12/31/2004 Archived Entry: "Morning Sickness"

As many people who've ever suffered from it will tell you, "morning sickness" is generally a misnomer. It can start at any time after conception, so that part is luck of the draw also, you might get cursed from the gate, or have a few weeks of reprieve before it hits you. Some people never suffer from it (lucky bastards), some people really only have it in the mornings, some at other random times, and others have it all the time, a persistent all-day nausea or need to vomit. If you're really unlucky, it'll outlast the first trimester, which is generally the magical milestone they tell you it will (might) go away at.

I have a persistent all-day nausea. I'm thankful that it usually doesn't carry over at night... it seems lying down (usually on my back) keeps it at bay and I'm fine when asleep. Sleep is my friend, really, I clock in at least 9-10 hours straight each night at the moment. At 12 weeks with another few weeks to the magical end-of-trimester deadline, I've not actually vomited (yet?), which is an immense relief. But still, feeling this way all day really takes it out of you, both emotionally and physically. Sometimes it leaves you feeling as though this whole pregnancy deal might be one downhill slide on the 'enjoyability' scale, as there are other unpleasantries awaiting in further months (which will no doubt get documented). Thankfully it seems to have lessened a bit over the last week or 2-3, either that or I'm becoming more immune to it. Hopefully it'll be gone by the time I hit week 20 or so, because around then they recommend you don't lie on your back for any prolongued periods of time anymore, due to possible pressure on your vena cava (major vein that brings blood from the lower body to the heart) and shutting off supply.

At around 8 weeks there were definitely times where I almost thought vomiting right that instant would be a good thing, because usually when your stomach feels horrible, emptying out the stomach can make you feel instantly better once the offending matter has been removed. Seeing as this is hormonally induced nausea rather than bad food or too much booze, I did fear that nothing would have changed after I vomited, other than leaving me with an empty stomach and the aftertaste of bile. So I endured and resisted the urge.

The pregnancy weight gain thing is also no longer a mystery. One of the ways to stem the nausea is by eating. Small meals and snacks interspersed throughout the day to keep the blood sugar high and the sickness at bay. PreZ laughed when I would tell him that it left me in a state of 'permahunger'. I'm not sure it was really the niggling nausea that made me feel that way, or whether it was my metabolism complaining if there wasn't anything been stuck into my mouth at regular intervals. This also is something that has eased off a bit over the last few weeks though, and was much more pronounced earlier on.

I sometimes got to the point where I was just fed up of constantly needing to eat something. Especially when I was not particularly hungry or in a mood to eat. The mood thing sometimes has to do with the fact that I've run out of ideas for new snack items, and I'm bored with everything else I've already eaten. Well, except sushi because I always have massive sushi cravings no matter how often I eat that, but sushi's on the restricted list. I can have the cooked/steamed/vegetable kind, but no raw fish until this is over. Somebody shoot me now. But, I can't complain too much in that respect, with the exceptions I can at least still get a sushi fix... california rolls are yummy. Though while I craved sushi madly several weeks ago, now I don't. It's weird that way.

Similar raw food restrictions apply to red meat, so no more rare steaks. Which means I won't eat any steak, because well-done is a crime to do to red meat that's not part of a dish or stir-fry. That said, the times I eat steak are pretty infrequent anyway, so I'm not hurting too much from this particular food restriciton.

Coffee is out the window. Not just because of the caffeine content (a couplel cups/day falls into acceptable use according to studies I found), but mostly because it seems to be a common food aversion. And right now I have no physical desire to have any, the smell of PreZ making coffee in the morning a couple of weeks ago had me holding my breath in the kitchen. I've never been a huge coffee or even caffeine drinker, so that loss isn't hard to bear either. At least I can occasionally have a cup of black tea though. A cup of steaming hot consolation. I might get some additional Stash decaf English Breakfast (they don't have Irish Breakfast in decaf) because I don't really want to have more than the odd cup a day in caffeinated tea, even if I have lee-way in that area.

Here's hoping that that mythical end-of-first-trimester will bring relief, or the end of the usually-35-day-stretch-of-nausea (according to webmd's site), whichever comes first. I'd like to go back to feeling normal again.

Post-midwife visit it was interesting to note that she didn't actually give me any food restrictions. I'd read about the possibilities of listeria in deli meats and wanted to know if it was safe to eat deli sandwiches and other raw foods. She basically said that you're no more at risk of catching foodborne illnesses than you would be usually. Of course the risks involved once you do are a bit higher. Her main thing was really that she said to just not eat too much of any one type of food, though I'm still going to probably be careful in that area regardless. Too many things at stake and all.