The 8 week curse
Around 8 weeks I traveled to San Francisco for a Babycenter meeting. If you notice, I didn’t write much about my time there, despite having a few hours to explore here and there.
I spent them all in my room.
(Source)
I had only started feeling nauseous the day before the trip. Still feeling smug and high on veggies, I thought I would be fine. I packed my bag high with Snackwell’s crème cookies (the most random bland item ever) and hopped on the plane.
It was hell. There is no other word for it. I spent the plane ride counting it out in periods of 30 minutes, kind of like what I used to do during a long and hard workout. I kept reminding myself that if I could only make it to the next 30 minute segment then I’d be fine.
My mantra was “I’m ok. I’m ok. I’M OK.”
At one point I was literally rocking back and forth in my tiny plane seat in my tiny, overcrowded plane whispering that to myself. I’d like to apologize to my seatmates who might have thought they needed to perform an exorcism or something.
When my face hit the fresh San Francisco air I was smiling. The cab ride was hard, but it was ok because I made it.
….fast forward to a break during the meetings….
I frantically, yet also slowly (to prevent the dizzies), walked to the Walgreen’s near the hotel. My nausea was at its worst since finding out we were expecting and I remembered my auntie said sea bands would work. I didn’t have any with me, but thought Walgreen’s might have them. I searched the aisles like a crazy person until I found them. They helped for 5 minutes. Then I felt sick again.
On that trip I put on the bravest face I could, but it was really a struggle. I learned so much in that short time, but it was also hard to focus when I was debating how fast I could make it to the restroom if I had to get sick. I spent my off hours in my room slowly eating Pringles or Snackwell’s cookies in the fetal position, willing the hours to pass.
The following days and weeks, leading to today, aren’t much better. While I now have pockets of moments here and there where I feel great, the nausea is much worse when it comes back. “They” tell me it will pass by week 14. I hope so. It’s hard to write about food when you’re eating the same boring things over and over again. When you can’t even watch The Food Network without dryheaving- oh the horror! When you can’t sit through a beautiful dinner because all you can smell is the hint of onions in the sauce and they make it hard not to turn green.
Here are the remedies that I have tried:
Sea Bands which only come off for showering or sleeping. I still don’t know if they work or not.
Sniffing Lemons which looks really weird even in private, especially when I then lick the lemon slice thinking the sour taste might help. I look like a cat.
Saltines who I never want to see again. Yes, who… they have names now.. Charlie and Sam and Frannie. They were my friends those first days of nausea when my head could barely lift off the couch. They left crumbs in my bed. We’re close.
Fresh Air which can be hard when it’s very chilly out. I think PhillyBoy thought he was going to freeze some nights because I insisted on keeping off the heat to allow the air to stay fresh in the house.
Eating every 2 hours I don’t know how I haven’t really gained any weight yet. I literally must eat every two hours in order to feel ok. The minute more time passes I am hanging out with my friend, the silver metal bowl.
Not drinking while eating This one doesn’t make sense to me, but it really works. Despite feeling really thirsty, I don’t allow myself to drink anything while eating a meal. After the meal I drink as much as I want, and somehow that helps me feel a bit less nauseous.
Carbs, carbs, carbs. I’m going to turn into a big ball of dough. My life is filled completely with carbs right now, but they work.
ZZzzzzzzzzz The more sleep I get, the less sick I feel.
Things I’ve cried about:
- Being sick. I always cry when I don’t feel well. Add pregnancy hormones and I’m a mess.
- Being tired.
- Feeling sick AND tired.
- Not being able to eat ice cream one night when PB was eating a gorgeous bowl.
- Not being able to eat many other foods that sound good in my mind but not in my mouth or belly.
- Being home when our friends were out.
- PB eating the last of pasta leftovers (I’m not kidding).
- …the list goes on….
I promise I won’t be writing every single post about the pregnancy, but my thoughts have been bottled up for so long. I have a lot to share!!
P.S. All of my posts regarding pregnancy are now available by one click on the left sidebar of my home page for your convenience!
Way to make it through that trip. I feel REALLY lucky that I didn’t have to deal with much of this (although I must admit, I couldn’t watch food network my first trimester either). I am hoping you are 100% once you make it through week 14!
I hope the nausea goes away soon if you are still having it.
Aw, I hope you feel much better asap and have a much easier flight to Italy!
Hi Sabrina,
I don’t know if you remember, but we met in Tahiti, on our way back from Bora Bora (you posted a pic on your blog). I got pregnant a few months after we got back and had a beautiful boy in May last year. It’s funny how pregnant women here in Italy eat differently then women in the U.S. I remember I could eat raw veggies only at home but never at a restaurant, so salads were out. I also developed an aversion to meat (all kinds) but had to force myself to eat huge steaks towards the end of the pregnancy for the protein and iron. I was also very emotional and would cry about everything.
Feel free to ask anything you want, it’s still all fresh in my head.
Take care.
It would be funny if we bumped into each other in Rome! Have a great trip.
@Areej, I was JUST thinking about you two days ago and wondering how you were doing! How random that now you commented!
HI!!!!!!
Congratulations on your little boy.
How do pregnant women eat there? I have no clue! Please share!
My doctor told me to try and eat more meat since I’ve always been borderline anemic… but I just can’t yet! Maybe a steak will call my name in Firenze!
I loved this post so, so much. You described exactly how I felt in the first trimester. For most women, the sickness does go away (but it comes back at the end). I hope you’re feeling better already!
I cried once when my husband ate the last of the Golden Grahams, and just the other day I told him he had to stay away from the Cinnamon Life. I get emotional over cereal!
Carbs have been my friend throughout pregnancy and after the first trimester all I wanted was fruit. Vegetables made their way back in, but I still have to force myself to eat them some days. And I was the vegetable queen before getting pregnant.
Hope you get to feeling better soon!
🙁 i’m so sorry to hear about your sickness while being pregnant! i hope you feel better soon – just think about the adorable baby you will have at the end of it!
anyway just wanted to write and say congrats on your pregnancy!!! i saw your post last week and was so excited for you & phillyboy 🙂 you have my best wishes for a wonderful pregnancy, labor, & delivery!!!!
This sounds awful, but I love the honest account of pregnancy!! I’m not pregnant, but can’t wait to be a mom one day. I also have a lot of experience with nausea in general- would gingerale help? Or ginger candies?
I love reading these pregnancy posts! I consider it a learning process…I’m learning from my friends and my blog-friends! Honestly this is what I am MOST scared of about pregnancy!! I do not do well with nausea and I just KNOW its going to be bad for me (I get sick if I take 2 bc pills within within 12 hours of each other…forget 2 at once if I forget one day). I hope you find soemthing that works for you! I know its different for everyone! Hope it magically goes away at 12 or 14 weeks…whenever its supposed to happen. Good Luck on the plane to Italy!!! Just think of the amazing time you’ll have once you’re there!!
@Bridget, I’m sharing how bad this was and sometimes still is because no one warned me!!! I had NO idea the nausea could hit this hard! Consider yourself warned!
I totally feel your pain! I was fine the first month then nauseous until week 20 (which was a few weeks ago). I kept club crackers, I was sick of saltines, and almonds next to my bed and when I woke up I had a few of each then I laid down for 5-10 min and it helped the nausea subside long enough to shower and get ready for my day. Good luck, I wish you the best in your pregnancy!
Oh man! Sorry you have such rough sickness. Hope it passes fast. It really does stop as suddenly as it comes on.
Hang in there! I felt the exact same way from weeks 6-13. It DOES go away though it feels like forever when you’re in the middle of it. I gained zero lbs during the 1st tri despite eating every couple of hours as you are. And, I ate LOTS of carbs because that filled me up and it was the only thing bland enough for me to stomach.
Everyone is different, but try to eat a few almonds every few hours too. That worked for me and at least it’s healthy. I know it’s frustrating now to feel lame and not even be able to think about food which you love (I felt the same way!), but you WILL get better and feel more like your normal self – hopefully soon!
I 100% know how you feel. I had the worst 1st trimester. Good luck and eventually you will feel more like yourself. Peppermints and bananas helped me. The preggo pops can give you a little relief too. Nothing really makes it go away though other than time. Good luck and congrats!
Congrats! My “morning sickness” (stupid name since it lasts all day!) passed around 16 weeks, so hang in there. Bagels, toast, plain cheerios and pretzels were my go-to remedies. It does get better… I was active and healthy until delivery day. He’s 12 weeks old now!
Have you tried ginger? It’s a powerful anti-nausea remedy. You can eat the candied stuff, drink ginger ale (make sure there’s real ginger in the ingredients), or grate fresh ginger root into hot water and steep like a tea.
Peppermint tea can be excellent for nausea too.
I’ve never been preggo, so don’t know if either would help there. But I did just get over a stomach flu, and I swear by the candied ginger in particular.
Mine ran until week 17, and is now back (though not quite as bad) in the 3rd trimester. What helped me? Yep, eating every 2 hours, tons of saltines and ginger snaps, peppermint tea, and wint-o-green lifesavers. Hope it ends soon for you!
Hi! Congrats on your bundle of love. I’m due about a month before you so I’ve been through the dreaded nausea. I swear it was terrible one day and the next it was gone. For me really salty crackers and chips helped for awhile but eventually I got to the point you’re at and my doctor prescribed the anti nausea meds. I’m super neurotic about taking mess but believe me these are miracle drugs. Ginger candies or fresh Ginger might help you too. Good luck!
You know I LOVE the pregnancy posts, so no apologizing to me! 🙂
I totally agree about eating every 2 hours… it’s the only way to keep queasiness away!
In my experience, whatever has worked as your hangover food will work now. Weird, but true, for me at least. I pretty much lived on soda and potato chips during the first trimester–not healthy, but anything else came right back up and that didn’t sound all that healthy either.
Sorry you are feeling bad Sabrina! I was sick from week 9 (when I was in Paris! boo) to week 20. By then I wanted to punch everyone who said it would be done by XX week.
I tried everything you did, plus ginger, chamomile tea, popsicles, and Zofran (an anti-nausea drug). The only thing that made me feel better? Throwing up. Honestly. If I was feeling bad in the morning I just let myself throw up and I was fine for the rest of the day.
Good luck!
Oh god this sounds horrible!! I already have a weak stomach and get nauseous very easily, I fear that if I ever got pregnant I’d be in for a world of hurt! 😛
Have not been preggo but I do have crohn’s and me and nausea are BFF’s. I hear those preggo pops are good. I love ginger ale and candied ginger too. Also putting some fresh ginger in lemon-aid is good they had frozen ginger lemon-aid at wild oats was good add the ginger to your taste. mints in the purse is a must. get a fresh mint plant they are sold at most food stores and just eat the leafs or add to lemon-aid or a virgin mojo. hope you feel well soon and it passes. Enjoy Italy would love to see it some day can’t wait to hear about your trip. Would love to see my grandfathers home of naples and I would love to go to pompeii!
I’m positive there are actual MOMS out there who can give you advice… but when I saw you were sniffing lemons… 🙂
when I was in the hospital after my appendix EXPLODED in two pieces, I was on pain meds and in massive pain for several days… the pain meds made me extremely nauseous, and a nurse gave me a big handful of those alcohol wipes, that smelling them would reduce nausea – and it worked!! Don’t lick them though… 😉
I am about 22 weeks along now and I was sick for almost the first 16 weeks but it does get better and then suddenly it was like I had never felt better. Almost overnight!
When I was nauseous, ginger was the only thing that helped me (candied ginger chews, ginger ale, ginger tea) and it was truly a lifesaver. I hope you feel better soon. 🙂
I am going through much of the same as we speak! I’m just about 11 weeks pregnant and have been soooo nauseous since about week 6. I just want to be hungry for all sorts of food again! Everyone swears it will get better soon…..here’s hoping! Hope you start to feel some relief!!!!
@Megan, I hope you do too!! Congratulations!
I’m sorry you are sick- I hope it disappears soon.
If it’s any consolation, I totally cry every time I’m sick and have cried about most of the things on your list in my normal state 🙂
ginger!!!!! add it to smoothies in the morning or buy some hard candy – it’s a miracle 😉
I went on a week long trip when I was about 8 weeks preggers with Lu to the SXSW festival. All I wanted to do was sleep-it sucked!!! The first trimester is so hard. I remember going into an Italian Restaurant and needing to leave IMMEDIATELY because the smell of tomatoes was too much. I can’t eat ginger in sweet dishes or drink ginger tea to this day because it reminds me of my first trimester. Ugh. I was so green that perfect strangers at work would tell me that I didn’t look good and should go home and they were MEN!
Have no fear-it DOES get better. The 2nd trimester is AMAZING!!!!
***To all suggested ginger to me: Thank you SO much. However I DESPISE ginger! I wish I liked it but I really, really hate it!!!! Hopefully lemons will do the trick. Thanks for all of your tips- I need them!
First,I want to say Congratulations to you on your pregnancy! I am a long time follower but I have never posted a comment before. I feel for you being sick in your pregnancy. I had to laugh about not being able to watch the food network. That is all I watch on TV and I could not even think about it when I was pregnant with my kids. I tried everything you have mentioned the bands, the lemons, the saltines(which to this day I still cant eat!)I have to say nothing worked very well for me. I had random foods I could tolerate that I would never eat normally like waffles with syrup, egg and cheese burritos from Del Taco, Cheerios, watermelon and strawberries.I would eat the same foods over and over! I finally did feel better around the 19-20 week. Most people feel better sooner though! Hang in there.
@Karen, Thank you so much. It means a lot to know other people can relate!
As much as I feel bad for you and can totally relate, this posting is so funny and well-written! It’s good you still have your sense of humor, I was crying ALL the time. I’ll send you a list of my anti-nausea “notes” I wrote for myself back when I had all-day-sickness (who’s the brainiac who came up with “morning” sickness??). None of them put it to rest entirely, but some worked with varying degrees of success.
Found it:
Meds —
3X per day 50mg Vitamin B6 supplement (no more than 200mg total per day)
Take pre-natal vitamin before going to bed
Fluids —
Seek out low citric acid content drinks
Snapple decaf white tea in Nectarine
Watered down grape Kool Aid (artificial but it helps for some reason)
Foods —
Potatoes
Pasta (no sauce)
Watermelon
Other things I tried that didn’t work for me, but might for you:
Emetrol
Preggy Pop Drops
Ginger
@Diana, Thank you so much for this list!!!!!
It really does get better – I swear! I tried nearly everything with my second (seriously – being in rush hour construction traffic in a non-exit possible lane and getting sick? not fun) and ended up having to be medicated (I still claim Zofran is truly a wonder drug and am so thankful that our insurance covered it). If it gets to the point where you cannot keep anything down which is where I was at – CALL YOUR DOCTOR. You need to make sure you’re eating! I did really well sipping ice water for a good part of the day – and then eating whatever the heck sounded good.
I hope you start feeling better soon! I can’t imagine being nauseas all the time – I get upset just being nauseas for part of a day.
I love hearing about your pregnancy – I’m glad you’re sharing!
Have a great rest of the week!
Sorry to hear your not feeling good. I was sick for the first 4 months of my pregnancy. I tried everything- the only thing that helped me were pretzels. The hard small pretzel twists you buy in bags. Hope you feel better soon!
I just had to comment that i felt exactly the same way 4 months into my pregnancy. my LO is almost 4 mos. now and didn’t remember what it felt like to be nauseous until now. hang in there, it goes away and you feel human again and it is so worth it. Stick to bland foods, that’s about all your stomach can handle. Just think of how wonderful it’ll be when you hold your little piece of heaven in your arms, there’s nothing else like it.
Congratulations 🙂 You and PB will have a beautiful baby 🙂
Oh, Sabrina! You’re a trooper. Though reading through the list of things that have made you cry makes me feel kind of bashful. I’ve cried about similar things without the very valid excuse of being pregnant! If I ever get pregnant, I will be in a perma-crying state.
Hope that the nausea goes away so that you can get back to enjoying food!
Congratulations! Your post brought me back. Have you tried applying pressure to your P6 nerve? It worked wonders for me. It’s a little difficult to explain in writing but it’s on the inside of your wrist where a watch is typically worn- use your index and middle finger to apply pressure by pushing the tendons that run down your wrist to the side for a few seconds and breathe deeply. I’m sure google could explain this better than I could.
I hope you feel better1
Eating every couple of hours… that only gave me more to throw up 🙂 It’ll pass and towards the end of the pregnancy you’ll be toting tums around with you everywhere for all the heartburn