I know it's been awhile since I've written, but I haven't been feeling well. I've had morning sickness, except it lasts all day and is awful. We found out I was pregnant about 3 weeks ago, and I started feeling ill about 2 weeks ago. It feels longer than that. I have found a few things that work for me though and I will share them in case anyone else is in dire straits.
1) baking soda water
2) lemon water
3) food
1) baking soda water
I had gotten to the point where I was absolutely miserable and didn't want to leave the couch for anything (except to vomit). I had read that one of the possible causes of morning sickness (since no one seems to know exactly what causes it) could be excess acid in your stomach, so I started thinking maybe some sort of antacid would help. Since we didn't have any of those around the house and I didn't exactly want to take medicine anyway, my husband came up with the idea of mixing baking soda with water and having me drink that. Because when baking soda and vinegar mix, there is a reaction that neutralizes the acid in the vinegar. We looked online and found that if you
mix 1/2 teaspoon baking soda into 4 ounces of water until the baking soda is completely absorbed
it can be drunk as an antacid. It tastes awful, but it worked! I went from being miserable to barely yucky almost instantly. I didn't even drink the whole solution, just a few sips. Needless to say, I kept some baking soda water with me from then on and sipped it whenever I started to feel very bad. I haven't needed it for the last four days or so, so I hope I'm close to getting over this part of the pregnancy.
3) food
I know this is out of order, but it will make sense when I get to lemon water. Some pregnancy books suggest eating six small meals instead of 3 large ones to help with morning sickness. I found that if I eat
constantly like every hour, than my stomach feels decent all the time, not great, but I can do things like wash dishes, grocery shop, laundry, etc without being completely miserable. There are a few problems with this though. By the end of the day I'm
sick of food, completely sick of food, but I have to keep eating until I go to bed, or I will be more miserable than just sick of food. Also, everything I eat leaves a taste in my mouth (I can't brush my teeth thoroughly because the excess saliva it creates makes me vomit). After a little bit, this taste will make me vomit, so enter the lemon water
2) lemon water
I squeeze 1/2 a lemon into a 12 ounce glass of water and keep topping up the glass until I can't taste the lemon anymore, then add another 1/2 lemon. It works like a charm. My mouth tastes fresh as long as I keep drinking my lemon water and I can even brush my teeth in short stints. I also found I can drink more water when it is lemon flavored, than not. Regular water starts to taste funny after all the different foods I've been eating and I can't drink it, but lemon water tastes good every time. I need to drink more water than I am, but at least I'm getting more water than I was before the lemon.
I hope this information is helpful to anyone else out there suffering from morning sickness.
Smile often, keep a song in your heart, and be happy with who you are.