Morning Sickness: What helped, what didn’t and everything in between

I'm not gonna lie, out of the 39 weeks I was pregnant with baby girl, I was sick for about 25 of those weeks. I know right?! I couldn't even stomach water (you know... the thing that makes up roughly 60% of the human body). This affected me alot and although it's sad to say, I didn't really enjoy my pregnancy for those 25 weeks. Yes I was happy to be with child and yes I knew there was a chance of experiencing morning sickness, but I thought this pregnancy was going to be how those fertility commercials were. I thought I would be smiling, shopping for baby items with my baby bump, laughing and smiling with my friends and living my life. LOL.

Instead, my daily routine went something like this:

6:00am - Wakes up

6:10am-6:25am - Throws up

6:30am - Takes Gravol

6:35am-6:40am - Throws up Gravol

6:45am-7:10am - Showers

7:15am-7:30am - Tries to dress but throws up again

7:30am - Tries to leave for work but feels horrible

7:35am-8:30am - Officially late for work, a wave of nausea forces me to sit to catch myself

8:35am - Drags myself out the door to work

9:30am-3:00pm - Is high in work from traces of Gravol that entered bloodstream

3:00pm-5:00pm - Slightly high but drives home well

5:00pm-6:00pm - No appetite but tries to eat

6:00pm till... - I’m fine. May experience a little heartburn but falls asleep by 9:00pm most days

As a result of my constant puking, every single time I went to the doctor, it was noted that I was drastically losing weight. Excuh-uuuuuuse?! I thought that the further you get into pregnancy, you're supposed to gain weight! Although my doctor ensured me that this was normal, I lost a whopping 20lbs during the course of my pregnancy. Yeah you read that right... 20 FREAKING POUNDS!! I tried my best to be ok with this but I mean come on, I was very concerned. Is my baby ok? Is she getting sufficient nutrients? Can my body handle this pregnancy?

During the course of those 25 weeks, I researched, inquired from friends who had kids before... Something must be done to stop this puking!! I cannot live like this! I need to be able to eat so my baby can develop properly. I got tons of advice and remedies, most of which I tried but it was still difficult. Some of the remedies I’ll explain below.

Ginger

I personally hate ginger... or at least I used to (now I can tolerate it). The taste, it’s strength, that burning sensation down my throat... blechhh! So when countless persons advised that I try ginger to help settle my stomach and curb my morning sickness, my first response was “Hell no!” I would much rather throw up constantly than taste anything with ginger. Either way though, I still decided to give it a try, I mean... more than 5 persons told me about it so it should be worth a try right? I started with Ginger Ale (the ginger drink with the least amount of ginger in it). I drank ginger ale like there was no tomorrow... which led to me eventually getting sick of it. My body seemed to realize what I was trying to do and decided to reject any and all ginger ale in my system. Sooooo, I switched to ginger cookies - a childhood fave of mine - but even those my body rejected. The last ginger flavored thing I tried were ginger sweets. Every time I had one of those sweets it honestly curbed the morning sickness a bit, but it consisted of sugar mostly so I ended up with a lot of sugar in my system and had to stop so I wouldn’t develop gestational diabetes.

Tums

Oh Tums! How I loved thee! When ginger became a no-no for me, my mom introduced me to Tums. Since the baby was still developing and absorbing all the nutrients from my body (despite me being unable to eat and nourish myself), my mom decided that it was time to give Tums a try, especially since each tablet consists of 750mg calcium, which I would definitely need for my bone health and teeth. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard tons of horror stories of women’s bones breaking easily and their teeth falling out their mouths due to insufficient calcium intake during pregnancy so that's not something I wanted to experience. Sign me up!

Similar to the ginger ale though, my body began rejecting the Tums. I can vividly remember puking green (the colour of one of the Tums discs) not too long after chewing it up to assist with my upset stomach and heartburn.

Gravol

Ah boy! The holy grail! Gravol was my last and final option. Initially, I didn't want to take Gravol because it makes you extremely drowsy and your girl had to work as usual so I needed to be awake and aware everyday. However, because my morning sickness was so severe, my doctor prescribed Gravol to me - much to my dismay... Bleh! Although I didn't like it, let me tell you, Gravol worked! I didn't feel nauseated one bit when I began taking it. However, I had another problem - your girl was high as a kite in work (since I was fighting the drowsiness of the medication). I'm usually very sprightly in work and on top of my game, however, with my consumption of Gravol, I moved very slowly, my coordination was off and on top of that, my coworkers had to repeat themselves a couple times before I actually understood what they were saying to me. NOT GOOD.. but hey, at least I was not throwing up all the time. You win some, you lose some right? At least I could still function in work, however limited it was.

Coming down to the 24th week of my pregnancy though, my body again began rejecting the Gravol. As soon as I took it, I would bring it back up - sometimes semi solid and sometimes completely melted. Sigh...

So what actually consistently helped me throughout my pregnancy?

Believe it or not, coconut water! Coconut water was the one thing that went down and stayed down in my tummy. To be fair, I did bring it up once or twice but for the majority of my pregnancy, coconut water was the one constant that didn't really let me down. The coconut vendor near my home actually became very familiar with our vehicle and Leroy, so much so that when he saw the car pulling up, he would begin bagging the bottles of coconut water. It also helped that one of my close friends owns a coconut water company so I used to partake in theirs as well.

Additionally, fruits were another constant in my pregnancy. Paw-paw (or papaya), pineapple, grapes, watermelon, julie mango - these were a few fruits that went down and stayed down, plus they also helped in giving me a sugar boost for energy when I took the Gravol.

Photo: A platter of fruits from my coworkers to help me feel better

Yes, my pregnancy was tough but it made me realize that I was tougher... and both baby girl and I got through it like champs!