belched" loudly this weekend, I laughed, and told him to watch it or he would make me sick - and "RETCH", I was in the bathroom. Now some of this seems to be just the thought of throwing up causes the action. I really try not to "think" about it. BUT WHY DOES IT HAPPEN SO EASILY? +++++++ My problem was not the mechanics of tooth-brushing, but the nausea- producing effects of saccharin and artificial mintflavoring, both found in all major brands of toothpaste. I stuggled through using Tom's of Maine brand "cinnamint" flavor. Shortly after Will was born they introduced orange and strawberry flavors, with no mint at all. They could have saved me a lot of suffering by doing this a few months earlier.... My worst problems with "morning" sickness were caused by the smell of the laserprinter, the smell of the toxic-waste-scented cleaner that was used to clean in the hallway outside our offices, and wet cat food. I do *not* know why women even consider getting pregnant while they still have poopy diapers to change on the first child! :-) =========== I really wasn't going to add my experience to this thread, but Jeanetha got too close with her post. With Morganne, I had pretty standard morning sickness from weeks 7-11. Lost my breakfast regularly on the drive to work. I was prepared for that with Matisse, but it was much worse. I continued to have morning sickness until the 27th week. Both times, I ended up being able to keep the sickness down to severe nausea and dizziness most of the time. In addition to small, frequent meals, I had to find foods that sat well. With Morganne, I couldn't even _think_ about eating salads or Chinese food, but Mexican food and pizza were no problem. With Matisse, forget the Mexican food and pizza, salads were okay, but the only things that really sat well were popcorn, triscuits and lime fruit juice bars. I was really sensitive to smells and I had to change to a scentless hand lotion. The smell of tuna or frying eggs would send me over the edge. I suggest figuring out what sets off your trigger and avoiding those things like the plague. Don't try to tough it out. Don't finish any food that bothers you. Don't let your husband fix or eat anything that really nauseates you in your presence.